"And if a son might ask, what is the name of my father?"

"My name is Billali."

"And whither go we, my father?"

"That shalt thou see," and at a sign from him his bearers started
forward at a run till they reached the litter in which Job was reposing
(with one leg hanging over the side). Apparently, however, he could not
make much out of Job, for presently I saw his bearers trot forward to
Leo's litter.

And after that, as nothing fresh occurred, I yielded to the pleasant
swaying motion of the litter, and went to sleep again. I was dreadfully
tired. When I woke I found that we were passing through a rocky defile
of a lava formation with precipitous sides, in which grew many beautiful
trees and flowering shrubs.

Presently this defile took a turn, and a lovely sight unfolded itself
to my eyes. Before us was a vast cup of green from four to six miles in
extent, in the shape of a Roman amphitheatre. The sides of this great
cup were rocky, and clothed with bush, but the centre was of the richest
meadow land, studded with single trees of magnificent growth, and
watered by meandering brooks. On this rich plain grazed herds of goats
and cattle, but I saw no sheep. At first I could not imagine what this
strange spot could be, but presently it flashed upon me that it must
represent the crater of some long-extinct volcano which had afterwards
been a lake, and was ultimately drained in some unexplained way. And
here I may state that from my subsequent experience of this and a much