Soon we reached a veritable maze of these passages. We must have
taken a dozen or more turns, first to the right, then to the
left. I had been marking our way on my memory as well as
possible, but I soon gave up the attempt as hopeless.
Several times our guide turned so quickly that we could scarcely
follow him. When we signified by gestures our desire to go slower
he seemed surprised; of course, he expected us to see in the dark
as well as he.
Then a dim light appeared, growing brighter as we advanced. Soon
I saw that it came through an opening in the wall to our left,
which we were approaching. Before the opening the guide halted,
motioning us to enter.
We did so, and found ourselves in an apartment no less than
royal.
Several blazing urns attached to the walls furnished the light,
wavering but brilliant. There were tables and rude seats,
fashioned from the same prismatic stones which covered the column
in the lake, and from their surfaces a thousand points of color
shone dazzlingly.
At one side was a long slab of granite covered with the skins of
some animal, dry, thick, and soft. The walls themselves were of
the hardest granite, studded to a height of four or five feet
with tiny, innumerable spots of gold.
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