after it according to the common Eastern custom.

About four o'clock of that afternoon I was awakened from my nap by the
growls of Pharaoh, and looked up to see a man crouching against the
door, evidently in fear of the dog's fangs. He proved to be a messenger
from Maqueda, sent to ask us if we cared to accompany her to a place
that we had never seen. Of course we answered "Yes," and were at once
led by the messenger to a disused and dusty hall at the back of the
palace, where presently Maqueda and three of her ladies joined us, and
with them a number of men who carried lighted lamps, gourds of oil, and
bundles of torches.

"Doubtless, friends," said Maqueda, who was unveiled and appeared to
have quite recovered from our outburst of the morning, "you have seen
many wonderful places in this Africa and other lands, but now I am about
to show you one that, I think, is stranger than them all."

Following her, we came to a door at the end of the hall which the men
unbolted and shut again behind us, and thence passed into a long passage
cut in the rock, that sloped continuously downwards and at length led
through another doorway to the vastest cave that we had ever heard of or
seen. So vast was it, indeed, that the feeble light of our lamps did not
suffice to reach the roof, and only dimly showed to right and left the
outlines of what appeared to be shattered buildings of rock.

"Behold the cave city of Mur," said Maqueda, waving the lamp she
held. "Here it was that the ancients whom we believe to have been the
forefathers of the Fung, had their secret stronghold. These walls were
those of their granaries, temples, and places of ceremonial, but, as I
have told you, centuries ago an earthquake shattered them, leaving them
as they are now. Also, it broke down much of the cave itself, causing
the roof to fall, so that there are many parts where it is not safe to
enter. Come now and see what is left."

We followed her into the depth of the wonderful place, our lanterns and
torches making little stars of light in that great blackness. We saw the
ruins of granaries still filled with the dust of what I suppose had once
been corn, and came at length to a huge, roofless building of which
the area was strewn with shattered columns, and among them overgrown
statues, covered so thick by dust that we could only discover that most
of them seemed to be shaped like sphinxes.

"If only Higgs were here," said Oliver with a sigh, and pass