ng the long, easy flight of steps, the little procession, led by
the officer, presently reached the broad platform on the top, and found
themselves confronting a pair of enormous bronze doors which completely
filled the gateway, and which swung slowly open, apparently by some
mechanical means, to admit them. Passing through the gateway, and
noting, as they went, the extraordinary strength and solidity of the
doors, they found themselves in a kind of tunnel, or passage, some
twenty feet long, in the structure of the gateway, with a sunlit vista
of a paved street, bordered on either hand by lofty shade trees, with
houses behind them, and thronged with people. Another minute and they
had emerged from the archway and were in the street itself, which they
now perceived to be one of the business streets of the island, for the
houses on either side of it were arranged as shops, the whole of the
lower part of each being open, affording a view of the various wares for
sale, displayed upon a gently sloping platform, at the rear end of which
sat the owner, cross-legged, Eastern fashion, arrayed in long flowing
robes of brilliant hues. The fronts of the shops were unglazed, and
unprotected by screen or barrier of any kind, nor did the shopkeeper
make the slightest attempt to solicit custom; his property was simply
protected from the ardent rays of the sun by a gaily coloured blind, or
awning, and he sat silently and gravely awaiting the arrival of such
customers as might chance to require the particular kind of wares that
he had for disposal. These wares, it soon appeared, consisted chiefly
of fruit; bread, in the form of small, fancifully shaped loaves; cakes;
sweetmeats; drinks of various kinds, mostly compounded of powders while
the customer waited--there seemed to be a brisk demand for these--fish,
presumably from the lake, alive and swimming about in a large tank from
which they were withdrawn as required by means of a hand net; light
flimsy muslins, white or dyed in a number of brilliant colours; lengths
of exquisite embroidery in gold, silver, or silk thread, and in some
cases studded with what looked very much like uncut gems; saddlery and
harness, some of it richly mounted or embroidered with gold; queershaped
household utensils made of copper or some other metal that had the
colour and sheen of gold; jewellery, necklaces, bracelets, armlets,
anklets, earrings, and finger rings of gold, and vari-coloured stones
that migh