ated shelf,
to which you ascend from the arbor by three artificially-wrought
steps, sideways disposed, to avoid the spray of the rejoicing
cataract. Mounting these, and pursuing the edge of the flume, the
grotto gradually expands and heightens; your way lighted by rays in
the inner distance. At last you come to a lofty subterraneous dome,
lit from above by a cleft in the mountain; while full before you, in
the opposite wall, from a low, black arch, midway up, and
inaccessible, the stream, with a hollow ring and a dash, falls in a
long, snowy column into a bottomless pool, whence, after many an eddy
and whirl, it entered the flume, and away with a rush. Half hidden
from view by an overhanging brow of the rock, the white fall looked
like the sheeted ghost of the grotto.

Yet gallantly bedecked was the cave, as any old armorial hall hung
round with banners and arras. Streaming from the cleft, vines swung
in the air; or crawled along the rocks, wherever a tendril could be
fixed. High up, their leaves were green; but lower down, they were
shriveled; and dyed of many colors; and tattered and torn with much
rustling; as old banners again; sore raveled with much triumphing.

In the middle of this hall in the hill was incarcerated the stone
image of one Demi, the tutelar deity of Willamina. All green and oozy
like a stone under water, poor Demi looked as if sore harassed with
sciatics and lumbagos.

But he was cheered from aloft, by the promise of receiving a garland
all blooming on his crown; the Dryads sporting in the woodlands
above, forever peeping down the cleft, and essaying to drop him a
coronal.

Now, the still, panting glen of Willamilla, nested so close by the
mountains, and a goodly green mark for the archer in the sun, would
have been almost untenable were it not for the grotto. Hereby, it
breathed the blessed breezes of Omi; a mountain promontory
buttressing the island to the east, receiving the cool stream of the
upland Trades; much pleasanter than the currents beneath.

At all times, even in the brooding noon-day, a gush of cool air came
hand-in-hand with the cool waters, that burst with a shout into the
palace of Donjalolo. And as, after first refreshing the king, as in
loyalty bound, the stream flowed at large through the glen, and
bathed its verdure; so, the blessed breezes of Omi, not only made
pleasant the House of the Afternoon; but finding ample outlet in its
wide, open front, blew forth upon the bos