' The meaning of those
words became apparent enough. I stood at the foot of the
waterfall, looking up at the fissure from which it issued.
"Although the fact had been most artistically disguised, I could
not doubt that this fissure was artificial. A tunnel had been
hewn through the rock, and a mountain stream diverted into it.
Indeed, on close inspection, I saw that it was little more than a
thin curtain of water, partly concealing what looked like the
entrance of a cave.
"A great deal of mist arose from it. But I could see that, beyond
a ducking, I had little to fear; and, stepping down into the bed
of the little stream which frothed and bubbled pleasantly about
my bare legs, I set my bundle on my head as the mendicant had
done, and plunged through the waterfall, into a place of
delicious coolness.
"A strange greenish light prevailed here and directly before me I
saw a flight of stone steps leading upward through a tunnel in
the rock. By the light of a pocket torch with which I had
provided myself, I began to ascend the steps. These, as I have
said, were hewn out of the solid rock, and as they numbered
something like seven hundred, the labour expended upon the making
of this extraordinary staircase must have been stupendous.
"At first the character of the surrounding tunnel suggested that
it was, in part at least, a natural cavern. But as I mounted
higher and higher, solid masonry appeared in places, some of it
displaying unusual carvings, of a character with which I was
quite unfamiliar.
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