"But the darkness the darkness! And the walls which one cannot break through, and the depth, and those hundreds of ways in which he who enters must lose himself. Believe me, Samentu, a battle with men is amusement, but a conflict with darkness and doubt that is dreadful."
"Holiness," answered Samentu, smiling, "Thou dost not know my life. At the age of twenty-five I was a priest of Osiris."
"Thou?" asked Ramses, with astonishment.
"I, and I will tell at once why I passed to the service of Set. They sent me to the peninsula of Sinai to build a small chapel for miners. The labor of building continued six years. I, had much free time and wandered among mountains, examining the caves in them.
"What have I not seen in those places! Corridors so long that it took hours to pass through them, narrow entrances through which if a man passes he must crawl on his stomach; chambers so immense that in each a whole temple might find room sufficient. I saw underground rivers, lakes, crystal chambers, dens totally dark in which no man could see his own hand, again others in which there was as much light as if a second sun had been shining there.
"How often have I been lost in countless passages, how often has my torch gone out, how often was I approaching an unseen precipice? I have passed many days in subterranean places, living on parched barley, licking the moisture from wet rocks, not knowing whether I should ever see this upper world again.
"But I gained experience. My vision grew sharp and I even came to love those underground regions. And today when I think of the childish recesses of the labyrinth I am ready for laughter. Edifices built by men are like mole-hills when compared with the immense structures reared by those silent and invisible earth spirits.
"But once I met a dreadful thing which brought me to change my position. West from the quarries of Sinai is a group of ravines and mountains among which subterranean thunders are heard frequently, the earth trembles, and flames are seen sometimes. I was made curious, so I went there for a longer visit. I sought, and, thanks to an inconsiderable opening, I discovered a whole chain of immense caves under the arches of which it would be possible to place the largest pyramid.
"When I wandered into those places I was met by a smell of putrefaction, a smell so strong that I wished to flee from it. But, conquering myself, I entered the cave whence it came, and beheld Imagine, lord, a man with legs and arms shorter by one half than ours, but thick, awkward, and with claws at their extremities. Add to this figure a broad tail, flattened at the side, indented like the comb of a cock, a very long neck, and on it a dog's head. Finally, dress this monster in armor covered on the back with carved spikes. Now imagine that figure standing on its feet with arms and breast resting against a cliff."
"That was something very ugly," put in Ramses; "I should have killed it immediately."