Here, upon examination, they found room after room with doorway and window all cut out of the soft limestone, and Sir Humphrey and Briscoe were not long in giving it as their opinion that these single rooms, all separate and with their doorways opening upon the terrace, were really the modest little houses of the old dwellers in this hivelike arrangement. There they were, side by side, all opening upon the long terrace, and, after examining many, they found relics of the old inhabitants in the shape of clay-baked rough pots or their broken sherds; and in several, roughly-formed querns or mill-stones, made, not of the rock in which the houses were cut, but of a hard grit that would act better upon the grain they were used to grind.
These remains, though, were very scarce, and scarcely anything else was found, though search was made in the expectation of finding skeletons; but not so much as a skull was discovered in either of the stone rooms they reached: nothing to show how the ancient inhabitants came to an end. Apparently it was by no sudden catastrophe, and probably only by dying slowly away.
“It might have been a couple of thousand years ago for aught we can tell,” said Sir Humphrey.
“Yes,” said Brace; “but we have done nothing yet. There are hundreds more of these cells, floor above floor, right to the top.”
“Well, let’s try another floor or terrace, if we can,” said Sir Humphrey. “Has anyone discovered a way up?”
“Yes, sir there’s a hole yonder,” said one of the men, “and it isn’t stopped up.”
“Well, let’s try it,” said Sir Humphrey.
“Hadn’t we better get to the end here, and see what that better part is like?” said Briscoe. “It seems to me that we shall find behind those carved stones the best part of the place.”
“Very well,” said Sir Humphrey: “let’s try that first; but we have a month’s work before us to explore all this. Now then.”
Briscoe eagerly took the lead and went on along the terrace, with the little metallic-looking lizards darting away in the sunshine amidst the fallen stones; and cell after cell was passed till the end of their journey was reached in the shape of a blank mass of rock, beyond which they felt certain that the temple or palace remains must be. But there was no means of passing farther, and nothing remained but to ascend to the next terrace.