'
'I'll show, not tell.'
'I pr'ythee tell me.'
'Well, then, well. In Genthesma's gloomy cave there is a river none has
reached, and you must sail, and you must sail---- Brother!'
'Ay.'
'Methinks I smell something too earthly.'
'What's that?'
'The breath of man.'
'Scent more fatal than the morning air! Away, away!'
In the range of mountains that lead from Olivet to the river Jordan is
the great cavern of Genthesma, a mighty excavation formed by the
combined and immemorial work of Nature and of Art; for on the high
basaltic columns are cut strange characters and unearthly forms,[47] and
in many places the natural ornaments have been completed by the hands of
the sculptor into symmetrical entablatures and fanciful capitals, the
work, they say, of captive Dives and conquered Afrites for the great
king.
It was midnight; the cold full moon showered it brilliancy upon this
narrow valley, shut in on all sides by black and barren mountains. A
single being stood at the entrance of the cave.
It was Alroy. Desperate and determined, after listening to the spirits
in the tomb, he resolved to penetrate the mysteries of Genthesma. He
took from his girdle a flint and steel, with which he lighted a torch
and then he entered.
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