Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/249

 before you, under the vast Gothic vault of the cave, rises a lofty stalagmite pillar with a fringe falling from the top of it, formed of the brightest foam, congealed in a moment. A mimic pulpit springs from the wall, covered with elaborate tracery,—and, hard by, an altar is spread with the fairest napkins, while, above it, depends a crystal curtain hanging in easy folds, each one of which flashes back the light of your torch as if carved from silver.

We fastened the end of our twine to a pillar of the altar, and struck out westwardly, in the direction of the cavern. After a short distance we turned slightly to the south, and passing down a pile of rocks that had fallen from the roof, entered the second chamber.

In the centre of this, a huge stalagmite has been formed. We called it the Tower of Babel. It is a lofty mass, two hundred feet in circumference, surrounded, from top to bottom, by rings of fountain-basins hanging from its sides, each wider than the other, and carved by the action of water into as beautiful shapes as if cut by the hand of a sculptor. An Indian climbed to the top of it, and firing a blue-light, illuminated the whole cavern. By the bright, unearthly blaze, every nook and corner became visible, and the waters and carving of the fountain tower stood out in wonderful relief.

We penetrated to the third chamber. Here there was no centre column, but the effect was produced by the immensity of the vault. It appears as though you might set the whole of St. Peter's beneath it, with dome and cross. It is a magnificent cathedral; the wall sheeted with stalactites, and the floor meandered by those arabesque troughs of pure white, and antique pattern, which we had seen at the Tower of Babel.

An Indian fired a rocket, which exploded as it struck the top of the immense dome, and amid the falling stars, the detonation reverberated from side to side of the immense vault with the roar of a cannonade. A sheet of stalactite was struck, and it sounded with the clearness of a bell. Four Roman candles were lighted and placed on rocks midway up the temple sides, and they shed a faint illumination, like the twilight stealing through the fretted windows of an old cathedral.

Beyond this chamber was a narrow path between the almost perpendicular rocks, and, as we passed, the guide crept through an entrance near the floor, and holding his torch aloft, so that the light fell as from an invisible source, displayed a delicious little cave, arched with snowy stalactites. In the middle rose a centre-table, covered with its fringed folds, and adorned with goblin nicknacks. It was the boudoir of some gnome or coquettish fairy!

Two rocks standing beyond this retreat, are the portals of another chamber, groined, like the rest, in Gothic arches with the tracery of purest stalactites, while its floor is paved all over with beautiful little globulas stalagmites. In a corner fountain, we found the skeleton head of a serpent.

The path beyond this is nearly blocked up by immense masses that have fallen from the roof. Passing over these, you attain another vaulted