Page:Shantiniketan; the Bolpur School of Rabindranath Tagore.djvu/110

90 energy which you see expressed in the world in light and in flashes of lightning has also been gathered up and stored in the hidden chambers of the nether regions. And those changing pictures of the seasons which you see as the years pass over the world are but the reflection of original paintings which are there also; while the ever new days and nights in the world are but the play of a power hidden there.

In this storehouse many wonderful things are kept. Therefore these regions are full of terror. No one dare enter them alone. Fearful serpents go round and round hissing fiercely,—sentinels keep guard over great heaps of jewels and pearls. Over these there always hangs a thick gloomy haze like a cloud, from which every now and then in the stillness there darts a sudden flash of lightning. Here the wind blows keenly and is not restless like our breezes. It blows silently and constantly with a piercing chill. Deep echoes like thousands of conch shells blown together sound on all sides.

Arriving at the entrance to these regions Utonka heard, as he came to a standstill, a sound like the roar of the mighty sea. He was astounded, and you can understand how alert his mind was at that moment. The dark-