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The village reposed in loneliness and silence, nor did I see even child or dog playing before the square huts as we passed the the strangely rounded hill on the sulanced back curiously over the plain outspread below Little clusters of dark figures were scattered here and there throughout the pleasant valley, reener banks of the circling water-course, others scattered ed in cultivation of the ground This quiet, pastoral scene was so foreign to all my previous conception of Indian nature that for theupon this picture of peaceful agriculture in the heart of the wilderness Surely, cruel, revengeful savages though they were, yet here was a people retaining traditions of a higher life than that of the wild chase and desert war I could perceive no guards stationed anywhere, yet felt no doubt that every entrance leading into this hidden paradise, this rock-barricaded basin ailant warriors, confining us as securely within its narrow lies followed our every footfall My silent guide, after one glance across his naked shoulder, to assure hiht forward up the hill on a dog-trot, soon placing him far in advance At the entrance of the altar-house he paused, showing disinclination to enter In obedience to a gesture I passed within, leaving hi low of the sunshine upon hiht be, I rehtly within the entrance, my eyes alarish day to that dull interior Slowly the scene within resolved itself into clearer detail I began to perceive the crawling red flae log resting upon the altar block, and later distinguished the black figure of a priest ed upon the grewsome functions of his office, his presence ever ic spells Beyond these vague suggestions of life--for they see to sound the depths of a cavern, so black, still, and void was all within and about Yet, even as I stood thus, peering uneasily into the gloo forth of a voice, apparently issuing from the darkest corner