The Day of Resis

The shock of the day before had left Mrs. Graham in a very nervous condition. Having arrived at the Temple, she was given into the hands of her attendants, who soon had her in the perfumed bath, and with a treatment much resembling our massage, she was soon brought out of her nervousness. Still to-day she was far from feeling like herself, and when Onrai had proposed a trip to the gold mine and quarries, she declined to go.

Mr. Graham, having already visited these places, decided to remain with his wife.

Onrai had each day since their arrival, projected some novel excursion or entertainment for our friends, the preparation for these always being both elaborate and complete. So much of interest was to be seen in this strange city and country, our friends never tired of these excursions. Many things were seen which contrasted favorably with similar contrivances in their own country. The streets were paved with the beautiful onyx, and were always scrupulously clean. There were no sidewalks, the pavements stretching from lawn to lawn. These pavements were cleaned once a day with a combination of sweeper, watering cart and dirt gatherer in one, which did its work most effectually. The contrivance, but for the material used in its construction, the striped animals pulling it, and the queer costumes of the drivers, would have caused no comments on the streets of an American city; for it looked like the invention of some modern genius.

This had been used, however, as had every other contrivance or machine, since the foundation of the city. In fact, the city or country must have been founded by a race who had reached a high point in civilization, for their architecture, their fine arts, their implements of manufacture and farming, all showed deep thought, careful study, and great knowledge of the principles involved. And the laws which were made to govern the people were perfect, and, being carried out, left perfect results.

But our friends had not seen all the wonders of this strange country, or the works of its people; nor had Onrai given to Enola or the rest of the strangers, any idea of the immense resources of this land. They had many things to learn still, and one thing in particular, which would startle and surprise them. Our friends were happy though, and not one of them had as yet given a thought to the returning to their homes. This life was so pleasant, every feature of it so enjoyable, they had little time or desire to think of aught else. The time would come, however, when a longing to see their friends left behind, to once more taste the delights and pleasures of modern civilization, to be where people talked and acted as themselves, would take such hold on them that they would wonder how they ever could have found any pleasure in this strange city and among a people which knew nothing, or cared to know nothing, but what had passed down to them from the founder of this country, who had lived thousands of years before.

But as yet this longing had not come to disturb their peaceful thoughts, and to-day, as they were about to start on another excursion to see more of the wonders of this strange country, they were never happier. As was customary on such occasions, our friends were mounted on the white elephants, accompanied by the king and ten zebramen, who acted as on escort.

Their first stop was to be at the onyx quarries, five miles distant. They started early, so as to reach the farthest point before the middle of the day, when the heat was so intense, it was hard to withstand it.

Their way led through a broad avenue lined on either side by tall palms, back of which were beautiful palaces, the large entrances being open, showing their dark, cool interiors. Many of the inhabitants were also on the street, enjoying the fresh morning breeze. Some were lounging about the broad terraces, while others were seated on onyx chairs, in the great gardens surrounding each house.

The sun, just rising above the eastern mountain, the songs of the birds, the perfume of the flowers wafted to them by the cool morning breeze, the beautiful palaces with the white-robed inhabitants lounging about them, the broad, paved avenue with the white elephants and beautiful zebras, moving stately along it, left but one thought in the minds of our friends, namely, that they would willingly brave the hardships, trials and dangers of their past journey, for this one short hour in the beautiful city of On. The paved avenue reached on as far as the Cave of Ice, which the party was to visit before their return.

At last the immense quarry of onyx was reached, and our friends stood in wonder, gazing at its great extent. At least forty acres of onyx had already been taken from the quarry, and huge blocks of the beautiful stone lay finished on the broad pavement, while others were being placed by means of levers, on rollers in readiness to be moved to the new building in course of construction in the city. Some of these blocks measured twenty feet in length, being five feet square.

These were moved to the city, and placed in position by means of rollers and derricks, the huge elephants doing most of the work. About the quarry were a great many beautiful columns, capitols, pedestals, stones for arches, balustrades, stairs, and roughly hewn statues, ready to be moved to the school of fine arts. A great many men were at work, all taking the greatest interest in their labors. The king explained that these men discontinued work at eleven o’clock, and were through for the day. At three o’clock another body of men went to work, and continued until seven in the evening. The following morning another body of men would take up the work, and so on, until each company of workingmen had taken their turn at the work in the quarries. From the time one company of men leave the quarry for any one of the other duties, which had to be performed, two weeks elapsed before they again returned. Four hours comprised a day’s work, and each day found the men at different employment from the one preceding it, until all of the different vocations had been temporarily filled.

The party now continued their journey, passing the gold mine on their way to the cave of winds, or ice. Arriving at the latter place, before going into the cave they were taken into a small house and given very warm garments of untanned lion skins, their attendants telling them that the air was very cold in the cave and the heavy garments would not feel uncomfortable. The King taking the lead, they were led to a large arched opening into the side of the mountain. Torches were carried by the attendants who preceded them.

A loud rumbling, which resembled the noise made by the great cataract of Niagara, soon fell on their ears, and this increased in volume as they penetrated farther into the mountain. The passage for some distance after entering, was about ten feet wide and that many high and large cakes of ice were piled up on each side as if waiting transportation. The passage soon widened until they found themselves in a large cave, the sides of which could not be seen in the darkness.

The air was growing colder each moment and the awful rumbling had become almost deafening. Far on ahead could be seen numerous lights flickering in the darkness, and upon our friends asking the King what this meant, he told them they were used to light the lake on which men were cutting ice. Here the torches were exchanged for a kind of lantern with a globe of mica, and before our friends had proceeded much further they realized why this was done, for a howling wind struck them broadside nearly knocking them from off their feet. The wind and the deafening noise it made in its wild rush through this subterranean passage was terrible. It was fearfully cold, too, and the attendants went among the party and adjusted the warm fur hoods over the heads and faces, leaving space only for the eyes and nose. Even these precautions did not save our friends from the piercing cold, for the blood had been accustomed to the equatorial heat on the outside and this quick change could not but make them shiver. Mr. Bruce calculated that the extreme cold would lower the mercury to 40 degrees, Fah., below zero, but he might have been mistaken, so long had it been since he experienced such freezing atmosphere.

On they went, fighting against the wind and cold until they reached the shore of the lake. Here about one hundred men were at work cutting ice, using a sort of long saw and an axe with a very large but narrow blade. The men were bundled up very carefully and worked very fast. The lake extended as far as could be seen in the darkness and was one solid sheet of ice with the exception of the place cut by the men, and even a film was already beginning to form over this. Near where our friends were standing was a flume or chute declining towards the entrance of the cave. The blocks of ice were brought to a point directly under this and being caught in a fork were raised by means of a windlass to the flume, where they were sent sliding to the entrance. An acre of ice was cut one day, and the following day another acre was cut, and by the next day, or at the end of forty-eight hours the ice had gained a thickness of ten inches over the acre that was cut on the first day. Thus had it gone on for centuries, each day an acre of ice being cut and supplied to the inhabitants. Each palace was furnished a quantity of ice sufficient for its needs. It was used for cooling the atmosphere as well as for drinks and preserving provisions.

Our friends now being thoroughly chilled, and having seen all they wished to, they left the cavern and as soon as the villa was entered, attendants took charge of them, and disrobing them, plunged them into a hot bath, after which they were given a good rubbing and dressed in the clothes which they had worn upon arriving. After this a meal was served them.

At three o’clock a start was made for the gold mine, and upon reaching this they were put into large cages and lowered down, down, down, until the very bowels of the earth must have been reached. They could see by the light of the torches, as they were lowered, the abandoned shafts which centuries before had probably been mined.

Down they went until the bottom was at last reached and they left the cage to explore the mines. The air was fearfully hot and would have been unbearable but for the cool air forced into the mines from above. Miners were at work, wearing nothing but a breechcloth. The quartz found at this depth was the richest our friends had ever seen or heard of. Mr. Graham calculated that it would assay about eighty per cent. pure gold, and the quartz was easily mined. Not many men were working in this mine, as the quartz was so heavy with gold, that but very little was needed to satisfy the demand.

Our friends wondered no longer at the profusion of gold ornaments and implements. Here was enough gold apparently to furnish the world for hundreds of years. The shaft which they were now working was easily one hundred feet wide and ten feet high. Just think of quartz assaying sixteen hundred pounds to the ton and thousands of tons in sight! Still these people did not consider it as valuable as iron, of which latter they had plenty, but which they found so hard to work. Onrai explained to our friends that the miners only worked one hour at a time and there were months at times when the mines were not worked at all, owing to an over-supply of gold. Truly these people were rich if they only knew it, but wealth was an unknown word to them.

The party, after being shown through some of the unused shafts, where there was also plenty of quartz, but of an inferior quality, was hoisted to the surface. The mill for crushing the quartz was shown them and the process proved very interesting.

They returned to the city in the cool of the evening, well satisfied with their day’s excursion. The longer our friends remained in this strange country, and the more they saw of its beauties and wealth, the more they were astonished at its vast resources. But they had seen only a small part of its wonders.