ground, I perceived in the middle of a square, inclosed with bamboos,
a sort of trap, and I stopped quite pleased. Alila looked at me with
astonishment. I lifted up the trap, and saw a rather deep well;
I looked into it with my light, but could not discover the bottom
of it. Upon the sides only, at a depth of about six or seven yards,
I thought I distinguished some openings that I took for entrances
into sub terraneous galleries. What had I now discovered? Was I,
like Gil Blas, about to penetrate into the midst of an assemblage of
banditti, living in the internal parts of the earth; or should I find,
as in the tales of the "Arabian Nights," some beautiful young girls,
prisoners of some wicked magician? Indeed, my curiosity increased
in proportion to my discoveries. "There is something strange here,"
said I to my lieutenant; "light a second match, I will go down to the
bottom of the well." Hearing this order, my faithful Alila shrunk back
in dismay, and ventured to say to me, in a frightfully dismal tone:

"Why, master, you are not content to see what is upon the earth,
you must also see what is inside of it!"

This simple observation made me smile. He continued: "You wish to
leave me alone here; and if the souls of the Guinans whose brains I
have just drank come to fetch me, what will become of me? You will
not be here to defend me!"

My lieutenant would not have been frightened at twenty banditti, he
would have struggled against every one of them until death; but his
legs trembled, his voice faltered, he was terrified at the idea of
remaining alone in this cabin, exposed to the view of the spirit of
a Guinan, which would come and ask him to restore his brains! Whilst
he addressed me these complaints, I had leant my back against one
side of the well, my knees were applied against the other, and down
I went. I had already descended about four yards, when I felt some
rubbish falling upon me. I raised my head, and saw Alila coming down
too. The poor fellow would not remain alone. "Well done," said I to
him, "you are becoming curious too; you will be rewarded, believe
me, for we shall see fine sights." And I continued my under-ground
research. After proceeding six or seven yards I reached the opening
I had remarked from above, and stopped. I placed my light before me,
and espied a corner, where sat the dried black corpse of a Tinguian in
the same state as a mummy. I said nothing; I waited for my lieutenant,
anxious as I