ut into a loud laugh.

"The snakes of India seem to be determined that you shall see them," said
he. "But you need not fire, Mr. Belgrave; for those snakes are as harmless
as barnyard fowls, and they don't know enough to bite."

"I see that they are not cobras," added Louis, as he returned the revolver
to his pocket. "But what are they?"

"Those are rock snakes."

"But I don't like the looks of them," said Mrs. Belgrave, as she continued
her retreat towards the path.

"I think they are horrid," added Miss Blanche.

"But they do no harm, and very likely they do some good in the world," said
Sir Modava; "but there are snakes enough that ought to be killed without
meddling with them."

"You see that rock," said the viscount; "and it is a very large one. Can
you make anything of its shape? I suppose not; nobody can. But that rock
gave a name to this island, applied by the Portuguese two or three hundred
years ago. It is said to have been in the form of an elephant. If it ever
had that shape it has lost it."

[Illustration: "'Snakes!' screamed Mrs. Belgrave."--Page 184.]

After penetrating a dense thicket, the tourists discovered a comely flight
of stairs, cut out of the solid rock of which the hill is composed,
extending to a considerable distance, and finally leading into the great
pillared chamber forming a Hindu temple, though a level space planted with
trees must first be crossed.

They entered the cave. On the left were two full columns, not yet crumbled
away as others were, which gave the observers a complete view of what a
vast number of others there were. Next beyond them were three pilasters
clinging to the ceiling. This part of the cavern was in the light from the
entrance; but farther along, considerably obscured in the darkness of the
subterranean temple, were scores, and perhaps hundreds, of others. The
pillars were not the graceful forms of modern times, and many of them had
lost all shape.

This temple is said to have been excavated in the ninth century. The walls
are covered with gigantic figures in relief. The temple is in the form of a
cross, the main hall being a hundred and forty-four feet in depth. The
ceiling is supported by twenty-six columns and eighteen pilasters, sixteen
to eighteen feet high. They look clumsy, but they have to bear up the
enormous weight of the hill of rock, and many of them have crumbled away.

At the end of the colonnade is a gigantic bust, representing a Hindu
div