though it seemed to partake of both the
Saracenic and the Indian. Fragrant timber, precious stones, and
burnished metals; in fine, the richest materials known to the builders,
had been united with consummate art into one harmonious emblem of their
faith. The first beams of the rising sun blazed on its golden roof and
fretted pinnacles of diamond, and ruby, sapphire, topaz, and emerald;
but the lower part was still in shadow. Nevertheless, we could
distinguish a grand portal in the southern front, which faced the sun,
and a broad flight of marble steps descending from it into the water;
but the massive doors were shut, and not a soul was to be seen about the
temple.

As the worshippers arrived they seated themselves on the turf amongst
the flowering shrubs, or on the benches along the terraces, and either
spoke in subdued tones, or preserved a religious silence. Otare led us
to a kind of throne or stand facing the temple, and raised above the
other seats, where his father, as chief of the community, sat in state.
Dinus received us with his usual gracious dignity, and gave us chairs on
his right and left hand.

From this height we enjoyed a splendid panorama of the Craterland, at
least that portion which had already caught the sunshine. It lay beneath
us like a picture, the surface rising in a series of zones from the
central sea, which mirrored the serene azure and plume-like vapours of
the heavens, through the sweet meadows, and the smiling gardens, to the
luxuriant wilderness beyond; and we could plainly see the shadow of the
bounding rampart shrink towards the south as the sun mounted higher and
higher.

It was a lovely dawn. A rosy mist hung like a veil of gauze over the
southern sky, and from behind a bar of purple cloud, lined with gold,
which rested on the summit of the cliffs, a coronet of auroral beams or
crepuscular rays, blue on a pink ground, shot upwards, heralding the
advent of the sun, and reminding me of the ancient simile of the earth
as a bride awaiting the arrival of her lord.

At length the first glowing tip of the solar disc peeped over the rim
of the crater, and a deep low murmur, swelling to a shrill cry, ascended
from the passive multitude.

All the people rose to their feet, and every eye was turned on the south
front of the temple, which was now illuminated to the edge of the water.
As the sunlight crept over the surface it sparkled on the dense foliage
of what seemed a bed of water-lilie