he velvety blackness of
the cave entrance. They appeared curious but not unfriendly as we
breathlessly panted our way on to the ledge where they stood waiting,
spears in hand.

[Drawing: _Like a Great Stage_]

Our first impression was one of gasping wonderment. We seemed to stand
upon a great stage of an immensity which words can not describe. It was
a stage proportioned for giants. The rock prosscenium arched above us
seventy feet and the stage was nearly two hundred feet wide. As an
audience chamber one could look out over twenty-five thousand square
miles of Central Africa.

The dimensions and the imposing magnitude of the place almost took one's
breath away. Two regiments of soldiers could have marched upon that
stage. There was even room for a squadron of cavalry to manoeuver.
Upon the well-beaten floor were the tracks of cattle, showing that from
time immemorial the cave people had driven in their herds for shelter or
for safety in times of tribal warfare; and in places the solid rock was
worn smooth and deep by the bare feet of centuries of naked people.

And yet, in spite of the titanic proportions of the cave, there was
something quite homelike about it. It almost suggested a prosperous
farm-yard. There were chickens walking about, with little chickens
trotting alongside. There were wickerwork graneries standing here and
there, while around the inner edge of the great entrance hall were
little mud and stick woven houses five feet high, which gave the effect
of a small village street.

From the front of the stage back to the row of little houses was a
distance of about one hundred feet. By stooping down one could enter one
of the little openings, to be surprised to find himself in another
little farm-yard where cattle had been housed and where there were many
evidences of the thrift and industry of the occupants. Gourds of milk
were present in generous numbers, and as one's eyes became accustomed to
the semi-darkness all sorts of domestic paraphernalia were revealed.

Little separate inclosures were fenced off for human tenantry, and the
glow of embers gave a pleasant, homelike look to the place. Cavern after
cavern extended back into the cliff, a network of them, but how far they
went would be hard to tell. Perhaps the cave in all its subterranean
ramifications has never been entirely explored.

We wandered back through some of the caverns, sometimes stooping to get
through and sometimes standing beneat