The numerous rivulets which drain the pools meander across the plateau to unite in a stream of considerable volume which plunges over a series of rocky terraces of many colors—ocher yellow, orange, russet, red, pink, and green—into the sylvan valley two hundred feet below. The water, as it falls, leaves on the terraces a thick coating of lime, very much as in winter the cliffs at Niagara are coated with ice, the effect thus produced being that of a petrified cascade of cream. The sediment thrown up by the innumerable geysers at the foot of the cascade has in the course of centuries risen and hardened into a great number of gigantic, fantastically shaped limestone cones, or stalagmites, some of them nearly forty feet in height, which rise like gray ghosts from the plain. Some of the cones are quite bare, but on others sufficient earth has accumulated to provide a root-hold for a great variety of shrubs, grasses, and ferns. One group, distinguished by the size and the peculiar shape of its stalagmites, holds such terrors for the superstitious Arabs that they refuse to approach it after nightfall, holding that its waters are accursed—whence the name Hamman Meskoutine, Accursed Baths. A savage place, as holy and enchanted As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in short thick pants was breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced.... Back of the superstitions which cling to Hammam Meskoutine is a curious legend. There once lived on this spot, so the natives tell you, a young Arab sheikh named Ali, who was so jealous of his beautiful sister, Ourida, that, rather than see her in the arms of another, he determined to wed her himself. The elders of the tribe, scandalized by the contemplated incest, made violent protest, whereupon Ali had them beheaded before his tent. The wedding day arrived, guests came from afar to attend the nuptials, the festivities were about to begin, when suddenly the judgment of an outraged Allah descended upon the guilty pair; fire burst from the earth, the streams became filled with boiling water, a great cloud of smoke and steam descended upon the scene, and, when it subsided, lo and behold, the whole wedding party had been turned into stone! Perhaps, with the skepticism of the West, you may be led to question the truth of the tale, whereupon the Arabs will point out to you the two great cones, which, they will assure you soberly, are All and Ourida petrified, while the smaller cones scattered over the plain are the heads of the decapitated elders. With the proof of the story there before your eyes, there is nothing more to be said. CHAPTER XV THE GRAND KABYLIA