At the entrance of the Cave of the Winds one follows the guide into the
dark pathway that leads into the subterranean chambers, where at some
remote period a wild mountain cataract has whirled and plunged its
maddening waters, in swirl and maelstrom into the black abyss of
the earth. One is so suddenly transported from the gladsome and
awe-inspiring scenes without, that the lamp and figure of the guide
become spectral, his voice sounds in hollow tones and is echoed back
from cavernous depths as though titanic monsters were repeating his
words.
Knowing the cause, one bursts into a laugh, then the monsters laugh,
too, long and loud, and still others take up the laugh, way down the
black corridors, and high above in domes, as though all the imps of
darkness were there to laugh at one in revenge for intrusion.
The guide flashes a magnesium light and the pilgrim beholds the wonders
of Curtain Hall, which nature has ornamented with strangely colored
stalactites glistening here and there on the cavern walls, and again
where they form a curtain of an intricate work and beauty as though
wrought by maiden hands, amid scenes of love and apple blossoms. Mutely
you follow the flaring lamp of the guide into the blackness of winding
passages and across bridges that span bottomless pits opening into the
very breast of the mountain, and when the magnesium light is again
flashed, one sees the arching dome of the great canopy hall, its
stalactite nymphs, Bed of Cauliflowers, Frescoed Ceiling, Lake Basin,
Grandmother’s Skillet, Bat’s Wing, Prairie Dog Village and Fairy Scene;
all presenting a picture weird and ghost-like in the moment of
stillness, and heightened by the demoniacal, fiendish voices that
repeat your every word.
On through other crooked subterranean passages where other demons mock
the sound of your footsteps, through what the guide calls Boston Avenue,
one enters Diamond Hall. The lofty ceiling is decorated its entire
length by graceful festoons and wreaths of coral and flowering
alabaster. The walls sparkle and scintillate with the rainbow shades,
thrown back from the myriad brilliants that stud these walls like
diamonds set by hand in some antique mosaic work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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