He kissed each one on brow and cheeks, murmuring affectionate words of encouragement and farewell. “Go now to the sea level. I am come to the end of my journey, and would fain be alone.” It was difficult for him to persuade the Guanches to leave him. “Thou wilt see me again,” he promised; “but at another time.” The shepherds turned again and again, kissing their hands to him as long as he was in sight. Weary and exhausted, Yermah slept soundly until the first streak of dawn appeared in the lowest place on the horizon, while the long glade of zodiacal light shot up amongst the stars of Orion and Taurus. Yermah knew how to interpret this heavenly sign. Gradually a reddish hue appeared, and as soon as the lonely watcher comprehended its meaning the zodiacal light faded, and golden yellow gradually overcame and drove out the red tinge, grown to vermilion. The cold region of gray at its upper limit blushed a rosy pink as the first point of the solar disk leaped from behind a horizon of ocean and clouds.[31] The Dorado performed ablutions with marked care, dressed himself in fresh, white linen, and before the sun was an hour old was picking his way to the higher regions. Finally, a bright spot of fire appeared in the malpais, then a lengthening red and smoking line, widening and growing deeper as it flowed down the mountain side. Nothing but the extreme high altitude made the heat bearable. Occasionally a fresh tongue of fire shot up from the fountain head, and the whole mass of fluid lava and scoria felt the impulse. Alternate cascades of fire and dross thundered precipitately against the lower slopes. The tense and elastic vapors in their struggles for freedom here made one collective heave to gain the light of day, as the Island of Atlantis slowly settled down on the bed of the ocean, and the crater of eruption came up like a huge lava bubble. During this process the cold atmosphere did effective work on the outside. The mass was hidebound with hardening stone; but the violence of the heated gases made a grievous rent in the wrinkled coating, thus causing the mountain to shake as with the ague. Finally, the internal pressure being too great, the massive shell was shattered into a thousand pieces. Not once, but many times, has this battle between heated gases and cold air taken place in the years since then, as the extinct craters amply testify, before the pent-up, unruly spirits of the mountain finally escaped. Prior to reaching his destination, Yermah discovered a lava figure resembling Kerœcia, kneeling with her hands joined in prayer, and appearing to have a heavy mantle thrown over her shoulders. This effigy is still one of the many fantastic shapes pointing the way to the Ice Cavern—that wondrous sepulcher of the Dorado.