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"Yes, and also the noise which alarmed you the first night you wandered here. The music comes from his head, and the noise is from his tail. That is why we call him Siloo." The word, as nearly as I can translate it, means harmony, order, measure, proportion, in the Womla tongue. "Does he always live in this cave?"
The words had scarcely passed my lips when the same terrible cry which I had heard once before sounded from the interior of the grotto. Alumion called or rather sang out a response to the cry, which I did not understand, then said to me in her ordinary voice, "It is Siloo. I must go now and give him food." I was curious to know who or what was Siloo, but did not dare to ask.
"Siloo, Siloo!" cried Alumion softly, and the music, which I cannot compare to any earthly strain, ceased in a moment. Presently I was more than startled to see in the gloomier background of the cavern a great white serpent glide like a ghost along the floor and come straight towards us.
Alumion then took a shallow dish or patera, and, filling it from a vase which she carried with her set it upon the floor for the snake to feed. "You don't seem to be afraid of that gruesome reptile," said I pleasantly. "Oh, no," she replied smiling. "Siloo knows me very well." "Tell me, was it he who made the music a little while ago?"
Suddenly the most appalling noise rent the air, and caused me to spring back from my bride in terror. It came from the rattlesnake. His grisly body swayed to and fro, his gaping mouth displayed all its horrid fangs, and his large eyes burned like two red-hot coals. "Siloo, Siloo!" cried Alumion hastily in a tone of command. "Down, Siloo!"
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