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From out of the luminous gulf beneath, beyond the tiers of roofs that lay, step-like, between this hostel and the river, rose up that undying song of Lourdes that strange, haunting old melody of the story of Bernadette, that for a hundred and fifty years had been sung in this place a ballad-like song, without grace of music or art, which yet has so wonderful an affinity with the old carols of Christendom, which yet is so unforgettable and so affecting.
There could be no doubt as to the fact that from this ledge or landing a flight of step-like projections led diagonally up the face of the cliff; and, thickly overgrown as they were, there could be as little doubt that, if not entirely artificial, nature had been largely assisted by the hand of man in their formation.
The next minute he was busy barring the closed door; and this done, he turned to the boys, to cross the room and open wide the cupboard-like door in the corner. Then, returning to Pen, he helped him to rise again, guided his halting steps, and half-carrying him to the step-like ladder urged him with a word or two to climb up. "What does he mean, comrade?" whispered Punch.
The ground is covered with the remains of Mohammedan mosques, and still more ancient Sabæan temples, the architecture of which namely, the square columns with flutings at the four corners, and the step-like capitals at once connects them architecturally with the columns at Adulis on the Red Sea, those of Koloe and Aksum in Abyssinia, and those described by M. Arnaud at Mariaba in Yemen.
It has no canal running through it, and the houses, painted in every variety of color, have a picturesque effect as they stand with their gable ends to the street; some are very tall with half their height in their step-like roofs; others crouch before the public edifices and churches.
More facts are wanted regarding the nature both of the interior and exterior step-like ledges: are all the ledges, or only the upper ones, covered with living coral? If they are all covered, are the kinds different on the ledges according to the depth?
But the splendid town halls as well as the few private mansions preserved, with their step-like aggregation of gables, afford convincing evidence alike of the solid appreciation of art as of the love of splendor which characterized that distant generation. Certain it is that they greatly surpassed us in the domain of Gothic architecture.
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