42 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
rose from its lowly form and shapeless walls to mon- 
strous cavern ed domes and vaulted roofs, upreared on 
rocky pillars from the deep foundations of the earth. 
Dark and immeasurable chambers were peopled with 
ghostly forms and gliding spectres, now laughing and 
gibing, now welcoming the old Raja with kindly 
smile, and promising good tidings of his darling 
Chahni, whom he had lost he knew not where. Now 
he recognised the Brahmin Ramdoorg leading forth 
his daughter in health and all her former beauty ; 
and now he beheld the accursed Tantras enveloped in 
flames, a prey to hideous serpents, who, with fiend- 
like wrath and with voices of thunder, demanded his 
pure and lovely child. 
The earth trembled, and the tottering walls opened, 
admitting a blinding glare of light, from crackling 
and devouring flames, in the midst of which, unscathed, 
the venerable Ramdoorg stood forth, his countenance 
full of dignity and virtue. “ Hence ! Rung Bhowani,” 
he exclaimed; “Hence! or you perish.” The heat 
became intolerable, a fearful crash, followed by a 
shriek which seemed to rend the vaulted roof asunder, 
awoke the Raja, who starting to his feet found him- 
self enveloped in flames, and beheld his daughter 
with wild impassioned gesture entreating a stranger 
to rescue him from the burning hut : at a bound he 
dashed through the flames and clasped her in his 
arms. A glance sufficed to tell the entire tale ; the 
thunders roared, the lightnings flashed so vividly that 
