The Central Hindu College Magazine New Series September 1st 1907

The Wood of the"THE WOOD OF THE DEAD 317 Dead I surveyed from a distance ; but in the village I visited the stone erected to the memory of the Father of the Village and saw also the monuments of his fine and unselfish spirit ; the school he built the library the home for the aged poor and the tiny little hospital. [...] By degrees however the stars faded away and a new light grew up in the east and spread in a swift veil over the sky " The dawn is coming" said the old man beside me " and we are in the heart of the Wood of the Dead." We seated ourselves on a moss-covered bouler and waited the coming of the sun. [...] With marvellous swiftness it seemed to me the light grew into the radiance of the early moring; and when the awakening wind began to stir in the tops of the trees the first ray of the risen sun fell in among the stems and rested in a circle of gold at our feet. [...] On these mounts the fluctuating tide of the conquerors of the moment now emphasised the Asiatic now the Grecian life and culture for the banks of the river led up towards the Lydian kingdom then a great centre of industry and towards its capital Sardes where the fabled Crcesus reigned and turned all that he touched to gold ; and from that neighborhood flowed down the mystery and magnificenc [...] The templservants and all the makers of those images of the goddess so eagerly bought by the pilgrims visiting her shrine dwelt on the plain around the temple and formed the stationary nucleus that had always to be reckoned with by whosoever was the conqueror of the city on the hills.