Leaving them to do this, I employed myself in covering in my long colonnade.

After I had placed on my columns a plank cut in arches, which united them, and was firmly nailed to them, I extended from it bamboos, placed sloping against the rock, and secured to it by cramps of iron, the work of my young smiths.

When my bamboo roof was solidly fixed, the canes as close as possible, I filled the interstices with a clay I found near the river, and poured gum over it; I had thus an impervious and brilliant roof, which appeared to be varnished, and striped green and brown.

I then raised the floor a foot, in order that there might be no damp, and paved it with the square stones I had preserved when we cut the rock.

It must be understood that all this was the work of many days.