not have been much known about them, had there not been mines
there,
great deep pits, with long galleries and passages running off from
them,
which had been dug to get at the ore of which the mountains were full.
In the course of digging, the miners came upon many of these natural
caverns. A few of them had far-off openings out on the side of a
mountain, or into a ravine.
Now in these subterranean caverns lived a strange race of beings,
called
by some gnomes, by some kobolds, by some goblins. There was a
legend
current in the country that at one time they lived above ground, and
were very like other people. But for some reason or other, concerning
which there were different legendary theories, the king had laid what
they thought too severe taxes upon them, or had required observances
of
them they did not like, or had begun to treat them with more severity
in
some way or other, and impose stricter laws; and the consequence was
that they had all disappeared from the face of the country. According
to
the legend, however, instead of going to some other country, they had
Madhuri Noah
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