10514. They also represented their holy edifices before the spirits of our earth, who said that they had never seen anything more magnificent. They were also represented to me, and the manner of their construction was consequently seen. They are constructed of trees, not cut down, but growing in their native soil. They said that on that earth there are trees of extraordinary growth and height. These they set in rows when young, that they may serve for porticoes and arboreal walks;* and while their branches are tender they adapt and prepare them by means of cuttings and prunings to entwine one with another and join themselves together, so as to form the groundwork and floor of the edifice to be constructed; and other branches at the sides rise to serve as walls; and yet others bend into arches above to form the roof. In this manner they construct the edifice with wonderful art, raised high above the ground. They also prepare an ascent into it by means of continuous branches of trees, stretched out and firmly connected together. Moreover, they adorn this edifice in various ways, both without and within, by fastening the leaves together into forms. So do they build an entire grove. But it was not granted me to see the nature of the interior of these edifices, except that the light of their sun is let in through openings between the branches, and is everywhere transmitted through crystals, whereby the light all round the walls is variegated into colors like those of the rainbow, especially the colors blue and orange, which they love more than the other colors. Such is the nature of their architecture, which they prefer to the most magnificent palaces of our earth, and which was also esteemed and praised above these by the spirits of our earth. * Beneath the edifice; see n. 10516 [Reviser.]