Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1857-08-27

rough and very low parts of the gallery, and
the roof began to lift and | found | was ac
tualiy crawling over murnmies There was
just here sort of blind passage, at the side
of the chief passage in which the French ex-
pediticn had carved their names The ~aH
was covered with jet black substance, like
purest lamp black, which the point of knife
would Scrape off, exposing the white rock
Numerous staiactites hung from the ceiling
all jet black, and some grotesque stalagmites
at the side of the passage startled ME at first
with the idea that they were sculptures This
black, sooty matter cannot account for unless
it be the c1halationS in ancient times from the
crocodiles that were laid here, for we were at
last in the depository.
The floor was covered with crocodile bones
and mummy cloths. 4 spark of fire falling
into them would have made this vertable
hell. AS this idea was suggested, my English
friends, whose experience in the narrow hole
had been sufficiently alarming, vanished out of
sight. They fairly ran. Having seen the
mummies, and seized few small ones in their
hands, they haStened out and left me with 4 b.
dallah and my two guides Advancing over
the mummeS aud up the hi! which they form
ed, | found that | was in one of the number
! of large chambers of the depth of which it was
of course, impossible 10 get any idea, as they
! were piled full of mummied crocodes to the
very ceiling. There was no means Of estimat-
ing the number of them. When | say there
were thousands of them, shall not bethought
to exa@gerate, after describe the manner in
which they were packed and laid
( Climbing to the top of the hill and eytin-
gushing all lights but one, which l made Alb
| deah hold very carefully, | began to throw
! h &c +bo
was composed, aud at length | made an open
1 ing between the mummieS and the ceiling,
/ through which | could go no further descend
/ ing q sort Of hill of those dead animals, such
as had come up. Iu this way, progressed
/ some distance, in a gallery or chamber that
was not less than twenty feet wide, and proba-
bly, twenty or thirty feet deep.
| The crocodiles were laid out in regular Law
ers, head to tail and tail to head First on
! floor was a layer Of crocodiics side BY side,
each one mummed and wrapped up in cloths
| Then smaller ones were laid between the tails,
/ and filling up the hoIlows between them. Then,
| and most curious of all, the remaining inter
tees were packed full of young croc6diles
measuring with remarkable uniformity about
thirteen inches in length, each one stretched
out between two slips of palm-leaf stems which
wrapped from head to foot in a slip of cloth,
wound round commencing ct the tail and fas-
/ tened at the end Then small ones were made
up in bundles, usually of eight, and packed in
! closely wherever they could be slowed |
! brought out more than hundred OF them, Of
which my friends in Egypt seized on the most
as curioStieS, but | succeeded in getting some
| twenty or thirty to America.
rThiS loya- couoplat lovar of pal,, brou IL
es was carefully laid over it, spread thick and
| smooth and then second, precisely similar
| layer of crocodileS was laid, and another of
| palm, branches, and thus continually to the
ceiling These palm branches stems and mum,
( mics lie here in precisely the state they were
/ two thousand years ago. Nc leaf of the palm
/ has decayed There coud have been no mos-
ture from the mumme> whatever; or if any
/ it had no effect upon the palm branches.
! Among these crocodeS found the num-
meieS of many men.
/ Sitting down on the side of the hill, by the
dim candle light, oyerhauied gods and men
with SacregiOus hands 1t Was a strange
wild ane awful scene Among all the pictures
my memory has treasured of wandering life,
. | have uoue 30 fearful and thrilling as this
( It was heIi-a silent. still cold hell. All these
bodies laying in ROOMS, il close packages, Ike
SO many packages doomed TO eternal silence
and sorrow in this prison. Five bodies of men
that | drew out Of the mass that lay before
with their hidcouS nactCn and stiffness. |
dared them 10 tell ne in word the reproacheS
of which their silent frOwns Were so liberal !;
reproacheS for penetrating their abode and
disturbing the repose OF twenty or forty centu-
/ rieS.
These were the poorest and most common
sort. destitute of any box Wound in coarse
cloth, aud laid in the grave with the beast that
were sacred II their god One | found af
terwaris in a thin, plain box. bat il contained
no indication of its period. aud bore no marks
of its owners name or position, much 10 my
disappointment.
Let us 60 farther, said to the guides at
length"
There is no further
was satisfied that the entrance We had
effected was not the passage known to the an
clients, aud that some other outlet lav beyond
these chambers pushed nv way over the
piles of mummeS to where another low pas
sage went on. but is was too difficult of eXpla-
nation to tempt me into it, II may lead TO an
ontlet in the desert hitherto unknown, or that
outlet may be long covered over by the shift
ing sands
Where was the object of all this preserya-
ton of the Nile monsters, it is not within the
scope of this volume to discuss. 1t is at least
a mystery for we cannot understand what
part the birds and beasts were 10 take in the
resurrection.
| crawled out as had crawled in. Before
| came out of the chamber Of horror Mad.
Tussaad's is nothing like III laid the wreck
of nv brandy flask on projecting shelf or
; rock, where the next explorer will find il. The
chances are that it will turn up in the British
or Prussiaa Museum, as evidence of the bad