Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-07-24

ana lOuDu WAS hCtueAAiy SAN"3 49,
mummies. There was just here a sort
of blind passage, at the side of the chief
passage, in which the French expedition
carved their names. The wall was COW
cred with a jet black substance, like the
purest lamp black, which the point OF
knife would scrape of, exposing the
white rock. Numerous stalactites hung
from the ceiling, all jet black, and some
grotesque stalagmites at the sides Of the
passage startled me at first with the idea
that they were sculptures. This black,
sooty matter i cannot account for, unless
it be the exhalations in ancient times
from the crocodiles which were laid here
for we were at last in the depository.
The floor was covered with crocodile
bones and mummy cloths. A spark of
fire falling into them would have made
this veritable hell. As the idea was
suggested, my English friends, whose ex-
perience in the narrow hole had been
sufficiently alarming, vanished on: of
sight. They fairly ran. Having seen
the mummies, and seized a few small
ones in their hands, they fastened out,
and left me with Abdallah and my two
guides. Advancing over the mummies
and up the hill which they formed, l
found that was in one of the number OF
large chambers, Of the depth of which ii
was, of course, impossible to get any idea
as they were piled full of mummied GRO
coolies to the very ceiling. There was
no means of estimating the number Of
them. When l say there were thou
sands of them, shall not be thought tC
exaggerate, after / describe the manner
, in which they were packed and laid in.
Climbing to the top ofthe hill and ex-
tinguishing all lights but one, which
5 made Abdallah hold very carefully,
began to throw down the top of the pile
to ascertain of what it was composed
and at length made an opening between
the mummies and he ceiling, through
: which l could go on further, descendin!
a sort of hill of those dead animals, sucl
] as ! had come up. In this way pro
crossed some distance, in a gallery o
7 chamber that was not less than twent
= feet wide, and probably twenty or thirt
: feet deep.
h The crocodiles were laid in regula
IS layers, head to tail and tail to head
g First on the door was layer Of larg
l. crocodiles, side by side, each one mum
Is mied and wrapped up in cloths. The
d smaller ones were laid between the tail
and filling up the hollows between then
d Then, and most curious of all, the r,
% naming instertices were packed full (
ie young crocodies, measuring with remark
d able uniformity about thirteen inches
-e length, each one stretched out betwec
TO two slips of palm-leaf-stem, which we
III bound to its sides like splints, and tht
1t wrapped from head to foot in a slip
cloth, wound round, commencing at Il
e, tail, and fastened at the head. Tht
as small ones were made up in bundles, US
1t ally of eight, and packed in close
gs wherever they could be slowed. broug
e. out more than a hundred of them,
as which my friends in Egypt seized
UT the most as curiosities, but succeed
nd in getting some twenty or thirty of the
IDS to America with me.
os- This layer completed, a layer of pa
branches was carefully laid over it, spre
ar thick and smooth, and then a second a
OK precisely similar layer of crocodiles v
80 made, and another of palm branches, q
Ihe thus continued to the ceiling. Tn
zen palm branches, stems and mummies
."o here in precisely the state they were t
not thousand years ago. No leaf of
lay palm has decayed. There could b;
my been no moisture from the mumn
and whatever; or if any, it had no effect
eel on the palm branches.
the Among these crocodiles 1 found
ny mummies of many men.
'n'' Sitting down on the side of the
by the dim candle light, l overhar
W gods and men with sacriligious hands
was strange, wild and awful scene
was Among all the pictures that my mem
~ has treasured OF wandering life,
O' none SO fearful and thrilling as this.
A'uS was hell, a still, silent, cold hell.
iu these bodies lay in rooms, in close p;
q" ages, like SO many souls damned to c
"P' nal silence and sorrow in this prison
'' Five bodies of men that | drew OF
H the mass lay before me, with their
Sc Gus stiffness and inaction. l dared t
was to tell me in words the reproache
n0u- which their silent frowns were so lib,
sage renroacbes for nenetrotino tho;, i