Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1864-11-03
Tombs of Mt. Sinai,


Sinai, is from Stephens Travels in Egypt
and the Holy Land. Read it, it is well
worth perusal: 514
| nthe garden oftheconyent is the Genet
ry of the monks Though not Of par
ticularly melancholy humor, I am in a
small way given to meditations among
the tombs; aud in many Of the coun-
tries have visited, the burial-places of
the dead have been the most interesting
objects Of examination. The superior
had promised to show me his graves !;
and something in the look of the reader
reminding me of death and burial, 7 now
told the old man Of his promise, and be
hobbled Of to get the key; for it. t.appear-
ed that the cemetry was not 20 be visit
ed without his special permission. At
the end Of a long arbor Of grapevines, a
narrow staircase cut in the rock, which
| lad not seen before. led down to an
excavated square Of about twenty feet );
ON the LETT of which was small door
opening into vault, where formerly the
bodies of the dead monks were laid on an
iron bedstead, and there suffered to re-
main until all the curruptibIe part was
gone, and only the dry bones remained,
Now they are buried about three years,
or as long as may be necessary to effect
the same object and when the flesh and
muscles have disappeared, the bones are
deposited in the great cemetry, the door
of which is directly opposite. Within
the door is small ante-chamber con
tanning a divan and portrait of some
saint who wandered eighteen years in
the desert, without meat or drink
From this the door opens into the ceme-
try, which was SO different from any
I have ever seen, that [ started back on
the Threshold with surprise. Along the
wall was an excavation about thirty feet
in length, but Of what depth | could not
tell. It was enclosed by fence which
was three or four feet above the ground,
and filed with human souls; and in
front, extending the whole width Of the
chamber, was a Pile of bones about
twenty feet high, and running back |
could not tell how far. They were very
regularly disposed in layers, the feet and
shoulders being placed outward alterna
tely, and by the side Of the last skeleton
was a vacant place fer TIE next that
should be ready. st
I had seen thousands of Egyptian
mummies, and the catacombs Of Chioff,
the holy city Of Russia, where the bod
les of the saints are laid in rows, in OPP
en- cofins, clothed in their best apparel
and adorned with gold and jewels; and
in that extraordinary burial-place | had
seen, TOO, range Of small glasses in a
dead stone wall, where wild and desper-
ate fanatics b ad made their own tombs,
with their own hands building them
selves in an upright position against The
walls, leaving small hole open in front
by which to receive their bread and
water and when they died, the small
opening was closed with piece Of glass.
and the body Of the saint was left thus
buried. I had seen the catacombs Of
the Capuchin convent at Syracuse,
where the bodies of the monks are dried
and laid in open eoffng, or fixed in
inches in the walls, with their names la
Boiled on their breasts; and in the con-
vent at Palermo | had seen the bodies
of mobiles and ladies arranged upright
along the walls, dressed as in life, the
men with canes in their hands and swords
by their sides +; and the noble ladies Of
Palermo lying in state, with their with
cred bodies clothed in silks and satins,
and adorned with gold and jewels and
/ remember one among them, who, II
then living, would have been buttwenty,
who two years before had shown in the
bright constellation of Sicilian beauty,
and, lovely as ight from heaven, had
led the dance in the royal palace; | saw
her in the same white dress which she
had worn at the bail, complete even to
the white slippers, the belt around her
waist, and the jeweled mockery of a
watch banging at her side, as flshe had
not done with time forever; her face
was bare, the skin dry, black, and shriv-
eled, like burnt paper; The cheeks
sunken; the rosy lips like a piece of dis
coloured parchment the teeth horrible
projecting; the nose gone wreath of
roses around her head; and long tress
of hair curling in each hollow eye. l
had seen these things, and even these
did not strike me so powerfully as the
charne[house at the convent of Mount
Sinai. There was something peculiarly
and terribly reyoltingr in, this promisci-
Gus heaping together of mortal relics !;
bones upon bones the old and young !;
wise men and fools; good men and bad;
martyrs and murderers masters and
servants; bold, daring. and ambitious