The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-02-17
A TOWER OF SKULLS.
The Ghasily sight to be Seen ON an Island
of the Coast of Africa.

ern vengeance. Headln9 southwark
along the Tunisian sea-board in one of
the little coasters with which these wa
ters abound, you find in the angle form
ed by the intersection of the Tunis coast
line and that of Tipoli large, low,
nearly circular island, which at first sight
appears fully as barren and desolate as
the gray unending sands OF the African
shore along the southern horizon. Your
map will tell you that this uninviting
sandbank is called the Isle Of Jerbeh,
name which, unless vou happen to be
unusually well read in the chivalric
chronicles Of the sixteenth century, will
probably leave you Just as wise as you
were before. Apparently, however, your
Arab fellow-passengers are better in
formed, for the first glimpse OF the island
seems to produce an extraordinary COM
motion among them. Hands are eagerly
pointed at the long grayish-yellow band
which lies almost level with the smooth
bright water, and the slumberous black
eyes flash fire under the shadow Of the
huge white turban, while the name of
Burr ri-er-Roos" flies from mouth to
mouth. Even should you happen to
have learned Arabic enough to know
that this mysterious word means "tower
of skulls" you are hardly likely to be
very much enlightened thereby. The
captain of the vessel, should he be an
Englishman, will give you but little
help in your embarrassment, answering
your appeal for information only by q
knowing grin and an admonition to
keep your eyes open and you'll see O.
pretty queer sight before long" Little
by little huge, grayish-white mass be-
gins to define itself upon the fiat, sandy
shore of the island, standing up gaunt
and grim against the warm, dreamy
blue of the lustrous sky. As We ap-
proach, this formless heap
gradually shapes itself into frown-
ing ramparts and tuTeted battle
ments and massive towers and all the
barbaric grandeur of genuine Eastern
fortress. At its feet the bright blue sea
breaks in glitteling wavelets, while be-
hind tan oasis of rich foliage amid
the hot, brassy yellow of the sandy
shore-the vast banner-like leaves of the
date palms droop voluptuously upon the
breezeloss air No painter could wish
q finer study, but the most striking
A sudden turn of the coast reveals n
projecting headland, surmounted by q
tall white tower, at sight of which the
shouts Of "Burj -er-Roos! Burr -er-
Roos!' burst forth again with re-
doubled energy. The strange building
is cone-shaped, and altogether not un-
like the giant ants nests of Africa or
South America, but many yards in height
and resting upon base rs broad as that
Of cathedral tower. Moment
by moment, as the ship nears
the land, this Mysterious structure
stands out more and more plainly. 1t
is not long before You begin to notice
that the seaw0rd face of the tower has
crumbled beneath the action of wind
and weather, revealing through a wide
gap the dark hollow of the interior
AS you gaze, there breaks suddenly
out of its gloomy shadow. just where
the light enters it, a yellowish, ghostly
glimmer like dim lantern-light seen in
q vault. You have recourse to your
glass, and perceive with momentary
thrill of horror, that this strange glim-
mering proceeds from the teeth Of thous-
ands of human skulls, which fill up
the whole interior OF the building.
This is the famous Burr -er-Roos, 2"
or Tower of Skulls, which, for three
centuries past, has given to this remote
nook strange and terrible renown.
The vengeance of Timour has left upon
the banks of the Oxus more than one
Golotha OF this kind, which l had an
unexpected chance OF examining during
the Khiva expedition of 1878. In
Europe, however, there is but one sim
liar monument, which, as might be ex-
pected, belongs to Turkey, the only
European country in which such n
relic OF utter barbarism would not be
out of place in the nineteenth century;
The traveller who rides along the great
southern highroad from Belgrade to the
Sofia Pass over the Balkan, sees by the
wayside pyramidal building in which
ara imbedded 10000 human skulls.
Nor does this ghoul-like memento date
back to any remote age OF half
human ferocity. 1t is no older than the
year 1906, when Servia's declaration of
independence was answered by Turkey
with the massacre which have left these
10000 Christian heads lasting memo
rial of what the unspeakable Turk
has always been and always will be.
But among all these trophies Of death
there is not one which can claim to be
either as well-presewed or as hideously
artistic as the fatal tower of Jerbeh. 1t
seems as if those who planted it here
for an eternal monument of their ven-
geance had taken grim pleasure in
making it imperishable as the hatred by
which that vengeance was devised. The
skulls are ranged in symmetrical layers,
like shells in the cases of a museum,
each layer being supported upon kind
of trestle-work formed from the
larger bones of the skeletons which
has served as the materials of this
ghastly architecture. The care with
which every bone has been placed, and
the gradual tapering off of the higher
tiers toward the point of the cone so fal
as to lessen the strain imposed upoI
the basement, render the whole struc
ture as solid as a pyramid of stone. So
strong, indeed, is its stability through
out, and so carefully has the outer coat
! ing of sun-baked clay, which binds the
whole together, been laid on that thu
storms of more than three centuries
have been powerless to work it an,
farther harm than the gap in its seawart
face.
-,- Accounts vary as to the total numbe
of skulls which it contains, but by com
pairing the the statements of the oil
Christian chroniclers with those of loca
tradition, one may safely assume tha
this gloomy oil mausoleum ha