Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-05-09
SET WITH HUMAN BODIES.
TIERS OF MUMMIEs M THE FAMOUS
CAVE OF cRocoDlLEs.

A Reality Which Rivals IIaGgsrds Won
derful Caves of KOr- Exploring the HOr-
rible Place-It Is Haunted By Bats-Hot
as Furnace, with Foul Air.
II may safely be assumed that those who
have visited Maabdeh are very few. 1t lies
some distance from the Nile, behind Mania
loot, where no one stopped in the good old
dabeeh days, and the modern steamers only
touch; moreover, the pits are in the desert
itself, some hours ride. My own experience
was due to accident. Dropping down the
Nile, very late in the spring of 1868, our
dabeeh was becalmed off Manfaloot and the
dragoman, badgered by two young Britons
to find them sport, unwillingly named the
pits of Maabdeh As it CHANGED, the legend
of the pits had been familiar to me as long as
can recollect. SO, when the dragoman sug-
gested visit to the crocodile pits of Maab-
deh l agreed at once, Long before dawn we
set out, and in the afternoon we reached the
spot.
The entrance of the pits is an oblong assure
in the middle of a small plateau among the
mountains-that is, no other entrance was
known in 1868 There are no facilities for
IluJ ltb uli1lSClA ldll SilcCI u
ter of nine or ten feet, and Chamber up again
with the help of a donkey boys cummerbund.
[ do not recollect that the ugly possibilities of
this situation struck us at all, but perhaps
some measures had been taken to make sure
that the boys did not desert. Ono of them,
indeed, headed the advance; our dragoman
had never been down before
CRAWLING ON THEIR sToMACHs
The Arab began by stripping himself COM
pletely, and he advised us to do the same.
Then we lighted candle each, and in single
file dived into the bowels of the rock, At a
few feet distance the passage narrowed rap
idly until there was only room to crawl along
on ones stomach. This first gallery may be
some fifty yards long; it opens on u chamber
spacious enough, but a natural cavern evil
IDENTIFY On the further side runs another
gallery as cramped as the last heated like a
furnace, reeking with foul air. vile stencil of
bats, and pungent fumes of bitumen. Then
we understood why the Arab had stripped.
This frightful passage may be 100 yards long,
or the double of that or more-one is unused
to measure distances crawling like a snake on
ones stomach At the end lies another cham
Der, of good height, apparently, if the floor
were cleared; but the whole area Is blocked
with enormous masses of stone packed as
close as they will stand, over which one has
to Chamber STOPPING,
Here myriads Of bats assaii the explorer,
blowing out his candle instantly, clinging to
his hair and beard in ropes. A moment more
and they vanish with a soft rustic Of count
less wings, such as l have heard in other
climes when the sand grouse fly overhead at
dawn and evening, On the opposite side Of
this vault the first trace of handiwork is OBJ
served-a square doorway. ImysGlf would
have been quite satisfied to drop back at this
point. But the dragman was interested now
taking, perhaps, a professional pride in
putting the business through successfully.
He could speak with the guide also. So we
went on, still upon our stomachs, for an in
definite time, in an atmosphere beyond an
alysis and heat beyond example in the upper
air.
PRIESTS AND REPTILES TOGETHER.
After some hundreds Of yards, as it seemed
slowly the passage heightened-one could get
upon ones knees; and then the flooring
changed from smooth granite to a soft uu-
even compost. l lowered my candle TO OBJ
serve We were crouching along over knead-
ed human formsl
n NCi OIL pl'CSblClSy WHICH octlIGh w
us an embodied nightmare under tho excite
ment of that awful journey. | think l was
almost delirious. No scene recurs to my
memory now more fresh and striking than
that black cave, with slender glow Of can
die light here And there and the half naked
figures glistening with perspration stretched
out above a pavement of heads and limbs.
Many of the faces had been gilt, and they
shone Pickering, here and there, upon the
dusliy mass. We could not get any explana-
ton of the extraordinary mangling. The
Arab said things had been SO ever since he
could recoQoct IL must be supposed that
these were mummes of priests and attend
ants buried with tho sacred reptiles in their
chargo-great personages, some Of them, evil
IDENTIFY. Their families had been laid with
them; for there were as many women per-
haps as men, and great number of children.
INNUMERABLE PILES OF BODIES.
Every one had been stripped and torn to
pieces--all Of those on the surface, at least,
for a hurried examination failed to show how
deep the serried pile Of bodies lay. On the
other side of this vault lie the hindermost
battalions Of the crocodile hOst-innumerable
Standing on the human pavement there is
just space enough above and in front to OBJ
serve tle manner of their disposal, for the
topmost layer or two has been pulled down.
II it were not certain for other reasons that
the present entrance is not that formerly used.
the arrangement Of these crocodile mummies
would prove it, No one can form an idea
how far the caverns extend Removing the
top layers as they went, and crawling be
meath the roof, Arabs we were told, had ex
plored a vault beyond this and found more
crocodles still ON the further side The
mountain, they said, was stuffed with them;
and it is possible--St. James Gazette.
Killing Soldiers by lightning.
An American inventor has jumped over
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