San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-08-01
SET WITH HUMAN BODIES.
TIERS OF MUMMleS IN THE FAMOUS
CAVE OF CRocoOlLeS.

A Reality Which Rivals Haggard's Won
derfuI Caves of Kor--Exploring the Hor-
ribie Place-It Is Haunted by Bats-Hot
~ - Furnace. with Foul Air.
1t 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 rhe
Nile, very late in the spring of 1868, our
dabeeh was becalmed off Manfaloot and the
dragoman, badgered by two young Britons
10 find them sport, unwillingly named the
pits of MsabdCh. As it CHANGED, the legend
of the pits had haen familiar to me as long Us
can recollect. So, when the dragoman sug-
gested visit to the crocodile pits of Maab-
Och | agreed at once. Long before dawn we
set out, aud in the afternoon we reached the
spot.
The entrance o. the pits is an oblong fiSsure
in the middle of a small plateau among the
mountainS-that is, no other entrance was
known in 1868. There are no faciAies for
descent; one may let himself fall sheer mat
ter of nine or ten feet, and Chamber up again
with the help Of donkey boy 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
pIetely, 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 natural cavern evil
IDENTIFY. On the further side runs another
gallery Us 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 OF more-one ia unused
to measure distances crawling like snake on
ones stomach. At the end hes 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 soft rustic of count
less wings, such as | have heard in other
climeS when the sand grouse fly overhead at
dawn and evening. On the opposite side o!
this vault the first trace Of handiwork is OBJ
served-a square doorway. ! myself would
have been quite satisfied 10 drop back at this
point. But the dragman was interested now
taking, perhaps, professional pride in
putting the business through successfully.
He could speak With the guide also. 80 we
went on, still upon our Stomachs, for All in
definite time, in an atmosphere beyond an
alysis ard 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 cne's knees; and then the flooring
changed from smooth granite to a soft, w,
even compost. | lowered my candle To Oh
serve. We were CrOuchlng along over knead-
Ell human formsl
A very strange spectacle, which seemed to
us an embodied nightmare under tho excite
ment of that awful journey. l 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 glisteuing with perspiration stretched
out above pavement of heads and limbs.
Many of the faces had been gilt, and they
shone Pickering, here and there, upon the
dpsky mass. We could not get any explana-
ton of the extraordinary mangling. The
Arab said things had been so ever since he
could recollcct. 1t must be supposed that
these were mCmmies of priests and attend
ants buried with the sacred reptiles in their
charge 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 Law. On the