The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-07-04
SET WITH HUMAN BODIES.
TIERS OF MuMMIES IN THE FAMOUS
CAVE OF cRoCoDILES.

Reality which IsiTals Hassard's Won
derful Caves of Kor-ExplOring the Hor-
ribie Place-It Is Haunted by Bsts-Hot
as a Furnace with Foul Air.
1t may safely be assumed that those srbo
have visited Maabdeh are very few. It lies
some distance from the Nile, behind Mania
loot, where 20 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 1858, our
dabeeh was becalmea Of Menfaloot, 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-
den / 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 fssrrs
in the middle of a small plateau among the
mountaineering is, no other entrance was
known in 1863. There are no facilities for
descent; one may let himself fall sheer mat
ter of nine or ten feet, and Chamber up again
with the help Of donkey boys cummerbund.
do not recolect that the ugly possibilities of
this situation struck US at all, but perhaps
some measures bad 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
pIeJciy, 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
few feet distance She passage nerrt wed 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 a chamber
spacious enough, but a natural cavern evil
IDENTIFY. On the further side runs another
gallery as cramped as the last, heated like
furnace, reeSing with foul air, vile stencil Of
bats, and pungent fumes Of bitunen Then
we understood way the Arab had stripped
This frightful passage may be 100 yards long,
or the double Of that OF nore-one is unused
to measure distances crawling like 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
close as they will stand over which one has
to Chamber STOPPING.
Here lnyriads of bats assaii the explorer
blowing out bis candle instantly, clinging to
his hair aud beard in ropes, a moment more
and they vanish with soft rustic Of count
less wings, such as l have heard in other
chimes when the sand grouse fly overhead at
dawn and evening. On the opposite side OF
this vault the firsJ trace Of handiwork is OBJ
Eerved-a square doorway. myself would
have been quite satisfied 20 drop back at this
point But the Gragrnan was interested now
taking, perhaps, professional pride in
putting the business through successfully
He could speak with the guide also. So We
went on, still upon our stolnachs, for au in
definite time, in an atmosphere beyond an
>lysiS and heat beyond example in the upper
afr.