290

DESCENT INTO THE PYRAMIDS.

becoming higher by degrees, we were enabled to proceed with greater facility, until at length it branched off, on either hand, into numerous smaller corridors, leading in different directions, like those intricate excavations which extend beneath the foundations of Persepolis. Evidently unacquainted with the topography of the place, the guides here seemed in doubt respecting the track they ought to follow; but, after a moment's pause, selected a passage conducting by an abrupt descent to a lower level. All these galleries and corridors are excavated in the solid rock, which appears to constitute the whole interior of the pyramid, and probably lead to as many different suites of apartments; though to ascertain this, it would be necessary, in some cases, to clear away numerous blocks of stone, which have detached themselves from the roof, and closed the passages. Arriving, at length, at a small fissure in the rock, the guide, who moved in front of me, with the flaming palm branch in his hand, descending through this opening, disappeared with his light; and it was some time before he returned, having, I imagine, hurried forward, in the hope of discovering whither it led. As soon as the light appeared, we also went down, and, proceeding through narrow galleries and corridors, winding, mounting, descending and crossing each other, at length arrived at a hall of immense height, excavated in the solid rock. A pistol was here fired; but the report, though loud, was succeeded by none of those extraordinary echoes distinguishable in the pyramid of Cheops. From this

DANGEROUS POSITION.

291

chamber another series of passages, the entrance to which is now closed with stones and rubbish, seems formerly to have descended to inferior suites of apartments, hitherto unexplored. The light yielded by the lamp and palm branches was insufficient to discover the roof, or the exact form of several openings, resembling balconies or galleries; where, perhaps, during the celebration of the mysteries, the initiated may have sat, observing the movements of the hierophants. Numerous lateral galleries, diverging from this point, appear to extend on all sides beneath the foundations of the pyramid; but, in attempting to explore them, our progress was generally obstructed by heaps of stone or sand. At length, however, after pursuing for some time the windings of a low corridor, we arrived suddenly at the mouth of a chasm of unknown depth, whose dimensions were concealed by the shadows of the projecting rocks. Deceived, at first, by the dimness of the light, I was about to step forward, when a loud and sudden exclamation from my terrified companion, who perceived the danger of the position, arrested my progress, and saved me from being precipitated into the abyss. On further examination, it appeared that we were standing in one of the balconies overlooking the great hall. Retracing our footsteps from this perilous gallery, and finding in the pyramid nothing further to detain us, we returned towards the entrance, and, emerging into the desert, found all our garments and baggage wetted by the rain.

292

BIRD MUMMY-PITS.

DLXXXI. Mounting our camels, we now proceeded towards the celebrated mummy-pits, over an undulating sandy plain, diversified at intervals with small rocky eminences, perforated with sepulchral chambers of various dimensions, wantonly dilapidated and rifled of their dead. Numerous beautiful sarcophagi, still in perfect preservation, and richly adorned with sculpture and hieroglyphics, lay scattered over the waste, all opened and plundered. Among them also were broken funeral urns, fragments of coffins and cerecloths, and portions of disinterred human bodies. A small chapel, standing in the midst of this interminable cemetery, contains the entrance to the depository of the sacred birds, excavated at a considerable depth in the rock; the descent to which is by a square well, slippery and dangerous. For the use of travellers, however, small notches have been cut in its perpendicular sides, but so shallow as barely to receive the point of the toe. The Arabs, barefoot, and accustomed to the operation, descended with the utmost facility; but when it became our turn to follow, the case was somewhat different, though, by perseverance, we ultimately succeeded. Arriving at the bottom, we moved after the guides through long passages cut in the rock, crushing at every step the frail jars which stood in heaps upon the ground. The lamp yielding but a dim light, it was impossible to discover the form or dimensions of the gallery, or the nature of the floor where the dust, bones, and envelopes of the ibises lay mingled with innumerable fragments of pottery, ren

REPOSITORY OF THE SACRED BIRDS.

293

dering access to the interior irksome and laborious; and the guides, desirous of displaying their intimate knowledge of the local, or of enhancing the merit of their services, by creating an extraordinary idea of the intricacy and vastness of the hypogea, seem to have selected the most circuitous route; but at length, after traversing numerous dark passages, from whence the mummies had been removed, we reached the deep recess filled with jars, piled tier beyond tier, precisely as the old Egyptians had left them.

DLXXXII. Notwithstanding the care lavished on the remains of the sacred birds, time, in most instances, has done its work, and reduced them, bones and all, to dust; so that travellers, intent on obtaining a perfect specimen, ignorantly or heedlessly destroy a hundred jars before they succeed: by which means these curious relics of ancient superstition and art must, in a few years, wholly disappear. But this Vandalism is perfectly gratuitous, for, by shaking the vessel, it is easy to discover the state of its contents. The jars, about fifteen inches in length, and seven or eight in diameter, are light, porous, and unglazed, ingeniously closed with two small round plates, partly let down into the vessels, meeting and lapping over each other in the middle, and firmly bound together by a coarse white cement. Though apparently solid and well preserved, the mummies frequently fall to ashes when exposed to the air; and therefore, for osteological and anatomical purposes, those em

294

ENCROACHMENT OF THE DESERT.

balmed at Thebes,-where, instead of being deposited in earthen vessels, they were wrapped in numerous linen bandages, are greatly to be preferred.

DLXXXIII. Having paid and discharged our guides, including the young women, and leaving the whole party engaged in a furious quarrel respecting the division of the spoil, we proceeded along the skirts of the desert towards the pyramids of Ghizeh; which, when approached from the south, present a still more magnificent and sublime aspect than from the opposite quarter. In this portion of the valley, the encroachment of the Libyan waste is too manifest and palpable to be disputed. Plants, the peculiar production of the fertile fields, are beheld surrounded by a thin layer of sand, marking the extreme boundary of the desert, which incessantly, though imperceptibly, advances towards the river, obliterating all traces of cultivation. To a wise government, however, this phenomenon would be no subject of disquietude; since it is possible not only to oppose, by the excavation of canals, an insuperable barrier to the growth of the wilderness, but even to reclaim and fertilise a large portion of its inhospitable downs, where moisture alone is wanting to vivify the germs of vegetation. In the deep hollow immediately south of the sphynx, six lofty trees, mimosas and sycamores, are nourished and clothed with luxuriant verdure by a scanty spring, concealed beneath the sand; while the surface of the arid expanse, bordering on the corn-fields and meadows of Ghizeh, is thinly covered with a dry long