The Cave of the Crocodiles.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 469, 7 May 1890, Page 4

The Cave of the Crocodiles.

The sudden demand for mummied cats reminds me of a visit paid many yearp ago to the famous crocodile pits of Maabdeh. I may safely be assumed that those who have visited Maabdeh are very few. It lies some distance from the Nile, behind Manfaloot, where no one stopped in the good old dabeeh days, and the modern steamers only touch ; moreover, the pits are in tho desert itself, some horus’ ride. ‘ Murray,’ prudent as usual, does not encourage the adventurous. The editor of the ‘ Egyptian Handbook ’ admits that his brief remarks are not based on personal knowledge, and the errors therein show that they are not based upon a trustworthy report. It is no unwarrantable presumption, therefore, to fancy that these very curious antiquities are rather discussed chan known. My own experience was due to accident. Dropping down th 6 Nile very late in the spring of 1863, our dabeeh was becalmed off Manfaloot, and the dragoman, badgered by two young Britons to find them sport, unwillingly named the pits of Maabdeh. He proposed simply to ride thither and return —that, indeed, is a day’s journey. But, as it chanced, the legend of the pits had been familiar to me as long as I can recollect. In the beginning of this century a certain Mr Leigh, M.P., explored them, with most disastrous results. His narrative may be found in a quaint old child’s book called ‘ Winter Evenings,’ extracted, doubtless, from some record which I never came across. ‘ Murray’ gives no reference to the story. My recollection cannot be trusted to tell what happened to Mr Leigh precisely ; but I know that one of his followers died in the cavern, another was lost, a third escaped after awful sufferings ; and finally they had to run the gauntlet of an infuriated population to the river side, whence the Pasha, or somebody, sent them prisoners to Cairo. On the whole, it was a very striking adventure, a special favourite in our nursery. So, when the dragoman suggested in this casual way a visit to the crocodile pits of Maabdeh, it seemed very strange and thrilling to my mind—as though he had proposed a trip to fairyland by excursion train. Of course, bis modest programme was derided ; we would follow the steps of the unfortunate M.P. to the bitter end. Our dragoman became serious now. He urged thac it was much too late in the day for starting, and we had to submit ; doubtless the good man hoped a wind would spring up in the night. But ho was disappointed. Long before dawn on the morrow we set out; and in the afternoon we reached the spot. The entrance of the pits is an oblong fissure in the middle of a small plateau among the mountains —that is, no other entrance was known in 1863. There are n facilities for descent; one may let oneseff fall sheer a matter of 9 or 10 feet, and clamber up again with the help of a donkey boy’s cummerbund. Ido 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. One of them, indeed, headed tho advance; our dragoman had never been down before. The Arab began by stripping completely, and he advised us to do the same. Then we lighted a candle each, and in single file dived into the bowels of the rock. At a few feet distance the passage narrowed rapidly until there was only room to crawl along on one’s stomach. This first gallery may be some 50 yards long ; it opens on a chamber spacious enough, bub a natural cavern evidently. On the further side runs another, gallery as cramped as the last, heated like a furnace, reeking with foul air, vile stench of bats and pungent fumes of bitumen. Then we nndeivtood 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 one’s stomach. At the end lies another chamber, of good height apparently, if the floor were cleared ; but tho whole area is blocked with enormous masses of stone packed as close as they will stand, over which one has to clamber stooping. Here myriads of bats assail the explorer, blowing out his candle instantly, clinging to his hair and beard in ropes. A moment more and they vanish, with a soft rustle of countless wings, such as I 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 observed—a square doorway. I myself would have been quite satisfied to drop the track of Mr Leigh's footsteps at this point. But the dragoman was interested now—taking, perhaps, professional pride in putting the business through successfully. He could speak with tho guide also. So we went on, still upon our stomachs, for an indefinite time, in an atmosphere beyond analysis and heat beyond example in the upper air. It was here, probably, that Mr Leigh’s party broke down, for I think they did not reach the end. We did. After some hundreds of yards, as it Beemed, slowly the passage heightened—one could get upon one’s knees ; and then the flooring changed from smooth granite to a soft uneven compost. I lowered my candle to observe. We were crouching along over kneeded human forms.

A very strange spectacle, which seemed to us an embodied nightmare under the excitement of that awful journey. I think I was almost delirious. No scene recurs to my memory now more fresh and striking than that black cave, with a slender glow of candle light here and there, and the half naked figures glistening with perspiration" ■ stretched out above a pavementof heads and limbs. Many of the faces had been gilded, and they shone, flickering here and there, upon the dusky mass. We could not get any explanation of the extraordinary mangling. The Arab said things had been so ever since he could recollect. It must be supposed that these were mummies of priests and attendants buried with the sacred reptiles in their charge great personages, some of them, evidently. Their families had been laid with them ; for there was as many women perhaps as men, and a great numberof children. Everyone had been stripped and torn to pieces—all those on the surface, at least, for a hurried examination failed to show how deep the serried pile of bodies lay. Mingled with them were sheets and strips of cloth, fragments of sarcophagi, and quantities of women’s hair in scalps—wigs, possibly. On the other side' of this vaultlie the hindmost battalions of the croco-

dile host—innumerable. Standing on the human pavement, there is justspace enough above and in front to observe tlia manner of their disposal, for the topmost layer or two have been pulled down. If it w ere not certain for other reasons that the present entrance is not that formerly used, the arrangement of these crocodile mummies would prove it. They filled the space completely from floor to arch, and side to side until the upper ones were removed—neatly aligned, tail to head, head to tail, with palm leaves laid between, and the interstices filled up with countless multitudes of young and eggs, these latter tied in bundles and wrapped each one in astrip of cloth. Sinceevery layer was piled to the roof, it is manifest that those who arranged them must have worked backwards; and since it would

be as easy to drag an elephant through those passages as to drag the superb specimens here—unequalled in my expsr ience—of alligators and crocodiles—they must needs have been brought from the other side. The demonstration is complete, for we had extremest difficulty in drawing behind us two heads chosen among the smaller oneß. Moreover, it is unlikely that the bats used that long subterranean outlet; they are probably acquainted with a better and nearer route. 1 fancy that the enormous blocks of stone upon the floor of the second chamber had boen put there, after excavation, out of the way. No one can form an idea how far the caverns extend. Removing the top layers as they went, and crawling beneath the roof, Arabs, we were told, had explored a vault beyond this and found more crocodiles still on the further side. The mountain, they said, was stuffed with them ; aud it is possible. Assuredly the pits are a mine of nitrate ; and this exportation of mummies for manure may effect one good thing at least, by causing them to be emptied. Treasures may lie beyond the vaults where these myriads of crocodiles are stored.— , St. James’s Gazette,’ 3rd March.