ever made by human hands were for purposes of sepulture. The burial
of the dead, or rather the disposition of their bodies, has been a
necessity in all countries and all ages since the days of the Garden
of Eden. Some nations have practised cremation, and there are many
arguments in its favor; but with most of these nations it was the
custom to gather the ashes of the dead into urns, which were buried
with much formality. Among some of our western tribes of Indians the
bodies of the dead are placed on scaffoldings of poles several feet
high, and there left to the action of the elements. This practice had
its origin in the absence of all tools suitable for digging in the
earth, and possibly from a vague theory that the body of the deceased
should be raised towards the home of the Great Spirit beyond the
skies. Some of the ancient nations had a theory concerning cremation,
which was, that the flame, rising towards heaven, carried the spirit
of the deceased and enabled it to reach the mansions of the blest. On
the same theory the Chinese write or print their prayers on paper,
and then burn the paper; the flame carries the prayer upward, and as
light and heat come from the Controller of the universe, they are
considered the proper vehicles for the transmission of appeals to his
mercy, his pity, and his infinite love.
[Illustration: AUSTRALIAN NATIVES BURNING THEIR DEAD.]
[Illustration: AN INDIAN BURIAL PLACE.]
[Sidenote: EARLIEST FORM OF SEPULTURE.]
The earliest form of sepulture was in the grave, a simple trench
a few feet in depth. With the dawn of civilization came the tomb,
rudely constructed of stones piled together, or cut out of the solid
rock. The most elaborate specimens of the latter kind of tomb are in
Egypt; thousands of years ago they were constructed, and to this day
they remain, and are regarded with wonder by travellers from all the
nations of the globe. The most extensive tombs of modern times bear
no comparison to those which are found in the lands bordering on the
Nile. The pyramids of Ghizeh, immense mounds of stone, and constructed
with the greatest care and engineering skill, are the tombs of the
rulers of Egypt in the days of her greatness and prosperity. The
pyramid of Cheops rises to a height of nearly five hundred feet, and
is of proportional width at its base. Down deep in its centre is the
coffin of the man whose name has been given to the pyramid; thousands
of years have passed since this huge tomb was constructed, and it will
doubtless remain for thousands of years to come. No tomb of modern
times approaches it in grandeur, or gives promise of outlasting it.
Though the opposite of underground in their character, and erected
rather in the interest of death than in that of life, the great
pyramids deserve a description here. Excavations were made for their
foundations, and the interior chambers, where rest the coffins of
those for whom they were erected, are, for all practical purposes, as
much underground as they would be in the deepest coal mine of England
or America. The pyramids are mostly on the west bank of the Nile, not
far from Cairo; tourists designing to visit them make Cairo their
starting-point, and from that city several groups are in full view.
Altogether about seventy pyramids have been counted in this region,
and the remains of many others are visible. Decay’s effacing fingers
are constantly at work; forty centuries have passed since the pyramids
were erected, and their durable character can be readily inferred
when we remember how long they have stood.
A sepulchral chamber was first excavated in the rock, and during the
life of the king who was to repose within it, the work of building
the pyramid was pressed forward. It was generally completed before
he died, and therefore he had the consolation of knowing that he
would not be kept waiting around for his tomb to be constructed. The
structure was made over this chamber, an elegant coffin of stone being
first placed within it. A passage-way about four feet high and three
feet wide was kept open, so that the body of the king could be carried
to the sepulchral chamber when the proper time arrived for depositing
it in its coffin. The pyramid was practically solid, as the chamber
and passages leading to it were the only hollow spaces. The sides of
the pyramids were directed to the four cardinal points of the compass,
and their exactness in this particular leads to the supposition that
the ancients were acquainted with the principles of surveying as
practised by modern engineers.
[Sidenote: CONSTRUCTION OF THE PYRAMIDS.]
The pyramids were constructed of red granite from quarries at Assouan,
and other points of the Nile, and of a hard limestone from quarries
at Makotam and Tourah. The blocks were very large, and it must have
required a vast amount of mechanical power and engineering skill to
quarry them and move them to the places where they are now found. Many
engineers think that the Egyptians must have possessed some mechanical
power which has been lost and become unknown to the people of the
present century. Especially is this the case with the huge stones at
the top of the pyramids, where the number of persons who could work
must have been very small for want of room. Other engineers say that
the ordinary derrick on a large scale would have been sufficient for
the purpose, and it is pretty certain that this instrument was used,
as holes have been found in the stones, where it is supposed the
feet of the derricks were placed. Others think that the blocks were
moved by human power, of which the kings had an unlimited quantity at
their command. One theory is, that as fast as the courses of stone
in a pyramid were laid, the earth was piled around it so as to form
an incline, where the blocks could be slowly rolled. When the last
course, at the top, was laid, the pyramid would have the appearance of
a hill with gradually sloping sides. The earth could then be removed,
and when it was all carried away the pyramid would stand as it was
intended to stand. It is true that this mode of work would require an
immense force of men; but what did the kings of Egypt care for the
toil of their subjects? The kings owned the land and the people, and
could do as they pleased with either.
[Sidenote: THE PYRAMID OF CHEOPS.]
The pyramid of Cheops, known as the Great Pyramid, was twenty years
in building, and it is said by Herodotus to have required the labor
of a hundred thousand men during that time. Cheops stopped all other
works connected with religious rites until the pyramid was completed.
To facilitate the transportation of stone from the Tourah quarries,
a causeway was built three thousand feet long, sixty feet wide, and
fifty feet high, which is said to have required ten years for its
completion. A railway engineer of the present day would have finished
this causeway in a month, provided he could have the unlimited supply
of laborers possessed by the Egyptian kings.
The Great Pyramid covers an area of between twelve and thirteen acres;
the side of its square measures seven hundred and forty-six feet, and
its height is four hundred and fifty feet. It was originally seven
hundred and sixty feet square and four hundred and eighty feet high;
its outer portions have been removed to furnish stone for building
purposes in Cairo. Originally, it was a perfect pyramid; the builders
began at the top and filled in, with small stone and cement, the
angles formed by the recession of each layer beyond the one below
it. Each side was thus left with an even surface sloping at an angle
of 51° 50´. The outer casing being removed has left the courses of
stone in the form of steps nearly four feet high, so that the ascent
is not an easy one. There are always plenty of Arabs hanging around
the pyramid ready to assist a traveller who wishes to ascend to the
summit. By pulling and pushing him over the steps, they get him up at
a reasonably rapid rate; but the exercise is of such a nature, that
it frequently leaves him feeling very much as if he had been passed
through a patent clothes wringer.
The pyramid contains about eighty-two millions of cubic feet of
masonry, and the total weight of the stone used in its construction
is estimated at more than six million tons. The entrance is on the
north face, fifty feet above the base, and about twenty-four feet from
the central line. The passage-way is low and narrow, and extends,
in a downward slope of twenty-six degrees, three hundred and twenty
feet to the sepulchral chamber. The chamber is forty-six feet long,
twenty-seven feet wide, and eleven feet high. There is a branch
passage-way leading from the main one, which terminates in a smaller
room, called the Queen’s Chamber; it is supposed that this room was
intended for the resting-place of the queen’s body, but it contains no
sarcophagus.
[Sidenote: THE KING’S CHAMBER.]
In the apartment known as the King’s Chamber, the walls and roof are
of a highly polished granite, in slabs of great size. The only article
of furniture in it is a sarcophagus of red granite, seven and a half
feet long, three feet wide, and nearly four feet high. It is too large
to be moved through the passage, and must have been placed in the room
before the roof was covered. It is supposed that it contained a wooden
coffin with the mummy of the king, and that these were taken away when
the pyramid was first opened and plundered. In the construction of the
pyramids, arrangements were made for closing the passages with blocks
of granite, which have greatly retarded all attempts at exploration.
It is supposed that there are other apartments yet undiscovered in
the Great Pyramid; and at some future day an enterprising and patient
explorer may be rewarded with important revelations.
Nearly a thousand years ago, the Great Pyramid was visited, and
plundered, and the work of destruction has been renewed at various
intervals since that time. But notwithstanding the centuries that
have passed since the first visit, new apartments and passages have
been discovered within the past thirty years, and several important
facts in the history of the pyramids have been obtained from the
hieroglyphics on the stones of the interior. Another pyramid near the
great one was explored in 1837; a sarcophagus was found, and with
it was a mummy case of King Menkuré, but the mummy was gone where
the woodbine twineth, or somewhere else. Near the pyramids there
is a great number of tombs, some built above the surface, and some
excavated in the rock.
The Arabs have opened nearly all the tombs and plundered them of their
contents. They have no respect for dead Egyptians, and whenever they
find the entrance to a tomb beneath the sands that have been blown
from the desert, they quickly open the receptacle and search it for
articles of value. The Egyptians used to embalm the bodies of their
dead with the greatest care. Professors of the art of embalming were
numerous; and judging by the extent of their work, they must have
been in constant practice. The first step in the Egyptian method was
to put the body in a sort of spicy pickle, where it was kept for two
or three months. The viscera and all internal organs were removed to
give a better chance to the pickle; and when the work was sufficiently
advanced, the body was dried, filled with preserving gums and spices,
and properly bandaged. The bandaging of a mummy was one of the fine
arts, and sometimes a hundred yards of cloth would be required for a
single subject. Every toe and finger had its separate bandage, and the
preserving articles were so soaked into the bandages and plastered
over them, that there was sometimes more gum and bandage than body.
[Sidenote: PREPARING A MUMMY.]
[Sidenote: MUMMIES BURNED FOR FUEL.]
A close-fitting case or coffin was put outside the mummy, and he was
then ready to be packed away for any number of centuries. He kept
well, for the work was thoroughly done; and mummies are constantly
found in good preservation after a rest of four or five thousand
years. The Arabs rob the tombs, and break up the mummies for the gold
and silver which were concealed about them; and many a mummy has
come to grief in consequence of attempting to take his money along
with him. After the mummy is broken up he makes very good fuel; the
Arabs occasionally burn him; and in the early days of the Cairo and
Suez Railway, the firemen on the locomotives found that mummies, cut
into proper lengths, made a very good substitute for wood and coal.
The gums and rags that preserved the mummy are combustible, and thus
facilitate his destruction. Arabs and railway stokers are, like the
law, no respecters of persons, especially if the persons have been
dead forty or fifty centuries. It amuses and benefits these modern
Vandals to burn mummies; and it is proper to say, that the mummies
don’t appear to mind it.
The subterranean tombs and other excavations on the Nile are numerous,
and sometimes of great extent. Several of them are so large, that
travellers who ventured into them without proper guides have been
lost, and have perished for want of food and light. A modern visitor
says that after going through several tombs, he felt very much as if
he had been rolled in an iron mill. The passages leading into the
tombs are long and dark; sometimes they extend hundreds of feet in an
indefinite sort of way, and not by a straight course, as a respectable
tomb ought to have its entrance. A slender man can get along much
more easily than a fat one; the latter gets stuck sometimes, and can
easily fancy himself a number ten gun-wad forced into a number eight
barrel. An acquaintance of mine once vowed that not for the whole of
Egypt would he venture into a tomb again, and that he had done with
explorations.
“Ask him about the tomb of Assasseef at Thebes,” said a mutual
acquaintance, who was sitting between us. We were in a _café_ at Rome,
and whiling away an evening after a visit to the Coliseum, and the
ruins in its vicinity.
“Hang Thebes and all it contains,” was the curt reply. “Well, if you
insist upon it, you shall have it on condition that you won’t speak of
it again.”
We made the required promise; and after taking an extra sip of brandy
and water, he began.
[Sidenote: DAHABIEHS AND DONKEYS.]
“There were two of us, and we were making the journey of the Nile
in a dahabieh. You know what beastly things those dahabiehs are
generally, though sometimes you find one that is quite comfortable.
Why the beggarly Egyptians don’t call them boats, and be done with it,
I never could understand. We landed at Luxor; and after looking at the
ruins there, we rode to the tombs of the kings, seven or eight miles
away. They mounted me on a donkey so small, that my feet dragged on
the ground, and I had to take a reef in my legs to keep from wearing
away my boot soles. Jack, my companion, said, that if I wore spurs, I
would have to buckle them on just below my knee, as I could not raise
my heels without having them so far aft, that they would not reach
the animal. There was no necessity for spurs, as we had a boy to run
astern of the donkey, and give him an occasional turn in the tail to
help him along. The boy kept a firm hold of the tail most of the time,
and was helped along by it more than the donkey was. At one time, when
we were on the edge of a little ridge, the donkey watched his chance,
and let his heels fly into the stomach of the urchin. A prize-fighter
couldn’t have made a better blow. The boy went rolling down the ridge,
and I thought we should have to pay for him, or buy a new one.
“He scrambled up again, and wasn’t hurt at all. Evidently he was used
to that sort of thing, but I don’t believe he liked it, for he made
some remarks that sounded very much like swearing. I gave him half a
franc, and he appeared satisfied, and ready to be kicked again. He
went around behind the donkey, and got into position; but the beast
wouldn’t respond for an encore, and so the thing was dropped. But you
can believe the boy gave that tail fits for the rest of the ride; and
by the time we were through, it looked like a piece of old rope with
half the strands gone.
“Jack was poetic, and began to blow and recite verses; but I couldn’t
think of anything except Old Hundred, and the Last Rose of Summer.
They wouldn’t do for the occasion, and so I amused myself with looking
around at the sand and rubbish, and wondering why people came there to
see them. Thebes must have been a nice sort of a city, but it is
very much out of repair now. It is very good as a ruin, but wouldn’t
be worth much for anything else. All around us there were the remains
of temples and palaces that must have cost a great deal of money when
they were built. Our guide kept talking about tombs and other cheerful
subjects, and by and by he took us to the tomb of Assasseef. I didn’t
care much about going in, as it was nothing but a hole in the ground,
anyhow. Jack insisted, and so we tried it.
[Illustration: THE TOMBS OF THE EGYPTIAN KINGS AT THEBES.]
[Illustration: HALL IN THE TOMB OF ASSASSEEF.]
[Sidenote: ASSASSEEF AND HIS TOMB.]
“Assasseef wasn’t a king, but only a wealthy old priest, who had made
money by speculation in stocks or some other way, and wanted to make
a permanent investment. So he went into the tomb business, and built
a very comfortable one, and larger than any of his neighbors. It has
an outer court a hundred feet long, and two thirds wide, and the
underground passages run nearly a thousand feet into the mountain. It
was all well enough as long as we were above ground, but when we went
below it wasn’t so comfortable. The walls were black and dirty; the
passages were narrow and dusty, and sometimes they were so low that
we had to crawl. The bats had a pre-emption claim to the place, and
didn’t like to be disturbed. They flapped their wings in our faces,
and flew around in a way that wasn’t pleasant. Jack opened his mouth
once to spout a verse of poetry, and got a number three bat between
his teeth before he finished the first line. I used to chaff him about
it afterwards, and he threatened to bat _me_ in the mouth if I didn’t
stop.
“There were so many bats that the noise they made in the empty vaults
and passages seemed like distant thunder, and I began to think the
mountain would tumble in. The guide went ahead; and whenever we began
to talk of giving it up, he would tell about some wonderful thing a
little farther on.
“A good many of the passages were so low and narrow that I had to be
pulled in and out by the heels, and it didn’t take long to disgust me.
I was as dusty as if I had made the campaign of Virginia without being
brushed, and the dust I had picked up wasn’t of the best kind either.
It consisted of pulverized mummy and other relics of ancient Egypt;
and I think I should have made a very good show-piece if I had come
home in just the condition in which I emerged from that tomb.
[Sidenote: STUCK IN AN UNDERGROUND PASSAGE.]
“The joke kept growing worse, till they got me in a place where I had
to expel all my breath to crawl through. We got into a sort of room
where an Egyptian named something or other had spent thirty-five or
forty centuries of his mummy existence; but the place was about as
attractive as a bath tub. The mummy had gone, and taken his baggage
with him, all but the bats, which kept flying around and making
themselves uncomfortable. But when we went to get out, the job was
serious. The passage-way, as we came into this tomb, was a descending
one, and I got into it by going stern foremost, as a ship drops down
a current to pick up a new anchoring spot. But in going out I had to
climb up, and that wasn’t so easy. The space wasn’t large enough for a
man of my size to crawl well, as you have to raise your body a little
every time you push yourself forward with your hands. For the same
reason I couldn’t get a purchase with my feet, and I hadn’t gone five
yards before I stopped. The guide and one of our water-carriers were
ahead, while Jack was behind me, and had an Arab to bring up the rear.
I yelled out that I couldn’t get farther, and the train came to a stop.
“I was frightened, and that made me swell up like your finger when
you have a ring on that is a size or so too small. I filled that
passage-way as a cork fills the neck of a bottle, and I couldn’t stir
any more than if I had been anchored. The guide got hold of my arms
and pulled, but he couldn’t do anything, especially as the place
wasn’t adapted to towing purposes. What was to be done I couldn’t
tell; and I began to think I should have to stay there, and be
converted into a mummy for the amusement of future visitors.
“Jack and the Arab finally pulled me back by the heels, and the Arab
went for a rope. When he brought it we arranged for a new departure.
They wanted to put the rope around my neck and pull me along; but I
objected to this, as it might result in stretching my neck a little
longer than I wanted it. I looped the thing around me just below the
arms; and then the guide and the water-carrier went ahead, and towed
me along. It was no easy work, but they got me out at last into the
larger passages, where I could get along comparatively easy. The guide
said something about a fine tomb farther in the mountain, but I had
had all the tombs I wanted for that day, and made as straight a course
as I could for the outside. And you don’t catch me in a tomb of that
sort again if you give me all the kings in Egypt.
[Sidenote: CONDITION OF THE MUMMY MARKET.]
“When we got outside, we found a crowd of Arabs with fragments of
mummy for sale. They had legs, and arms, and heads in abundance, but
the market was rather too high to suit me. In fact I didn’t want any
mummy, and told the guide to set the fellows adrift. Jack bought a
dried arm, and took it back to the boat, but I believe he threw it
overboard a few days later. After that adventure, I visited a good
many ruins, but only went where I had daylight to guide me. Whenever
they told me of a beautiful tomb, and the wonders that it contained,
I admitted that it must be very nice, and took everything they said
in good faith. I was willing to see the tombs by proxy; and when Jack
went inside, I staid where I could look at the Arabs, and study the
columns of the ruined temples.”
XIX.
EXPERIENCES IN WILD LIFE.
NECESSITIES OF TRAVELLERS IN WILD COUNTRIES.—CONCEALING DOG
FOOD.—DEFENCES AGAINST WILD ANIMALS.—HONESTY OF CERTAIN
NATIVES.—THE AUTHOR’S EXPERIENCE WITH SIBERIAN KORAKS.—CONCEALING
FOOD IN ICEBERGS.—BARON WRANGELL AND DR. KANE.—STORY OF BLANKETS
AND BLANKET STRAPS.—A CACHE.—WHAT IT IS.—AUTHOR’S FIRST
ACQUAINTANCE WITH ONE.—A FRAUDULENT GRAVE.—CACHE OF A WHISKEY KEG,
AND HOW IT WAS MADE.—“TWO-BOTTLE CAMP.”—CONSOLATION OF A HARD
DRINKER.—AN EXTENSIVE CACHE.—HOW THE INDIANS FOUND IT, AND WHAT
BECAME OF THEM.—JIM FOSTER AND HIS TENDER HEART.
In all sparsely settled or wild countries, travellers when on journeys
are frequently obliged to carry provisions for their entire trip. If
they are to go back over the same route they follow in their outward
course, they do not carry their provisions the whole distance, but
leave them at different points, where they can find them on their
return. Especially is this the case where food for the draught or
riding animals must be provided. In Northern America and Asia, and
in Greenland, Spitzbergen, and other arctic countries, dogs are
used for draught purposes; and where a party is travelling it is
always necessary to carry a supply of dog food. The favorite article
for feeding dogs in winter is dried fish, and great quantities are
prepared in the summer months, and stored away where they can be
safely kept.
[Sidenote: CONCEALING FOOD IN ICE.]