MAWS FOOTPRINTS. 273 



together by the roots of figs and creepers. These 

 have insinuated themselves between every crevice 

 of the brickwork until hardly two remain cemented 

 together, and then only prevent their entire separa- 

 tion by the hold they have on them by their roots. 

 If he is fortunate the traveller may find the family 

 burying-place, and here again the insidious work 

 of the fig is even more apparent. No one has 

 taken away the bricks or slabs to make pillars for 

 their houses, as they may have done in the other 

 case, and therefore all the confusion apparent here 

 is entirely the work of the plants. Marble tablets 

 are heaved up in every direction, cracked across, 

 pushed aside, and some quite covered with the 

 network of roots. What was once a regular, 

 oblong cavity is now a hollow surrounded by 

 uneven banks of root-cemented bricks, in which 

 no trace of either coffin or skeleton can be seen: 

 The wood-ants have been at work breaking down 

 everything into mould, and what was once the 

 "Edele Achtbarr Herr" has been greedily taken 

 up by the great masses of fibres which cover and 

 interlace everything. 



Coming now to places that have been very 

 recently abandoned, we see Nature actually at 

 work obliterating the marks of man's presence. 



Rampant creepers extend from the forest into the 

 18 



