THE SACRED IBIS CEMETERY 



1047 



this ibis cemetery? Because all of these 

 were intimately comiected with the myth 

 of Osiris and the cult of the resurrection. 

 The hawk was always sacred to the 

 sun-god ruler of the celestial world; the 

 shrew was sacred to Horns, who, fol- 

 lowing the instructions of Thoth, tore 

 out his own eye — the seat of the soul — 

 and gave it to Osiris, his father, in order 

 to renew his life ; the jackal was the guide 

 of the dead to the fields of the blessed; 

 while the beetle was pre-eminently the 

 living representative of a resurrection 

 life. 



THE JACKAL CEMETERY 



Another surprise awaited us in the 

 Catacomb of Jackals. This hypogeum 

 of jackals was opened by the Egypt Ex- 

 ploration Fund last year and was re- 

 opened this year (see page 1051). Al- 

 though deep underground, the stench was 

 so great when it was first reopened that 

 it was disagreeable at a hundred yards 

 distant. The first man who attempted to 

 enter the cave with me was almost as- 

 phyxiated, but we crawled out without 

 harm. 



To the writer, three days later, was 

 assigned the odoriferous duty of finding 

 among these tons of decayed or half 

 mummified bodies a number of specimens 

 fit for scientific examination, to settle the 

 question as to the exact relation existing 

 between the ancient and modern jackal 

 and to discuss also whether these beasts 

 thus honored with religious burial were 

 all true jackals or whether wolves and 

 dogs were included, for even yet the or- 

 dinary modern Arab dog seems half 

 jackal. 



I found these catacombs to be almost 

 worthy of comparison in size with cer- 

 tain famous catacombs of the early Chris- 

 tian period used for human cemeteries, 

 while, so far as the number of burials 

 was concerned, these rooms contained 

 more bodies than were ever put in any 

 other series of catacombs known to man. 

 The central passage of this hypogeum I 

 should estimate as being at least 150 feet 

 long and perhaps 7 to 10 feet wide, and 

 this was piled from end to end with 

 corpses from 3 to 6 feet deep, while the 

 many-sided chambers were packed at 

 least equally full. 



A GHASTLY SIGHT 



All Egypt must have been searched for 

 the hundreds of thousands of sacred ani- 

 mals which were crowded into this huge 

 tomb dug for them in the holy ground of 

 Abydos. Here were big and little, old 

 and young, originally mummified and 

 bandaged and sometimes with fine deco- 

 rations wrought in needlework upon the 

 mummy wrappings. But either because 

 this was defectively accomplished because 

 the burial place was not so well chosen 

 as in the case of the ibises, or because 

 of their brief opening to the air last year, 

 these bodies were all partly decayed and 

 the wrappings rotten. 



Crawling on hands and knees for four 

 hours over these piles of bodies, one sees 

 many a ghastly sight — thousands of skulls 

 or half-mummified heads ; bodies broken 

 and m.ashed; bones that crumble at a 

 touch ; eyes staring wild or hollow sockets 

 filled with black paste ; mouths closed 

 just as they had been reverently arranged 

 by the priestly undertaker 2,000 years 

 ago, or sprung wide open as if the crea- 

 ture had sent out a horrible wail in the 

 last moment of its life. The sight of 

 white, sharp teeth glinting everywhere in 

 the light of the candle was indeed weird 

 and gruesome. 



That four hours' experience can never 

 be forgotten ; shoulders bent, back 

 cramped, down almost with face and 

 nose touching these grinning skulls, feet, 

 hands, and knees crunching into a mass 

 of putrifying bones which often fall to 

 powder as you touch them or cause a 

 cloud of mummy dust to envelop you, 

 filling eyes and mouth and nostrils. Mod- 

 ern dust blown by the Khamsin is bad 

 enough, but this is dust that no breath 

 of wind has touched for 20 centuries. 

 The eyes are inflamed as if by fever and 

 the respiration is clogged and spasmodic. 

 Let us be careful, too. If this mummifi- 

 cation was with bitumen, it only needs a 

 careless movement of the candle, and in 

 a moment your body and those of the 

 sacred beasts will be offered to the gods 

 in a hecatomb of flame ! 



CARE EGR THE SACRAMENTALEY SEAIN 



Think of the time and money and 

 energy, the fear and reverence and per- 



