345 
The catacombs, or grottoes, which are to the west of 
Amathante, are so stopped up, that you must enter by a 
small hole, and creep the distance of several toises upon 
your hands and face. As the light of day cannot enter 
there, it is requisite to use flambeaux. 
A gallery, a central chamber, and three other sepul- 
chral apartments, compose these catacombs. Thous- 
ands of bats, dazzled by the light of the flambeaux, 
fluttered round us, and struck our faces with their 
wings. This adventure recalled to my mind the cele- 
brated one of Don Quixote, in the grotto of Montesi- 
nos, and my imagination was amused for a moment in 
this dreary abode; but the great darkness that surround- 
ed us, notwithstanding our flambeaux; the damp, and 
wet which fell on all sides; the sepulchral beds hollow- 
ed in the rock, which were open; the disagreeable as- 
pect of the bats; the filth of these animals, which co- 
vered the ground more than a foot thick, and the silence 
of my guide, who alone had entered with me, made me 
remember that I was in the abode of the dead; so that 
the moment I had accomplished my design, I crawled 
out very quickly, in the same manner I had entered, 
and was eager to behold the light of day. Such were 
the monuments I found worthy of my attention at Ama- 
thante. There remain also some foundations of the 
walls, and the body of the town, in a very decayed slate. 
The houses were formerly constructed with round 
flints, obtained from the sea shore. These flints, too 
hard and too polished to adhere to the cement, compos- 
ed most likely of bad lime, detached themselves; the 
mortar disappeared, and the site of the houses is now 
vol. I. xx 
