led to the mummies if they would make another attempt. They next approached a chamber "guarded by a trench of unknown depth, and wide enough to require a good leap."

"The first Arab jumped the ditch, and we all followed him. The passage we entered was extremely small, and so low in some places as to oblige us to crawl flat on the ground, and almost always on our hands and knees. The intricacies of its windings resembled a labyrinth, and it terminated at length in a chamber much smaller than that we had left, but, like it, containing nothing to satisfy our curiosity. Our search hitherto had been fruitless, but the mummies might not be far distant; another effort and we might still be successful.

"The Arab whom I followed, and who led the way, now entered another gallery, and we all continued to move in the same manner as before, each preceded by a guide. We had not gone far before the heat became excessive ;-for my own part, I found my breathing extremely difficult, my head began to ache most violently, and I had a most distressing sensation of fulness about the heart.

"We felt we had got too far, and yet were almost deprived of the power of returning. At this moment, the torch of the first Arab went out; I was close to him, and saw him fall on his side; he uttered a groan-his legs were strongly convulsed, and I heard a rattling noise in his throat-he was dead. The Arab behind me, seeing the torch of his companion extinguished, and conceiving he had stumbled, passed me, advanced to his assistance, and stopped. I observed him appear faint, totter, and fall in a moment--he also was dead. The third Arab came forward, and made an effort to approach the bodies, but stopped short. We looked at each other in silent horror. The danger increased every instant; our torches burnt faintly; our breathing become more difficult; our knees tottered under us, and we felt our strength nearly gone.

"There was no time to be lost-the American, Barthow, cried to us to take courage,' and we began to move back as fast as we could. We heard the remaining Arab shouting after us, calling us Caffres, imploring our assistance, and upbraiding us with deserting him. But we were obliged to leave him to his fate, expecting every moment to share it with him. The windings of the passages through which we had come increased the difficulty of our escape; we might take a wrong turn, and never reach the great chamber we had first entered. Even supposing we took the shortest road, it was but too probable our strength would fail us before we arrived. We had each of us separately, and unknown to one another, observed attentively the different shapes of the stones which projected into the

DANGEROUS ADVENTURE IN THE MUMMY-PITS.

415

galleries we had passed, so that each had an imperfect clue to the labyrinth we had now to retrace. We compared notes, and only on one occasion had a dispute, the American differing from my friend and myself; in this dilemma we were determined by the majority, and fortunately were right. Exhausted with fatigue and terror we had reached the edge of the deep trench, which remained to be crossed before we got into the great chamber. Mustering all my strength, I leaped, and was followed by the American. Smelt stood on the brink ready to drop with fatigue. He called out to us "for God's sake to help him over the fosse, or at least to stop, if only for five minutes, to allow him time to recover his strength." It was impossible: to stay was death, and we could not resist the desire to push on and reach the open air. We encouraged him to summon all his force, and he cleared the trench. When we reached the open air it was one o'clock, and the heat in the sun about 160°. Our sailors, who were waiting for us, had luckily a bardak full of water, which they sprinkled upon us; but though a little refreshed, it was not possible to climb the sides of the pit; they unfolded their turbans, and slinging them round our bodies, drew us to the top."

The state of debility in which they emerged from this den of death, was stimulated to immediate effort by apprehensions of another kind. Not venturing to tell the plain truth of a fact of which they were aware it would be of little use to attempt to explain the cause to the barbarians of the place, they replied to the inquiries of the astonished Arab who had remained at the mouth of the pit, that his three friends would soon appear, being "employed in bringing out the mummies which had been found;" and they hastened away to reach their cangia, moored at Manfalout, in order to be gone before there should be time for the rage of the Arabs to be brought upon them by the belief that they had murdered their guides. The stupidity, however, of the master of the vessel detained it many hours from getting it into the stream; and when that was effected, the wind was so contrary that they had only proceeded a few miles when Turks on horseback and Arabs on foot came to the bank, and, within pistol-shot, summoned them, in the name of the cacheff of the town, to answer for the murder. On a stipulation with the Turks for their protection while walking back to the town, and an allowance to carry their arms, they returned, and were received with a shout of

revengeful joy by a large assemblage of armed Arabs of Amabdi, waiting at the house of the cacheff; and he himself, notwithstanding their explanation, and the firman of the Pasha of Egypt, affected to treat them in an angry and menacing manner. Retiring however, and summoning them into a private apartment, he quite changed his tone, admitted the truth of their story, but told them the best service he could render them, was to assist them to escape secretly, while he amused their enemies; for that he had no sufficient force to protect them if the numerous armed population of Amabdi should rise on the occasion. It was so managed, therefore, that they got again on board their boat, which they rowed with all their might; but they were soon again arrested by the appearance of a number of Arabs, who threatened to fire upon them if they did not return. On reaching the town, they met, among their vociferous assailants, the wives and children of the men who had perished, naked and smeared with mud, according to their accustomed fashion of mourning. Among the crowd at the cacheff's house, they recognised the Arab whom they had left alive, but with no doubt of his inevitable fate, in the cavern. "His appearance was most wretched, he was unable to stand, and was supported by two of his friends." This man, on being appealed to, confirmed the charge of murder, and being interrogated as to the mode, said it was by magic. The incredulity excited in some of the auditors, by this allegation, combined with the force of some of the circumstances proved in defence, produced a kind of pause of the indignant violence, of which the culprits availed themselves to demand, with a peremptory air, and with threatening references to the alliance of their king with the despot of Egypt, to be instantly sent, together with their accusers to Ibrahim Bey, the son of that despot, and governor of Upper Egypt, whose reputation for cruelty made his very name terrible to the company. At length, a

moderate sum of money was suggested in the way of compromise, to which, after a short politic affectation of haughtily refusing it, the captives gladly agreed; and they were soon again making the best of their way down the Nile.

SACRED BATH AND FAIR ON THE GANGES.*

HURDWAR, the boundary of British India in the neighbourhood of Delhi is well known to be a place of prodigious resort at a particular time of the year, for the Brahmins, who have to sell the blessings of superstition, and the wretched dupes who have to buy them. Our author speaks of this superstition and of its haughty and its humiliated votaries in appropriate language of exposure and reprobation. The grand object with a great proportion of the crowding myriads, is to bathe in the river, here at its entrance, with all its celestial purity, into Hindoostan :—

"Wretches, loaded with enormities," says the author, "and oppressed by the weight of their sins, bend annually their steps to this spot of unparalleled superstition and priestcraft. Here, lavishing on the Brahmins a portion of their wealth, they are absolved of their offences, and return to their several homes with consciences pure and unsullied as the stream in which they have immersed. The Brahmins possessing among the Hindoos the highest spiritual and temporal authority, fatten on the credulity of their worshippers. Religion, here, as in the darker ages of Europe, assumes a shape the bane and curse of the people. Its ministers enjoy all the pleasures and luxuries of this life; and to the deluded wretch, who, with tears in his eyes, offers the few pice, industriously acquired by the sweat of his brow, they point to the heavens, and in promising future happiness, fail not to menace everlasting punishment for the smallness of the offering."

At the fair, at the end of March, 1814, sixty thousand people are supposed to have been collected; and doubtless the strangeness of the spectacle would be found to warrant the author's superlative terms in describing it :

"The spot on which the fair is held, not exceeding a mile in length, or a third of that in breadth, presented a medley of Persians, Tartars, Seiks, and natives from every part of India. Jats, Rohillas, Goorkas, &c., of the reality of which not a bare idea can be entertained in even the most lively imagination. The astonishing variety of features, dresses, languages, and customs made the scene quite unrivalled."

Sketches of India, in the Years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814. 8vo. Black & Co.

1816.

EE

HINDOO TOLERANCE OF ENGLISH MISSIONARY PREACHING.

To this re-assemblage of all that was scattered at Babel, was added, a striking singularity, that of an English "Anabaptist missionary." lecturing on the Bible to this many-featured mass of idolaters. What shall we think of the personal temerity of a man who could thus expose himself to the fanatical rage of so many hundreds of Brahmins, and so many thousands of devotees obsequious to their prompting? --for the personal danger attending such a provocation is immediate and extreme, as all the world has been made to hear. Nine in ten of our gentlemen from India, would at any time have pronounced that a person who should do this must be a madman, and would tempt and deserve his fate. We transcribe the story as given by our author :—

"During the greater part of this fair, which lasted nearly three weeks, an Anabaptist missionary (Mr. Chamberlain) in the service of her Highness the Begum Sumroo, attended, and from a Hindoostanee translation of the Scriptures, read daily a considerable portion. His knowledge of the language was as that of an accomplished native; his delivery impressive, and his whole manner partook much of mildness and benignity. In fine, he was such as all who undertake the arduous and painful duties of a missionary should be. No abuse, no language which could in any way injure the sacred service he was employed in, escaped his lips. Having finished his allotted portion, on every part of which he commented and explained, he recited a short prayer, and concluded the evening by bestowing his blessing on all assembled. At first, as may be expected, his auditors were few a pretty convincing proof, when sixty thousand people were collected, that it was not through mere curiosity they subsequently increased. For the first four or five days he was not surrounded by more than as many hundred Hindoos; in ten days his congregation had increased to as many thousands. From this time, to the conclusion of the fair, they varied, but never fell below eight thousand. They sat around and listened with an attention which would have reflected credit on a Christian audience. On the missionary's retiring, they every evening cheered him home with 'May the Padre live for ever!'

"Such was the reception of a missionary at Hurdwar, the Loretto of the Hindoos, at a time when five lacs of people were computed to have been assembled, and whither Brahmins from far and near had considered it their duty to repair. What was not the least singular, many of these Brahmins formed a part of his congregation. They paid the greatest deference to