Page:Enterprise and Adventure.djvu/101

Rh however, without increasing it, and every step I took I crushed a mummy in some part or other. Once I was conducted from such a place to another resembling it, through a passage of about twenty feet in length, and no wider than that a body could be forced through. I was choked with mummies, and I could not pass without putting my face in contact with that of some decayed Egyptian; but, as the passage inclined downwards, my own weight helped me on. However, I could not avoid being covered with bones, legs, arms, and heads rolling from above. Thus I proceeded from one cave to another, all full of mummies piled up in various ways—some standing, some lying, and some on their heads. The purpose of my researches was to rob the Egyptians of their papyri, of which I found a few hidden in their breasts, and under their arms, in the space above the knees, or on the legs, and covered by the numerous folds of cloth that envelop the mummy."

The most remarkable of Belzoni's achievements was his discovery of the entrance into one of the great pyramids. The reasoning by which he determined the probable position of the sealed entrance, which, buried and hidden below the level of the ground, had hitherto defied the researches of explorers, was very ingenious; but for a long time his labours resulted in nothing but the discovery of false passages, which were nothing more than entrances partly excavated and abandoned. It was on the 2nd of March, 1818, that he at last came upon the right entrance into the pyramid. He had previously uncovered three large blocks of granite, two on each side and one on the top, all in an inclined direction