"Great heaven!" he said, "they are corpses on fire!"
I stared and stared again--he was perfectly right--the torches that
were to light our entertainment were human mummies from the caves!
were to light our entertainment were human mummies from the caves!
On rushed the bearers of the flaming corpses, and, meeting at a spot
about twenty paces in front of us, built their ghastly burdens
crossways into a huge bonfire. Heavens! how they roared and flared! No
tar barrel could have burnt as those mummies did. Nor was this all.
Suddenly I saw one great fellow seize a flaming human arm that had
fallen from its parent frame, and rush off into the darkness.
Presently he stopped, and a tall streak of fire shot up into the air,
illumining the gloom, and also the lamp from which it sprang. That
lamp was the mummy of a woman tied to a stout stake let into the rock,
and he had fired her hair. On he went a few paces and touched a
second, then a third, and a fourth, till at last we were surrounded on
all three sides by a great ring of bodies flaring furiously, the
material with which they were preserved having rendered them so
inflammable that the flames would literally spout out of the ears and
mouth in tongues of fire a foot or more in length.
about twenty paces in front of us, built their ghastly burdens
crossways into a huge bonfire. Heavens! how they roared and flared! No
tar barrel could have burnt as those mummies did. Nor was this all.
Suddenly I saw one great fellow seize a flaming human arm that had
fallen from its parent frame, and rush off into the darkness.
Presently he stopped, and a tall streak of fire shot up into the air,
illumining the gloom, and also the lamp from which it sprang. That
lamp was the mummy of a woman tied to a stout stake let into the rock,
and he had fired her hair. On he went a few paces and touched a
second, then a third, and a fourth, till at last we were surrounded on
all three sides by a great ring of bodies flaring furiously, the
material with which they were preserved having rendered them so
inflammable that the flames would literally spout out of the ears and
mouth in tongues of fire a foot or more in length.
Nero illuminated his gardens with live Christians soaked in tar, and
we were now treated to a similar spectacle, probably for the first
time since his day, only happily our lamps were not living ones.
we were now treated to a similar spectacle, probably for the first
time since his day, only happily our lamps were not living ones.
But, although this element of horror was fortunately wanting, to
describe the awful and hideous grandeur of the spectacle thus
presented to us is, I feel, so absolutely beyond my poor powers that I
scarcely dare attempt it. To begin with, it appealed to the moral as
well as the physical susceptibilities. There was something very
terrible, and yet very fascinating, about the employment of the remote
dead to illumine the orgies of the living; in itself the thing was a
satire, both on the living and the dead. Cæsar's dust--or is it
Alexander's?--may stop a bunghole, but the functions of these dead
Cæsars of the past was to light up a savage fetish dance. To such base
uses may we come, of so little account may we be in the minds of the
eager multitudes that we shall breed, many of whom, so far from
revering our memory, will live to curse us for begetting them into
such a world of woe.
describe the awful and hideous grandeur of the spectacle thus
presented to us is, I feel, so absolutely beyond my poor powers that I
scarcely dare attempt it. To begin with, it appealed to the moral as
well as the physical susceptibilities. There was something very
terrible, and yet very fascinating, about the employment of the remote
dead to illumine the orgies of the living; in itself the thing was a
satire, both on the living and the dead. Cæsar's dust--or is it
Alexander's?--may stop a bunghole, but the functions of these dead
Cæsars of the past was to light up a savage fetish dance. To such base
uses may we come, of so little account may we be in the minds of the
eager multitudes that we shall breed, many of whom, so far from
revering our memory, will live to curse us for begetting them into
such a world of woe.
Then there was the physical side of the spectacle, and a weird and
splendid one it was. Those old citizens of Kôr burnt as, to judge from
their sculptures and inscriptions, they had lived, very fast, and with
the utmost liberality. What is more, there were plenty of them. As
soon as ever a mummy had burnt down to the ankles, which it did in
about twenty minutes, the feet were kicked away, and another one put
in its place. The bonfire was kept going on the same generous scale,
and its flames shot up, with a hiss and a crackle, twenty or thirty
feet into the air, throwing great flashes of light far out into the
gloom, through which the dark forms of the Amahagger flitted to and
fro like devils replenishing the infernal fires. We all stood and
stared aghast--shocked, and yet fascinated at so strange a spectacle,
and half expecting to see the spirits those flaming forms had once
enclosed come creeping from the shadows to work vengeance on their
desecrators.
splendid one it was. Those old citizens of Kôr burnt as, to judge from
their sculptures and inscriptions, they had lived, very fast, and with
the utmost liberality. What is more, there were plenty of them. As
soon as ever a mummy had burnt down to the ankles, which it did in
about twenty minutes, the feet were kicked away, and another one put
in its place. The bonfire was kept going on the same generous scale,
and its flames shot up, with a hiss and a crackle, twenty or thirty
feet into the air, throwing great flashes of light far out into the
gloom, through which the dark forms of the Amahagger flitted to and
fro like devils replenishing the infernal fires. We all stood and
stared aghast--shocked, and yet fascinated at so strange a spectacle,
and half expecting to see the spirits those flaming forms had once
enclosed come creeping from the shadows to work vengeance on their
desecrators.
"I promised thee a strange sight, my Holly," laughed Ayesha, whose
nerves alone did not seem to be affected; "and, behold, I have not
failed thee. Also, it hath its lesson. Trust not to the future, for
who knows what the future may bring! Therefore, live for the day, and
endeavour not to escape the dust which seems to be man's end. What
thinkest thou those long-forgotten nobles and ladies would have felt
had they known that they should one day flare to light the dance or
boil the pot of savages? But see, here come the dancers; a merry crew
--are they not? The stage is lit--now for the play."
nerves alone did not seem to be affected; "and, behold, I have not
failed thee. Also, it hath its lesson. Trust not to the future, for
who knows what the future may bring! Therefore, live for the day, and
endeavour not to escape the dust which seems to be man's end. What
thinkest thou those long-forgotten nobles and ladies would have felt
had they known that they should one day flare to light the dance or
boil the pot of savages? But see, here come the dancers; a merry crew
--are they not? The stage is lit--now for the play."
As she spoke, we perceived two lines of figures, one male and the
other female, to the number of about a hundred, each advancing round
the human bonfire, arrayed only in the usual leopard and buck skins.
They formed up, in perfect silence, in two lines, facing each other
between us and the fire, and then the dance--a sort of infernal and
fiendish cancan--began. To describe it is quite impossible, but,
though there was a good deal of tossing of legs and double-shuffling,
it seemed to our untutored minds to be more of a play than a dance,
and, as usual with this dreadful people, whose minds seem to have
taken their colour from the caves in which they live, and whose jokes
and amusements are drawn from the inexhaustible stores of preserved
mortality with which they share their homes, the subject appeared to
be a most ghastly one. I know that it represented an attempted murder
first of all, and then the burial alive of the victim and his
struggling from the grave; each act of the abominable drama, which was
carried on in perfect silence, being rounded off and finished with a
furious and most revolting dance round the supposed victim, who
writhed upon the ground in the red light of the bonfire.
other female, to the number of about a hundred, each advancing round
the human bonfire, arrayed only in the usual leopard and buck skins.
They formed up, in perfect silence, in two lines, facing each other
between us and the fire, and then the dance--a sort of infernal and
fiendish cancan--began. To describe it is quite impossible, but,
though there was a good deal of tossing of legs and double-shuffling,
it seemed to our untutored minds to be more of a play than a dance,
and, as usual with this dreadful people, whose minds seem to have
taken their colour from the caves in which they live, and whose jokes
and amusements are drawn from the inexhaustible stores of preserved
mortality with which they share their homes, the subject appeared to
be a most ghastly one. I know that it represented an attempted murder
first of all, and then the burial alive of the victim and his
struggling from the grave; each act of the abominable drama, which was
carried on in perfect silence, being rounded off and finished with a
furious and most revolting dance round the supposed victim, who
writhed upon the ground in the red light of the bonfire.
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