BELZONI IN THE TOMBS.
The ingenious and enterprising Belzoni, whose researches added so much to our knowledge of Egyptian antiquities, was a native of Padua, in Italy. Originally destined for a monk, he passed his younger days in Rome, where he was busily pursuing his theological studies, when the sudden entry of the French into that city altered the course of his education, and compelled him, as he says, to be a wanderer for the remainder of his days. Belzoni visited several parts of Europe, and was for some years in London. His family supplied him occasionally with remittances; but, as they were by no means rich, he resolved not to be a burthen to them, and contrived, as well as he could, to live on his own industry. Fortunately his time in Rome had not been entirely spent in the study of theology; a taste for physical science had led him to the study of hydraulics, and this enabled him to obtain employment as an engineer, in which business he finally embarked on his own account. Having married an English lady, he visited the south of Europe, and finally determined to go to Egypt, to test his favourite idea of irrigating by a hydraulic machine, being convinced that the fields of that country wanted water only to make them produce at any time of the year. Belzoni, however, had little calculated the obstacles to be found in Oriental apathy and prejudice. The people, and even the authorities, looked coldly on machines for dispensing with labour, which they ignorantly thought would thus be deprived of employment. The machine was constructed on the principle of a crane with a walking wheel, in which a single ox, by its own weight alone, could effect as much as four oxen employed in the common method of the country. Belzoni's machine was at last set up at Soubra, but here an unlucky accident soon put an end to the inventor's hopes. The Viceroy of Egypt, having arrived at Soubra, determined to have it tested in his presence. The results were conclusive in its favour. The Viceroy—the famous Mehemet Ali—was satisfied of its utility and importance, and, the business of the day being over, he desired that the oxen should be taken out of the wheel, in order to see, by way of frolic, what effect the machine would have by putting men into it. Accordingly fifteen men entered the wheel, besides a faithful Irish lad, who had accompanied Belzoni in his travels; but no sooner had the wheel turned than the men jumped out, leaving the lad alone. The wheel, now overbalanced by the weight of the water, turned back with such velocity that the poor lad was thrown out, breaking his thigh-bone; and, but for the presence of mind of Belzoni in stopping the wheel, the accident must have proved fatal to him. This evil omen, as the superstitious Egyptians considered any accident in trying a new machine, proved the ruin of Belzoni's prospects. The Viceroy abandoned the project; and all that was due to the ingenious introducer of the machine, as well as the express stipulation which Belzoni had made with the Viceroy, was consigned to oblivion.
Belzoni's spirit of enterprise, however, was not easily damped. He was not willing to leave a country which had been one of the chief fields of research among the learned. The fame of its antiquity excited in him an ardent desire for investigation, but, having Madame Belzoni with him, his purse would not afford the expense of a journey to a great distance. Fortunately it was at this time in contemplation to remove the colossal bust, known by the name of Young Memmon, to England. The task afforded a good opportunity to Belzoni's love of mechanics, as well as for his passion for investigating antiquities, and he readily undertook it. The means which he devised for the purpose were extremely ingenious, and were perfectly successful; and, after extraordinary labour, Belzoni had the satisfaction of seeing this gigantic specimen of ancient sculpture safely floated on the Nile.
Belzoni now pursued his labours in exploring the ruins, opening mounds and exploring the subterranean tombs so abundant in that country. Some of the most important of these labours were carried on at Gournou, a tract of rocks about two miles in length, at the foot of the Lybian mountains, to the west of Thebes, and which had been the burial-place of that ancient city. Belzoni's narrative of his researches in this singular region is strongly illustrative of his enthusiasm and perseverance. Many persons found it impossible to penetrate into these subterranean sepulchres on account of the closeness of the atmosphere within, which frequently caused fainting. In some of the passages, owing to the falling dust, the space was so small that the explorer had to creep through in darkness and on pointed stones that cut like glass. After getting through these passages, some of them two or three hundred yards long, he generally found himself in a more commodious place, but surrounded by heaps of mummies in all directions, which, until he became accustomed to such sights, impressed him almost with terror. The blackness of the walls, the faint glimmer given by the candles or torches which he now found means to light, and which the Arabs, naked and covered with dust, whom he had induced by rewards to accompany him, held aloft, increased the horrors of the dismal scene. In such a position he frequently found himself, and often returned exhausted and fainting, till at last he became inured to the work, and indifferent to what he suffered, except from the choking dust.
"After the exertion of entering such a place," he says, "through a passage of fifty, a hundred, three hundred, or perhaps six hundred yards, nearly overcome, I sought a resting-place, found one, and contrived to sit; but when my weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a bandbox. I naturally had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but they found no better support; so that I sunk altogether among the broken mummies, with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases, which raised such a dust as kept me motionless for a quarter of an hour, waiting till it subsided again. I could not remove from the place, 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 towards the centre, which the knowledge he had acquired satisfied him concealed the passage. Having cleared the front of these stones, the entrance proved to be a passage only four feet high, and three feet six inches wide, formed of large blocks of granite, which rapidly descended towards the centre for upwards of a hundred feet. Nearly all this passage was filled up with large stones, which were slowly drawn out with great labour; but no sooner was this accomplished than the explorers came upon a stone portcullis, which appeared at first sight to put an end to all their hopes of entering the pyramid; but, by raising it a little at a time with levers, and propping it with stones as they proceeded, the portcullis was at length raised sufficiently for an Arab holding a candle to squeeze his way in, who returned, saying that the place within was very fine. Belzoni now continued to raise the portcullis, until at last he had made the entrance large enough to squeeze himself in, and, after thirty days' incessant labour, he had the satisfaction of finding himself in the way to the central chamber of one of the two great pyramids of Egypt. The new passage was found to terminate in a perpendicular shaft of fifteen feet in depth, which the explorers descended by means of a rope, when they entered another passage descending at the same angle. The labyrinth into which they had entered was, however, not yet exhausted. A passage leading upwards now met their eyes, of greater height than the previous ones. Its sides glittered with beautiful "arborizations" from the nitre by which the mummies are embalmed, some of these looking like the fleece of a white lamb, others resembling huge leaves and other fantastic shapes. At length the party reached a door at the centre of a large chamber.
"Here," says Belzoni, "I walked slowly two or three paces, and then stood still to contemplate the place where I was. Whatever it might be, I certainly considered myself in the centre of that pyramid, which, from time immemorial, had been the subject of the obscure conjectures of many hundred travellers, both ancient and modern. My torch, formed of a few wax candles, gave but a faint light; I could, however, clearly distinguish the principal objects. I naturally turned my eyes to the west end of the chamber, looking for the sarcophagus, which I strongly expected to see in the same situation as that in the first pyramid; but I was disappointed when I saw nothing there. The chamber has a pointed or sloping ceiling, and many of the stones bad been removed from their places, evidently by some one in search of treasure. On my advancing toward the west end, I was agreeably surprised to find that there was a sarcophagus buried on a level with the floor."
Belzoni's researches left no doubt that the pyramids had been a place of sepulture, but his discoveries were somewhat disappointing. The inscriptions on the walls were chiefly in an unknown character, and it was conjectured belonged to a period of remote antiquity, before the invention of hieroglyphic writing; but one inscription, in rudely-formed Arabic characters, was decipherable. It told how "the Master Mohammed Ahmed, lapicide," had opened the great pyramid; and how the "Master Othman and the King Alij Mohammed" had been present at this opening, and had the entrance closed up again. This proved that the pyramid had been explored, probably in search of treasures, little more than a thousand years previously, a period which seemed to the enthusiastic student of Egyptian monuments so modern, as to deprive his labour of much of its interest.