CHAPTER 16. THE PLACE OF DEATH

It was already dark on the third day after the scene described in the

previous chapter when we camped in some huts at the foot of the "Three

Witches," as the triangle of mountains is called to which Solomon's

Great Road runs. Our party consisted of our three selves and Foulata,

who waited on us--especially on Good--Infadoos, Gagool, who was borne

along in a litter, inside which she could be heard muttering and

cursing all day long, and a party of guards and attendants. The

mountains, or rather the three peaks of the mountain, for the mass was

evidently the result of a solitary upheaval, were, as I have said, in

the form of a triangle, of which the base was towards us, one peak

being on our right, one on our left, and one straight in front of us.

Never shall I forget the sight afforded by those three towering peaks

in the early sunlight of the following morning. High, high above us,

up into the blue air, soared their twisted snow-wreaths. Beneath the

snow-line the peaks were purple with heaths, and so were the wild

moors that ran up the slopes towards them. Straight before us the

white ribbon of Solomon's Great Road stretched away uphill to the foot

of the centre peak, about five miles from us, and there stopped. It

was its terminus.

I had better leave the feelings of intense excitement with which we

set out on our march that morning to the imagination of those who read

this history. At last we were drawing near to the wonderful mines that

had been the cause of the miserable death of the old Portuguese Dom

three centuries ago, of my poor friend, his ill-starred descendant,

and also, as we feared, of George Curtis, Sir Henry's brother. Were we

destined, after all that we had gone through, to fare any better? Evil

befell them, as that old fiend Gagool said; would it also befall us?

Somehow, as we were marching up that last stretch of beautiful road, I

could not help feeling a little superstitious about the matter, and so

I think did Good and Sir Henry.

For an hour and a half or more we tramped on up the heather-fringed

way, going so fast in our excitement that the bearers of Gagool's

hammock could scarcely keep pace with us, and its occupant piped out

to us to stop.

"Walk more slowly, white men," she said, projecting her hideous

shrivelled countenance between the grass curtains, and fixing her

gleaming eyes upon us; "why will ye run to meet the evil that shall

befall you, ye seekers after treasure?" and she laughed that horrible

laugh which always sent a cold shiver down my back, and for a while

quite took the enthusiasm out of us.

However, on we went, till we saw before us, and between ourselves and

the peak, a vast circular hole with sloping sides, three hundred feet

or more in depth, and quite half a mile round.

"Can't you guess what this is?" I said to Sir Henry and Good, who were

staring in astonishment at the awful pit before us.

They shook their heads.

"Then it is clear that you have never seen the diamond diggings at

Kimberley. You may depend on it that this is Solomon's Diamond Mine.

Look there," I said, pointing to the strata of stiff blue clay which

were yet to be seen among the grass and bushes that clothed the sides

of the pit, "the formation is the same. I'll be bound that if we went

down there we should find 'pipes' of soapy brecciated rock. Look,

too," and I pointed to a series of worn flat slabs of stone that were

placed on a gentle slope below the level of a watercourse which in

some past age had been cut out of the solid rock; "if those are not

tables once used to wash the 'stuff,' I'm a Dutchman."

At the edge of this vast hole, which was none other than the pit

marked on the old Dom's map, the Great Road branched into two and

circumvented it. In many places, by the way, this surrounding road was

built entirely out of blocks of stone, apparently with the object of

supporting the edges of the pit and preventing falls of reef. Along

this path we pressed, driven by curiosity to see what were the three

towering objects which we could discern from the hither side of the

great gulf. As we drew near we perceived that they were Colossi of

some sort or another, and rightly conjectured that before us sat the

three "Silent Ones" that are held in such awe by the Kukuana people.

But it was not until we were quite close to them that we recognised

the full majesty of these "Silent Ones."

There, upon huge pedestals of dark rock, sculptured with rude emblems

of the Phallic worship, separated from each other by a distance of

forty paces, and looking down the road which crossed some sixty miles

of plain to Loo, were three colossal seated forms--two male and one

female--each measuring about thirty feet from the crown of its head to

the pedestal.

The female form, which was nude, was of great though severe beauty,

but unfortunately the features had been injured by centuries of

exposure to the weather. Rising from either side of her head were the

points of a crescent. The two male Colossi, on the contrary, were

draped, and presented a terrifying cast of features, especially the

one to our right, which had the face of a devil. That to our left was

serene in countenance, but the calm upon it seemed dreadful. It was

the calm of that inhuman cruelty, Sir Henry remarked, which the

ancients attributed to beings potent for good, who could yet watch the

sufferings of humanity, if not without rejoicing, at least without

sorrow. These three statues form a most awe-inspiring trinity, as they

sit there in their solitude, and gaze out across the plain for ever.

Contemplating these "Silent Ones," as the Kukuanas call them, an

intense curiosity again seized us to know whose were the hands which

had shaped them, who it was that had dug the pit and made the road.

Whilst I was gazing and wondering, suddenly it occurred to me--being

familiar with the Old Testament--that Solomon went astray after

strange gods, the names of three of whom I remembered--"Ashtoreth, the

goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and

Milcom, the god of the children of Ammon"--and I suggested to my

companions that the figures before us might represent these false and

exploded divinities.

"Hum," said Sir Henry, who is a scholar, having taken a high degree in

classics at college, "there may be something in that; Ashtoreth of the

Hebrews was the Astarte of the Phœnicians, who were the great traders

of Solomon's time. Astarte, who afterwards became the Aphrodite of the

Greeks, was represented with horns like the half-moon, and there on

the brow of the female figure are distinct horns. Perhaps these

Colossi were designed by some Phœnician official who managed the

mines. Who can say?"[*]

[*] Compare Milton, "Paradise Lost," Book i.:--

"With these in troop

Came Ashtoreth, whom the Phœnicians called

Astarté, Queen of Heaven, with crescent horns;

To whose bright image nightly by the moon

Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs."

Before we had finished examining these extraordinary relics of remote

antiquity, Infadoos came up, and having saluted the "Silent Ones" by

lifting his spear, asked us if we intended entering the "Place of

Death" at once, or if we would wait till after we had taken food at

mid-day. If we were ready to go at once, Gagool had announced her

willingness to guide us. As it was not later than eleven o'clock--

driven to it by a burning curiosity--we announced our intention of

proceeding instantly, and I suggested that, in case we should be

detained in the cave, we should take some food with us. Accordingly

Gagool's litter was brought up, and that lady herself assisted out of

it. Meanwhile Foulata, at my request, stored some "biltong," or dried

game-flesh, together with a couple of gourds of water, in a reed

basket with a hinged cover. Straight in front of us, at a distance of

some fifty paces from the backs of the Colossi, rose a sheer wall of

rock, eighty feet or more in height, that gradually sloped upwards

till it formed the base of the lofty snow-wreathed peak, which soared

into the air three thousand feet above us. As soon as she was clear of

her hammock, Gagool cast one evil grin upon us, and then, leaning on a

stick, hobbled off towards the face of this wall. We followed her till

we came to a narrow portal solidly arched that looked like the opening

of a gallery of a mine.

Here Gagool was waiting for us, still with that evil grin upon her

horrid face.

"Now, white men from the Stars," she piped; "great warriors, Incubu,

Bougwan, and Macumazahn the wise, are ye ready? Behold, I am here to

do the bidding of my lord the king, and to show you the store of

bright stones. /Ha! ha! ha!/"

"We are ready," I said.

"Good, good! Make strong your hearts to bear what ye shall see. Comest

thou too, Infadoos, thou who didst betray thy master?"

Infadoos frowned as he answered--

"Nay, I come not; it is not for me to enter there. But thou, Gagool,

curb thy tongue, and beware how thou dealest with my lords. At thy

hands will I require them, and if a hair of them be hurt, Gagool,

be'st thou fifty times a witch, thou shalt die. Hearest thou?"

"I hear Infadoos; I know thee, thou didst ever love big words; when

thou wast a babe I remember thou didst threaten thine own mother. That

was but the other day. But, fear not, fear not, I live only to do the

bidding of the king. I have done the bidding of many kings, Infadoos,

till in the end they did mine. /Ha! ha!/ I go to look upon their faces

once more, and Twala's also! Come on, come on, here is the lamp," and

she drew a large gourd full of oil, and fitted with a rush wick, from

under her fur cloak.

"Art thou coming, Foulata?" asked Good in his villainous Kitchen

Kukuana, in which he had been improving himself under that young

lady's tuition.

"I fear, my lord," the girl answered timidly.

"Then give me the basket."

"Nay, my lord, whither thou goest there I go also."

"The deuce you will!" thought I to myself; "that may be rather awkward

if we ever get out of this."

Without further ado Gagool plunged into the passage, which was wide

enough to admit of two walking abreast, and quite dark. We followed

the sound of her voice as she piped to us to come on, in some fear and

trembling, which was not allayed by the flutter of a sudden rush of

wings.

"Hullo! what's that?" halloed Good; "somebody hit me in the face."

"Bats," said I; "on you go."

When, so far as we could judge, we had gone some fifty paces, we

perceived that the passage was growing faintly light. Another minute,

and we were in perhaps the most wonderful place that the eyes of

living man have beheld.

Let the reader picture to himself the hall of the vastest cathedral he

ever stood in, windowless indeed, but dimly lighted from above,

presumably by shafts connected with the outer air and driven in the

roof, which arched away a hundred feet above our heads, and he will

get some idea of the size of the enormous cave in which we found

ourselves, with the difference that this cathedral designed by nature

was loftier and wider than any built by man. But its stupendous size

was the least of the wonders of the place, for running in rows adown

its length were gigantic pillars of what looked like ice, but were, in

reality, huge stalactites. It is impossible for me to convey any idea

of the overpowering beauty and grandeur of these pillars of white

spar, some of which were not less than twenty feet in diameter at the

base, and sprang up in lofty and yet delicate beauty sheer to the

distant roof. Others again were in process of formation. On the rock

floor there was in these cases what looked, Sir Henry said, exactly

like a broken column in an old Grecian temple, whilst high above,

depending from the roof, the point of a huge icicle could be dimly

seen.

Even as we gazed we could hear the process going on, for presently

with a tiny splash a drop of water would fall from the far-off icicle

on to the column below. On some columns the drops only fell once in

two or three minutes, and in these cases it would be an interesting

calculation to discover how long, at that rate of dripping, it would

take to form a pillar, say eighty feet by ten in diameter. That the

process, in at least one instance, was incalculably slow, the

following example will suffice to show. Cut on one of these pillars we

discovered the crude likeness of a mummy, by the head of which sat

what appeared to be the figure of an Egyptian god, doubtless the

handiwork of some old-world labourer in the mine. This work of art was

executed at the natural height at which an idle fellow, be he

Phœnician workman or British cad, is in the habit of trying to

immortalise himself at the expense of nature's masterpieces, namely,

about five feet from the ground. Yet at the time that we saw it, which

/must/ have been nearly three thousand years after the date of the

execution of the carving, the column was only eight feet high, and was

still in process of formation, which gives a rate of growth of a foot

to a thousand years, or an inch and a fraction to a century. This we

knew because, as we were standing by it, we heard a drop of water

fall.

Sometimes the stalagmites took strange forms, presumably where the

dropping of the water had not always been on the same spot. Thus, one

huge mass, which must have weighed a hundred tons or so, was in the

shape of a pulpit, beautifully fretted over outside with a design that

looked like lace. Others resembled strange beasts, and on the sides of

the cave were fanlike ivory tracings, such as the frost leaves upon a

pane.

Out of the vast main aisle there opened here and there smaller caves,

exactly, Sir Henry said, as chapels open out of great cathedrals. Some

were large, but one or two--and this is a wonderful instance of how

nature carries out her handiwork by the same unvarying laws, utterly

irrespective of size--were tiny. One little nook, for instance, was no

larger than an unusually big doll's house, and yet it might have been

a model for the whole place, for the water dropped, tiny icicles hung,

and spar columns were forming in just the same way.

We had not, however, enough time to examine this beautiful cavern so

thoroughly as we should have liked to do, since unfortunately, Gagool

seemed to be indifferent as to stalactites, and only anxious to get

her business over. This annoyed me the more, as I was particularly

anxious to discover, if possible, by what system the light was

admitted into the cave, and whether it was by the hand of man or by

that of nature that this was done; also if the place had been used in

any way in ancient times, as seemed probable. However, we consoled

ourselves with the idea that we would investigate it thoroughly on our

way back, and followed on at the heels of our uncanny guide.

On she led us, straight to the top of the vast and silent cave, where

we found another doorway, not arched as the first was, but square at

the top, something like the doorways of Egyptian temples.

"Are ye prepared to enter the Place of Death, white men?" asked

Gagool, evidently with a view to making us feel uncomfortable.

"Lead on, Macduff," said Good solemnly, trying to look as though he

was not at all alarmed, as indeed we all did except Foulata, who

caught Good by the arm for protection.

"This is getting rather ghastly," said Sir Henry, peeping into the

dark passageway. "Come on, Quatermain--/seniores priores/. We mustn't

keep the old lady waiting!" and he politely made way for me to lead

the van, for which inwardly I did not bless him.

/Tap, tap,/ went old Gagool's stick down the passage, as she trotted

along, chuckling hideously; and still overcome by some unaccountable

presentiment of evil, I hung back.

"Come, get on, old fellow," said Good, "or we shall lose our fair

guide."

Thus adjured, I started down the passage, and after about twenty paces

found myself in a gloomy apartment some forty feet long, by thirty

broad, and thirty high, which in some past age evidently had been

hollowed, by hand-labour, out of the mountain. This apartment was not

nearly so well lighted as the vast stalactite ante-cave, and at the

first glance all I could discern was a massive stone table running

down its length, with a colossal white figure at its head, and life-

sized white figures all round it. Next I discovered a brown thing,

seated on the table in the centre, and in another moment my eyes grew

accustomed to the light, and I saw what all these things were, and was

tailing out of the place as hard as my legs could carry me.

I am not a nervous man in a general way, and very little troubled with

superstitions, of which I have lived to see the folly; but I am free

to own that this sight quite upset me, and had it not been that Sir

Henry caught me by the collar and held me, I do honestly believe that

in another five minutes I should have been outside the stalactite

cave, and that a promise of all the diamonds in Kimberley would not

have induced me to enter it again. But he held me tight, so I stopped

because I could not help myself. Next second, however, /his/ eyes

became accustomed to the light, and he let go of me, and began to mop

the perspiration off his forehead. As for Good, he swore feebly, while

Foulata threw her arms round his neck and shrieked.

Only Gagool chuckled loud and long.

It /was/ a ghastly sight. There at the end of the long stone table,

holding in his skeleton fingers a great white spear, sat /Death/

himself, shaped in the form of a colossal human skeleton, fifteen feet

or more in height. High above his head he held the spear, as though in

the act to strike; one bony hand rested on the stone table before him,

in the position a man assumes on rising from his seat, whilst his

frame was bent forward so that the vertebræ of the neck and the

grinning, gleaming skull projected towards us, and fixed its hollow

eye-places upon us, the jaws a little open, as though it were about to

speak.

"Great heavens!" said I faintly, at last, "what can it be?"

"And what are /those things/?" asked Good, pointing to the white

company round the table.

"And what on earth is /that thing/?" said Sir Henry, pointing to the

brown creature seated on the table.

"/Hee! hee! hee!/" laughed Gagool. "To those who enter the Hall of the

Dead, evil comes. /Hee! hee! hee! ha! ha!/"

"Come, Incubu, brave in battle, come and see him thou slewest;" and

the old creature caught Curtis' coat in her skinny fingers, and led

him away towards the table. We followed.

Presently she stopped and pointed at the brown object seated on the

table. Sir Henry looked, and started back with an exclamation; and no

wonder, for there, quite naked, the head which Curtis' battle-axe had

shorn from the body resting on its knees, was the gaunt corpse of

Twala, the last king of the Kukuanas. Yes, there, the head perched

upon the knees, it sat in all its ugliness, the vertebræ projecting a

full inch above the level of the shrunken flesh of the neck, for all

the world like a black double of Hamilton Tighe.[*] Over the surface

of the corpse there was gathered a thin glassy film, that made its

appearance yet more appalling, for which we were, at the moment, quite

unable to account, till presently we observed that from the roof of

the chamber the water fell steadily, /drip! drop! drip!/ on to the

neck of the corpse, whence it ran down over the entire surface, and

finally escaped into the rock through a tiny hole in the table. Then I

guessed what the film was--/Twala's body was being transformed into a

stalactite./

[*] "Now haste ye, my handmaidens, haste and see

How he sits there and glowers with his head on his knee."

A look at the white forms seated on the stone bench which ran round

that ghastly board confirmed this view. They were human bodies indeed,

or rather they had been human; now they were /stalactites/. This was

the way in which the Kukuana people had from time immemorial preserved

their royal dead. They petrified them. What the exact system might be,

if there was any, beyond the placing of them for a long period of

years under the drip, I never discovered, but there they sat, iced

over and preserved for ever by the siliceous fluid.

Anything more awe-inspiring than the spectacle of this long line of

departed royalties (there were twenty-seven of them, the last being

Ignosi's father), wrapped, each of them, in a shroud of ice-like spar,

through which the features could be dimly discovered, and seated round

that inhospitable board, with Death himself for a host, it is

impossible to imagine. That the practice of thus preserving their

kings must have been an ancient one is evident from the number, which,

allowing for an average reign of fifteen years, supposing that every

king who reigned was placed here--an improbable thing, as some are

sure to have perished in battle far from home--would fix the date of

its commencement at four and a quarter centuries back.

But the colossal Death, who sits at the head of the board, is far

older than that, and, unless I am much mistaken, owes his origin to

the same artist who designed the three Colossi. He is hewn out of a

single stalactite, and, looked at as a work of art, is most admirably

conceived and executed. Good, who understands such things, declared

that, so far as he could see, the anatomical design of the skeleton is

perfect down to the smallest bones.

My own idea is, that this terrific object was a freak of fancy on the

part of some old-world sculptor, and that its presence had suggested

to the Kukuanas the idea of placing their royal dead under its awful

presidency. Or perhaps it was set there to frighten away any marauders

who might have designs upon the treasure chamber beyond. I cannot say.

All I can do is to describe it as it is, and the reader must form his

own conclusion.

Such, at any rate, was the White Death and such were the White Dead!

Read next: CHAPTER 17. SOLOMON'S TREASURE CHAMBER

Read previous: CHAPTER 15. GOOD FALLS SICK

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