her 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. It 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 downward, 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."

Afterward, Belzoni traveled to the shores of the Red Sea, inspected the
ruins of Berenice; then returned to Cairo, and directed excavations to
be made at the bases of the great pyramids of Ghizeh; penetrated into
that of Chephren--which had hitherto been inaccessible to Europeans--and
discovered within it the sacred chamber where repose the hallowed bones
of the bull Apis. The Valley of Faioum, the Lake Moeris, the ruins of
Arsinoe, the sands of Libya, all yielded up their secrets to his
dauntless spirit of research. He visited the oasis of El-Cassar, and the
Fountain of the Sun; strangled in his arms two treacherous guides who
tried to assassinate him; and then left Egypt, and returned to Padua
with his wife.

The son of the humble barber had now become a rich and celebrated
personage. A triumphal entry was prepared for him; and the municipal
authorities of his native city met him at the gate, and presented him
with an address. Manfredini was commissioned to engrave a medal which
should commemorate the history of the illustrious traveler. England,
however, soon claimed him; and on his arrival in London, he was received
with the same honors as in his own country. Then he published an account
of his travels, under the following title: "Narrative of the Operations
and recent Discoveries in the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Cities of
Egypt and Nubia, &c."

In 1822, Belzoni returned to Africa, with the intention of penetrating
to Timbuctoo. Passing in the following year from the Bight of Benin
toward Houssa, he was attacked with dys