rthern hemisphere."

"What is that?" asked the doctor.

"The Troglodytes," said Oxenden, with impressive solemnity.

"Well, and what do you make out of the Troglodytes?"

"I will explain," said Oxenden. "The name Troglodytes is given to
various tribes of men, but those best known and celebrated under this
name once inhabited the shores of the Red Sea, both on the Arabian and
the Egyptian side. They belonged to the Arabian race, and were
consequently a Semitic people. Mark that, for it is a point of the
utmost importance. Now, these Troglodytes all lived in caverns, which
were formed partly by art and partly by nature, although art must have
had most to do with the construction of such vast subterranean works.
They lived in great communities in caverns, and they had long tunnels
passing from one community to another. Here also they kept their
cattle. Some of these people have survived even to our own age; for
Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, saw them in Nubia.

"The earliest writer who mentions the Troglodytes was Agatharcides, of
Cnidos. According to him they were chiefly herdsmen. Their food was
the flesh of cattle, and their drink a mixture of milk and blood. They
dressed in the skins of cattle; they tattooed their bodies. They were
very swift of foot, and were able to run down wild beasts in the hunt.
They were also greatly given to robbery, and caravans passing to and
fro had to guard against them.

"One feature in their character has to my mind a strange significance,
and that is their feelings with regard to death. It was not the
Kosekin love of death, yet it was something which must certainly be
considered as approximating to it. For Agatharcides says that in their
burials they were accustomed to fasten the corpse to a stake, and then
gathering round, to pelt it with stones amid shouts of laughter and
wild merriment. They also used to strangle the old and infirm, so as
to deliver them from the evils of life. These Troglodytes, then, were
a nation of cave-dwellers, loving the dark--not exactly loving death,
yet at any rate regarding it with merriment and pleasure; and so I
cannot help seeing a connection between them and the Kosekin."

"Yes," said the doctor, "but how did they get to the South Pole?"

"That," said Oxenden, "is a question which I do not feel bound to
answer."

"Oh, it is easy enough to answer that," said Melick. "They, of course,
dug through the earth."

Oxenden gave a groan.

"I thin