and features, such as arms
and legs, fingers, eyes, noses, ears, and lips. Mysterious symbols
which will puzzle the Recording Angel to interpret at the Judgment Day.
The cliff faced exactly north. There was something about it so
strange, and so different from the other carved rocks which I had
visited, that I called a halt and spent the day in examining the rock
front as well as I could with my telescope. The Egyptians of my
company were terribly afraid, and used every kind of persuasion to
induce me to pass on. I stayed till late in the afternoon, by which
time I had failed to make out aright the entry of any tomb, for I
suspected that such was the purpose of the sculpture of the rock. By
this time the men were rebellious; and I had to leave the valley if I
did not wish my whole retinue to desert. But I secretly made up my
mind to discover the tomb, and explore it. To this end I went further
into the mountains, where I met with an Arab Sheik who was willing to
take service with me. The Arabs were not bound by the same
superstitious fears as the Egyptians; Sheik Abu Some and his following
were willing to take a part in the explorations.

"When I returned to the valley with these Bedouins, I made effort to
climb the face of the rock, but failed, it being of one impenetrable
smoothness. The stone, generally flat and smooth by nature, had been
chiselled to completeness. That there had been projecting steps was
manifest, for there remained, untouched by the wondrous climate of that
strange land, the marks of saw and chisel and mallet where the steps
had been cut or broken away.

"Being thus baffled of winning the tomb from below, and being
unprovided with ladders to scale, I found a way by much circuitous
journeying to the top of the cliff. Thence I caused myself to be
lowered by ropes, till I had investigated that portion of the rock face
wherein I expected to find the opening. I found that there was an
entrance, closed however by a great stone slab. This was cut in the
rock more than a hundred feet up, being two-thirds the height of the
cliff. The hieroglyphic and cabalistic symbols cut in the rock were so
managed as to disguise it. The cutting was deep, and was continued
through the rock and the portals of the doorway, and through the great
slab which formed the door itself. This was fixed in place with such
incredible exactness that no stone chisel or cutting implement which I
had with me could find a lo