om the clayey floor--where it was their
custom to feed the oxen employed in drawing the materials to and
fro--some corn-cobs, very dry and light, but as perfect as though they
were only a few months old.

The footprints of the oxen, made in the earth that was then moist, are
plainly visible in many places; and the clay has since become almost as
hard as stone, so that I found it difficult to make any impression in it
with the point of my pocket-knife.

A few minutes' walk brought us in front of the "Giant's Coffin," an
enormous rock forty feet in length, which has fallen from the ceiling.
The resemblance to a coffin is so strangely exact, that, having heard
mention of it before coming in, I recognized it at the first glance. The
upper part of the rock is composed of a stratum whiter than the rest,
and gives it the appearance of having a border of white ornamentation
around it, just below the lid. It rests upon a gigantic bier about ten
feet high, and a little longer than the coffin, and the effect is as
though some kingly son of Anak were lying in state in this huge
sepulchral vault.

Near at hand is a cluster of objects, not carved out by the accidents of
time or the long attrition of subterranean rivers, as is the case with
almost everything else in the cave, but shaped by human hands into a
mournful resemblance to cottages; the likeness being all the more
pathetic when one learns the fact that for many months a number of
benighted human beings made their home here, under the delusion that the
air of the cave, which is chemically pure and dry, would cure their
pulmonary diseases; and that here, like plants shut out from the
generous, fostering sun, they paled and died.

The appearance of those who came out after two or three months'
residence in the cave is described as frightful. "Their faces," says one
who saw them, "were entirely bloodless, eyes sunken, and pupils dilated
to such a degree that the iris ceased to be visible; so that, no matter
what the original color of the eye might have been, it appeared entirely
black."

These cottages, if by a great stretch of courtesy I may call them such,
are very small, consisting each of but one room about ten feet square;
they had been built of stones collected in the cave, and laid loosely in
the wall without mortar; they had fireplaces and chimneys, good wooden
floors, and doors, but no windows, as there was neither light to let in
nor prospect to view without. As t