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Would you like to relax or

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fall asleep while learning about

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history? If so, then

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try my podcast, Calm

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History. You'll learn

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go to calmhistory.com.

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Disclaimer This episode is an

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adaptation of a short story that was

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written and published in 1924. It

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includes language and themes that reflect

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the cultural attitudes and mores of

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that time. It also

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includes themes of horror and violence that

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may not be suitable for everyone. Please

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use discretion when listening to this episode.

1:10

And now a special presentation from

1:12

Weird Tales Magazine. Our

1:15

guest tonight, the exceptional

1:17

escape artist, the inimitable

1:19

illusionist, the spellbinding scientist,

1:21

the unparalleled performer of

1:23

practical magic, Mr. Harry

1:25

Houdini. Houdini has shucked

1:27

and delighted with his daring

1:30

escapes, including the suspended straitjacket,

1:32

the overboard underwater crate, the

1:34

Chinese water torture cell, and

1:36

the only man to survive

1:38

being buried alive for 90

1:40

full minutes. Now the

1:42

great man himself reveals a story

1:44

like you've never heard before. A

1:47

tale from the ancient deserts, the

1:49

land of pyramids and pharaohs, the

1:51

immortal monuments of Egypt. This

1:54

story, revealed exclusively to Weird

1:56

Tales, will delight, astound, and

1:58

perhaps even frighten. This is

2:00

not a story but a faint of heart,

2:03

so put the little ones to bed, gather

2:05

close together, and hear the tale of these

2:47

matters I have told and shall continue

2:49

to tell freely. But

2:51

there is one of which I

2:53

speak with great reluctance, and

2:56

which I am now relating only after

2:58

a session of grilling persuasion from

3:00

the publishers of this magazine, who

3:03

had heard vague rumours of it from

3:05

other members of my family. The

3:07

subject, hitherto guarded, pertains to

3:10

my non-professional visit to Egypt

3:12

fourteen years ago, and

3:15

has been avoided by me for several reasons.

3:18

For one thing, I am averse

3:20

to exploiting certain unmistakably actual facts

3:22

and conditions, which are obviously unknown

3:25

to the myriad tourists who throng

3:27

about the pyramids, and apparently secreted

3:30

with much diligence by the authorities

3:32

at Cairo, who cannot wholly be

3:34

ignorant of them. For

3:37

another thing, I dislike to recount

3:39

an incident in which my own

3:42

fantastic imagination must have played

3:44

so great a part. What

3:46

I saw, or thought I

3:48

saw, certainly did not take

3:50

place, but is rather to

3:52

be viewed as a result of my

3:55

then recent readings in Egyptology, and

3:57

of the speculations anent this theme.

4:00

which my environment naturally prompted.

4:03

These imaginative stimuli, magnified by

4:06

the excitement of an actual

4:08

event terrible enough in itself,

4:11

undoubtedly gave rise to the

4:13

culminating horror of that

4:15

grotesque night so long past.

4:19

Back in 1910, in January,

4:22

I had just finished a professional

4:24

engagement in England and signed a

4:26

contract for a tour of theatres

4:28

in Australia. A liberal

4:30

time being allowed for the trip, I

4:32

determined to make the most of it in

4:35

the sort of travel which chiefly interests me.

4:38

So, accompanied by my wife,

4:40

I drifted pleasantly down the

4:42

continent and embarked at Marseille

4:44

on the P&O steamer Malois,

4:47

bound for Port Said. From

4:50

that point, I proposed to

4:52

visit the principal historical localities

4:54

of Lower Egypt before finally

4:57

leaving for Australia. The

4:59

voyage was an agreeable one, and

5:01

enlivened by many of the amusing

5:04

incidents which befall a magical performer

5:06

apart from his work. I

5:09

had intended, for the sake of quiet

5:11

travel, to keep my name a secret,

5:14

but was goaded into betraying

5:16

myself by a fellow magician

5:18

whose anxiety to astound the

5:20

passengers with ordinary tricks tempted

5:23

me to duplicate and exceed his

5:25

feats in a manner quite

5:28

destructive of my incognito. I

5:30

mention this because of its ultimate

5:32

effect, an effect I

5:34

should have foreseen before unmasking myself

5:36

to a shipload of tourists about

5:39

to scatter throughout the Nile Valley.

5:42

What it did was to herald

5:44

my identity wherever I subsequently went,

5:47

and deprive my wife and

5:50

me of all the placid

5:52

inconspicuousness we had sought. And

5:55

so, travelling to seek curiosities, I

5:58

was often forced to stand inspection. as

6:00

a sort of curiosity myself. We

6:04

had come to Egypt in search

6:06

of the picturesque and the mystically

6:08

impressive, but found little when the

6:10

ship edged up to Port Said

6:12

and discharged its passengers in the

6:14

small boat. Low

6:16

dunes of sand, bobbing buoys

6:18

in shallow water, and

6:21

a drearily European small town,

6:23

with nothing of interest, save the

6:26

great D'Lacep statue, made us anxious

6:28

to get onto something more worth

6:30

our while. After

6:32

some discussion, we decided to proceed

6:34

at once to Cairo and the

6:36

pyramids, later going to

6:38

Alexandria for the Australian boat and

6:41

for whatever Greco-Roman sites that

6:44

ancient metropolis might present. The

6:47

railway journey was tolerable enough and

6:49

consumed only four hours and a

6:51

half. We saw much

6:53

of the Suez Canal, whose route

6:55

we followed as far as Ismailia,

6:58

and later had a taste of

7:00

old Egypt in our glimpse of

7:02

the restored fresh water canal of

7:04

the Middle Empire. Then

7:07

at last we saw Cairo glimmering

7:09

through the growing dusk, a

7:12

twinkling constellation which became a

7:14

blaze as we halted at

7:17

the great Gare-Sainte-Clale. But

7:19

once more disappointment awaited us, for

7:22

all that we beheld was

7:24

European, save the costumes and

7:26

the crowds. A prosaic

7:28

subway led to a square

7:31

teeming with carriages, taxi-cabs and

7:33

trolley-cars, and gorgeous with electric

7:35

lights shining on tall buildings,

7:38

whilst the very theatre where I was

7:40

vainly requested to play, and which I

7:42

later attended as a spectator, had

7:45

recently been renamed as the

7:47

American Cosmograph. We

7:49

stopped at Shepherd's Hotel, reached

7:51

in a taxi that sped

7:53

along broad, smartly built up

7:55

streets, and amidst the

7:58

perfect service of its restaurant elevators,

8:00

and generally Anglo-American luxuries,

8:04

the mysterious East and

8:06

immemorial past both

8:08

seemed very far away. The

8:12

next day, however, precipitated us

8:14

delightfully into the heart of

8:16

the Arabian Nights atmosphere, and

8:18

in the winding ways and

8:20

exotic skyline of Cairo, the

8:22

Baghdad of Harun al-Rashid seemed

8:24

to live again. Guided

8:27

by our Baedekar, we had struck

8:29

East past the Ezbakya Gardens along

8:31

the Muski in quest of the

8:33

native quarter, and we

8:36

were soon in the hands of

8:38

a clamorous cicerone, who, notwithstanding later

8:40

developments, was assuredly a master at

8:43

his trade. This

8:45

man, a shaven, peculiarly

8:47

hollow-voiced and relatively cleanly

8:49

fellow, who'd looked like a pharaoh and

8:51

called himself Abdul

8:53

Reis al-Drogman, appeared

8:55

to have much power over the others of

8:57

his command. Not until

8:59

afterward did I see that I should

9:02

have applied at the hotel for a

9:04

licensed guide, and subsequently

9:06

the police professed not to know

9:08

this man. They suggested

9:10

that Reis is merely a

9:13

name for any person in

9:15

authority, whilst Drogman is obviously

9:17

no more than a clumsy

9:19

modification of the word for

9:21

a leader, Drogman. At

9:23

the time, of course, such things escaped

9:26

my notice, and at first

9:28

our new guide did perform an

9:30

excellent service. Abdul led

9:32

us among such wonders as we

9:34

had before only read and dreamed

9:36

of. Old Cairo is itself a

9:39

storybook and a dream, labyrinths

9:41

of narrow alleys, relevant of

9:44

aromatic secrets. Arabesque

9:46

balconies and oriels nearly meeting

9:48

above the cobbled streets. Maelstroms

9:51

of oriental traffic with

9:53

strange cries, cracking whips,

9:55

rattling carts, jingling money,

9:57

and braying donkeys. kaleidoscopes

10:00

of polycrung robes, veils,

10:02

turbans and tar bushes,

10:05

water-carriers and dervishes, dogs

10:07

and cats, soothsayers and

10:09

barbers, and overall

10:11

the whining of blind beggars

10:13

crouched in alcoves, and

10:16

the sonorous chanting of

10:18

mooisines from menerets, limbed

10:20

delicately against a sky

10:22

of deep, unchanging blue.

10:25

The roofed, quieter bazaars were

10:28

hardly less alluring, spice,

10:30

perfume, incense, beads, rugs,

10:33

silks and brass. Old

10:36

Mahmood Suleiman squats cross-legged amidst

10:39

his gummy bottles, while chattering

10:41

youths pulverise mustard in the

10:44

hollowed-out capital of an ancient

10:46

classic column, a

10:48

Roman Corinthian perhaps from neighbouring

10:50

Heliopolis, where Augustus stationed one

10:53

of his three Egyptian legions.

10:56

Here antiquity begins to mingle

10:58

with exorcism, and

11:00

then the mosques and the museum,

11:03

we saw them all and tried

11:05

not to let our Arabian revel

11:08

succumb to the darker charm of

11:10

pharaonic Egypt, which the museum's priceless

11:12

treasures offered. That

11:14

was to be our climax, and

11:17

for the present we concentrated on

11:19

the medieval Saracenic glories of the

11:21

Caliphs, whose magnificent tomb

11:24

mosques form a glittery, fairy

11:26

macropolis on the edge of

11:28

the Arabian desert. At

11:31

length, Abdul took us along

11:33

the Sharia Muhammad Ali to

11:35

the ancient mosque of Sultan

11:37

Hassan, and the tower flanked

11:39

Bab el-Azab, beyond which climbs

11:41

the steep walled pass to

11:43

the mighty citadel, that Saladin

11:45

himself built with the stones

11:47

of forgotten pyramids. It

11:49

was sunset when we scaled that

11:52

cliff, circled the modern mosque of

11:54

Muhammad Ali, and looked

11:56

down from the dizzying parapet over

11:58

mystic Cairo. Mystic

12:00

Cairo, all golden, with

12:02

its carbon domes, its

12:05

ethereal minarets, and its

12:07

flaming gardens. Far

12:09

over the city towered the great

12:11

Roman dome of the new museum,

12:14

and beyond it, across the cryptic

12:16

yellow Nile, it is the mother

12:18

of eons and dynasties, lurched

12:21

the menacing sands of the

12:23

Libyan desert, undulant

12:25

and iridescent and evil

12:27

with older arcana. The

12:30

red sun sank low, bringing the

12:32

relentless chill of Egyptian tusk. And

12:36

as it stood poised on the

12:38

world's rim like that ancient god

12:41

of Heliopolis, Ra Harakti, the horizon

12:43

sun, we saw silhouetted

12:45

against its vermale holocaust the

12:47

black outlines of the pyramids

12:50

of Giza. The Pelagian

12:52

tombs there were already hoary

12:54

with a thousand years when

12:56

Tutankhamen mounted his golden throne

12:58

in distant seeds. Then

13:01

we knew that we were done with

13:03

Saracen Cairo, and that we must taste

13:06

the deeper mysteries of primal Egypt, the

13:08

black chem of Re and

13:10

Amen, Isis and Osiris.

13:15

The next morning we visited the

13:17

pyramids, riding out in a Victoria

13:19

across the great Nile bridge with

13:21

its bronze lions, the island

13:24

of Ghizira with its massive labak

13:26

trees, and the smaller

13:28

English bridge to the western shore. Down

13:31

the shore road we drove between

13:34

great rows of labaks and past

13:36

the vast zoological gardens to the

13:38

suburb of Giza, where a new

13:40

bridge to Cairo proper has since

13:42

been built. Then

13:44

turning inland along the Sharia al-Haram,

13:47

we crossed a region of glassy

13:49

canals and shabby native villages, until

13:52

before us loomed the objects of

13:54

our quest, cleaving the mists

13:56

of dawn and forming inverted replicas

13:59

in the road. roadside pools, forty

14:02

centuries as Napoleon had told

14:04

his campaigners, indeed looked down

14:06

upon us. The

14:08

road now rose abruptly till we

14:10

finally reached our place of transfer

14:13

between the trolley station and the

14:15

Mina House Hotel. Our

14:18

guide, Abdul-Race, capably purchased our

14:20

pyramid tickets, and seemed

14:22

to have an understanding with the

14:24

crowding, yelling, and offensive bedouins who

14:27

inhabited a squalid mud village some

14:29

distance away. They

14:31

pestiferously assailed every traveller,

14:33

but Abdul kept them very decently at

14:36

bay, and secured an excellent pair

14:38

of camels for us, himself mounting

14:40

a donkey and assigning the leadership of

14:42

our animals to a group of men

14:45

and boys, more expensive

14:47

than youthful. The area

14:49

to be traversed was so small that

14:51

camels were hardly needed, but

14:53

we did not regret adding to

14:56

our experience this troublesome form of

14:58

desert navigation. The

15:00

pyramids stand on a high

15:02

rock plateau, this group

15:05

forming next to the northernmost

15:07

of the series of regal

15:09

and aristocratic cemeteries built in

15:11

the neighbourhood of the extinct

15:13

capital, Memphis, which lay on

15:15

the same side of the Nile, somewhat south

15:17

of Giza, and which flourished between 3400 and

15:19

2000 BC. The

15:24

greatest pyramid, which lies nearest the

15:26

modern road, was built by King

15:29

Kaops, or Khufu, about 2800 BC,

15:31

and it stands more than 450

15:33

feet in perpendicular height. In

15:40

a line southwest from this are,

15:43

successively, the second pyramid, built

15:45

a generation later by King

15:47

Kefrin, and those slightly

15:49

smaller, looking even larger because

15:51

set on higher ground. In

15:54

one finds the radically smaller

15:56

third pyramid of King Micarinus,

15:59

or Menka. Auroi, built about 2700

16:01

BC. Near

16:04

the edge of the plateau, and due

16:06

east of the Second Pyramid, where

16:09

the face probably altered to

16:11

form a colossal portrait of

16:13

Catherine, its royal restorer, stands

16:15

the monstrous Sphinx, mute,

16:18

sardonic, and wise, beyond

16:20

mankind and memory. Minor

16:24

pyramids and the traces of ruins

16:26

are found in several places, and

16:28

the whole plateau is petted with the

16:31

tombs of dignitaries of less than royal

16:33

rank. These latter

16:35

were originally marked by mastabas,

16:37

or stone bench-like structures, about

16:40

the deep burial shafts, as

16:43

found in other Memphian cemeteries,

16:45

and exemplified by the tomb

16:47

of Perneb in the Metropolitan

16:49

Museum of New York. At

16:52

Giza, however, all such

16:54

visible things have been swept away

16:56

by time and pillage, and

16:59

only the rock-hewn shafts, either

17:01

sand-filled or cleared out by

17:03

archaeologists, remain to attest

17:05

their former existence. Connected

17:08

with each tomb was a chapel,

17:11

in which priests and relatives offered

17:13

food and prayer to the hovering

17:15

car or vital principle of the

17:17

deceased. The small

17:19

tombs have their chapels contained

17:21

in the stone mastabas, or

17:23

superstructures, but the mortuary

17:26

chapels of the pyramids, where

17:28

regal pharaohs lay, were separate

17:30

temples, each to the

17:32

east of its corresponding pyramid, and

17:35

connected by a causeway to a

17:37

massive gate chapel, or propylon, at

17:39

the edge of the rock plateau.

17:41

The gate chapel leading to

17:44

the second pyramid, nearly buried

17:46

in the drifting sands, yawns

17:48

subterraneously southeast of the Sphinx.

17:51

Second tradition dubs it the temple of the

17:54

Sphinx, and it may perhaps

17:56

be rightly called such if the Sphinx

17:58

indeed represents the and pyramid's

18:00

builder, Kefren. There

18:03

are unpleasant tales of the

18:05

sinks before Kefren, but

18:07

whatever its elder features were, the

18:09

monarch replaced them with his own,

18:12

that men might look at the

18:14

Colossus without fear. It

18:16

was in the great gateway temple

18:19

that the life-size Diorite statue of

18:21

Kefren, now in the Cairo Museum,

18:23

was found, a statue

18:25

before which I stood in awe when

18:27

I beheld it. Whether

18:30

the whole edifice is now excavated, I

18:32

am not certain, but in 1910

18:34

most of it was below

18:36

ground, with the entrance heavily barred

18:39

at night. Germans

18:41

were in charge of the work, and the

18:43

war, or other things, may have stopped them.

18:46

I would give much in view

18:48

of my experience and of certain

18:50

Bedouin whisperings, discredited or unknown in

18:53

Cairo, to know what has

18:55

developed in connection with a certain

18:57

well in a transverse gallery, where

19:00

statues of the Pharaoh were

19:02

found in curious juxtaposition to

19:04

the statues of Baboon. The

19:07

road, as we traversed it on

19:09

our camels that morning, curved sharply

19:11

past the wooden police quarters, post

19:13

office, drugstore, and shops on the

19:15

left, and it plunged south

19:18

and east in a complete bend that

19:20

scaled the rock plateau and brought us

19:22

face to face with the desert under

19:24

the lee of the great pyramid. Last

19:28

cyclopean masonry we rode, rounding

19:30

the eastern face and looking

19:32

down ahead into a valley

19:34

of minor pyramids, beyond

19:36

which the eternal Nile glistened to

19:38

the east, and the eternal

19:40

desert shimmered to the west. Very

19:43

close sloomed the three major

19:45

pyramids, the greatest devoid

19:47

of outer casing, and showing its

19:50

bulk of great stones, but

19:52

the others, retaining here and there

19:54

the neatly fitted covering which had

19:56

made them smooth and finished in

19:58

their day. Presently,

20:00

we descended toward the Sphinx

20:03

and sat silent beneath the

20:05

spell of those terrible, unseeing

20:07

eyes. On the vast

20:10

stone-breast we faintly discerned the

20:12

emblem of Rah-Rakhti, for whose

20:14

image the Sphinx was mistaken

20:16

in a later dynasty. And

20:19

though sand covered the tablet between the

20:21

great pours, we recalled

20:23

what Thutmose IV inscribed thereon,

20:25

and the dream he had

20:27

when a prince. It

20:30

was then that the smile of the

20:32

Sphinx vaguely displeased us, and

20:35

made us wonder about the

20:37

legends of subterranean passages beneath

20:39

the monstrous creature, leading down,

20:42

down, down, to depths that

20:44

none might dare hint. Depths

20:47

connected with mysteries older than

20:49

the dynastic Egypt we excavate,

20:52

and having a sinister relation

20:54

to the persistence of abnormal,

20:56

animal-headed gods in the ancient

20:58

nylotic pantheon. Then

21:01

too it was I asked

21:03

myself an idle question, whose

21:05

hideous significance was not to

21:07

appear for many an hour.

21:11

Other tourists now began to overtake

21:13

us, and we moved on to the

21:15

sand-joked temple of the Sphinx, fifty yards

21:17

to the southeast, which I

21:20

have previously mentioned as the great

21:22

gate of the causeway to the

21:24

second pyramid's mortuary chapel on the

21:26

plateau. Most of

21:28

it was still underground, and although

21:31

we dismounted and descended through a

21:33

modern passageway to its alabaster corridor

21:35

and pellet hall, I

21:37

felt that Abdul and the local German

21:39

attendant had not shown us all that

21:42

there was to see. After

21:45

this, we made the conventional circuit of

21:48

the pyramid plateau, examining the

21:50

second pyramid and the peculiar ruins

21:52

of its mortuary chapel to the

21:54

east. The third pyramid

21:56

and its miniature southern satellites and

21:58

ruined eastern chapel the rock

22:01

tombs and the honeycombs of the

22:03

fourth and fifth dynasties, and

22:05

the famous Campbell's tomb, whose

22:08

shadowy shaft sinks precipitously for

22:10

fifty-three feet to a sinister

22:12

sarcophagus, which one of our

22:15

camel-drivers divested of the cumbering

22:17

sand after a vertiginous descent

22:19

by rope. Cries

22:22

now assailed us from the Great

22:24

Pyramid, where Bedouins were besieging a

22:26

party of tourists, with offers of

22:29

guidance to the top, or of

22:31

displays of speed in the performance

22:33

of solitary trips up and down.

22:36

Seven minutes is said to be the

22:38

record for such an ascent and descent,

22:41

but many lusty shakes and sun

22:43

of shakes assured us they could

22:45

cut it to five, if given

22:48

the requisite impetus of liberal Bakshish.

22:51

They did not get this impetus, although we

22:53

did let Abdul take us up, thus

22:55

obtaining a view of unprecedented

22:58

magnificence, which included not only

23:00

remote and glittering Cairo, with

23:02

its crowned citadel and background

23:05

of gold violet hills, but

23:07

all the pyramids of the Memphian district

23:09

as well, from Abu Roash

23:12

to the north to the Dachur on

23:14

the south. The Sakara

23:16

Step Pyramid, which marks the evolution

23:18

of the low Maftaba into the

23:20

True Pyramid, showed clearly

23:22

and alluringly in the sandy

23:24

distance. It is

23:26

close to this transition moment that the

23:29

famed Tomb of Perneb was found, more

23:32

than four hundred miles north of

23:34

the Seeban Rock Valley where Tutankhamen

23:36

sleeps. Again, I was

23:39

forced to silence through sheer

23:41

awe, the prospect of such

23:43

antiquity, and the secrets each

23:45

hoary monument seemed to hold

23:47

and brood over, filled

23:49

me with irreverence and sense of

23:51

immensity nothing else ever gave

23:54

me. Fatigued by

23:56

our climb and disgusted with

23:58

the importinate Bedouins. gleams

26:00

of light would add to their

26:02

glamour and fantastic illusion. The

26:05

native crowds were thinning, but were still

26:07

very noisy and numerous. When

26:09

we came upon a knot of

26:11

revelling Bedouins in the Suken Nahasin,

26:13

or Bazaar of the Coppersmiths, their

26:16

apparent leader in insolent youth

26:19

with heavy features and soursily

26:21

copped Tarbush took some notice

26:23

of us, and evidently

26:25

recognised with no great friendliness,

26:28

my competent but admittedly

26:30

supercilious and sneeringly disposed

26:33

guide. Perhaps

26:35

I thought he resented that

26:37

odd reproduction of the Sinks'

26:39

half-smile which I had often

26:41

remarked with amused irritation, or

26:44

perhaps he did not like the

26:46

hollow and sepulchral resonance of Abdul's

26:48

voice. At any

26:50

rate, the exchange of ancestrally-appropriious

26:53

language became very brisk, and

26:56

before long, Ali-Z's, as I

26:58

heard the stranger called, began

27:00

to pull violently at Abdul's

27:02

robe, an action quickly reciprocated

27:04

and leading to a spirited

27:06

scuffle in which both combatants

27:08

lost their sacredly cherished headgear

27:10

and would have reached an

27:12

even direr condition had I

27:14

not intervened and separated them

27:16

by main force. My

27:19

interference, at first seemingly unwelcome

27:21

on both sides, succeeded

27:23

at last in affecting a truce.

27:26

Finally each belligerent composed his wrath

27:29

and his attire, and with an

27:31

assumption of dignity as profound as

27:33

it was sudden, the two

27:35

formed a curious pact of honour which

27:37

I soon learned is a custom of

27:39

great antiquity in Cairo, a

27:42

pact for the settlement of their

27:44

difference by means of a nocturnal

27:46

set-fight atop the Great Pyramid long

27:49

after the departure of the last

27:51

moonlight sightseer. Each

27:53

dualist was to assemble a party

27:55

of seconds, and the affair was

27:57

to begin at midnight, proceeding rounds

28:00

in the most civilized possible fashion.

28:03

In all this planning there was much

28:05

which excited my interest. The

28:07

fight itself promised to be unique

28:09

and spectacular, while the thought

28:12

of the scene on that hoary

28:14

pile overlooking the Antediluvian plateau of

28:16

Giza, under the one moon of

28:18

the pallid small hours, appealed

28:20

to every fiber of imagination in

28:23

me. A request

28:25

found Abdul exceedingly willing to admit

28:27

me to his party of seconds,

28:30

so that all the rest of the

28:32

early evening I accompanied him to various

28:34

dunes in the most lawless regions of

28:36

the town, mostly north-east

28:38

of the Espekia, where

28:41

he gathered one by one a

28:43

select and formidable band of congenital

28:45

cut-throats as his pugilistic background. Shortly

28:50

after nine our party, mounted

28:52

on donkeys bearing such royal

28:54

or tourist-reminissant names as Remesies,

28:56

Mark Twain, J. P. Morgan,

28:58

and Minnie Haha, edged

29:01

through street labyrinths, both oriental

29:03

and occidental, crossed the

29:06

muddy and mass-forested Nile by the

29:08

bridge of the bronze lions, and

29:10

cantered philosophically between the labox on

29:12

the road to Giza. Shortly

29:15

over two hours were consumed by

29:18

the trip, toward the end of

29:20

which we passed the last of

29:22

the returning tourists, saluted the last

29:24

inbound trolley-car, and were alone with

29:26

the night and the past and

29:28

the spectral moon. Then

29:31

we saw the vast pyramids at the end

29:33

of the avenue, ghoulish with a

29:35

dim atavistical menace which I had not

29:37

seemed to notice in the daytime. Even

29:41

the smallest of them held a hint

29:43

of the ghastly, for was

29:45

it not in this that they had

29:47

buried Queen Nittokris alive in the Sixth

29:49

Dynasty? Subtle Queen Nittokris,

29:51

who once invited all her enemies

29:53

to a feast in a temple

29:56

below the Nile, and drowned them

29:58

by opening the water gate. I

30:01

recalled that the Arabs whisper things

30:03

about Nittokris, and shun the third

30:05

pyramid at certain phases of the

30:07

moon. It must have

30:09

been over her that Thomas Moore

30:12

was brooding, when he wrote a

30:14

thing muttered about by Memphian boatmen.

30:16

The subterranean nymph that dwells,

30:19

mid someless gems and glories

30:21

hid, the lady of the

30:23

pyramid. Early

30:25

as we were, Ali-Ziz and his party

30:27

were ahead of us, for

30:29

we saw their donkeys outlined against

30:31

the desert plateau at Kaffir el-Haram,

30:34

toward which squalid Arab settlement close

30:36

to the Sphinx we had diverged

30:38

instead of following the regular road

30:40

to the Mena House, where

30:43

some of the sleepy, inefficient police

30:45

might have observed and halted us.

30:49

Here were filthy Bedouins, stabled

30:51

camels and donkeys in the

30:53

rock-pumes of Kefran's courtiers. We

30:56

were led up the rocks and over the

30:58

sand to the great pyramid, up

31:01

whose time-worn sides the Arabs

31:03

swarmed eagerly, with Abdul-Rayce offering

31:05

me the assistance that I

31:07

did not need. As

31:09

most travellers know, the actual apex

31:12

of the structure has long been

31:14

worn away, leaving a

31:16

reasonably flat platform twelve yards

31:18

square. On this

31:20

eerie pinnacle a squared circle was

31:22

formed, and in a few

31:25

moments the sardonic desert moon leered

31:27

down upon a battle which, not

31:29

for the quality of the ringside

31:31

cries, might well have occurred

31:33

at some minor athletic club in

31:35

America. As I watched

31:37

it, I felt that some of our

31:39

less desirable institutions were not lacking, for

31:42

every blow, faint and defence

31:45

bespoke stalling to my not

31:47

inexperienced eye. It

31:49

was quickly over, and despite my

31:51

misgivings as to methods, I felt

31:54

a sort of proprietary pride when

31:56

Abdul-Rayce was adjudged the winner. was

32:00

phenomenally rapid, and amidst the singing,

32:03

fraternising and drinking which followed, I

32:05

found it difficult to realise that

32:07

a quarrel had ever occurred. Oddly

32:10

enough, I myself seemed to

32:13

be more of a centre of notice

32:15

than the antagonists, and from

32:17

my smattering of Arabic I judged

32:19

that they were discussing my professional

32:22

performances and escapes from every sort

32:24

of manacle and confinement. In

32:26

a manner which indicated not only a

32:29

surprising knowledge of me, but

32:31

a distinct hostility and scepticism

32:33

concerning my fate of escape,

32:36

it gradually dawned on me that

32:38

the elder magic of Egypt did

32:41

not depart without leaving crisis, and

32:43

that fragments of a strange

32:45

secret law and priestly cult

32:48

practices have survived

32:50

surreptitiously amongst the fellahin,

32:53

to such an extent that the

32:55

prowess of a strange howie or

32:57

magician is resented and

32:59

disputed. I thought

33:01

of how much my hollow-voiced guide,

33:04

Abdul Reiss, looked like an old

33:06

Egyptian priest or pharaoh or smiling

33:08

sinks, and I wondered.

33:12

Suddenly something happened which in a

33:14

flash proved the correctness of my

33:16

reflections, and made me curse the

33:19

denseness whereby I had accepted this

33:21

night's events as other than the

33:23

empty and malicious frame-up they now

33:25

showed themselves to be. Without

33:27

warning and doubtless an answer to

33:30

some subtle sign from Abdul, the

33:32

entire band of Bedouins precipitated itself

33:34

upon me, and having produced

33:37

heavy ropes, soon had me bound as

33:39

securely as I was ever bound in

33:41

the course of my life, either on

33:43

the stage or off. I

33:45

struggled at first, but soon saw

33:47

that one man could make no

33:49

headway against a band of over

33:52

twenty sinewy barbarians. My

33:54

hands were tied behind my back, my

33:56

knees bent to their fullest extent, and

33:58

my wrists and ankles stoutly linked

34:00

together with unyielding cords. A

34:03

stifling gag was forced into my

34:05

mouth, and a blindfold fastened tightly over

34:07

my eyes. Then as

34:10

the Arabs bore me aloft on

34:12

their shoulders and began a jouncing

34:14

descent of the pyramid, I heard

34:16

the taunts of my late guide

34:18

Abdul, who mocked and jeered delightedly

34:20

in his hollow voice, and

34:23

assured me that I was soon

34:25

to have my magic powers put

34:27

to a supreme test which would

34:29

quickly remove any egotism I might

34:31

have gained through triumphing over all

34:33

the tests offered by America and

34:35

Europe. Egypt, Abdul reminded

34:37

me, is very old, and

34:40

full of inner mysteries and

34:42

antique powers not even conceivable

34:44

to the experts of today,

34:46

whose devices had so uniformly

34:48

failed to entrap me. How

34:52

far or in what direction I

34:54

was carried, I cannot tell, for

34:56

the circumstances were all against the

34:58

formation of any accurate judgment. I

35:00

know, however, that it could not have

35:03

been a great distance, since my bearers

35:05

at no point hastened beyond a walk,

35:07

yet they kept me aloft a

35:10

surprisingly short time. It

35:12

is this perplexing brevity which makes

35:14

me feel almost like shuddering whenever

35:16

I think of Giza and its

35:18

plateau, for one is oppressed

35:20

by hints of the closeness to

35:23

everyday tourist routes of

35:25

what existed then and must

35:27

exist still. The evil

35:30

abnormality I speak of had not

35:32

become manifest at first. Setting

35:35

me down on a surface which I

35:37

recognized as sand rather than rock, my

35:39

captors passed a rope around my chest

35:41

and dragged me a few feet to

35:43

a ragged opening in the ground, into

35:46

which they presently lowered me

35:48

with much rough handling. For

35:51

apparent aeons I bumped against the

35:54

stony irregular sides of a narrow

35:56

hewn well, which I took to

35:58

be one of the numerous buried in the ground. burial shafts

36:00

of the plateau, until

36:02

the prodigious, almost incredible depth

36:04

of it robbed me of

36:07

all basis of conjecture. The

36:10

horror of the experience deepened with

36:12

every dragging second. That

36:14

any descent through the sheer solid rock

36:16

could be so vast without reaching the

36:19

core of the planet itself, or

36:21

that any rope made by man

36:23

could be so long as to

36:25

dangle me in these unholy and

36:27

seemingly fathomless profundities of never earth,

36:30

were a belief of such grotesqueness

36:32

that it was easier to doubt my

36:34

agitated senses than to accept them.

36:37

Even now I am uncertain, for

36:40

I know how deceitful the sense

36:42

of time becomes when one or

36:44

more of the usual perceptions or

36:46

conditions of life is removed or

36:48

distorted. But I

36:50

am quite sure that I preserved

36:52

a logical consciousness that far, that

36:55

at least I did not add

36:57

any full-grown phantoms of imagination to

36:59

a picture hideous enough in its

37:01

reality, and explicable

37:03

by a trip of cerebral

37:05

illusion vastly short of actual

37:08

hallucination. All this

37:10

was not the cause of my first

37:12

bit of fainting. The shocking

37:14

ordeal was cumulative, and the beginning

37:16

of the later terrors was a

37:18

very perceptible increase in my rate

37:21

of descent. They were

37:23

paying out that infinitely long rope

37:25

very swiftly now, and I scraped

37:27

cruelly against the roof and constructed

37:29

sides of the shaft as I

37:31

shot madly downward. My clothing

37:33

was in tatters, and I felt the

37:35

trickle of blood all over, even above

37:38

the mounting and excruciating pain. My

37:40

nostrils, too, were assailed by a

37:43

scarcely defenable menace. A

37:45

creeping odour of damp and

37:47

staleness curiously unlike anything I

37:49

had ever smelt before, and

37:51

having faint overtones of spice

37:54

and incense that lent an

37:56

element of mockery. Then

37:59

the mental Cataclysm came. It

38:02

was horrible, hideous beyond all articulate

38:04

description, because it was all of

38:06

the soul, with nothing of detail

38:08

to describe. It was the

38:10

ecstasy of nightmare and the summation of

38:13

the fiendish. The suddenness

38:15

of it was apocalyptic and

38:17

demoniac. One moment I

38:19

was plunging agonisingly down that

38:21

narrow well of million-toothed torture.

38:24

Yet the next moment I

38:26

was soaring on bat wings in the

38:28

gulfs of hell, swinging

38:31

free and swoopingly through

38:33

illimitable miles of boundless

38:35

musty-smiths, rising dizzily

38:37

to measureless pinnacles of chilling

38:39

ether, then diving

38:42

garthingly to sucking nadirs

38:44

of ravenous, nauseous, lower

38:46

ziture. Thank

38:48

God for the mercy that

38:50

shut out in oblivion those

38:52

quarrering furies of consciousness which

38:54

half unhinged my faculties and

38:56

tore harpy-like at my spirit.

38:59

That one respite, short as

39:01

it was, gave me the

39:03

strength and sanity to endure

39:05

those still greater sublimations of

39:07

cosmic panic that lurked and

39:09

gibbered on the road ahead. It

39:14

was very gradually that I

39:16

regained my senses after that

39:18

eldritch flight through Stygian space.

39:21

The process was infinitely painful

39:23

and coloured by fantastic dreams

39:26

in which my bound and

39:28

gagged condition found singular embodiment.

39:31

The precise nature of these

39:33

dreams was very clear while

39:35

I was experiencing them, but

39:37

became blurred in my recollection

39:39

almost immediately afterward, and

39:42

was soon reduced to the merest

39:44

outline by the terrible events, real

39:46

or imaginary, which followed. I

39:49

dreamed that I was in the grasp

39:51

of a great and horrible pore, a

39:54

yellow, hairy, five-clawed pore, which had

39:56

reached out of the earth to

39:58

cry for help. rush and engulf me.

40:02

And when I stopped to reflect what the

40:04

poor was, it seemed to me

40:06

that it was Egypt. In

40:09

the dream I looked back

40:11

at the events of the

40:13

preceding weeks and saw myself

40:15

lured and enmeshed little by

40:17

little, subtly and insiduously, by

40:20

some hellish ghoul spirit of

40:22

the elder Nile sorcery. Some

40:25

spirit that was in Egypt before

40:27

ever man was, and

40:29

that will be when man is no more.

40:33

I saw the horror and unwholesome

40:35

antiquity of Egypt, and the grisly

40:37

alliance it has always had with

40:39

the tombs and temples of the

40:41

dead. I saw

40:43

phantom processions of priests with

40:46

the heads of bulls, falcons,

40:48

cats, and ibises. Some

40:51

processions marching interminably through

40:53

subterraneous liberates and avenues

40:55

of titanic propyla, beside

40:57

which a man is

40:59

as a fly, and

41:02

offering unnameable sacrifices to

41:04

indescribable gods. Stone

41:07

Colossi marched in endless night

41:10

and drove herds of grinning

41:12

androsphinxes down to the shores

41:15

of illimitable stagnant rivers of

41:17

pitch. And behind

41:19

it all I saw the

41:21

ineffable malignity of primordial necromancy,

41:24

black and amorphous, and

41:26

fumbling greedily after me in the

41:28

darkness to choke out the spirit

41:30

that had dared to mock it

41:32

by emulation. In

41:35

my sleeping brain there took

41:37

shape a melodrama of sinister

41:39

hatred and pursuit, and

41:41

I saw the black soul of

41:43

Egypt singling me out and calling

41:45

me in inaudible whispers, calling

41:48

and luring me, leading me

41:50

on with the glitter and glamour

41:52

of a Saracenic surface, but

41:55

ever pulling me down to the

41:57

age-mad catacombs and horrors of its

41:59

dead. and abysmal pharaonic heart.

42:03

Then the dream faces took

42:05

on human resemblances, and

42:07

I saw my guide, Abdul-Reiss, in the

42:10

robes of a king, with the sneer

42:12

of the sinks on his features. And

42:15

I knew that those features were the

42:17

features of Catherine the Great, who

42:19

raised the Second Pyramid, carved over

42:22

the sinks' face in the likeness

42:24

of his own, and

42:26

built that titanic gateway temple

42:28

whose myriad corridors the archaeologists

42:30

think they have dug out

42:32

of the cryptical sand and

42:34

the uninformative rock. And

42:37

I looked at the long, lean,

42:39

rigid hand of Catherine, the long,

42:41

lean, rigid hand, as I had

42:44

seen it on the Diorite statue

42:46

in the Cairo Museum, the

42:48

statue they had found in the

42:50

terrible gateway temple. And

42:53

I wondered that I had not shrieked

42:55

when I saw that hand on Abdul-Reiss.

42:58

That hand it was hideously cold,

43:00

and it was crushing me. It

43:03

was the cold and cramping of

43:05

the sarcophagus, the chill and constriction

43:07

of unrememorable Egypt. It

43:09

was knighted, necropolitan Egypt itself,

43:13

yellow pore, and they whisper

43:15

such things of Catherine. But

43:18

at this juncture I began to awake,

43:20

or at least to assume a condition

43:23

less completely that of sleep than the

43:25

wind thus proceeding. I recalled

43:27

the sight atop the pyramid, the

43:29

treacherous bedwins and their attack, my

43:32

frightful descent by rope through endless

43:34

rock depths, and my mad swinging

43:37

and plunging into a chill void,

43:39

redolent of aromatic putrescence. I

43:41

perceived that I now lay on a

43:44

damp rock floor, and that my bonds

43:46

were still biting into me with unloosed

43:48

force. It was very

43:50

cold, and I seemed to detect

43:52

a faint current of noisome air

43:55

sweeping across me, the cuts

43:57

and bruises I had received from the jagged

43:59

sighs. of the rockshaft were paining

44:01

me woefully, their soreness enhanced

44:04

to a stinging or burning acuteness

44:06

by some pungent quality in the

44:08

faint draught. And

44:11

the mere act of rolling over

44:13

was enough to set my whole

44:15

frame throbbing with untold agony. As

44:17

I turned, I felt a tug from

44:19

above, and concluded that the rope whereby

44:22

I was lowered still reached to the

44:24

surface. Either or not

44:26

the Arabs still held it, I had no

44:28

idea, nor had I any

44:30

idea how far within the earth I

44:33

was. I knew

44:35

that the darkness around me

44:37

was wholly or nearly total,

44:39

since no ray of moonlight

44:41

penetrated my blindfold. But

44:43

I did not trust my senses

44:46

enough to accept as evidence of

44:48

extreme depth the sensation of vast

44:51

duration which had characterized my descent.

44:54

Thinking at least that I was

44:57

in a space of considerable extent

44:59

reached from the surface directly above

45:01

by an opening in the rock,

45:03

I doubtfully conjectured that my

45:05

prison was perhaps the buried

45:07

gateway chapel of Old Catherine,

45:10

the Temple of the Thunks,

45:12

perhaps some inner corridor which the guides

45:15

had not shown me during my morning

45:17

visit, and from which I

45:19

might easily escape if I could find

45:21

my way to the barred entrance. It

45:24

would be a labyrinthine wandering, but no

45:26

worse than others out of which I

45:29

had in the past found my way.

45:32

The first step was to get

45:34

free of my bonds, gag, and

45:36

blindfold, and this I knew would

45:38

be no great task, since subtler

45:41

experts than these Arabs had tried

45:43

every known species of fetter upon

45:45

me during my long and varied

45:47

career as an exponent of escape,

45:50

yet had never succeeded in defeating

45:52

my methods. Then

45:55

it occurred to me that the Arabs might

45:57

be ready to meet and attack me at

45:59

the end entrance upon any evidence

46:01

of my probable escape from the

46:03

binding cause, as would

46:06

be furnished by any decided agitation

46:08

of the rope which they probably

46:10

still held. This,

46:12

of course, was taking for granted

46:14

that my place of confinement was

46:17

indeed Catherine's temple of the Sphinx.

46:20

The direct opening in the roof, wherever

46:22

it might look, could not be beyond

46:24

easy reach of the ordinary

46:26

modern entrance near the Sphinx. If

46:29

in truth it were any great distance at all

46:32

on the surface, since the total

46:34

area known to visitors is not

46:36

at all enormous, I

46:39

had not noticed any such opening

46:41

during my daytime pilgrimage, but

46:44

knew that these things are easily

46:46

overlooked amid the drifting sands. Thinking

46:49

these matters over as I lay bent and

46:51

bound on the rock floor, I

46:54

nearly forgot the horrors of the

46:56

abysmal descent and cavernous swinging which

46:58

had so lately reduced me to

47:00

a coma. My

47:02

present thought was only to outwit

47:04

the Arab, and I accordingly determined

47:07

to work myself free as quickly

47:09

as possible, avoiding any tug on

47:11

the descending line which might betray

47:14

an effective or even problematical attempt

47:16

at freedom. This, however,

47:19

was more easily determined than

47:21

affected. A few

47:23

preliminary trials made it clear that

47:26

little could be accomplished without considerable

47:28

motion, and it did not

47:30

surprise me when, after one especially energetic

47:32

struggle, I began to feel the coils

47:35

of falling rope as they piled up

47:37

about me and upon me. Obviously,

47:40

I thought, the Bedouins had felt

47:42

my movement and released their end

47:44

of the rope, hastening no doubt

47:46

to the temple's true entrance to

47:48

lie murderously in wait for me.

47:51

The prospect was not pleasing, but I

47:53

had faced worse in my time without

47:55

flinching and would not flinch now. At

47:58

present, I must first of all

48:00

free myself of bonds, then trust

48:03

to ingenuity to escape from the

48:05

temple unharmed. It

48:07

is curious how implicitly I had

48:09

come to believe myself in the

48:11

old temple of Kefrin beside the

48:14

Sphinx, only a short distance below

48:16

the ground. That

48:18

belief was shattered, and every

48:20

pristine apprehension of preternatural depth

48:22

and demonic mystery revived by

48:25

a circumstance which grew in

48:27

horror and significance even

48:29

as I formulated my plan. I

48:32

have said that the falling rope was piling

48:34

up and upon me. Now

48:37

I saw that it was continuing to pile,

48:40

as no rope of normal length could

48:42

possibly do. It gained

48:44

in momentum and became an

48:46

avalanche of hemp, accumulating mountainously

48:48

on the floor and half-burying

48:50

me beneath its swiftly multiplying

48:52

coils. Soon I was

48:55

completely engulfed and gasping for breath

48:57

as the increasing convulsions submerged and

48:59

stifled me. My senses

49:02

tottered again, and I vainly tried

49:04

to fight off a menace desperate

49:06

and ineluctable. It was not

49:08

merely that I was taught here to be

49:10

on human endurance, and merely that life and

49:12

breath seemed to be crushed slowly out of

49:15

me. It was the knowledge

49:17

of what those unnatural lengths of

49:19

rope implied, and the consciousness of

49:21

what unknown and incalculable gulfs of

49:24

inner earth must at this moment

49:26

be surrounding me. My

49:28

endless descent and swinging flight through goblin

49:30

space then must have been real, and

49:33

even now I must be lying helpless

49:35

in some nameless cavern world toward the

49:37

core of the planet. Such

49:40

a sudden confirmation of ultimate

49:42

horror was insupportable, and a

49:44

second time I lay lapsed

49:46

into merciful oblivion. When

49:49

I say oblivion I do not imply that

49:52

I was free from dreams. On

49:54

the contrary, my absence from the

49:56

conscious world was marked by visions

49:59

of the most unknown. unutterable hideousness.

50:02

God, if only I had not read

50:04

so much Egyptology before coming to this

50:06

land, which is the fountain of all

50:08

darkness and terror. The

50:11

second spell of fainting filled

50:13

my sleeping mind anew with

50:15

shivering realisation of the country

50:17

and its archaic secrets, and

50:20

through some damnable chance my

50:22

dreams turned to the ancient

50:24

notions of the dead and

50:27

their sojournings in soul and

50:29

body beyond those mysterious tombs,

50:31

which were more houses than graves.

50:35

I recalled in dream shapes,

50:37

which it is well I

50:39

do not remember, the peculiar

50:41

and elaborate construction of Egyptian

50:43

sepulchres, and the exceedingly singular

50:45

and terrific doctrines which determined

50:47

this construction. All

50:50

these people thought of was death and

50:52

the dead. They conceived of

50:54

a literal resurrection of the body,

50:57

which made them mummify it with

50:59

desperate care, and preserve all the

51:01

vital organs in canopic jars near

51:03

the corpse. Whilst, besides

51:05

the body, they believed in two

51:08

other elements, the soul, which

51:10

after its weighing and approval by

51:12

Osiris, dwelt in the land of

51:14

the blessed, and the

51:16

obscure and portentous car or

51:18

life principle, which wandered about

51:20

the upper and lower worlds

51:22

in a horrible way, demanding

51:24

occasional access to the preserved

51:26

body, consuming the food offerings

51:28

brought by priests and pious

51:30

relatives to the mortuary chapel,

51:33

and sometimes, as men whispered,

51:36

taking its body or the

51:38

wooden double always buried beside

51:40

it, and stalking noxiously abroad

51:43

on errands peculiarly repellent. Thousands

51:46

of years, those bodies rested

51:49

gorgeously encased, and staring glassily

51:51

upward, when not visited by

51:54

the car, awaiting

51:56

the day when Osiris should restore

51:58

both car and soul. and

52:00

lead forth the snest legions of the

52:03

dead on the sunken houses of sleep.

52:06

It was to have been a glorious

52:08

rebirth, but not all

52:11

souls were approved, nor were

52:13

all tombs inviolate, so that

52:15

certain grotesque mistakes and fiendish

52:18

abnormalities were to be looked

52:20

for. Even today

52:22

the Arabs murmur of

52:25

unsanctified convocations and unwholesome

52:27

worship in forgotten nether

52:29

abysses, which only

52:31

winged invisible cars and soulless

52:33

mummies may visit and return

52:36

unscathed. Perhaps the

52:38

most leeringly blood-congealing legends

52:40

are those which relate

52:42

to certain perverse products

52:44

of decadent priestcraft, composite

52:47

mummies made by the artificial

52:49

union of human trunks and

52:51

limbs with the heads of

52:53

animals in imitation of the

52:55

elder gods. At

52:57

all stages of history the

52:59

sacred animals were mummified, so

53:01

that consecrated bulls, cats, ibises,

53:04

crocodiles, and the like might

53:06

return some day to greater

53:08

glory. But only in

53:10

the decadence did they mix the human

53:12

and animal in the same mummy, only

53:15

in the decadence when they did not

53:17

understand the rights and prerogatives of the

53:19

car and the soul. What

53:22

happened to those composite mummies is

53:24

not told of, at least publicly,

53:27

and it is certain that no

53:29

Egyptologist ever found one. The

53:31

whispers of Arabs are very wild

53:33

and cannot be relied upon. They

53:36

even hint that old Catherine, he

53:38

of the Sphinx, the Second Pyramid,

53:41

and the yawning Gateway Temple, lives

53:44

far underground wedded to

53:46

the ghoul queen Niddakris,

53:48

and ruling over the mummies that are

53:51

neither of man nor of beast. It

53:54

was of these, of Catherine and his

53:56

consort and his strange armies of the

53:58

hybrid dead, that I dreamed.

54:01

And that is why I am

54:03

glad the exact dream shapes have

54:05

faded from my memory. My

54:08

most horrible vision was connected with

54:10

an idle question I had asked

54:12

myself the day before when looking

54:15

at the great carven riddle of

54:17

the desert and wondering with what

54:19

unknown depths the temple so close

54:21

to it might be secretly connected.

54:24

That question, so innocent and

54:26

whimsical then, assumed in

54:29

my dream a meaning of

54:31

frenetic and hysterical madness. What

54:34

huge and loathsome abnormality

54:36

was the Sphinx originally

54:38

carved to represent? My

54:42

second awakening, if awakening it

54:44

was, is a memory

54:46

of stark hideousness which nothing else

54:48

in my life, save one thing

54:51

that came after, can parallel. And

54:53

that life has been full and

54:56

adventurous beyond most men's. Remember

54:59

that I had lost consciousness

55:01

while buried beneath a cascade

55:03

of falling rope, whose immensity

55:05

revealed the cataclysmic depth of

55:07

my present position. Now

55:10

as perception returned I felt

55:12

the entire weight run, and

55:15

realized upon rolling over that although

55:18

I was still tied, gagged and

55:20

blindfolded, some agency

55:22

had removed completely the

55:24

suffocating, hempen landslide which

55:26

had overwhelmed me. The

55:29

significance of this condition came to

55:31

me only gradually, but even

55:33

so I think it would

55:36

have brought unconsciousness again had I

55:38

not by this time reached such

55:40

a state of emotional exhaustion that

55:42

no new horror could make much

55:44

difference. I was

55:46

alone. With what? Before

55:50

I could torture myself with any new

55:52

reflection or make any fresh attempt to

55:55

escape from my bonds, an

55:57

additional circumstance became manifest. Pains,

56:00

not formerly felt, were racking my

56:02

arms and legs, and

56:04

I seemed coated with a profusion of

56:07

dried blood, beyond anything my former cuts

56:09

and abrasions could furnish. My

56:12

chest, too, seemed pierced by

56:14

a hundred wounds, as though

56:16

some malign, titanic ibis had

56:18

been pecking at it. Assuredly,

56:20

the agency which had removed the

56:23

rope was a hostile one, and

56:25

it had begun to wreak terrible

56:28

injuries upon me, when somehow impelled

56:30

to desist. Yet at

56:32

the time, my sensations were distinctly

56:34

the reverse of what one might

56:36

expect. Instead of sinking

56:38

into a bottomless pit of despair, I was

56:41

stirred to a new courage and

56:43

action, for now I felt that

56:45

the evil forces were physical things,

56:48

which a fearless man might encounter

56:50

on an even basis. Upon

56:53

the strength of this thought, I tugged

56:55

again at my bonds, and used all

56:57

the art of a lifetime to free

56:59

myself, as I had so often done

57:01

amidst the glare of lights and the

57:03

applause of vast crowds. The

57:06

familiar details of my escaping process

57:08

commenced to engross me, and now

57:10

that the long rope was gone,

57:12

I half regained my belief that

57:15

the supreme horrors were hallucinations after

57:17

all, and that there

57:19

had never been any terrible shaft,

57:21

measureless abyss, or interminable rope. Was

57:25

I, after all, in the gateway temple

57:27

of Cephrion beside the sinks, and

57:29

had the sneaking Arabs stolen in to

57:31

torture me as I lay helpless there?

57:34

At any rate, I must be free. Let

57:37

me stand up unbound, ungagged, and with

57:39

eyes open, to catch any glimmer of

57:41

light which might come trickling from any

57:44

source, and I could actually

57:46

delight in the combat against evil and

57:48

treacherous foes. How long

57:50

I took in shaking off my encumbrances,

57:52

I cannot tell. It

57:54

must have been longer than in

57:57

my exhibition performances, because I was

57:59

wounded, exhausted, and enervated by

58:01

the experiences I had passed through.

58:04

When I was finally free and

58:06

taking deep breaths of a chill,

58:08

damp, evilly spiced air, all the

58:10

more horrible when encountered without the

58:13

screen of gag and blindfold edges,

58:16

I found that I was too cramped

58:18

and fatigued to move at once. There

58:21

I lay, trying to stretch a frame

58:23

bent and mangled, for an indefinite period,

58:26

and cleaning my eyes to catch a

58:28

glimpse of some ray of light which

58:30

would give a hint as to my

58:32

position. I

58:35

degrees my strength and

58:37

flexibility returned, but

58:39

my eyes beheld nothing. As

58:42

I staggered to my feet I

58:44

peered diligently in every direction, yet

58:47

met only an ebony blackness as

58:49

great as that I had known

58:51

when blindfolded. I tried

58:53

my legs, blood encrusted beneath my

58:55

shredded trousers, and found that I

58:57

could walk, yet could not decide in

59:00

what direction to go. Obviously

59:02

I ought not to walk

59:04

at random, and perhaps retreat directly

59:06

from the entrance I sought. So

59:09

I paused to note the direction

59:11

of the cold, said a neutron-scented air

59:13

current which I had never ceased to

59:16

feel. Having

59:18

the point of its source as the possible

59:20

entrance to the abyss, I

59:22

strove to keep track of this landmark,

59:24

and to walk consistently towards it. I

59:28

had had a match-box with me, and

59:30

even a small electric flashlight, and

59:32

of course the pockets of my

59:34

tossed and tattered clothing were long

59:36

since emptied of all heavy articles.

59:39

As I walked cautiously in the

59:41

blackness, the draught grew stronger and

59:43

more offensive, though at

59:46

length I could regard it as

59:48

nothing less than a tangible stream

59:50

of detestable vapour, pouring out of

59:52

some aperture like the smoke of

59:54

the genie from the Seshaman's jar

59:56

in the eastern tale. The

59:58

East. Egypt. Truly,

1:00:00

this dark cradle of civilization

1:00:03

was ever the wellspring of

1:00:05

horrors and marvels unspeakable. The

1:00:08

more I reflected on the nature of

1:00:10

this cavern wind, the greater my sense

1:00:12

of disquiet became, for although,

1:00:14

despite its odor, I had sought its

1:00:16

source as at least an indirect clue

1:00:18

to the outer world, I

1:00:21

now saw plainly that this foul

1:00:23

emanation could have no admixture or

1:00:25

connection whatsoever with the clean air

1:00:28

of the Libyan desert, but

1:00:30

must be essentially a thing

1:00:32

vomited from sinister ghosts still

1:00:34

lower down. I had

1:00:37

then been walking in the wrong

1:00:39

direction. After

1:00:41

a moment's reflection, I decided not

1:00:43

to retrace my steps. Away

1:00:46

from the draft, I would have

1:00:48

no landmarks, for the roughly level

1:00:50

rock floor was devoid of distinctive

1:00:52

configurations. If, however,

1:00:54

I followed up the strange current,

1:00:57

I would undoubtedly arrive at an

1:00:59

aperture of some sort, from whose

1:01:01

gate I could, perhaps, work round

1:01:04

the walls to the opposite side

1:01:06

of this cyclopean and otherwise unnavigable

1:01:08

hall. That I might

1:01:11

fail, I well realized. I

1:01:13

saw now that this was no

1:01:15

part of Kefrin's gateway temple which

1:01:18

tourists know, and it struck

1:01:20

me that this particular hall might

1:01:22

be unknown even to archaeologists, and

1:01:24

merely stumbled upon by the inquisitive

1:01:26

and malignant Arabs who had imprisoned

1:01:29

me. If so, was

1:01:31

there any present gate of escape to

1:01:33

the known parts or to the outer

1:01:35

air? What evidence,

1:01:37

indeed, did I now possess that

1:01:39

this was the gateway temple at

1:01:41

all? For a

1:01:43

moment, all my wildest speculations rushed

1:01:45

back upon me, and I thought

1:01:48

of that vivid melange of impressions,

1:01:50

descent, suspension in space, the rope,

1:01:52

my wounds, and the dreams that

1:01:55

were, frankly, dreams. Was

1:01:57

this the end of life for me, or indeed?

1:02:00

Would it be merciful if this moment were

1:02:02

the end? I could

1:02:04

answer none of my own questions,

1:02:06

but merely kept on till fate,

1:02:08

for a third time, reduced me

1:02:10

to oblivion. This time there

1:02:13

were no dreams, for the suddenness

1:02:15

of the incident shocked me out

1:02:17

of all thought, either conscious or

1:02:19

subconscious, tripping on an

1:02:21

unexpected descending step at a point

1:02:23

where the offensive draft became strong

1:02:26

enough to offer an actual physical

1:02:28

resistance. I was precipitated

1:02:30

headlong down a black flight of

1:02:32

huge stone stairs into a gulf

1:02:34

of hideousness, unrelieved.

1:02:38

That I ever breathed again is

1:02:40

a tribute to the inherent vitality

1:02:42

of the healthy human organism. Often,

1:02:45

I look back to that night and

1:02:48

feel a touch of actual humour in

1:02:50

those repeated lapses of consciousness, lapses

1:02:53

whose succession reminded me at the

1:02:55

time of nothing more than the

1:02:57

crude cinema melodramas of that period.

1:03:01

Of course, it is possible that

1:03:03

the repeated lapses never occurred, and

1:03:05

that all the features of that

1:03:07

underground nightmare were merely the dreams

1:03:09

of one long coma which began

1:03:11

with the shock of my descent

1:03:13

into that abyss, and ended with

1:03:15

the healing balm of the outer

1:03:17

air and of the rising sun,

1:03:19

which found me stretched on the

1:03:22

sands of Giza before the sardonic

1:03:24

and dawn-flushed face of the great

1:03:26

things. I prefer to

1:03:28

believe this latter explanation as much as

1:03:31

I can. Hence was

1:03:33

glad when the police told me

1:03:35

that the barrier to Kefrin's gateway

1:03:37

temple had been found unfastened, and

1:03:40

that a sizeable rift to the

1:03:42

surface did actually exist in one

1:03:44

corner of the still buried part.

1:03:48

I was glad too when the doctors

1:03:50

pronounced my wounds only those to be

1:03:52

expected from my in

1:04:00

the temple's inner gallery, dragging myself

1:04:02

to the outer barrier and escaping

1:04:04

from it, and experiences like that.

1:04:07

A very soothing diagnosis.

1:04:11

And yet, I know that there must

1:04:13

be more than appears on the surface.

1:04:16

That extreme descent is too vivid

1:04:18

a memory to be dismissed. And

1:04:21

it is odd that no one

1:04:23

has ever been able to find

1:04:25

a man answering the description of

1:04:27

my guide, Abdul Reis Al Drogman,

1:04:30

the tomb-throated guide who looked and

1:04:32

smiled like a kaffron. I

1:04:35

have digressed from my connected narrative,

1:04:37

perhaps in the vain hope of

1:04:39

evading the telling of that final

1:04:41

incident. That incident, which

1:04:43

of all, is most certainly an

1:04:45

illusion. But I

1:04:48

promised to relate it and do

1:04:50

not break promises. When

1:04:52

I recovered, or seemed to recover

1:04:54

my senses, after they'd fallen down the

1:04:57

blackstone stairs, I was quite

1:04:59

as alone and in darkness as before.

1:05:02

The windy stench, bad enough

1:05:04

before, was now fiendish. Yet

1:05:07

I had acquired enough familiarity by

1:05:10

this time to bear it stoically.

1:05:13

Dazedly I began to crawl away

1:05:15

from the place whence the putrid

1:05:17

wind came, and with my

1:05:19

bleeding hands felt the colossal blocks of

1:05:22

a mighty pavement. Once

1:05:24

my head struck against a hard object,

1:05:27

and when I felt of it I learned that it

1:05:29

was the base of a column, a

1:05:31

column of unbelievable immensity,

1:05:34

whose surface was covered with

1:05:36

gigantic chiseled hieroglyphs very perceptible

1:05:38

to my touch. Crawling

1:05:41

on, I encountered other tightened

1:05:44

columns at incomprehensible distances apart,

1:05:47

when suddenly my attention was captured

1:05:49

by the realization of something which

1:05:52

must have been impinging on my

1:05:54

subconscious hearing long before the conscious

1:05:56

sense was aware of it. still

1:06:00

lower chasm in Earth's bowels

1:06:02

were proceeding certain sounds, measured

1:06:05

and definite, and like nothing I

1:06:07

had ever heard before. That

1:06:10

they were very ancient and

1:06:12

distinctly ceremonial, I felt almost

1:06:15

intuitively, and much

1:06:17

reading in Egyptology led me

1:06:19

to associate them with the

1:06:21

flute, the sambuk, the systrom

1:06:23

and the tympanum in their

1:06:25

rhythmic piping, droning, rattling and

1:06:27

beating. I felt an

1:06:29

element of terror beyond all the known

1:06:31

terrors of Earth, a terror

1:06:34

peculiarly dissociated from personal fear, and

1:06:36

taking the form of a sort

1:06:38

of objective pity for our planet,

1:06:41

that it should hold within its

1:06:43

depths such horrors as must lie

1:06:46

beyond these aga-panics cocoophonies. The

1:06:48

fumes increased in volume, and

1:06:50

I felt that they were approaching. Then,

1:06:53

and may all the gods of all

1:06:55

pantheons unite to keep the like from

1:06:57

my ears again, I began

1:07:00

to hear, faintly and afar off, the

1:07:03

morbid and millennial tramping of

1:07:05

the marching things. It

1:07:08

was hideous that footfalls so

1:07:10

dissimilar should move in such

1:07:12

perfect rhythm. The training

1:07:15

of unhallowed thousands of years

1:07:17

must lie behind that march

1:07:19

of Earth's inmost monstrosities, padding,

1:07:22

clicking, walking, stalking,

1:07:25

rumbling, lumbering, crawling,

1:07:28

and all to the abhorrent discords

1:07:30

of those mocking instruments. And

1:07:33

then, gosh, keep the memory

1:07:35

of those legend out of my

1:07:37

head, the mummies without souls, the

1:07:40

meeting place of the wandering kar

1:07:42

spirits, the hordes of the devil-cursed

1:07:44

pharaonic ant of forty centuries, the

1:07:47

composite mummies, led through the uttermost

1:07:49

onyx voids by King Kefran and

1:07:51

his ghoul queen Nethokvos. The

1:07:54

tramping drew nearer. Heaven

1:07:56

save me from the sound of those

1:07:58

feet and paws and hooves. and

1:08:00

pads and talons as it commenced

1:08:02

to a quiet detail. Soon,

1:08:05

limitless ranges of endless pavement

1:08:07

as a bag of light flickered

1:08:09

in the melodorous wind, that

1:08:11

I might escape for a

1:08:13

while the horror that was

1:08:15

stalking million-footed toward me through

1:08:17

gigantic hyper-styles of inhuman dread

1:08:19

and phobic antiquity. The

1:08:22

flickers increased, and the tramping and

1:08:24

definite rhythm was most sickeningly filled.

1:08:27

In the quivering orange light there

1:08:30

stood faintly forth a scene of

1:08:32

such stony awe that I gasped

1:08:34

from a sheer wonder that conquered

1:08:37

even fear and repulsion. Bases

1:08:39

of columns whose metals were higher

1:08:42

than human's feet, the mere bases

1:08:44

of things that must each dwarf

1:08:46

the Eiffel Tower to insignificance, hieroglyphs

1:08:49

carved by unthinkable hands in

1:08:51

caverns where daylight can only

1:08:53

be a remote legend. I

1:08:56

would not look at the marching things. That

1:08:59

I desperately resolved as I

1:09:02

heard their creaking joints and nitrous

1:09:04

weaving above the dead music

1:09:06

and the dead trimming. It

1:09:08

was merciful that they did not speak.

1:09:12

But, God, their crazy tortures began

1:09:14

to cast shadows on the surface

1:09:16

of those stupendous columns. Human

1:09:19

take it away. Epiphotomy should not

1:09:21

have human hands and carry tortures.

1:09:23

Human should not have the heads of crocodiles.

1:09:26

I tried to turn away, but the

1:09:28

shadows and the sounds and the stench

1:09:31

were everywhere. I

1:09:33

remembered something I used to do in

1:09:35

half-conscious nightmares as a boy. I

1:09:38

began to repeat myself, this is a dream,

1:09:40

this is a dream. But

1:09:42

it was of no use, and I could only shut

1:09:44

my eyes and pray. At least,

1:09:47

that is what I think I did, for one

1:09:49

that is never sure in visions, and I know

1:09:51

this can have been nothing more. I

1:09:54

wondered whether I should ever reach the world again,

1:09:56

and at times would furtively open my eyes to

1:09:59

see if I could. to discern any

1:10:01

feature of the place other than the

1:10:03

wind of spiced mere perfection,

1:10:05

the topless colors, and the

1:10:07

filmotronicly grotesque shadows of abnormal

1:10:09

horror. Sputtering glare

1:10:12

of multiplying torches still shone,

1:10:15

and unless this hellish place were

1:10:17

wholly without wolves, I could not

1:10:19

fail to see some boundary or

1:10:21

fixed landmark soon. I

1:10:23

had to shut my eyes again

1:10:25

when I realized how many of

1:10:28

the things were assembling, and when

1:10:30

I glimpsed a certain object walking

1:10:32

solemnly and steadily without any

1:10:35

body above the waist. A

1:10:38

fiendish and ululent corpse gurgle

1:10:40

or deathrattle now split the

1:10:42

very atmosphere, the charnel atmosphere

1:10:44

poisonous with nasta and bitcumin

1:10:46

blasts, in one concerted

1:10:49

chorus from the ghoulish legion

1:10:51

of hybrid blasphemies. My

1:10:54

eyes, perversely shaken open, gauged

1:10:56

for an instant upon a

1:10:58

sight which no human creature

1:11:00

could even imagine without panic,

1:11:02

fear, and physical exhaustion. The

1:11:05

things had filed ceremonially in one

1:11:07

direction, the direction of the noisome

1:11:10

wind, where the light of

1:11:12

their torches shooed their bended heads, or

1:11:15

the bended heads of such as had

1:11:17

heads. They were worshipping

1:11:19

before a black, fetal belching aperture

1:11:21

which reached up almost out of

1:11:23

sight, and which I could see

1:11:26

was flanked at right angles by

1:11:28

two giant staircases whose ends were

1:11:30

far away in shadow. One

1:11:33

of these was indubitably the staircase I

1:11:35

had fallen down. The

1:11:38

dimensions of the whole were fully in

1:11:40

proportion with those of the columns. An

1:11:43

ordinary house would have been lost in

1:11:45

it, and any average public building could

1:11:47

easily have been moved in and out.

1:11:51

It was so vast a surface that

1:11:53

only by moving the eye could one

1:11:55

trace its boundaries, so

1:11:57

vast, so hideously dark, and

1:12:00

and through aromatically stinking.

1:12:03

Directly in front of this yawning

1:12:05

polythema store, the things were throwing

1:12:07

objects. Evidently sacrifices

1:12:10

or religious offerings to judge by

1:12:12

their gestures. Catherine was

1:12:14

their leader, sneering King

1:12:17

Catherine, or the

1:12:19

guide Abdul-Reh, crowned with

1:12:21

a golden pashint and intoning endless

1:12:23

formulae with the hollowed voices of

1:12:26

the dead. By his

1:12:28

side knelt beautiful Queen Netocris, whom

1:12:30

I saw in profile for a

1:12:32

moment, noting that the right half

1:12:34

of her face was eaten away

1:12:36

by rats or other ghouls. And

1:12:39

I shut my eyes again when I

1:12:41

saw what objects were being thrown as

1:12:43

offerings to the second abbot here

1:12:45

for its possible local deity. It

1:12:48

occurred to me that, judging from the elaborateness

1:12:50

of this worship, the concealed

1:12:52

deity must be one of

1:12:55

considerable importance. Was

1:12:57

it Osiris or Isis, Horus

1:12:59

or Anubis, or some

1:13:01

vast, unknown god of the

1:13:03

dead, still more central and

1:13:05

supreme? There is

1:13:08

a legend that terrible altars and

1:13:10

colossi were reared to an unknown

1:13:13

one before even the known gods

1:13:15

were worshipped. And

1:13:17

now, as I steeled myself to

1:13:20

watch the rapt and sepulchral adoration

1:13:22

of those nameless things, a

1:13:24

thought of escape featured upon me. A

1:13:27

hall was dim, and the columns heavy

1:13:29

with shadow. With every

1:13:32

creature of that nightmare throng

1:13:34

absorbed in shocking raptures, it

1:13:36

might be barely possible for me to

1:13:38

creep past to the faraway end of

1:13:40

one of the staircases and ascend unseen,

1:13:43

trusting to fate and skill to deliver

1:13:45

me from the upper reakers. Where

1:13:48

I was, I neither knew nor

1:13:50

seriously reflected upon, and

1:13:52

for a moment it struck me as

1:13:54

amusing to plan a serious escape from that

1:13:57

which I knew to be a dream.

1:14:00

Was I in some hidden and

1:14:02

unsuspected lower realm of Catherine's gateway

1:14:04

temple? I could not

1:14:06

conjecture, but I resolved to ascend to

1:14:08

life and consciousness if wit and muscle

1:14:10

could carry me. Wiggling

1:14:13

flat on my stomach, I began

1:14:15

the anxious journey toward the foot

1:14:17

of the left-hand staircase, which

1:14:20

seemed the more accessible of the two. I

1:14:23

cannot describe the incidents and sensations

1:14:25

of that crawl, but they may

1:14:27

be guessed when one reflects on

1:14:29

what I had to watch steadily

1:14:31

in that malign windblown torchlight in

1:14:33

order to avoid detection. The

1:14:35

bottom of the staircase was, as I

1:14:38

have said, far away in shadow, as

1:14:40

it had to be to rise without

1:14:42

a bend to the dizzy, parapetted landing

1:14:44

above the titanic aperture. This

1:14:47

placed the last stages of my crawl

1:14:49

at some distance from the noisome herd,

1:14:52

though the spectacle chilled me even

1:14:55

when quite remote. At

1:14:57

length I succeeded in reaching the steps

1:14:59

and began to climb, keeping close

1:15:01

to the wall on which I observed

1:15:03

decorations of the most hideous sort, and

1:15:06

relying for safety on the absorbed,

1:15:08

ecstatic interest with which the monstrosities

1:15:11

watched the foul-breathed aperture and the

1:15:13

impious objects of nourishment they had

1:15:15

flung on the pavement before it.

1:15:19

As the staircase was huge and steep,

1:15:21

fashioned of vast pore-fury blocks as if

1:15:23

for the feet of a giant, the

1:15:25

ascent seemed virtually interminable.

1:15:29

Dread of discovery and the pain

1:15:31

which renewed exercise had brought to

1:15:33

my wounds, combined to make that

1:15:35

upward crawl a thing of agonising

1:15:37

memory. I had

1:15:39

intended, on reaching the landing,

1:15:41

to climb immediately onward, along

1:15:43

whatever upper staircase might mount

1:15:45

from there, stopping for

1:15:48

no last look at the

1:15:50

carrion abominations that poured and

1:15:52

genuflected some seventy or eighty

1:15:54

feet below. Yet a sudden

1:15:56

repetition of that thunderous corpse-gurgle and the and

1:16:00

death-rattle chorus, coming as I

1:16:02

had nearly gained the top of the flight,

1:16:04

and showing by its ceremonial rhythm that it

1:16:07

was not an alarm of my discovery, caused

1:16:10

me to pause and peer cautiously

1:16:12

over the parapet. The

1:16:14

monstrosities were hailing something, which had

1:16:17

poked itself out of the nauseous

1:16:19

aperture to seize the hellish fair

1:16:21

proffered it. It

1:16:23

was something quite ponderous, even as

1:16:25

seen from my height, something

1:16:28

yellowish and hairy, and endowed with

1:16:30

a sort of nervous motion. It

1:16:33

was as large, perhaps, as a

1:16:36

good-sized epiphytmus, but very curiously shaped.

1:16:39

It seemed to have no neck,

1:16:41

but five separate shaggy heads springing

1:16:43

in a row from a roughly

1:16:45

cylindrical trunk. The first

1:16:47

very small, the second good-sized, the

1:16:49

third and fourth equal and largest

1:16:51

of all, and the fifth rather

1:16:54

small, although not as small as

1:16:56

the first. Out

1:16:58

of these heads darted curious,

1:17:00

rigid tentacles, which seized ravenously

1:17:02

on the excessively great quantities

1:17:05

of unmentionable food placed before

1:17:07

the aperture. Once

1:17:09

in a while the thing would leap up,

1:17:11

and occasionally it would retreat into its din

1:17:13

in a very odd manner. Its

1:17:16

locomotion was so inexplicable that I

1:17:18

stared in fascination, wishing it would

1:17:20

emerge further from the cavernous lair

1:17:23

beneath me. Then

1:17:25

it did emerge. It

1:17:28

did emerge, and at the sight I

1:17:30

turned and fled into the darkness up

1:17:32

the higher staircase that rose behind me,

1:17:35

fled unknowingly up incredible steps and

1:17:37

letters and inclined planes to which

1:17:39

no human sight or logic guided

1:17:41

me, and which I must ever

1:17:43

relegate to the world of dreams

1:17:45

for want of any confirmation. Its

1:17:48

must have been dream, or the dawn

1:17:51

would never have found me breathing on

1:17:53

the sands of Giza before the sadonic

1:17:55

dawn flushed face of the Great Sphinx.

1:17:58

The Great Sphinx. That

1:18:00

idle question I asked myself on

1:18:02

that sun-blazed morning before, what huge

1:18:05

and loathsome abnormality was the sinks

1:18:07

originally carved into represent? A

1:18:10

cursed is the sight, be it in

1:18:12

dream or not, that revealed to me

1:18:14

the supreme horror. The unknown

1:18:16

god of the dead, which licks

1:18:19

its colossal chops in the unsuspected

1:18:21

abyss, fed hideous mortals

1:18:23

by soulless absurdities that

1:18:25

should not exist. The

1:18:28

five-headed monster, and that

1:18:30

of which elder god it

1:18:33

is the merest forepore. But

1:18:37

I survived, and I know it was

1:18:39

only a dream. And

1:18:54

now, an extended epilogue, in

1:18:56

which I provide some commentary on

1:18:58

the story you just heard, focusing

1:19:01

on its Egyptological features, the description

1:19:03

of the landscape and monuments of

1:19:05

the country, and some of the

1:19:07

themes present within the work. If

1:19:09

you prefer your horror to be

1:19:11

unexplained, I recommend disembarking the ride

1:19:13

now. Otherwise, stick around

1:19:16

after the break and we

1:19:18

will explore the tale under

1:19:20

the pyramids in its Egyptological

1:19:22

and storytelling context. See

1:19:24

you in a moment. Would

1:19:34

you like to relax or fall asleep while

1:19:37

learning about pivotal moments in history?

1:19:40

If so, then try

1:19:42

my new podcast, Calm

1:19:45

History. It's

1:19:47

a time machine of tranquility, filled

1:19:50

with immersive and fascinating

1:19:52

stories from history. Prior

1:19:56

episodes include The Pilgrims,

1:19:58

Marco Pizzo, and The Apollo, Henry

1:20:01

Ford, Joan of Arc, Jackie

1:20:05

Robinson, Klondike Gold

1:20:07

Rush, Ancient Greek

1:20:09

Olympics, Easter Island,

1:20:12

and the Great Pyramid of Giza.

1:20:16

There is also a six-part series about

1:20:18

the Titanic. Search

1:20:21

your podcast player for Calm

1:20:24

History or go

1:20:26

to calmhistory.com.

1:20:33

Did archaeologists discover Noah's Ark?

1:20:36

Is the rapture coming as soon as

1:20:38

the Euphrates River dries up? Does the

1:20:40

Bible condemn abortion? Don't you wish you

1:20:42

had a trustworthy academic resource to help

1:20:45

make sense of all of this? Well,

1:20:49

I'm Dan Beecher, and he's award-winning Bible

1:20:51

scholar and TikTok sensation Dr. Dan McClellan,

1:20:53

and we want to invite you to

1:20:55

the Data Over Dogma podcast, where our

1:20:57

mission is to increase public access to

1:21:00

the academic study of the Bible and

1:21:02

religion, and also to combat the spread

1:21:04

of misinformation about the same. But

1:21:07

you know, in a fun way. Every

1:21:10

week we tackle fascinating topics, we go

1:21:12

back to source materials in their original

1:21:14

languages, and we interview top scholars in

1:21:17

the field. So whether you're a devout

1:21:19

believer, or you're just interested in a

1:21:21

clear-eyed, deeply-informed look at one of the

1:21:23

most influential books of all time, we

1:21:25

think you're going to love the Data

1:21:27

Over Dogma podcast, wherever you subscribe to

1:21:30

awesome shows. The

1:21:36

story you just heard, Houdini Beneath

1:21:38

the Pyramids, is an adaptation of

1:21:40

the short story called Imprisoned with

1:21:42

the Pharaohs, or simply Under the

1:21:44

Pyramids. The story takes

1:21:47

place from the point of view

1:21:49

of Harry Houdini, the world-famous escape

1:21:51

artist, illusionist, and enthusiastic debunker of

1:21:54

charlatanism and magicians who were popular

1:21:56

at the time. But

1:21:59

the story was not really a written by Harry

1:22:01

Houdini. Instead, Weird Tales

1:22:03

magazine, who commissioned it, employed a

1:22:05

ghost writer to construct the tale.

1:22:08

The writer was a man

1:22:10

named Howard Phillips Lovecraft. H.

1:22:13

P. Lovecraft, as he is better known, is

1:22:16

one of the most influential writers in

1:22:18

the American horror tradition. He

1:22:20

is best known for his works in

1:22:22

the Eldritch or cosmic horror sphere, a

1:22:25

subgenre that emphasizes the infinity

1:22:28

of the universe, the insignificance

1:22:30

of humanity, and

1:22:33

the unfathomable scale, power,

1:22:35

and malevolence of beings

1:22:37

beyond human comprehension. Lovecraftian

1:22:40

horror, as the subgenre is

1:22:42

often called, casts a long

1:22:44

shadow over Western popular culture.

1:22:47

You will find Lovecraft and his

1:22:49

themes in music, writing, and film.

1:22:51

His tales inspired several of Metallica's

1:22:54

best songs, had a strong influence

1:22:56

on Stephen King and Alan Moore

1:22:58

as they were developing their writing,

1:23:01

and continues to inspire filmmakers to

1:23:03

create adaptations or reworkings of Lovecraft's

1:23:06

mythos and ideas. Suffice to say,

1:23:08

the stories of H. P. Lovecraft

1:23:10

are incredibly influential, and their influence

1:23:13

can still be felt today. This

1:23:16

tale, Under the Pyramids or Imprisoned

1:23:18

with the Pharaohs, was written

1:23:21

and published in 1924. By

1:23:24

that point Lovecraft had been writing and

1:23:26

publishing for more than a decade, and

1:23:28

he was starting to develop his distinctive

1:23:30

themes and style. This

1:23:32

tale was not his first

1:23:35

engagement with ancient Egypt as

1:23:37

a storytelling device. In 1920

1:23:39

he had published a short

1:23:41

story or poem called Nyarlathotep,

1:23:43

which recounted the manipulations and

1:23:45

influence of a malevolent deity

1:23:47

who had originated, or at

1:23:50

least appeared, in the days

1:23:52

of ancient Egypt. That

1:23:54

story is relatively light on details though,

1:23:57

and from an Egyptological perspective, This

1:24:00

tale is Lovecraft's most definitive engagement

1:24:03

with the history and culture of

1:24:05

the Nile Valley. Lovecraft

1:24:08

never visited Egypt, but

1:24:10

when he took the commission for

1:24:12

this writing project, he did do

1:24:15

extensive research to flesh out the

1:24:17

themes and description of Egypt itself,

1:24:19

the monuments that the character visits,

1:24:22

and some of the underlying ideas

1:24:24

and beliefs that would motivate these

1:24:26

supernatural occurrences. Most

1:24:28

notably, he drew on resources from

1:24:30

the New York Metropolitan Museum of

1:24:32

Art, and some

1:24:35

of the exhibits within that museum,

1:24:37

he references specifically in the tale.

1:24:39

Lovecraft, in the voice of

1:24:41

Houdini, mentions the tomb of

1:24:43

Per Neb at the Metropolitan

1:24:45

Museum. This is a

1:24:48

real tomb. It is a master bus

1:24:50

structure that was removed from Egypt and

1:24:52

brought to New York. The

1:24:54

tomb of Per Neb belongs to

1:24:56

the Fifth Dynasty, and it was

1:24:58

constructed at the Necropolis of Saqqara.

1:25:01

So it's somewhat removed from the Giza

1:25:03

location and the Fourth Dynasty monuments with

1:25:06

which this tale is concerned. But

1:25:08

it's a good example of Lovecraft

1:25:11

drawing on actual Egyptological information to

1:25:13

help flesh out his world. He

1:25:16

also goes on a couple of

1:25:18

tangents about ancient Egyptian culture, practices,

1:25:20

and beliefs. At one point, for example,

1:25:23

he describes the ancient Egyptians as

1:25:25

being obsessed with death, and

1:25:27

that they put a great deal

1:25:29

of time and effort into preparing

1:25:32

their tombs because one day they

1:25:34

hoped to achieve a physical resurrection

1:25:36

in the form of their mummy.

1:25:39

This view is no longer current

1:25:41

within Egyptology. As scholars

1:25:43

have uncovered and translated more and

1:25:45

more funerary texts, they have refined

1:25:47

their understanding of ancient Egyptian beliefs.

1:25:50

Today the dominant thought is that

1:25:52

the Egyptians did not imagine a

1:25:55

resurrection in this world, but

1:25:57

rather a reawakening in the next

1:25:59

world. The preservation of the

1:26:01

body facilitated the preservation of the

1:26:03

soul, which would travel beyond the

1:26:06

western horizon to live

1:26:08

eternally in the kingdom of Osiris.

1:26:11

Nevertheless, at the time Lovecraft

1:26:13

was writing, the idea of the

1:26:15

Egyptians as being obsessed with death

1:26:17

and looking forward to a physical

1:26:19

resurrection that wasn't

1:26:22

too far from the Egyptological point

1:26:24

of view. Of course, he also

1:26:27

emphasizes this idea in order to draw

1:26:29

more deeply on these supernatural otherworldly

1:26:31

aspects and engage more deeply with

1:26:34

themes of death and mystery in

1:26:36

the story itself. So

1:26:38

Egyptological understanding of mummies and

1:26:41

the Egyptian practice of death

1:26:43

has evolved significantly since Lovecraft's

1:26:45

day. But the trope was

1:26:47

acceptable at the time and Lovecraft

1:26:50

uses it effectively in his construction

1:26:52

of supernatural horror. Of

1:26:54

course, the idea of walking mummies

1:26:57

would enter the popular consciousness even

1:26:59

more strongly just eight years later

1:27:01

when Universal Studios released The Mummy

1:27:04

starring Boris Carla. We'll

1:27:06

come back to that in a moment

1:27:08

because I suspect that Lovecraft's story influenced

1:27:11

that film in a certain key feature.

1:27:14

Anyway, Lovecraft's research into

1:27:16

Egyptology also shows itself in a

1:27:18

couple of tangents. Early

1:27:21

in the story, he includes an

1:27:23

extensive description of the Giza Necropolis

1:27:25

and its relationship to other cemeteries

1:27:27

within the region. Lovecraft's

1:27:30

description here is pretty solid,

1:27:32

especially considering he never visited

1:27:34

Egypt in person. The

1:27:36

author worked primarily from the exhibitions

1:27:39

and archives of the Metropolitan Museum,

1:27:42

photographs and articles in various

1:27:44

periodicals, and published

1:27:46

works by Egyptologists themselves. He

1:27:48

likely used the works of

1:27:50

Petrie, Budge, Rested and

1:27:53

Reisner in his research and

1:27:55

from these desperate sources and others,

1:27:57

he constructs a reasonably accurate description.

1:28:00

description of the Giza Necropolis. One

1:28:03

feature that I really appreciate

1:28:05

is how Lovecraft recognizes and

1:28:07

acknowledges the other monuments connected

1:28:09

to the Giza pyramids. He

1:28:11

mentions the cemeteries of Abu

1:28:13

Roash, Saqqara, Dashur and Maidum,

1:28:16

and he connects all of these

1:28:18

with the ancient capital city, Memphis.

1:28:21

This is important. Many commentators,

1:28:23

even today, will focus entirely

1:28:26

on the Giza pyramids and

1:28:28

completely ignore their architectural, historical

1:28:31

or social context. But

1:28:33

Lovecraft does not. He situates

1:28:35

the monuments within the wider landscape

1:28:38

and history of Egyptian society. It's

1:28:41

to his credit that he incorporates

1:28:43

this aspect. There are

1:28:45

a couple of additional references that Lovecraft makes.

1:28:48

Of course he makes a point to mention

1:28:50

the tomb of Tutankhamun. That had

1:28:52

been discovered just 18 months before

1:28:55

he started writing this story, and

1:28:57

public interest in that tomb and

1:28:59

its clearance was still very high.

1:29:01

So naturally Lovecraft takes a couple

1:29:03

of opportunities to mention Tutankhamun, mostly

1:29:06

in passing, but as a simple and

1:29:08

effective hook for the casual reader. The

1:29:11

author also references a queen

1:29:13

called Nittokris, and a

1:29:15

story that supposedly she murdered many

1:29:18

of her courtiers or subjects by

1:29:20

means of kakari. This

1:29:23

tale comes from the Greek authors,

1:29:25

most notably Herodotus, and the queen

1:29:27

herself was a popular figure in

1:29:30

late 19th and early 20th century

1:29:32

writings about ancient Egypt. Egyptologically

1:29:35

though, Nittokris is a shadowy

1:29:37

figure. While the Greek

1:29:40

and Roman authors reference her, there is

1:29:42

no hard evidence for a queen of

1:29:44

Egypt matching this description. It's

1:29:47

possible that her name is a

1:29:49

corruption of an ancient pharaoh,

1:29:51

Nittikreti, but that is just one

1:29:53

hypothesis. This figure remains a

1:29:55

question mark, and it's not clear where the

1:29:58

Greek authors got their stories about it. Nevertheless,

1:30:00

Nethokris is an interesting figure,

1:30:02

especially within the modern legacy

1:30:04

and reception of ancient Egypt.

1:30:07

We'll probably see her again in

1:30:10

future stories. Finally,

1:30:12

there is Lovecraft's treatment of the

1:30:14

Great Sinks, which forms the dominant

1:30:16

motif of the story, especially in

1:30:18

its second half, and which

1:30:21

provides the main thrust for Houdini's

1:30:23

visions or experiences beneath the earth.

1:30:26

Lovecraft's story was written at an interesting

1:30:28

time in the history of the Great

1:30:30

Sinks itself. Today, the

1:30:33

monument is entirely cleared of

1:30:35

sand and is well serviced

1:30:37

by walkways that facilitate tourist

1:30:39

visitation. But in 1924, that

1:30:41

was not the case. The

1:30:44

monument itself was still only partially

1:30:47

cleared, and there were numerous structures

1:30:49

around the Sinks that had not

1:30:51

yet been identified or adequately mapped

1:30:54

and studied by archaeologists. The

1:30:56

most notable example of this is the temple.

1:30:59

Lovecraft's story frequently references and

1:31:01

takes place partly within the

1:31:04

Valley Temple of King Khafre.

1:31:06

This is the structure at the end

1:31:09

of the causeway, which connects Khafre's pyramid

1:31:11

to the Nile Valley. In

1:31:14

1924, that Valley Temple was

1:31:16

the only structure that had

1:31:18

been fully cleared and studied

1:31:20

by archaeological investigation. What

1:31:23

Lovecraft didn't know is that just

1:31:25

north of that Valley Temple, on

1:31:28

the right when you are facing

1:31:30

the pyramids, there is a second

1:31:32

structure. This is the

1:31:34

Temple of the Sinks, another structure

1:31:36

built just after the Valley

1:31:38

Temple, which is associated more

1:31:40

directly with the Great Lion

1:31:42

Statue. When Lovecraft

1:31:45

was writing his story, the Temple

1:31:47

of the Sinks had not yet

1:31:49

been cleared and studied. In fact,

1:31:51

the full archaeological exploration of that

1:31:53

temple did not begin until 1925,

1:31:55

the year

1:31:57

following this story's publication. So

1:32:00

there's an interesting gap between the story as

1:32:03

it is told, and the archaeological evidence that

1:32:05

was still coming to light during the 1920s.

1:32:08

That raises the question, how Lovecraft might

1:32:10

have approached this story had he written

1:32:13

it just a few years later, with

1:32:15

more information about the Great Sphinx

1:32:17

and its archaeological context, he might

1:32:20

have constructed a very different picture.

1:32:22

Anyway, the author describes the

1:32:25

Valley Temple of Kaphra in some

1:32:27

detail, and he makes references

1:32:29

to statues. During

1:32:31

excavations of that temple, archaeologists

1:32:33

found several beautiful statues of

1:32:35

this particular ruler. Today,

1:32:38

you can see these images in

1:32:40

the old museum in Cairo, just

1:32:43

as Houdini is described doing in

1:32:45

the story itself. Then

1:32:47

Lovecraft taps into another tradition which

1:32:49

has a long history with the

1:32:51

Sphinx, and which is still popular

1:32:54

in some circles today. To

1:32:56

provide an otherworldly location for

1:32:58

his climactic events, Lovecraft

1:33:00

taps into the idea of

1:33:02

hidden chambers and passageways beneath

1:33:05

the Great Sphinx. This

1:33:08

is a long-running idea surrounding this

1:33:10

monument, that it is a structure

1:33:12

of unknowable antiquity carved in the

1:33:15

face of some unknown deity, and

1:33:17

the notion that corridors or passageways

1:33:20

tunnel beneath this monument and lead

1:33:22

to subterranean halls and chambers has

1:33:25

been a long-running theme in

1:33:27

popular perceptions of the monument.

1:33:30

Unfortunately, archaeological research has found

1:33:32

no evidence of any such

1:33:34

chambers. There are holes

1:33:36

and fissures around and underneath the

1:33:38

Great Sphinx, but these are

1:33:40

largely robbers' pits or natural crevices

1:33:43

in the porous limestone of the

1:33:45

Giza Plateau, so the

1:33:47

idea is, unfortunately, just a mess.

1:33:50

But for Lovecraft, it does

1:33:52

provide a suitable scene for

1:33:55

underground horrors and anti-deluvian threats.

1:33:57

Again, the author taps into existing

1:34:00

stories and legends of ancient

1:34:03

Egypt to construct something familiar

1:34:05

yet horrifying. That

1:34:07

is the ancient Egyptian component. What

1:34:10

about the modern? How does Lovecraft,

1:34:12

a man who never visited Egypt,

1:34:15

depict this particular country and the

1:34:17

people whom Houdini encounters on his

1:34:19

travels? The tale is

1:34:22

steeped in a tradition that today

1:34:24

we would describe as orientalist. The

1:34:27

protagonist, or the author, comes to

1:34:29

the country in search of the

1:34:31

ancient and mystical East. In

1:34:34

that sense, the story is a

1:34:36

classic example of late 19th and

1:34:38

early 20th century depictions. In

1:34:41

those days, many Westerners tended

1:34:43

to view the East as

1:34:45

a place of mysticism and

1:34:47

antiquity, a somewhat backward land

1:34:49

compared to the industrialised and

1:34:51

enlightened West. For

1:34:53

better and worse, Houdini, or Lovecraft,

1:34:56

exemplifies this trope. He comes to

1:34:58

Egypt explicitly in search of the

1:35:00

medieval, the land of the 1001

1:35:02

Knights of

1:35:04

Arabian storytelling, and he

1:35:07

makes frequent references to historical figures

1:35:09

like the caliph Harun al-Rashid and

1:35:11

the Saracens of the medieval crusading

1:35:13

period. Those figures and

1:35:16

legacies are part of the cultural

1:35:18

landscape and history of Egypt, but

1:35:20

the author's frequent references to those

1:35:23

ideas and the character's explicit interest

1:35:25

in that concept of the East

1:35:28

are noteworthy as examples of this

1:35:30

particular trope. That being

1:35:33

said, there is an amusing

1:35:35

inversion in the main character's

1:35:37

expectations versus the reality he

1:35:39

encounters. Coming to

1:35:41

Egypt with a head full of

1:35:43

Arabian knights, Houdini, or Lovecraft, is

1:35:46

bitterly disappointed to step off the

1:35:48

boat or train and enter a

1:35:50

city that, despite being in Egypt,

1:35:52

is operating on a distinctly European

1:35:55

model. Again, this is a reasonably

1:35:57

accurate picture of Cairo at the

1:35:59

time. Since the

1:36:01

late 19th century, Egypt's government and

1:36:04

the colonial powers that influenced it

1:36:06

had invested heavily in redevelopment of

1:36:08

the central city, along models

1:36:11

inspired by Paris and London in

1:36:13

the west. These architectural

1:36:15

traditions still define the central section

1:36:17

of the city, especially the region

1:36:19

around Tahrir Square and the old

1:36:22

museum which Houdini visits in the

1:36:24

story. This clash

1:36:26

between the main characters' expectations and

1:36:28

the reality of Egypt itself can

1:36:32

be viewed as an interesting,

1:36:34

even amusing inversion. Despite being

1:36:36

a supposedly educated and rational

1:36:38

man, Houdini, the character, is

1:36:40

still immersed in fantasies of

1:36:43

a vanished past. But

1:36:45

when he actually arrives in Egypt,

1:36:48

the protagonist is denied his orientalist

1:36:50

fantasy and is confronted with the

1:36:52

realities of a society undergoing change.

1:36:55

On the one hand, that is a good setup. It

1:36:58

shows that Houdini is out of his depth,

1:37:00

that he does not know as much about

1:37:02

the world as he thought he did, and

1:37:05

it subtly portends the calamities that

1:37:07

he will experience due to his

1:37:09

ignorance and naivety. On

1:37:12

the other hand, it is also a rug pull. While

1:37:15

he arrives in a rapidly

1:37:17

modernizing Cairo, Houdini nonetheless will

1:37:19

encounter experiences that do supposedly

1:37:21

emerge from the pharaonic past,

1:37:24

experiences for which he, and

1:37:26

thus the modern world, are

1:37:29

entirely unprepared. Finally,

1:37:32

there is Houdini's experience of modern

1:37:34

Egypt in the form of its

1:37:36

people. There is not

1:37:38

much to say here, mainly because

1:37:40

Lovecraft does not describe the Egyptians

1:37:43

themselves in any particular detail, and

1:37:45

Houdini only interacts explicitly with

1:37:48

a few distinctive groups, all

1:37:50

of whom turn out to be hostile in

1:37:53

some form or another. There are

1:37:55

a few ways you can look at this. On

1:37:57

the one hand, it reflects Lovecraft as a modern

1:37:59

world. personality and a storyteller. The

1:38:02

man himself was famously ignorant about

1:38:05

the outside world, and fearful of

1:38:07

other cultures and especially races. This

1:38:10

is a well-documented feature of his

1:38:12

life and personality, and I won't

1:38:14

batter you over the head with it. Long

1:38:17

story short, many of Lovecraft's

1:38:19

fears found their most concrete

1:38:21

expressions in other cultures and

1:38:23

groups, especially those with whom

1:38:25

he was unfamiliar. This

1:38:27

fed his imagination and helped inspire

1:38:29

some of his greatest fears. So,

1:38:32

on the one hand, you can

1:38:34

view this feature of the story

1:38:36

as a reflection of Lovecraft's personality

1:38:39

both as an individual and a

1:38:41

writer. The shadowy facelessness of the

1:38:43

Egyptian people reflects the author's own

1:38:45

ignorance and fear of outside groups.

1:38:48

Alternatively, you can view it as a

1:38:50

thematic part of the story itself. As

1:38:53

we've noted, Houdini arrives in Egypt

1:38:55

with a handful of the Arabian

1:38:57

Nights, and he is bitterly

1:38:59

disappointed when the people of Egypt and

1:39:02

the cities in which they live do

1:39:04

not meet his expectations of a mystical

1:39:06

medieval land. In that sense,

1:39:08

the story's general ignorance of the

1:39:11

Egyptian people may reflect the disappointment

1:39:13

of the protagonist. Confronted

1:39:15

with a society that does not

1:39:17

meet his expectations, he is unwilling

1:39:19

or unable to engage with the

1:39:21

reality on its own terms. This

1:39:24

may find confirmation in how Houdini

1:39:26

deals with the gang and Abdul

1:39:28

Reis Throgman later in the story.

1:39:31

From the very beginning, Houdini describes

1:39:33

Throgman as somebody slightly out of

1:39:35

time with the world around him,

1:39:37

and he seems to be drawn

1:39:39

to the severity, even pharaonic majesty,

1:39:41

of Throgman's demeanor. Then,

1:39:44

later, Houdini is excited when the

1:39:46

conflict breaks out between Throgman and

1:39:49

the other gang. And

1:39:51

when he's given an opportunity to

1:39:53

resolve the conflict in a most

1:39:56

outlandish manner atop the Great Pyramid,

1:39:58

Houdini enthusiastically evens. even naively, jumps

1:40:01

at the chance. In

1:40:03

that sense, we can see Houdini's

1:40:05

ignorance of the Egyptian people playing

1:40:07

into his own downfall. When

1:40:10

he has given an opportunity to

1:40:12

indulge his fantasies of arcane combat

1:40:14

atop an ancient monument, he jumps

1:40:16

at the opportunity without realising it

1:40:18

could be a trap. Then

1:40:21

Drogman's speech to Houdini once they

1:40:23

have captured and tied him up

1:40:25

seems to confirm this reading almost

1:40:27

explicitly, for Drogman berates Houdini on

1:40:30

his particular brand of ignorance. Despite

1:40:33

his rationalism and enlightenment, his skill

1:40:35

at debunking illusions and magic, Houdini

1:40:37

has entered a world that he

1:40:39

does not understand, that he has

1:40:42

not bothered to learn, and now

1:40:44

must face the consequences. So

1:40:46

from this perspective, you can

1:40:49

view the story's ignorance about

1:40:51

the Egyptians, the people actually

1:40:53

living and breathing here, as

1:40:56

another manifestation of the characters'

1:40:58

preconceptions, preconceptions that ultimately cause

1:41:00

Houdini the greatest suffering. This

1:41:03

interpretation seems to be the closest to

1:41:05

the author's explicit intent, at least from

1:41:07

my reading of the story, it is

1:41:10

the one that is most superficially visible

1:41:12

in the text, and it

1:41:14

may be the one that Lovecraft

1:41:16

was consciously weaving into his writing.

1:41:18

That doesn't mean the first interpretation

1:41:20

was not present underneath the surface,

1:41:22

but this is the version that

1:41:24

Lovecraft seems to make the most

1:41:26

clear in his language and storytelling.

1:41:29

Finally, and perhaps most

1:41:31

charitably, you could

1:41:33

view the story's depiction, or

1:41:36

non-depiction, of the Egyptians as

1:41:38

a subtle criticism of European

1:41:40

and colonial attitudes themselves. As

1:41:43

we have noted, Houdini enters the

1:41:46

story as an archetype of enlightened

1:41:48

Western rationalism. He is

1:41:50

the man who performs illusions,

1:41:52

but also debunks charlatans and

1:41:54

magicians. He is the man who

1:41:56

can escape any trap. And yet,

1:41:58

when he is confronted with a confronted with the

1:42:01

realities of Egypt, or the East."

1:42:04

He finds himself powerless against

1:42:06

groups and forces he does