King Solomon's Treasure

Chapter 27 The Land of the Dead (2)
After about fifty paces, we found a faint light in the passage.After a few more minutes, we came to a most magical place, and everyone's eyes lit up.

Imagine, dear reader, what it would be like to be in the grandest cathedral, and perhaps you can understand how we feel right now.But there were no windows, and a dim light shone from above.The ceiling is about a hundred feet high, from which one can imagine the size of the cave we are in.This is a masterpiece of nature, and it is difficult for any cathedral built by humans to reach such a scale.However, the wonder of this cave is not only its huge volume, but also the rows of huge icicles.On closer inspection, it turned out to be a huge stalactite.The huge white stalactites are spectacular and unparalleled in beauty.Before such beauty, any language seems so poor.There are stalactites whose bases are a full twenty feet in diameter, rising to the ceiling; some are still in the process of being formed.There are also some similar columns on the ground.Sir Henry said the columns resembled the collapsed pillars of ancient Greek temples.In addition, the huge ice cone hanging from the roof of the cave is also faintly visible.When we admire the stalactites, we can also hear the sound of water droplets dripping from the ice cones hanging high to the cylinders.This is how stalactites are formed.Sometimes, only one drop of water drops every two or three minutes. Calculated at this rate, how long would it take to form a stalactite eighty feet high and ten feet in diameter?It was simply too long, too long to be counted.Let me give you an example.We found mummy-like carvings on one of the pillars, with heads resembling those of Egyptian gods, undoubtedly by the ancients who mined here.The sculpted figures are about the same height as a real person, about five feet.We speculate that it was left by Phoenician craftsmen or by the English, who liked to immortalize themselves by leaving traces in nature.The column before us is nearly 3 years old, but only eight feet high and still in its formative stages.From this it follows that the rate of formation is one foot every 3000 years, or one inch every 1000 years.

If the water droplets fall in different positions, sometimes strange stalactites will be formed.There is a huge stalactite weighing about one hundred tons, shaped like a pulpit in a church, and decorated with lace on the outside.Some stalactites look like monsters with different postures.On the inner wall of the cave, fan-shaped carvings can also be seen, like frost flowers on the window.

There are many smaller caves on both sides of the main passage.These little grottoes, said Sir Henry, were like chapels around a cathedral.Except for one or two small caves, the others are quite large.It is ample proof that every work of nature is equally ingenious, no matter the scale.One small cave, for example, is the size of a toy house, but there are still tiny ice cones hanging in the cave, and there are still dripping water droplets forming stalactites, just like other caves.

Although we would like to appreciate the beautiful scenery one by one, we don't have time.Gagul doesn't seem to be interested in stalactites, and he just wants to get things done as soon as possible.This made me very angry, because I still have a lot of questions: where does the light come from in the cave, is this cave made by humans, or is it natural?Did the ancients use this cave?Gagul kept urging us, so we had no choice but to move on with this nasty guide.Comfort myself in my heart, when I return, I must study it carefully.

Under the leadership of Gagul, we went straight to the end of the huge and quiet cave.At this time, we found a door at the end of the cave. Unlike the previous arched door, this is a square-top door, much like the entrance of an Egyptian temple.

"Are you ready to enter the land of the dead?" Gagul asked, his mysterious voice made us feel a little nervous.

"Stop talking nonsense and lead the way." Good said with a serious face.The three of us tried to stay calm, only Fratta clung to Good's arm in fear.

"It's a bit scary," Sir Henry looked at the dark passage, "Hurry up, Quitman, the elders come first, don't keep the old lady waiting." After finishing speaking, he politely stepped aside and motioned for me get ahead.I reluctantly went up.

Benedict!Benedict!Gagul walked quickly on crutches, smiling maliciously all the time.An ominous premonition welled up in my heart, and my pace slowed down.

"Go, old chap," said Goode, "or you'll miss the good guide."

I had no choice but to grit my teeth and follow.After walking about twenty paces, we came to a gloomy room.This room is forty feet long, thirty feet wide and thirty feet high. It seems that the ancients dug it out in the mountains.The room was not as bright as the previous stalactite cave. I only saw a huge stone table at first sight. At one end of the stone table was a huge white monster. On both sides of the huge monster were life-size white portraits.Then I saw a brown thing in the middle of the stone table.At this point, my eyes adjusted to the dim light.When I saw the whole picture of the room, my first reaction was to run away.Generally speaking, I am not a fuss person, nor superstitious.I've always thought superstitious people were fools.But I confess frankly that the sight before me horrified me.If Sir Henry hadn't grabbed me by the collar, I would have been in the stalactite cave in five minutes.No matter how many diamonds there are in it, I will never step in again.But Sir Henry held me so tightly that I could not move.By this time, Sir Henry had also adjusted to the light in the room, and in a cold sweat he let me go.Good cursed weakly, and Fratta screamed loudly and threw her arms around his neck.

Only Jagula laughed out loud.

The scene in front of me was really terrible.At the end of the stone table sat a huge statue of a human skull, at least fifteen feet high, which was the Grim Reaper.I saw him holding up a big spear, as if he was going to stab us.The other bony hand was placed on the stone table in front, as if it was about to slap the table and get up.Leaning forward, stretching the neck and head towards us, grinning, staring at us with empty eye sockets, and opening the mouth slightly, it seems that there is something to say.

"My God!" I said feebly, "what is this?"

"What are those?" Goode asked, pointing to the white things around the stone table.

"What the hell is this?" asked Sir Henry, pointing to something brown on the table.

"Hahaha!" Jagula laughed wildly, "Those who step into the land of death, disaster is coming. Hahaha!"

"Come, Inchub, warrior on the battlefield, come and see the man you have killed." The old monster stretched out his skinny hand, grabbed Sir Henry's clothes, and pulled him to the stone table.We followed.

Soon she stopped, pointing to something brown on the table.Upon seeing it, Sir Henry hurriedly backed away a few steps in exclamation.It turned out that it was the body of Taiwala, the former king of Kukuana.He was completely naked, with Sir Henry's severed head on his lap.The muscles of the corpse began to atrophy, and the spine protruded by a full inch.The surface of the corpse was covered with a film, which made it look even more terrifying.At first we didn't understand why this was happening.Later we found out that water was dripping from the roof, onto the neck of the corpse, flowing all over the body, and finally out of a small hole in the table.Tick!Tick!Tick!Now it dawned on me that this was done to turn Taiwala's body into a human-shaped stalactite.

I looked at the other white objects around the stone table to further confirm my thoughts.These white objects are all corpses. To be precise, they are now human-shaped stalactites.It turns out that this is the ancient method of the Kukuana people to preserve the king's body: to petrify the body.Whether they resorted to any other method than placing the body under the dripping water, I do not know.But the fact at hand is that the bodies were permanently preserved by a silicic acid fluid. The 27 kings lined up in a row, wrapped in ice-like spar, their appearances were vaguely visible, sitting around a table, and the host was the inhospitable Death.Such a scene is simply unimaginable.Based on the number of corpses, it can be deduced that this method of preserving the king's body is quite old.Assuming that each king ruled for 15 years, and the corpses of all the kings are here—this is obviously impossible, because some kings who conquered themselves must have died in battle—according to this calculation, it can be traced back to 420 five years ago.The statue of the Grim Reaper sitting at the end of the stone table must be older.If I'm not mistaken, the Grim Reaper and the Silent Mountain God were made by the same artist.Carved from a single block of stalactite, it looks like a uniquely conceived and skillfully crafted work of art.Goode, who has studied anatomy, said that the design of the Grim Reaper is exactly the same as that of the human body, and even the smallest bones are carved meticulously.

I believe that some ancient sculptor created this macabre work of art on the whim of a sculptor.Unexpectedly, the Kukuana people were inspired by this artwork and came up with a way to preserve the king's body.Perhaps the statue of Death was placed here to scare away treasure thieves.I can't find a clue, so I can only faithfully record the scenes I saw, and readers can judge for themselves.

Anyway, this is the legendary White Grim Reaper!

(End of this chapter)