THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN inches of the roof. Lying loose on the sand of the inner chamber were a number of bleached bones of some small animal, which suggested a part of a sheep's skeleton, but they crumbled into white powder when touched, and were therefore not worth removing. By the side of the bones was a fragment of the upper part and neck of an amphora,' on which were inscribed the words, " Rhodian wine," OINOZ POAIOZ, and the other portions of the jar lay round about. Thus it seems that before the tilling up of the shaft began meat was eaten and wine drunk in commemoration of the dead, and that when all the wine had been drunk the jar was smashed.

When the sand had been removed from the inner chamber and from the passage and chamber beyond it, we examined the walls carefully to see if there were any concealed openings in them, but found none. Special care was taken in examining the end wall of the outer chamber, for it was possible that a doorway had once existed and had been filled up ; none, however, was found. On tapping the walls with a hammer it was found that all rang solid, with the exception of the south-east wall, i.e., that which was immediately in a line with the edge of the pyramid. Closer examination showed that in it was set a slab of hard limestone about seven feet high, and six feet broad, and when this had been broken through, we found behind it a low vault, with a rounded roof, but there was nothing in it. The slab of stone which had been removed suggested that the vault had been built for some purpose, and it was decided to dig through the floor of it. When this had been done, we came upon a quantity of concrete, and shortly after it became certain that we had found the second shaft, by which the deceased had been lowered into the place set apart for him. In this shaft our excavations had to be made by candlelight, and the atmosphere was stifling. When the shaft had been cleared out to a depth of about forty feet, it began to widen out towards the pyramid and we began to come near to the short passage which we expected would lead to the mummy chamber. Here, however, the sides of the shaft became very damp, and every piece of stone which we took out was thoroughly wet ; a foot or two lower down the men found themselves in standing water, and finally the work • Brit. Mus. No. 30,440.

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