So, indeed, it was to
a certain depth, a result that apparently had been anticipated by those
who hollowed it, for this entrance shaft was left quite undecorated.
Indeed, as Smith found afterwards, a hole had been dug beneath the
doorway to allow the mud to enter after the burial was completed. Only a
miscalculation had been made. The natural level of the mud did not quite
reach the roof of the tomb, and therefore still left it open.
After crawling for forty feet or so over this caked mud, Smith suddenly
found himself on a rising stair. Then he understood the plan; the tomb
itself was on a higher level.
Here began the paintings. Here the Queen Ma-Mee, wearing her crowns and
dressed in diaphanous garments, was presented to god after god. Between
her figure and those of the divinities the wall was covered with
hieroglyphs as fresh to-day as on that when the artist had limned them.
A glance told him that they were extracts from the Book of the Dead.
When the thief of bygone ages had broken into the tomb, probably not
very long after the interment, the mud over which Smith had just crawled
was still wet. This he could tell, since the clay from the rascal's
feet remained upon the stairs, and that upon his fingers had stained the
paintings on the wall against which he had supported himself; indeed,
in one place was an exact impression of his hand, showing its shape and
even the lines of the skin.
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