Cave Dwellings in the Val d’Ispica—The Sicanians—Cannibal Caves in South Africa—The Rock City of the Themud—Legendary Tale of its Destruction.

Caves were probably the earliest habitations of primitive man, the first rude shelter for which he had to do battle with the hyena or the bear. As we have seen in the preceding chapter, some of the oldest relics of his prehistoric existence have been discovered in caves; and at a far later period, when he had already made some progress in the arts, we find many races still adhering to the subterranean dwellings of their forefathers. Such a state of things may possibly be indicated in the mythical stories of the Greek and Trojan heroes, who, near the base of Mount Etna, are said to have found caverns tenanted by the troglodytic tribe of the Cyclops.

In another part of Sicily the old cave-dwellings of the Val d’Ispica deservedly attract the antiquarian’s attention. The vale is a narrow gorge, situated between Modica and Spaccafurno; and throughout its whole length of about eight Italian miles, the rock-walls on both sides are pierced with innumerable grottoes, which at first sight might be taken for the productions of nature, but on a closer inspection evidently show that they are the work of man, and have been originally excavated to serve as dwellings. The luxuriant vegetation of the Val forms a pleasing contrast with the naked sterility of the plain in which it is imbedded; a small rivulet flows along the bottom, and irrigates wild fig-trees and stately oleanders; on a higher level grow broad-leaved acanthuses and wild artichokes, while thick festoons of cactus hang down from the top of the rocks and shade the entrance of the grottoes. These are excavated at various heights above the bottom of the vale, and often consist of two or three stories, one above the other. A great part of the rock-wall on the right bank of the brook has fallen in, and exposes to sight the internal arrangement of the dwellings. On the mounds of rubbish the visitor is able to ascend to the entrances of the caves, which originally can have been accessible only by ladders. The chambers are seldom more than twenty feet deep and six feet high and broad. The above-mentioned rock-slip has laid open, among others, a dwelling of three stories, with flights of steps in a good state of preservation, to which, on account of its superior dimensions, the neighbouring peasants have given the name of Castello d’Ispica, and which may have been the abode of a chieftain.

Several mortar-like basins or troughs, hollowed in the rock, evidently served for the pounding of corn, so that the inhabitants, whoever they were, must have known at least some of the arts of civilised life. A few of the rooms or burrows (for their size hardly warrants a better name) are still tenanted by shepherds, whose whole furniture consists of a kettle, a few pots, and some skins to lie upon. Parthey, a learned German traveller,^[33] who visited many of the caves (the whole number probably exceeding 1,500), nowhere found the least traces of ornament about them; the doors and windows were mere rough holes broken through the rock. Thus there can be no doubt that the fragments of painted vases and sculptured marble that have been found here and there in the caves belong to a much later period, for a people sufficiently advanced in the arts to paint vases and to chisel marble could not possibly have been content with a mole-like existence. If we seek to ascertain the probable age of this cavern city, all circumstances combine to throw back its origin to a very ancient date. The total want of artistic decoration at once forbids us to assign these extensive but rude excavations to one of the Greek tribes which successively founded colonies in the island after expelling the aborigines from their ancestral seats. In the Roman, the Saracenic, or some later period a band of fugitives might indeed have found a temporary retreat in this remote vale, but could hardly have remained concealed long enough to execute a work which evidently required long years of undisturbed toil. Thus it has been conjectured that these caves were the dwellings of the ancient Sicanians, a people who became known to history only when about to disappear for ever from the stage of the world, having left no memorial of their existence save perhaps these rude vestiges of an infant state of society.

We may justly presume that the aborigines of Malta, the Balearic Islands, and Sardinia were likewise troglodytes when the first foreign colonists landed on the shores of these islands. And such, after the lapse of more than thirty centuries, are the Sarde shepherds of the present day, who frequently have no better dwellings than the caves of the rocks.

In Southern Italy the traveller meets with traces of the same primitive mode of life. Near a place called Iscalonga, in the province of Basilicata Mr. Mallet found many inhabited caves, excavated in dry tufa of extreme antiquity. Some of the troglodytes came out to see him pass, and looked savage and queer enough in their rough brown blanket-cloaks, with peaked hoods and sheepskins.

Irrespective of climate, we at the present day find cave-dwellers among the tribes of the frozen regions of the North and the Arabs of the stony wastes bordering on the Red Sea, in the Libyan deserts, and in the sandstone rocks of Southern Africa, wherever nature has formed grottoes or the soft material admits of an easy excavation.

Amongst the many interesting objects of the Transgariep country are the celebrated cannibal caverns which extend from the Moluta river to the Caledon river. Thirty years ago they were inhabited by a race of men who, like the lion or the panther, were the scourge of the whole neighbouring country. Their mode of living was to send out hunting parties, who would conceal themselves among the rocks and bushes, and lie in ambush near roads, drifts, gardens, or watering-places for the purpose of surprising and capturing women, children, or travellers. The influence of the chieftain Moshesh induced them to change their evil practices for a better mode of life, and they are now said to be an inoffensive people of agriculturists and traders. When Mr. James Henry Bowker visited the caves near the sources of the Caledon river, in 1868, he met at one of them an old savage, one of the most ill-looking ruffians he had ever beheld, who had formerly assisted at the cooking and bone-picking of many a human victim, and, like the Last Minstrel, seemed greatly to regret that

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The largest cavern is situated amongst the mountains beyond Thaba Bosigo, the residence of the old chief Moshesh, about ten miles distant from the deserted missionary station Cana. The entrance to this cavern is formed by the overhanging cliff, and its arched and lofty roof is blackened with the smoke and soot of the fires which served for the preparation of many a horrible repast. At the further end of the cave some rough irregular steps led up to a gloomy-looking natural gallery where the victims not required for immediate consumption were confined. The cannibals, consisting of Betshuana and Kafir tribes, had the less excuse for their barbarity as they inhabit a fine agricultural country, which likewise abounds in game; but it is said that, having in a time of famine been reduced to the horrible extremity of eating human flesh, they acquired a taste for it, and continued to relish it as a delicacy even in times of abundance. Though they are now reported to be no longer cannibals, there is reason to fear that they have not yet entirely abandoned their diabolical way of living, for among the numerous bones which strewed the floor of the cavern and had chiefly belonged to children and young persons, Mr. Bowker found some that could hardly have been there many months. The skull of a child which lay before the mouth of the cavern afforded a touching example of ‘life in death,’ for a little bulb had sprung up from its cavity and covered it with a graceful tuft of drooping leaves.

At the distance of a ten days’ journey from Medina on the road of the pilgrim caravans from Damascus, lies the deserted rock-city of the Themud, where a whole people had hewn their dwellings in the black rock, decorating the entrances with small columns on both sides, and tracing numerous inscriptions on the walls. No European traveller has ever visited this curious spot, for the Bedouins render the neighbourhood insecure, and the pilgrims to the holy cities allow no infidel to accompany them on their journey. How the subterranean city came to be deserted is still a secret of the past; but probably its ruin must be traced back as far as the first or second century of the Christian era, for Mahomet cites it more than once in his Koran as a warning to all true believers. According to the legend the prophet Saleh once came to Themud to convert the idolatrous inhabitants to the belief of the one true God. As a proof of his divine mission they required a miracle to be performed, upon which the prophet, raising his staff, struck the rock, which immediately opened and gave passage to a she-camel with its young. But the obdurate pagans, still persisting in their incredulity, killed the camel, and the young would no doubt have shared its mother’s fate, if it had not speedily retired into the rock whence it had come forth. The sacrilegious crime of the Themud did not long remain unpunished. A dreadful earthquake destroyed them to the last man, and ever since the place is cursed. When the caravan passes by, the pilgrims raise loud shouts and hurry along as fast as they can, fearful of their dromedaries becoming shy from the wailings of the young camel, which is still supposed to exist in the rock.