"Destroy that!" he gasped."Destroy! Oh! you, you--early Christian."Here I may state that Bastin was quite right, as we proved subsequently when we compared the head of the fetish, which, as it will be remembered, he had brought away with him, with that of the statue.Allowing for an enormous debasement of art, they were essentially identical in the facial characteristics.This would suggest the descent of a tradition through countless generations.
Or of course it may have been accidental.I am sure I do not know, but I think it possible that for unknown centuries other old statues may have existed in Orofena from which the idol was copied.Or some daring and impious spirit may have found his way to the cave in past ages and fashioned the local god upon this ancient model.
Bickley was struck at once, as I had been, with the resemblance of the figure to that of the Egyptian Osiris.Of course there were differences.For instance, instead of the crook and the scourge, this divinity held a torch.Again, in place of the crown of Egypt it wore a winged head-dress, though it is true this was not very far removed from the winged disc of that country.The wings that sprang from its shoulders, however, suggested Babylonia rather than Egypt, or the Assyrian bulls that are similarly adorned.All of these symbolical ideas might have been taken from that figure.But what was it? What was it?
In a flash the answer came to me.A representation of the spirit of Death! Neither more nor less.There was the shroud;there the cold, inscrutable countenance suggesting mysteries that it hid.But the torch and the wings? Well, the torch was that which lighted souls to the other world, and on the wings they flew thither.Whoever fashioned that statue hoped for another life, or so I was convinced.
I explained my ideas.Bastin thought them fanciful and preferred his notion of a flying man, since by constitution he was unable to discover anything spiritual in any religion except his own.Bickley agreed that it was probably an allegorical representation of death but sniffed at my interpretation of the wings and the torch, since by constitution he could not believe that the folly of a belief in immortality could have developed so early in the world, that is, among a highly civilised people such as must have produced this statue.
What we could none of us understand was why this ominous image with its dead, cold face should have been placed in an aerodrome, nor in fact did we ever discover.Possibly it was there long before the cave was put to this use.At first the place may have been a temple and have so remained until circumstances forced the worshippers to change their habits, or even their Faith.
We examined this wondrous work and the pedestal on which it stood as closely as we were able by the dim light of our candles.
I was anxious to go further and see what lay beyond it; indeed we did walk a few paces, twenty perhaps, onward into the recesses of the cave.
Then Bickley discovered something that looked like the mouth of a well down which he nearly tumbled, and Bastin began to complain that he was hot and very thirsty; also to point out that he wished for no more caves and idols at present.