Simple http authentication not working

[pk899]

Below is my config. The folder /site/private is supposed to show the
usual HTTP authentication box, but the php files from that folder just
start downloading in clear text. What am I doing wrong? The path of the
passwd file is correct. 

Thanks for any pointers! 



  location / {

      location
~.*\.(gif|jpg|png|ico|swf|rss|xml|htm|txt|js|css|gz|doc|xls|pdf)$   {
        expires         max;
        try_files       $uri    @backend;
        log_not_found   off; 
      }

      location /site/private {
        auth_basic              "Restricted";
        auth_basic_user_file   
/home/MYDOMAIN/.htpasswds/public_html/www/private/passwd;
      }

      proxy_pass http://MY.IP.IS.HERE:8081;
      include proxy.inc;
    }  #-- End of root location
  
    location @backend {
      internal;
      proxy_pass http://MY.IP.IS.HERE:8081;
      include proxy.inc;
    }

Posted at Nginx Forum: http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,204172,204172#msg-204172