East Saginaw courier., 1866-05-30
The oldds. Relic in tho World.

We clip the following interesting
account of the oldest relic in the
world from one of our foreign .ex-
changes:
There is an anecdote on record OF
some English visitors of one of the
continental churches which boasted of
its relics, having been shown very
old sword as one of its rarest treas
ures. "What is this ?'' asked one of
the party. "That sword sir" said the
custodian, "is the one with which
Balaam smote his obstinate ass"
"Ass " retorted the questioner, "why,
Scripture does not mention that Ba-
laam had sword, but only that he
wished for one" 80, SIR" was the
ready reply, ''this is the very sword
which Balaan desired TO have r'-
Without laying too much stress upon
the authenticity of this sword, we can
offer satisfactory proof that England
possesses a genuine relic Of antiquity,
fully six centuries older than the age
Of Balaam, which the late Baron Bun
son Justly declared to be :''the oldest
royal and human remains TO which a
date can be assigned-in the world."-
In a large glass case, standing in one
of the upper chambers of our great
National Museum, is to be seen the
skeleton, -deeently encased in its orig
inal burial clothes, of one Pharoali
Mykerinus, and surrounded by frag-
ments of the coffin, whereon the name
of its occupant cam be easily read by
the Psychologists of the present day !;
affording thereby conclusive evidence
that it once contained the mummy of
o king who was teignins IN Egypt
more than a century before the time
of Abraham.
The proof Of this maybe thus,ex-
planned. About two years ago, Herr.
Dumichen, a German employer of the
mountains of Egypt, following up the
indications pointedout by M. Mariotte,
a distinguished arch@ologist, discov-
cred on the buried walls of the tenn
pie Of Osiris, at Abydos, a large tab
let containing the names of the ancient
Pharohs from rthe time, of Mizraim,
the grandson Of Noah and founder Of
the Egyptian monarchy, unto that of
Pharoah Seti l., the father of the well
known Rameses the. Great including
thereby the chronology Of nine CEN
turies, viz: from B. G. 2300 to b. G.
400. This historical tablet, by far
the most important ever yet discov-
cred, may be compared TO the sculp-
tured figures of the kings of England,
at the Crystal Palace, from William
the Conquerer 20 her Majesty Queen
Victoria, which, we suppose will afford
sufficient evidence to the wanderer
from New Zealand, when in the year
of grace, 1866 he may be exploring
the ruins Of ancient London, of the
order of, the succession of the mon
archs of England.
Astronomical evidence, moreover,
enables us to determine the time OF
two important epochs in the history OF
Egypt, one of whichis connected with
our present subject. Sir John Her
schel has fixed the age of the Great
Pyramid Of Ghizeh to the middle Of
the twenty-second century b. G. The
tablet of Abydos shows that the Pha-
ronh whose bones u-o now possess sue
ceeded the builder of the Great Pyr-
amid, with only two intervening kings.
The tropical cycle has been calculated
by the Astronomer Royal at B. c.,
2005, date which comedies with
Abraham's sojourn in that country.
We are, therefore, warranted in as
suming that the remains of Pharoah
Mykerinus belong to the age to which