The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1874-06-24

: briefly with their ancient enemy, ceas
d ed on either side. II was so difficul
? for the horses to climb the last slop
: that we dismounted and walked 4
| the northern base of the great pyra
: mid, on the top Of which little ia.
{ was futterirg, and two or three darl
: forms were perceptible The mOderI
house, built by the Khedive for tn,
) reception Of his royal and imperial
: guests, offers to all visitors the adTan
3 tage Of shade and cold steps TO 81
: Ton. A crowd of feIlahs was in at
: tendance, eager to help US up and
/ down, to climb both pyramids in ter
minutes, or to sell US modern scara
. bei. They are now, however, a much
: better behaved race than formerly
L Nearly all of them have a fair smat-
tering Of English, their demands are
, regulated BY custom, and if the trav-
eler chooses one as an inevitable
guide and protector, he escapes much
annoyance from the others.
i | had no desire to make the ascent
a second time. although il was well
worth doing once. A crawl into the
/ hot and sitting interior can only be
recommended by the areheoIogist.
| The grand, simple masses built BY
i Cheops and Cephrenes satisfy both
the eye and imagination when viewed
from below, a few hundred yards from
base. The best point, / think, is a
sandy mound beyond the sphinx,
whence you get the exact view given
in enc of Carl Warmers wonderful
aquerelles.
| / found the sphinx buried under
ten or fifteen feet more Of sand than
when / saw him last. The face was
evidently intended to be seen from
below, for its expression becomes
almost grotesque when the spectator
is brought so near its level About
eight years ago NJ. Mariette, discov-
cred very ancient temple Just be-
yond it, and this, although lying
wholly below the surface Of the desert,
has been kept tolerably clear Of the
drifting sand. l have seen nothing
in Egypt which is so old as this tenn
pie. It is built mainly Of rose colored
granite, the pillars simply square
monoliths, roofs and doorways Of
the same, and no signs Of inscrip-
tons or decorative sculptures. It is
certainly older, (and who shall say
how much older p than the pyramids.
In some sepulchraI chambers lying
back of the pillard court the roof is
made of huge blocks of alabaster.
The whole edifee, in its bare and
massive simplicity, suggests Stone
henge rather than the later architec-
ture Of Egypt.
A small fee opened for Us one Of the
lower rooms of the Khedive's house,
and we lunched in coOlness and quiet.
By this time several other parties had
arrived from Cairo. Parties were
lunehing on the cold steps, bargain
ing for some modern scaraboei, stroll
ling towards the sphinx with a crowd
of Arabs at their heels, or climbing
the steps of the great pyramid with
many an awkward straddle, showed
from below and pulled up from above
There were tweed coats, eyeglasses,
canes, chignons, fans, psrasols-but
let not the romantic reader suppose
that the sublime repose of the old
egyptian world was in the least preju-
diced BY these objects They were
bat as driftwood or seaweed, surging
around the base Of mightier natural
pyramids, along the shores Of Norway
or Maine. One is carried so far
baek-set in the presence Of such
imperious human will and unhinder-
ed power-tbat the real and far more
permanent greatness of our age fades
away. and its careless representatives
become, for the time, mere stingless
insects, that hum and buzz for few
minutes, to be carried away BY the
next breeze. Nol you might pack
billiard rooms; lager beer saloons,
cafes chaatdats, stockholders Offices
and free trade leagues around the
pyramids, hold political meetings with |
speaker standing on the sphinx's
head, or make the advtum of the old
temple below resound with revival
hymns, and you could not diminish j
the impression which these wonderful 1
monuments exact and compel you to
feel. 4 death faith-a lost race-a
forgotten power--a half recovered
history-names and glories and /
supreme human forces become as
shadow-yet what tremendous over
whelming records they have LETT be-
hindl
AsI rested in the shade looking
up to the grey pinaeles, SO foreshort-
ened By nearness that much of their 1
actual height was LOST, yet still indis-
cribahly high, / could think of but
one thing; We emust have q new ehre-
nology OF man. There, before me
the Usher Mosaic was not antedated,
but previous growth, Of long uneer-
tain duration, was made evident
There, in stones scattered about the
desert, were inscriptions cut long be-
fore any tradition Of Hebrew, Sanscrit,
Phenician or Greek-elear intelligi-
Die words, almost as leeible to modern
as those ofa stream Of the
past lights up darker living Ian
yuages. This one long, unhroken
historic aspirations on all sides,
sweeps Us, with or without our viii,
% a new aud wonderful backward /
starting point. OF course, the learn
ID in all countries are familiar with
III our recently acquired knowledge
IN this point: but is it not time to
make it the property Of the people
.verywhere-to discard the 0nmanIy
ear that one form Of truth can ever
larm any other forul-to reveal anew,
through the grandeur Of mans slow
development. the unspeakable gran
ieur of the Divine Soul BY which it
$ directed 2
! would not venture to say that
wen the English tourist who address
d me with; as there-aw-any-
hing particular to see here ~ was
lot touched somewhere in the roots
# his externally indifferent nature
- q a.