New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-05-07

up which the stones were dragged to
build the pyramids, but the work Of con-
Sstructing an easy incline for pyramid
AGO feet high would have been tremen.
dOu1, and the materials, unless it was
built Of stone, would not have been at
hand. At present we are as far al 1
ever from solution Of this curious
problem.
The great pyramid was originally
480 feet high, and each side Of its base
measured 764 feet, dimensions slightly
reduced by its use as q quarry in later
times. The successive Muslin capitals
Of Egypt, Of which Cairo is the latest,
have been bnilt Of the monuments Of
Memphis. The city and its temples
have disappeared, and left scarcely
trace; yet the larger pyramids have
lost bnt small proportion Of their
materials, and, where there are marks
OF ruin, it is rather due to the efforts
Of explorers than to the actual removal
OF the stones from the site. Seen from
afar, on what Horace well calls their
Royal site, the vastness Of the pyramids
strikes usj as we approach them, and
begin to distinguish the courses Of
stone, this impression wanes, to return
with an oppressive force as we stand
beneath them. All other works Of man
are dwarfed by them, but it must be re-
membered that no other works Of man
occupied whole Nation, as it is al
most certain the greater pyramids did,
for one or even two generations each.
No public works save the pyramids arc
known of the Memphito Kingdom.
When true public works begin, pyra-
mids become far less costly, like that
OF the wise King who excavated Lake
M9ris.
The object Of each pyramid was to
entolnb single mummied King:
sometimes two sepulchral chambers
may point to double burial; in one
case an early monument. the third
pyramid, seems to have been enlarged
by later Sovereign; but in general
each monument seems to have been
designed for single entombment
The purpose of so vast Q labor is no
longer mystery if we may assume
that the Egyptians held the preserve
ton of the body to be essential to i'm
mortality. It is certain that all Egyp-
tian tombs were constructed under the
influence of q belief in the Immortality
of the soul. The final aim OF the pyra-
mid-builders was that each head of the
religion and State should rest securely
in these vast monuments, whose form
is type of Immortality, resting on the
solid rock, themselves solid and indie.
structible, yet pointing heavenward. It
is weakness of practical natures to
laugh with Pliny at the pyramids, as
mere monuments of human. vanity.
We forget the human weakness of per.
sonal commsmoration when we remem-
Der that the pyramids are material rec
ords OF belief In Immortality, the
Oldest and most enduring.
OF the chapels in front of each pyra-
mid there are but scanty remains. A
priesthood was attached to each, and
we know that as late as the time of the
Saite Kings, in the sixth century B. c.,
the priesthood of some of these pyra-
mid Kings was still maintained. That
one of these is King whom Her0dotus
charges with hostility to religion, is a
curious commentary on the historians
un:rustworthiness when dealing with
matters he did not know except on the
evidence of mere gossip.
The Sphinx, true to it's character in
legend, has still riddle date
when it was carved out Of the rock.
An inscription in the name of the King
who built the great pyramid, but per-
haps recut at later time, speaks of it
as already extinct in his remote age.
1t was the symbol of the god Har-
ennakhu, HOrus in the horizon, or the
rising sun, and was thus particularly
connected with the worship of Heliop-
oils, the city of the sun, en- the oppo-
site bank of the Nile, nor far to the
nOrthward. In later times avenues of
sphinAes led to the temples. This SOL
itary sphinx has no such purpose, and
was itself worshiped, q little chapel be-
ing constructed between its forepaws.
While there is much to perplex us in
the great monuments of the pyramid
field, the lesser ones are full of fruitful
information. Around the royal man
solea lie the multitudinons sepulchers
of the subjects of the Kings of that
time. Each has its chapel, or more
rarely, chapels, decorated with great
variety of scenes of daily life, which
bring us face to face with the Egyp-
tians Of that distant age. It has Reen
thought, somewhat fancifully, that
these subjects relate to tho occupation
of the future state, but the absence of
any but the most reserved representa-
tons of funeral matters, as we'll as of
all religious pictures. forbids an alle-
gorical view inconsistent with the sim.
nlicitv Of this earlv aue
Thus, the first thing that strikes us
in these Oldest Of contemporary pict+
ures is their extreme reticence as to re-
ligion. There is a short prayer, char
acteristically not directly addressed as
in latter times to Osiris, but to Anubis,
an inferior divinity Of his family. Its
purport is simply for the welfare Of the
chief person of the tomb in the divine
underworld. We miss the appeal of
later inscriptions to the voyage up and
down the beloved river, toward which
most Of the Egyptian tombs look, to
repeat the inscribed formula for the
good of the soul of the deceased. In
the tomb there is but slight indica-
ton Of it's purpose, the occasional rep
resentation of the occupant as q mum-
my. No ceremonies Of sculpture are
pictured. no passages of the :. ritual =.
inscribed. We are at an extreme limit
Of Egyptian usage in this respect, and
it is not till the end Of the monarchy
that the other extreme is usual religious
subjects having gradually won a pre-
ponderance.
Still more remarkable IS the absence
OF pictures of the King, even In tOmbs