Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-30
The Pyramids.

They all betray the unbounded sd,
miration in which each king held his
own last resting place, and illustrate
remarkably the real nature OF the EQyp.
tian faith in life. not beyond, 10 much
~ actually in, the grave. Snoferoo
called his Pyramid the Crown" that
OF Asseskef is Refreshment;" that of
Pepi, the Lovely Place." a name
identical with that of Memphis itself
Teta, perhaps playing on his own name,
called his Pyramid 1etsefu, the a" Most
Abiding Of Places" Others are the
Rising of the Soul" the Most HOLY
Place" the GOOD Rising" the "B-an.
tiiul," the Great aud Fair" the "Pure
Place" the Place of Rest while the
monument already mentioned. of Unas,
which the Arabs Call the Mastabat 81
Pharoon, is described as the "Best
Place. and the unidentified tomb OF
Noferkara as the " abode of Life"
Such are the evidences, among others.
that to the men of that remote time-a
time variously. estimated as seven, six
and five thousand years ago--death was
not looked upon with the horror which
in later ages Invested the grave with
ideas OF gloom, and recorded rather the
despair of mourners than the rest of
the departed. Near each Pyramid was
the temple cons-crated to the worship,
or at least the honor of the sleeping
divinity of the Pharoahs The founda-
tions are still visible of such TEN pie q
near the Pyramids of Chafra, Menkau-
ra, and Raenuser. Even in the days Of
tine Ptolemies the endowments which
some of the Oldest kings had conferred
upon the priests of their shrines con-
tinued to enrich officials who after the
| lapse OF some four thousand years, per
haps, enjoyed sinecures. In these tenn
| pies. no doubt, once existed the name,
and perhaps a record. of the glorious
i deeds vi the Gionarcii buried near; but,
though ii o nameless tomb remaius in
so many cases, the temple has every
where disappeared, and writings to
which Mauetho probably had access
have been lost forever. No inscriptions
remain on any Pyramid. Herodotus
tells us Of the hieroglyphs on the Pyra-
mid of Shoofoo. He curiously observes
that they give the sum expended in
| supplying the workmen with onions
and garlic; statement from which we
may hazard the conjecture, more than
probable in itself. that the king titles
rs lord of Upper aud lower Egypt, were
engraved with the lotos, the pspyrus,
and the dubious plant, which in other
places enter 80 largely into similar in.
scriptions.
Historically speaking, the Pyramids,
apart from their antiquity, are of the
highest interest. They represent n
time of profound peace. They point
to tile existence of dominant race, and
of race which could be called on for
unlimited labor. They tell us little OF
the finer arts, in sculpture and painting
which even then tlourished. but much
of skill in engineering, quarry ing.
building US distinguished from archi
lecture, and all that could be done by
mere multitudes working together and
bringing brute force to bear on stub
born materials. Whatever Of higher
art those early kings lavished on their
" fair resting places" whatever Of por-
nature and painting. Of gold and jew
els, OF carving and ornament, OF cpl
taphs and funeral odes they could com
mand, were bestowed on the temple
| the tomb itself was vast, Solid. enduring,
but nothing more. In the aftertime,
when the kings OF the twe,fth dynasty
fought against the Northern strangers,
when Aahmes led Ibis people against
the Shepherds, when Seti I. subdued
the Hittites and his grandson pursued
Israel, when f0rtresses and treasure
| nil 1,,I 20 hxa
built on the border, We no longer hear
IT such great cairns as the Pyramids.
The tombs in the Valley Of the Kings
ut Thebes, great as they are. required
rather skilled labor than mere force.
| No vast multitude was needed to dec
crate them. The peaceful artist and
his staff worked quietly in the dark cor
riIors, while the people whose ances-
tors had heaped up the tombs OF the
older PharaOhs now followed the later
Pharaohs to the battle. field. A smaller
waste of human life than that by which
Bonaparte ruined France, would have
built him a Pyramid greater than Shoe
foo's. But the Pyramid-builders lad
neither enemies abroad nor rivals al
home. A comparison OF the different
Pyramid fields, and little research
into documentary evidence about them
bring out one fact very clearly in oppo'
sition to many theorists. The dynas.
ties under which they were erected
we're successive, not contempor'
aneous. 1t was not as their rivals,
but as their successors. that the kings
Of the fourth dynasty made their tomba
beside those of the third. and the kings
of the sixth dynasty beside those Of
the fifth. The last Mentuhotep Of the
eleventh dynasty was probably de-
scended from Snoferoo. or possibly
from Ouenephes. with as much direct
ness 60 Queen Victoria from the early
Angevin Kings or the early Athlings OF
Wesse1, s4Tt. uM.
THs WICKED WEED. Hops are
first mentioned by Pliny, the young
plants being eaten as vegetable, like
1 Id, ,nAsi kha otvfoonfh