The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-06-15
EG YPTIAN EXCA VATIONS.
Mr.. Oliver Wendell Hslmes Contributes to
the Fund for Exhuming Mummies.

Mr.. Oliver Wendell Hslmes Contributes TO
the Fund for Exhuming Mummies.
A London cable SPECIAL to the Herald
saws: Mr.. Oliver Wendell Holmes has
written a letter to the Rev. Mr.. Winslow.
of Boston, the explorer OF ZoaD, in which
he encloses IS for the Egyptian Explora-
ton Fund. Mr. Holmes, in his letter,
says: "The exploring spade has furnished
the tribes OF mankind with water, coal,
iron, and gold, and Is now giving them
historic truth, the mines OF which have
never been opened until our times. IL
seems to me that the whole Christian and
the whole Hebrew world should be as much
interested in the excavation OF Zoan as the
world was In that OF Troy, Nycena, or
Assos. My guinea-hen doesn't lay as many
golden eggs us the more prolific fowls OF
some OF my neighbors. but one OF them is
at your service TO hatch spade for Zoan."
NINE OF HUMnIEs.
In the northeastern delta OF the Nile. on
the banks Of canal which connects Zaga-
zig with Lake Menzaleh, are found two
places named San-Arab San and San'el-
Hagar. San-el-IIagar perhaps the most
extraordinary spot in Egypt is city OF
the dead. 1t was once magnificent capt.
tai. more splendid in some respects than
Thebes. The canal was then noble river.
The neighboring lake was fertile plain
studded with towns and temples. Now
the city, as its name indicates, is heap OF
ruins. San-el-Hagar means "San OF the
Stones" It's ancient name was 'Tsan.
We find it so written in the hieroglyphs.
The Hebrews converted 'Tsan into
Zoan and the Greeks turned 1t INTO
Tanis. The place remained uneXplored
till the late Marietta Pacha, with
small means and few men, first attacked the
site OF the principal temple in 1861. From
time to time, when few hundreds OF
francs could be spared from other enter
prises. he continued the work, and his e1-
forts were rewarded by the discovery OF q
vast treasure OF broken obelisks, sphinXes,
shrines, architraves, columns, and statues
OF gods and kings. Some few OF these
statues (most notably those attributed by
Mariette to the Hyksos period) have been
transported to the Boulak Museum. Some
have found their way to the Louvre. The
rest, in countless profusion, yet lie as when
first unearthed; heads, trunks, giant limbs,
scattered, piled, overthrown, like battle
ground OF Titans turned to stone. Thus
Mariette left the scene OF his labOls, and
thus il has remained ever since his death.
Such is the site which the Egypt EXplora-
ton Fund NOW in the second year OF its
existence), after some negotiation with the
Egyptian Government, has undertaken to
explore. Mr.. Flinders Petrie is engaged
IL prosecuting the excavations.
SECRETS OF PAST AGES.
The prophesled Pompeii has begun to
Weld up lis buried treasures and the ne
cropolis its buried dead. The remains OF
a new temple OF Ptolemaic date have been
identified, antiquities OF various descrip-
tons have been turned up in considerable
numbers, and last, not least, Mr.. Petrie's
laborious examination OF tie building ma
terials employed bv successive kings in the
construction OF the great wall, the second
wall, and the pylon has brought 10 light an
unsupported mass OF reworked stones OF
all periods, each stone a fragment torn
from page Of history. Obelisks, statues,
and historical tablets prove to have been
cut I'D into lengths, dressed down and
built IN with as little ceremony as though
they were blocks fresh from the quarry.
Some OF these destroyed Obelisks are pa
limpsests in stone. They date from the
important times OF the eleventh and twelfth
dynasties and were originally covered from
top to bottom on all four sides with iDscrip-
tons deliberately engraved in small hero
glyphs about one inch in length. Mr.. Pc
trie finds that these inscriptions were eff
faced by Rameses H.. who reengrayed the
surfaces with his own titles and cartouches
cut on large scale. Finally, some three
centuries later. q Sheshonk or an OsOrk0n,
with sacrlegious rerkessneSs worthy OF
a Turkish pacha, hewed them in pieces to
build a wall and a gateway. The historical
stela-apparently uniform series OF large |
size-are found in halves, none OF which |
match, but their legends seem to have been |
already corrOded and eligible when they |
were thus utilized. The other halves |
must either have been destroyed or are yet |
mbedded in the structure. But OF all Mr. !
Petrie's discoveries the most startling thus |
far il not archaologicaly the most valua- |
BILE, is that OF the cut up colossus Of Ra- |
meses III. Several fragments have been |
found--an ear, toe, pieces OF an arm, part |
OF the plaster which supported the statue |
up the back, and part OF the breast, on |
which are carved the royal oyals.