The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1886-09-23
SKETCH.
PHARAOH ON EARTH.

There is something startling in
the idea of looking upon the actual
body of man who lived over 5000
years ago, but when that man is one
famous in the Old Testament, the
identical Pharaoh who made life a
burden for the IsraeIites, the marvel
is increased a hundredfold. Yet a
few weeks ago, in the Boulak mu-
scum, in Cairo, the body of the ia
nous Pharaoh (Rameses II. was re-
yealed to living eyes, as was that Of
his father, Seti 1. That, after
thousands of years, the faces retain
so much expression as they do is but
proof what perfection the Egyptian
EN- balmers had attained. Their art
is lost. The known facts relating to
the two mummies are as follows:
Five year ago some thirty mum
mics of ancient Egyptian Kings,
Queens, Princes and Princesses were
found heaped together at the bottom
of a subterraneous, rock-cut sepul-
chre in the western part of Thebes.
These hidden royalties included
nearly all the most famous sover-
eigns of no less than five Egyptian
dynasties, there being between the
most ancient and the most modern
among them an interval of at least
$50 years. That is to say, the most
ancient Pharaoh there found occu-
pied place in history dating about
a century and isalf previous to b.
G. 1902, the period assigned to the ex-
pulson of the Hyksos Invaders and
the end of the war of independence,
while the most modern may be reck-
oned as having lived and died about
b. c. lilo. Transported from The
hes to Cairo, the mummies, Kings
and Queens and their belongings
now occupy a spacious hail called
"The Hall of Royal Mummies," and
the strange story of their discovery
has been told and retold in all the
languages of Europe and read in
every quarter of the globe.
About chronologically midway in
the historical period represented
within the walls of "The Hall of
Royal Mummies," lived, reigned and
died the two famous Eharaohs men,
toned in this. article. Seti L., accord.
ing to Marinette's estimate, came to
the throne in B. G. 1855. He was
the second King of the great Nine
teenth dynasty, and he reigned for
the space of 81 years. His son,
Rameses H., who administered the
government for many years before
the death of the old king, succeeded
to the double crown about B. G. 14O4,
and reigned thenceforth for 67 years.
Between them, in short, this father
and son luled the land of Egypt for
no less a period than 118 years.
After an undisturbed repose of
five years in their glass cases at the
Boulak museum, these two royal
mumEaies, with several of their il
lustrious companions, have recently
been unrolled by Prof. Maspcro and
his assistants. The mummy of
Seti 1. was unbandaged the 9th day
of the same month.
Seti l., son of Rameses l., and Sec
ond Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dy-
nasty, Was great military hero,
magnificent builder, and a prom otter
of the arts. He lead his victorious
armies against the Phenicians, Syr-
ians, and Sinatic tribes Of the East
against the Lybians of the West, and
against the Philippians of the South.
He built the famous Hall of Columns
in the great Temple of Karnac, the
most magnificent structure of its
kind ever erected by the hand of
maa. He founded the beautiful
Temple of Goorneh in Western The
bes, and his tomb, in the Valley of
the Tombs Of the Kings, discovered
by Balzoni in 1915, is-for extent, de-
sign and beauty of executlon-by far
the finest rock-cut sepulchre in
Egypt. This kings beautiful ala
baster sarcophagus is preserved in
Sir John Soane's Museum IN Lin
coins Inn Fields. Setl 1. is repre-
sented by contemporary artists as a
singularly handsome man, and the
mummy shows that the sculptures
which line the walls of his tomb and
adorn the hale, of his temples did not
fattsr him. So fine face, with fea-
lures so delicately cut, and 50
we'll preserved, and so pleas.
antly expressive of serenity and
intelligence, has never, according to
Prof. Maspero's official report, been
seen in a state of naturalization
within the walls of Boulak Museum.
An extraordinary interest attaches
to the person of Rameses IL, the
third king of the nineteenth dynasty.
Not only is he the great monarch
celebrated by Greek historians under
the name of Sesostris, not only was
he The most lavish and magnificent
builder-king that the world ever saw,
but he was, almost undoubtedly, the
Pharaoh whose daughter adopted
Moses, and who in later years OPP
pressed the Hebrew colonists, and
"made their lives bitter with hard
service in mortar and in brick, and
in all manner of service in the field.
This Identification of Ramesas IL
with the anonymous Pharaoh of the
first and second chapters of Exodus
was long since demonstrated on his
torical and chronological grounds by
the late eminent French Egyptolo.
gist, the Vlcomte E. de Rouge