Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1893-10-20
EGYPTIAN SARCOPHAGI
COMING.

The Egyptian government has
again marked it's friendship for the
United States, says dispatches from
Cairo. this time not by giving away
a last surviving monument of the
reign of mighty parsonage, as in
the case of Cleopatra's Needle, which
net on the part of Khedive Ismail,
will always be considered OIL the part
of Egyptians little better than sacri.
lege.
Two wears ago there was find OF
sepulchral relics in the ruins of
Thebes 30 extensive and important
as to cause the discovery to DO al.
most mn epoch in the history of treas
ure trove. Nj. GrebeIt, late Director
of Egyptian museums and excava
tions, when he made public the in
formation, caused the pulse of Egyp
tologists all over the world to bent
quicker. The relics now occupy a
court of honor in the Gheizen Muse
um, across the Nile from Cairo.
So vast was this collection that the
young Khedive Abbas and his advis.
ers decided to present some of the
articles, which might be called ''du.
plicates," to the nation across the
seas. whose people journey in great
numbers to tho Nile country and
leave no end of money in one way
and another in Egypt, and this week
the Khedive's officials formally turn.
ed over to MIR. Frederick G. Pentield,
the newly arrived American Diplo
matic Agent aud Consul General, five
cases, large enough to be houses, fill
ed with antiquities of priceless value,
and they have been dispatched to the
Smithsc nian Institution ut Washing.
ton with the compliments of coun.
try so old that an article dating back
only fifty centuries il modern"
The features of this gift collection
are six or seven elaborately inscribed
sarcophagi of wood, choice example
of Saracenic art and box 6 feet
square by 7 i'll longth. which contain.
ed when found at Thebes the mum
my of n once interesting person. for
the papyrus record proclaims her to
have been the ''great lady of Ashron,
the musician with the hand for
Maui and the great singer for the
retinue of Ammon Ra, king of the
gods. The head of this wonderful
coffin bears o representation of 30
lar disk in the arms of the goddess of
heaven. A smaller or inner coffin
portrays the deceased in the pres
ence of Osiris, prince of eternity, and
shows figure of goddess with
double head. ono ram and the 9th.
er crocodile, and the grent singer
in flesh aud blood drinking of tho
water of life from a resplendent YES
sci by a goddess. A representation
of the pillars of heaven rounds out
the tableau.
There is also the sarcophagus of
another lady singer. Ammon Rn, who
could hardly have been rival of the
''great lady," for the coffin, although
interesting in embellishments, does
not by its hieroglyphics point to any
unusual grandeur of the person it
was made for. The coffin of Amen.
hotep il interesting because he was
not only priest but famous scribe.
Least important of the other burial
cases is that of Paamen. Fully
hundred sepulchrnl articles of ornn.
ment or worship complete this unique
gift to the American people-enough
to afford New World savants mate.
rial for disputes and conflicts of
opinions for years to come as TO the
meaning of each hieroglyphic.
Mr. Penfold. the United States
Diplomatic Agent here, says the col
lection should reach New York be
fore the middle of October.