The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-02-17
LAND OF THE PHARA0HS
Continued from First Page3


 to view without a. auickening of the pulse, shortening of the breath, a ten sloh or the muscles, a straining of the eyes, fever of expectancy and won der of anticipation.
 What will think of of them? How Will they impress me? No human be- Ing can be so stolid as not to be moved to expression, loud, individual and ir- fepressible. Huge solidifed, phan- tom or the past; mighty myths of stone; can it be that they are real to sight, to approach, to contact!
 Manetho was an Egyptian priest Who lived about 275 B. C., during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and who was employed by the king to translate the historical hieroglyphic inscriptions or temples. His chronicles have been lost but sufficient extracts occur in the works of Iesephus and early Christian writers to make out list of dynastles in chronological order The first king of the first dynasty was Menes, The two great questions are, first, when did Menes reign; second, are all of Mane- tho's dynasties in sequence, or are some or them contemporaneous If in se- quence, then, according to Marietti, Menes reigned over five thousand years before Christ. This would make him a thousand years older than Adam, and perhaps contemporary of the Eosau- rians or the Troglodytes. Mariette's conclusions are not accepted by the Germans or the English. The great Psychologists of the day are the French Maspero, facile princeps; the Germans, 'r,,,a LNt1c iS r Renouf, Budge and Flinders Petrie. All these are questioning the accuracy of Varieties conclusions. When Menes as- sended the throne Egypt was already civilized nation; as highly civilized as any of the nations of a far less remote antiquity, of which there are records. The hundred, and may be thousands of years of growth from barbarism had passed Rudeness had disappeared; po- litical principles had been established; society had been well ordered; laws were enforced authority was recognized and revered; the gods were honored and obeyed. The mind becomes con- fused in it's efforts to apprehend the an- tiquity that must have preceded so complete civilization. While other nations present myth or vague tradi- tion, Egypt shows facts; existing doc uments; contemporaneous works of art, The kings of the fourth and fifth dy nasties were the pyramid builders It is known that Shufee, Chafra and Menku- ra of the fourth dynasty were the builders of the great pyramids. Wheth- CT the lesser pyramids came before them or after them, or both before them nd af a nf t1a EpVnti9n questions which await further research for solution. It seems reasonable to suppose that the lesser preceded the greater; as effort and trial precede suc- cess
 After the fifth dynasty terrible and incomprehensible cloud settles down upon the fortunes of Egypt. Art degenerates civilization wanes, anarchy prevails. From the sixth to the twelfth dynasties, period of 700 years, thick darkness, perplexing uncertainty, and paucity of facts baffle Investigators. Suddenly up the river bright light be- gins to glow, and a new and flourish ing period begins with the Osirtasius and the Anenenlhas of the twelfth dy nasty.
 Just how far along the early Egyp- tians were in mechanical contrivances for moving masses is another of the questions to which only vague answers can as yet be given. If you could have quiet and freedom from the molesta- ton of importunate Arabs now would be the time to sit down and read half a dozen chapters from the second book of Herodotus, beginning with chapter 124 Fail not to read the chapters either before or after your visit. That one hundred thousand men were en- ployed at a time and relieved every three months by hundreds of thousands and that it took all of them ten years to build the preliminary causeway lead ing up from the valley of the Nile, along which the stones were hauled, is a large statement, and it may be an ex- aggeration. If not too large or lazy, you will undoubtedly be siezed with a desire to ascend. It is not so difficult as it looks, and might be made easy by leading a spiral pathway. I asked the old shiek, who seemed to be the chief of the pilferers, why such a path was not made. Because there's more mon ey In the pyramid as it is he replied, You have to pay the old thief so much for each assisting Arab, and each as- sisting Arab is allowed to get out of you in addition all he can by straight forward begging, by insolent demands or by downright threats. There is no place on the face of the earth where begging is so near to highway robbery. From the top of the pyramid the view to the west stretches over the desert as far as the eye can reach, which Is not very far, for the air is full of fine and befogging sand. The view to the south west and of the second pyramid is fine and repays the ascent. You see it from top to bottom, but you get no idea of its size because there is nothing with which to compare it. About the imme- diate top of the second pyramid the casing stones still adhere. The Arabs have not yet extended their depreda- tions to the scond pyramid, so no one ascends, though it is but very little smaller than the great pyramid Some where on the way down you will stop to see Cairo. If the day be the ordinary day you will hardly be able to see anything but the causeway. You may possibly make out the minarets of the mosque of Mehemit Ali within the cita- del When you finally reach the bot tom and dismiss the Arabs with large rauards the next question is Will VOL