The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1897-11-23
AN EGYPTIAN ELIXIR
BY A NJ. EASTMAN.

copyright. 1897, by the Author.l
Thou couldst tell us, II that lcathoru tongue
Could tell what those dim, sightless eyes
have seen,
How tho world looked when 1t was fresh and
young
And the greA. deluSo still had left 1t green.
Horace Smith.
L had been exploring a large rock
tomb in the vicinity Of Karnak for q
number Of weeks in tho summer of l8-.
1t was q comparatively old discovery,
but owing to tho remarkable character
Of the tomb l had thought it well worth
my while to CLEAN for such details as
might have escaped the notice of earlier
visit ors.
Tho opening to the sepulcher, acct
dentally discovered, consisted Of a
straight passage, barely permitting Of
the entrance Of Il single individual at q
tine upon his hands and knees. It's sides
were Of red granite, beautifully pol
ished, which glittered dazzlingly in the
light of the explorers torch. This en-
trance ran straight back into the hill
for q distance Of some 200 feet, when it
suddenly opened upon n large vaulted
room Of circular form, from which there
branched numerous galleries Of good
proportions, leading to other chambers,
In which had been found many sar
cophagi, mummies and mummy cases,
one of the sarcophagi being supposed to
be- that Of ThOthmos III, tho most glori-
Gus monarch Of Egyptian history, who
erected the obelisk now in Central park,
though no mummy had been found
within it.
The walls Of the passages and cham
bers were, like those of all of the grand
or Egyptian tOmbs, decorated with nu-
merous spirited paintings, the bright
colors of which still shone as fresh and
1ustrous as If they had been laid on but
yesterday. 1t was in this mysterious
abode of death that l had been long en-
gagged, copying inscriptions and paint
1ngs, searching for new passages aud
re-examining the old ones, with an en-
thusiasm which only an ardent Egyp-
tologiSt can experience.
l had at length nearly finished my
Investigations, and, in fact, the day Of
which am about to speak was to have
been my last in the tomb, there re-
naming but II picture to copy, and
that upon the wall of a remote gallery.
Accordingly, at about noon l found
myself before the picture in question,
palette in hand, surrounded by a group
OF fellahs in my employ, the Pickering
light of whose torches gave their SOM
Der faces a sufficiently Dantesque ex-
PRESTON.
The picture l was copying was of a
very common type, representing n train
of long haired captivos defling before q
king whom | supposed to be Thothmcs,
but as the hieroglyphics connected with
the picture were very obscure this
would take some time to determine.
While painting away in~dustriously and
sometimes reduced almost to despair in
my attempts to mix colors as bright as
those before me, I noticed that the
paint had blistered or peeled off g
little just at the point of the kings
nose. AS / had never noticed paint
scaling from other pictures, 1 got up tc
examine the place. Taking hold of O
projecting scale, l gave it q slight pull,
when, to my surprise, perhaps a square
foot Of the paint came away, revealing
the granite wall behind, and in thai
wall a seam or joint.
With a cry of pleasure I tore, pried
n dug the paint away for q distance
of some feet and disclosed the outline
OF a door or passageway which had beer