The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-04

eNNduSllnS lne selL-SdCllIlCes lnOuSH
missions may be of little practical ben
eft to the countries where they are To-
Gated, they develop men and women to
a high faith so pure, so true and strong
that the casual traveller leaves their
presence wondering If they be not the
immediate precursors of the millenni-
UNI. Could the Egyptian appreciate
the character of the missionary there
would be gain. But he can neither I'M
derstand nor appreciate.
OF all the ruins about Thebes, the
colossi are the most impressive and the
most interesting. Modern research has
ascertained that they stood in front of
a temple of Amenhotep III, which was
torn down by Merenptah, son and sue
cesSor of Rameses H., for material with
which to build his own temple. 1t was
while digging amid the foundations Of
Merenptah's temple that Flinders Pet
RE found the commemorative slab
which is now exciting so much discus
sion. The slab Is of black Syenite, is
over ten feet high, over five feet wide,
and over foot thick. 1t was first
erected by Amenhotep III, and was
covered with hieroglyphics setting
forth his piety, Amenhotep w. defac-
ed it, Seti l. restored it. Finally Mer-
enptah built it into one of the walls of
his temple, face first, and on its back
engraved his own praises, Among his
other exploits is specified victory of
some kind over a people whose name
in the hieroglyphics is "Ysiraal,"
which seems to come very close to Is
rael. Exactly what he, did to Israel is
not so clear. Petrie, Max Muller and
Sayce do not agree. Petrie translates
| the verse as relating to a victory of
Merenptah's in Palestine; others trans
late it as giving the Pharaoh's account
| of the Exodus. That as yet no definite
| record of the presence of the Israelites
| in Egypt has been found is a disap-
pointment to Bible students and Bible
readers. But when it is considered
| that in comparison with the millions
| of Egypt and the millions of Assyria
| the Jews were a mere handful of peo-
| pie, who for the greater part of their
history We're held in vassalage by one
or the other of their powerful neigh
| bors the absence of such records Is not
extraordinary. Moreover If, as the BIZ
| BILE states the exodus was accompanied
| by a most signal overthrow and de-
struction of Egyptian forces the alb
| sence of a record of the event is still
| less extraordinary; for no king permit
| ted the record of anything WHICH was
not to the praise, honor and glory of
his assumed divinity. The supposition
| that the Israelites were a tribe of the
| Hyksos invaders, and were driven out
with them, is plausible attempt to
reconcile the facts of the Bible with
the facts which have so far been re-
vealed by Egyptian inscriptions. 1t
must be remembered that Egyptology
is in its infancy, and that every day is
bringing to light new facts to make the
past more clear, more exact.
| The two colossi standing alone amid
| the ruins of Thebes are most impress
| sive. They affect one as do the pyra-
| mids and the sphinx. They seem as if
| waiting for return of the glories of
| the past, to resume their duty of guard
| ing the sacred temple of their king
| The enemies of Egypt in their hatred
have battered till there is little resem-
blance left to humanity. Still the stat
ues keep their place, like the Roman
sentinel at Pompeii, faithful to duty till
| destruction shall overtake them The
| north statue, the one to the right in
the view, is the far-famed vocal statue
of Memnon, which gave out plaintive
| sound when the rays of the rising sun
| first touched it. The statue was thrown
down by an earthquake in the year 81,
and was subsequently repaired by the
Roman emperor septimius Severus.
| The fact Of &c
| seems to have been noticed about the
| beginning of our era. Strabo, the geo
| grapher, who must have been in Egypt
during the first years of the first cen
tury if not earlier, visited Thebes, and
distinctly heard the sound, but he does
not appear to have been satisfied that
it was not produced artificially by some
one concealed within the statue. 1t
would seem, however, as if there must
| have been some sound at the outset to
start the story, and to have suggested
its fraudulent continuance. Tt is GER
tainly more romantic to believe that
the statue did resound, and in the
cause of romance let the belief be
held The vocal Memnon is covered,
| wherever the hand of man can reach,
with autographs. bits of poety, obser-
vations, CALCULATIONS. and all other evil
dences of notoriety-s seeking idocy. Some
of these graffiti go back many centu-
ries
The tombs of the kings are up in the
hills back of Deir-el-Bahri There is
very steep path directly up to them
from DER ell Bahri, and a longer and
less arduous path around byKurnah.
Each path will reach to the most DESC
| late region imaginable, of which the
view not only gives a faint notion, but
| also shows how the rocks were cut
down to form entrance ways to the
tombs, very much as the rocks were cut
at Benz Hasan, except that here the
tombs are apart: and no two have ex-
actly the same direction. Another and
a great difference between these tombs
and other Egyptian burial places is,
that there is no main hall as at Benz
| Hasan, or at the more modern masta-
bas at Sakkara 1t may be that each
| king who was buried in one of these
tombs had his temple In the valley be-
| low, where We're performed the funeral
sacrifices. and where We're held the fun
| eral services and banquets.
The tombs are tunneled down into the
! rocks for hundreds of feet, with pas
sage ways and chambers blocked at in
| terVals by enormous stones intended TO