The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-02
WORK OF EXPLORERS IN EGYPT.
Interesting Account of the Discover
les W. VI. r. Pctrie.
From the London Daily News.


w. NJ. Flinders Petrie in 1884 worked at
Tanis for the Egypt exploration fund. TO
describe the place as inaccessible would
| judging by his description, be only a
slight eXaggeration. On three sides
marshy plains stretch away as far as you
can see He builded himself house on
a mound and got to work. Besides steles,
sphinXes and monuments he found the
fragment of an S0-foot figure of Rameses
II, the toe alone being bulky as a mans
body. In the outskirts of the town he
found things that quickened the beating
of his heart. During the Roman period
an enemy came with fire and sword and
panic-stricken lady hid her trinkets of gold
and precious stones in a jar, which she
secreted in the corner of the cellar. Prof.
Flinders Peuie found them. The house
of one Bakakhuiu, a man of culture was
burnt down, and after all these thousands
of years the professor went grubbing
among the ruins. quantity of papyri
came to light but alas! it was burnt to
white ash. At this sight, he told me, his
heart ached. But suddenly he eXperienc.
ed the delicious torture of a faint hope.
one basketful of papyri was only burnt to
carbon. But carbonized papyrus Is among
the brittiest thing in the world and these
particular documents were crushed, twist
ed and squeezed together. For ten hours
Prof. Petrie intently labored in a still at
mosphere, and with the delicate touch of
a matchmaker adjusting springs. A hun
bred and fifty documents, which are now
stretched safely under his glass, were his
reward. One in his words, shows us,
for the first time, the system on which the
hifroglyphics were arranged and taught"
Another supplies geographical Information
e = So he.
ments still eWait reading.
What Prof Petrie, was your most pain
full experience"
Getting out Horuta's body at Havana"
he replied. oh, that black and bitter wa
teri and he shuddered at the recollec-
ton
This is the story: He had previously en-
tered the pyramid of Hawara-a wonder
full adventure in itself To tunnel through
the solid brickwork was the labor of many
men during many weeks. Then came the
irksome business of sliding on ones stom-
ach along passages choked with mud and
the still more irksome business of hewing
way into blind corridors and deceptive
chambers. When Amenemhat Ill. built the
pyramid. more than 1900 years ago he
took elaborate measures which he fondly
believed would fool and battle intruders
during eternity. But his majesty counted
without Prof. Petrie. However, the story
Of the bitter water has the cemetery and
not the pyramid for its scene. For nearly
three months the professors picked party
labored et some solid masonry.
They were at the bottom of a forty-foot
well in a chamber that was pitch black
when their candles were not alight Four
hundred ushabits of finest workmanship
were found, but that is a detail When at
length the sepulcher was entered it was
the work of two weeks to cut through the
lid of the sarcophagus which was under
water. Il spent some erewsOme days" said
Prof Petrie Sitting astride the collins,
and struggling to loosen them, the bitter
water up to my nose. At last the first lid
was removed. but the second was out of
arms reach in the water. Mining with the
feet proved useless, so holes Were drilled
and stout iron bolts inserted. All hands
hauled at the ropes and up came on i'm
mense black mass. Poor old Horuta's body
was towed into the light of day, and
stratghtway the professor pumped down
on his knees, and trembling with expec-
fancy, proceeded reVerently to remove the
wrappings. There was now disclosed "the
richest and most complete series of anu
let's ever seen" After that Horuta's rela-
ttVes and more funeral furniture.
1t was in the cemetery a Havana, the
professor told me, that he discovered the
wonderful series of Roman paintings, of
which some of the finest specimens are i'm
our national gallery. He also found chill
dren's rag dolls there, besides other toys
Bot what amazed me most was to learn
that wreaths of real flowers in perfect
preservation, came to light He sent
boxes of the plants to this country and
the list of ancient Egyptian botany was
doubled in consequence. At Illahun he
discovered town in addition TO balls of
thread, fishing nets, rakes, whip tops. tip
cats bow-drills for producing fire Cbefore
that no one knew the Egyptian makeshift
FOR matches) and other domestic articles of
the twelfth dynasty. Besides babies bod
les in boxes he found mummies whose
Wrappngs were reduced to sooty powder |
TO strip them he stripped himself, and
| afterward-the image Of a naked chin
ney sweep-bathed in a pond He had
sampled many periods and now he went
to Medium, bent on finding ''the begin
ming of things" After he and his work
ers had been nearly killed by falling
stones at last they got down to the tenn
pie of Seneferu, first king of the fourth
dynasty, 1856 u. c., the earliest date ever
reached. They found beautiful architec-
| ture bronze chisels stone axes and-a
draught-board! Even rheumatism was
| known in those days. The skeleton was
found of a man who had been a martyr
TO that malady, as united vertebrae prov
ed. Another man was found who had sur
fered from rickety curvature of the spine
| These evidences Of ancient diseases are
now in the Royal College of Surgeons