The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-03
SKULLS KEPT FOR CENTURIES.
HEADS THAT HAVE BEEN PRE-
SERVED FOR 4 LONG TINE.


Along with That of Jonathan
wild and Eugene Aram-Heads OF
the Pharaohs Can Now BE Seen at
Cairo-ArabS Who Discovered That
Mummies Were Very Valuable as
FueI-The Head of Cromwell Con-
ceaIed by Puritan, Until Finally
1t Received Christian BuriaI-Cru-
saders who Sent Their Heads
Home to Their sOrrOwinE Friends.
From the ST. Louis Globe-Democrat.
The news that the bones of the mahdl,
after the destruction Of his tomb at On
durham. were divided among the British
officers Of Gen. Kitchener's expedition
and that the mead of the great religious
agltator of the Dark Continent is now on
its way to the famous surgical museum
in London, has given quite a shock to the
sentimental people of Great Britain, who
conceive that more respect should be
shown human remains than was exhibited
10 those Of the fanatic, the suppression OF
whose successor cost England and Egypt
no little expenditure of treasure. AS the
story goes, after the mahdfs tomb had
been leveled TO the ground the coffin was
opened and the officers converted the
skeleton into relics, presumably dividing
them according to rank, one lieutenant, 1t
is stated. receiving a finger nail and on this
scale The colOnels should nave had femuTs,
lieutenant colonies and majors should have
been the recipients of ubiae and fibulae.
while the vertebrate and smaller bones
would naturally have fallen TO the cap
tains and subalterns
The demolition of the mahdrs monument
and the unceremonious appreciation Of his
bones by the victorious English were acts
of policy rather than of wanton wish to
acquire grewsome relics. Throughout the
entire Soudan the mahdi was regarded as
a saint of no little power. He performed
reputed miracles; he was reported TO have
given sight TO the blind and hearing 10
deaf; he caused The lame to walk and was
a healer of all sorts and varieties of all
ments TO which the colored flesh of Central
Africa is heir. His tomb was a place of
pilgrimage, and it was reported that nu-
merous miracles had been performed by
prayer within his sanctuary or by touching
the monument which rose above his coffin.
There was a belief among his followers
that after a short period of repose in the
grave he would rise IN renewed strength,
lead the armies of Islam against the in
ideis. perform the mission for which he
came, that of converting the whole earth
to the faith of Mohammed, and when tho
earth was thus purified from unbelief Mo
manned would return and rule the world
forever The most effectual method of
dspelhng this belief, in the judgment of
the English was the destruction of the
monument and remains. The great mosque
over the tomb was easily leveled, but when
the Englis'l came to consider the question
of The bones, the value of these as curios
was too manifest TO permit of their dis
ha sion
of a nahdrs metatarsus or phalange, duly
attested by certificates, will render the
happv owner an envied man among his
military acquaintances in England.
The head of the Mahdi will therefore.
become a curiosity and take its place
on a shelf of the Royal Surgical Museum
with ticket and label attached, and De
gazed upon with open-mouthed awe oy
visitors perhaps be the subject OF long
winded moral lessons or dull lines on the
vicissitudes of human life. The skull Nof
the arch-murderer of the Upper Nile Will
be in fit company, for the London collec-
ton of surgical curiosities contains al
| ready. besides many of less note, the skull
of Jonathan Wild, the famous roDber, best
| remembered from the fact that Fielding,
the leading figure of the yellow literature
of the time, wrote his biography. and De
| foe who i'm spite of Robinson Crusoe,"
was a burning and shining literary light
| with a yeuowish tinge, made him the sub
| iect of a novel;
The Mahdrs skull will keep company
with that of Eugene Aram, the knares-
| borough schoolmaster, whose very peculiar
crime attracted the attention of no less
| poet than Thomas Hood and of Bulwer
| Ivtton, the gifted novelist, who, in his ro-
nance. describes the deed, its motives
and punishment.
The travels of bodiless heads-that is,
of heads after having been separated
from the shoulders which once supported
them, do not at first glance appear 10
be matter of thrilling adventure, but there
| are not a few instances of skulls making
notable additions to the history of the in
dividuals to whom they once belonged
There, for instance, are the heads of sew
eral of the Pharaohs, which are displayed
as curios in the Egyptian museums of
| ANTIQUITIES at Cairo. The heads have sur
vived the bodies. The Arabs along the
| Nile are at present fully aware of the
| commercial value of a complete mummy,
and, therefore, regard the discovery of a
preserved body as a very valuable find,
which will keep the wolf from the door,
sometimes for many years according TO
the rank of the Individual whose mummy
is thus unearthed Only lately. however,
has the Arab mind been made to compre-
bend the fact that the mummy is Valua-
Bile possession. Formerly mummies were
prospected for, not because they could be
sold to the inhdels, but because they were
available as fuel Being preserved with
resinous substances, the muscular portions
would readily burn, and as wood has all
WAYS been scarce in the valley of the
Nile, the Arab who found mummy re-
joiced with exceeding great joy. because
he thus had a stock of fuel enough to last
for several days, The spectacle of a fe-
liah boiling durrah with the arms and
legs of a Pharaoh is a subject for poets
and moralists TO muse over, yet such a
spectacle was by no means infrequent in
former years For some reason, however,
the Arabs did not thus use the heads of
their human woodpiles; the domes of roy
al thought were sometimes replaced in the
catacombs when they came, occasionally
were hung up In the Arab huts as orna-
ments. and the discovery of several OF
the former class in their sepulchers with
the inscribed parchments and cerce cloths
testifying TO royal state enabled later