The times., 1900-03-18

It was the business Of the priests to carry
on tins worship, and a very profitable bust
ness they made Of il, too.
When the Egyptians saw how beautiful
and bright the sun was and how at his
rising each morning the ugly black dark
ness disappeared, they thought that he, too,
must be q god, and so they worshiped him
among the rest. Some among the Egyp-
tians thought that the sun god died every
night when ne set in The west and came
to life again the next morning; others be-
lieved that he spent the night hours fight
ing against evil spirits and horrible mon
sters who tried to kill him. But ne al
ways conquered them, and the next morn
ing there he was in the east again. and
rose anew. as bright and beautiful as ever,
to give light and warmth to the earth.
The Egyptians had many names for their
sun-god, among these, one for the rising
sun, one for the midday sun, and one for
the sun when he set in the west. This
-isng-sun god was called Hor-em-skhu
which means, in English, "HCrus-on- the
horizon" The very biggest Idol they ever
made was 70 represent this sun-god. 1t is
what We call the Great Sphinx of Gizeh."
No one knows who made this Sphinx, or
when It was made; but in all likelihood.
il was already there IN the desert more
y
first King Of Egypt whom We know any
thing about ruled over the country.
The Egyptian people thought they could
not have any better place to bury their
dead than near the image Of their heauti
ful sun god. So year after year, the kings
and the princes and the mobiles made their
graves iE the desert land. And it is thus
in the midst of a great cemetery that you
would find the Sphinx, il you should 20
now to look at him.
Now. the burial ground in which the
Sphinx is was the cemetery Of Memphis,
and it stretched for forty miles along the
river Nile In il there were over sixty
pyramids. which are the big tombs built
by the kings The mobiles and the princes
also built very large tombs, the walls OF
which are covered with colored pictures.
very beautiful 10 look at
Egypt does not have snow and hail and
rain. as We do; hence its sand keeps ex-
ceedngly dry and powdery. Often there
are terrific gales Of wind. and then the
sand is whirled along through the air in
such quantities that il is worse for peO-
pie TO be out in than a rainstorm or snow
storm Each gust Of wind carries along
just as much sand as IL can support and
when anything obstructs the path Of the
wind thcn and there the sand is dropped
was covered with sand in the year 1918,
eighty-upe years ago, when an English
man named Cavglia undertook he task
Of digging him out He had heard many
interesting stories about the great Sphinx.
in d hook written by the celebrated RO-
man. Plmy. il was stated that King
was buried under II. Catislia desired t5
find the tomb Of this King, 50 he engaged
a large number OF laborers-men TO dig
+I.F1
sand In baskets on their heads They dug
over a space Of more than . hundred feet
carrying away the sand for DAYS. and
finally what do YOU think they found?
Right under the chin Of the monstruus
idol AZ the end Of a long passage between
its paws they found Httle .temple. The
back wall of this temple was one huge
block Of red granite covered am over with
pictures and writing.
in 1896 an American. Colonel Raum. of
san Francisco, made another attempt to
uncover the Sphinx and find the buried
King With the help Of a hundred Arabs
men and boys. he dug out the rubbish from
a hole about forty feet deep, which had
been cut down into the solid rock of the
lions body ages ago. The bottom Of this
hole was blocked up with stones. The
Egyptian Government would not allow him
TO remove them. so he was obliged 20 stop
just at the very spot where is probably
the entrance to an ancient tomb. Tie
cleaned out the little temple and found
in il piece of the stone beard which had
broken of and been buried for centuries
And more interesting still il was to find
"a part OF the royal crown. This stone
crown was gigantic. 1t was ten feet across
and about fifteen or twenty feet high and
fitted into hole in the head by a stem
seven feet long.
When the writing upon the stone which
Mr.. Cayigila found was finally deciphered
it was learned from 1t that King Tehuti-
mes " had built this little temple in the
first year Of his reign, more than three
thousand years ago! Upon the stone he
had engraved in big hieroglyphics the
whole story Of his hunting expedition his
dream I'm the shadow OF the chin, and
the command OF the god. And. of course
he must have cleared away the sand else
he could not have set up the stone. Bat
the sand soon drifted back again, and ever
since. though il has been several times
dug out, the Sphinx is always being Gov
cred up by the drifting sands, and perhaps
some day it will be overwhelmed and dis
appear altogether.
This is the story Of the great suns god
Hor en- -akhu, which We call the Sphinx:
and if, some day, you 30 10 Egypt, you
can see H. for yourself-that is, If it is not
buried by that time.