The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-03-18

such as the one proposed
1t was ,he business of the priests to carry
on this worship, and a very profitable bust
ness the 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
hess disappeared, they thought that he, too,
must be god, and so they worshiped him
among the rest. Some among the Egyp-
tians thought that the sun god died every
night when he 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 NON
sters who tried to kill him. But he al
ways conquered them, and the next NORM
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
'ising-sun god was called Hor-em-a khu,
which means in English "Horus-on-t the
horizon" The very biggest Idol they ever
made was TO represent this sun-god. II 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
than six thousand years ago, when the
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
lead than near the image of their beauti-
full sun-god. SO. year after year, the kings
and the princes and the mobiles made their
graves il the desert land And it is thus
4 hot
would find the Sphinx, If you should go
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 to look at.
Egypt does not have snow and hail ard
rain. as We do; hence its sand keeps sx-
ceedingly 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. E&ch gust of wind carries along
just as much sand as II can support, and
when anything obstructs the path of the
wind then and there the sand is dropped
and falls again TO the ground. The Sphinx
was covered with sand in the year 1918,
eighty-ore }ears ago, when an English
man named Caviglia undertook the task
of digging him out. He had heard many
interesting stories about the great Sphinx.
In book written by the celebrated Ro-
man. Pliny IL was stated that King
was buried under II. 7Catiglia desired 10
find the tomb of this King, 50 he engaged
a large number of laborers-men 10 dig
and women and children to carry off the
sand in baskets on their heads. They dug
over space of more than a hundred feet.
carrying away the sand for days, and
finally what do YOU think they found ?
Right under the chin of the monstrous
idol at the end of a long passage between
its paws they found a little temple. The
back wall OF this temple was one huge
block OF red granite covered all over with
pictures and writing.
In 1896 AN American. Colonel Raum. of
san Francisco. made another attempt 10
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 lad
been cut down into the solid rock of tbs
lions body ages ago. The bottom of has
hole was blocked up with stones The
0
TO remove them. SO he was obliged To stop
Just at the very spot where is probably
the entrance to an ancient tomb. He
cleaned out the little temple, and found
in il a piece OF the stone beard, which had
broken OFF and been buried for centuries.
And more interesting still it 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
I
seven feet long.
When the writing upon the stone which
Mr.. Cavigila found was finally deciphered.
il was learned from it 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. But
, the sand soon drifted back again, and ever
| since, though il has been several times
! dug out, the Sphinx is always being COW
| cred up by the drifting sands, and perhaps
| some day 1t will be overwhelmed and dis
| appear altogether.
| This is the story Of the great sun-g god
| Hor- EN- akhu, which We call the Sphinx
| and it, some day, you go 10 Egypt, you
can see II Cor yourself-that is, if il is not
| buried by that time.