Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20
tradition of today, Abraham, the patriarch.
designed to sacrifice htE son1 Jacob.

and terrible river were based on good
grounds. They acknowledge in their re-
ports that their modern science is going to
meet with almost as gyeat a problem there
as did the science of the Babylonians; for
in the time of the annual thaws far up in
the mountains Of Kufdistan1 and Armenia
the river rises as much as eighteen feet and
tears away everything thatsis in its path.
So the olden troubles Of the vanished bridge
builders may be experienced again by the
present ones
Devil Worshipers of Today.
These railroad engineers also have en-
abled the world to learn something at last
about the mysterious sand notorious devil
worshipers of Asiatic Turkey, who dwell
in the hills east Of Mosul on the Tigris,
near the ruins of Nineyah. The Turks call
them Extinguishers of Lights. They are
Kurds, and recognize two forces only in
the world-the good and the bad. Arguing
that the good cannot do any one harm.
they worship the bad, in order to keep
solid with it. They dare not even men
ton the devil by name If they refer to
him at all. they call him THE Mighty
King" or 1.-The King Peacock"
The German explorers are making new
finds continually in the Black Hills Beyond
Babylon. A recent excavation has I'M
earthed a temple of god of physicians.
The chemical examination of Babylonian
copper and bronze articles has convinced
stood the art Of making bronze out of an
alloy of copper and antimony at least five
thousand years before Christ.
The Land Of Arab Kings.
DR.. William Helm assistant curator of
the Museum of Natural History of Vienna
and his wife have returned from daring
and adventurous trip through southern
Arabia, the land of Independent kings, who
never have recognized the rule of Turkey,
and whose names mostly are not known to
the world at all. The tour was undertaken
for the Vienna Academyo of Sciences. 1t
lasted six months and was successful
couple found themselves more than once.
The Arab tribes were extremely suspicious
and ininical, and in GiShin the ruling sui
tan finally imprisoned the explorer He
held him for weeks, evidently in the ex-
pectation of getting ransom his views of
life and liberty being as simple as those
of his ancestors so far back as he could
think With true Arabic indifferenceAhe did
not consider Mrs Helm at all, and, despis
ing her as being only woman, he allowed
her to enjoy her freedom. She used it so
well that one day warship found it's way
down the Arabian coast and the sultan
lost his prospective ransom suddenly.
During his term of imprisonment DR..
Helm worked at his notes and reports from
early morning till dark, writing them on the
clay floor of his jail
back with him are blossoms of the Tree
from which incense is obtained. 1t is found
only in the regions visited by him and its
blossoms never had reached Europe before
Amra, the Ghost Palace.
Austria has shown remarkable enthusiasm
about exploration in Arabia. Besides DIR.
Helms expedition the Vienna Academy
fitted out the expedition of a phiologist,
the Rev DR. Aois Musil, and the painter,
Hans Mielich, to explore the land OF Edom
in northwestern Arabia. In their first trip
they discovered the famous put until then,
never seen ghost palace of Amra, Whlch
the Arab caravans had made known TO
Europeans generations ago by their marvel
Gus tales According to them it was beau
tifu1 and deadly It's walls were decorated
by magnificent paintings that We're guarded
by djnns and other evil spirits OF the
desert No man ever had approached II
and lived according to the tradition. The
Viennese expedition found It,, thanks TO the
friendship of an Arab chief who turned
out to be quite the Arab of ronance-lion-
hearted, handsome, loyal ana the sou! OF
hospitality and truthfulness: so entlcihg
were the results of this tour that the two
explorers tried another trip to the unknown
desert country. But this time they were
not so fortunate with the Arap chieas. IN
Wadi-al-Butum a depressingly dl1erent
kind of an Arab pounced on them with
armed men and robbed them of all they
had. Not bit discouraged they rented as
best they could and explored the Darlas-
Gene desert with good results But they
found no more ghost palaces.
Battlefield Charts.
The Emperor of Germany is busy with
UNIQUE project that will be of value to the
historical as well as the military world.
Some time ago he dispatched Colonel Janke
and the Captains Won Bismarck, Won Pies
sen and Won Marees to Asia Minor to make
Typographical and photographed studies
and to draw up complete charts OF tne Ia
nous battlefields of Alexander the Great:
The expedition was even more SUCCESSFUL
than had been hoped for and returned with
so much material that important results arc
expected from the work, which now Is near
ing it's completion in Berlin under personal
superintendence of the emperor.
Especially good charts and pictures have
been obtained of the field OF the lssus,
where Alexander conquered Darius $50
years ago, and the battle OF the Crantkos,
where he beat the Persians year before
that.
Laws of Persia, 1000 B. c.
The French explorer, De Morgan, who
has been eXcavating in Susiana, in Persia,
has found not one buried city, but half
dozen of them, one on top of the other.
The conquerors as they succeeded each
other there had the amiable habit of destroy
ing everything and building their own city,
according to their own tastes, on the ruins.
So it happens that, as the De Morgan eX-
petition eXcavated, 1t unearthed one city
below the other. Gradually the entire lost
history of Persia was laid bare. The Do
minican Father She'll, who accompanies TINS
party as lector. now has an occupation that
will make the mouths of archaeologlsts and
historians all over the world water He dis
covered stone column that is covered with
cuneiform writings He has deciphered
enough already to know that these writings
represent laws and statutes that were pro-
mulgated in Persia one thousand years be-
fore Christ was born This will make
prize for the world when the work is I'm
iShed.
The Queen Of Sheba.
Even the stold and not easily impressed
or curious Turks have Joined the explorers
In Yemen, which is part of Arabia where
their rule really is more than nominal, so
that they can dig without danger of being
swooped on by obnoxious desert kings, the
Turks have come on the tracks of no less
parsonage than the Queen of Sheba. the
delightful lady of fashion who visited Solo
mon. The Turks have unearthed fine mar
bic tablets, uncommonly well preserved,
with vast amount of inscription dating
back SO far that the excaVators are
couraged to hope that some of them really
Will prove to be edctS of the famous queen