Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-06-11

spired by woman. Where the music
of the sacred river ever fingers and it's
| restless tide flows softly, there rises alb
ruptly a mountain of stone. Here, at
Abu Simbel, the gentle Nefert-ari
dreams that only the sculptor's chisel
is needed to free the statues of her lord,
her children and herself from the en-
closing stone.
The grotto of Hathor proves that she
was right: the six recesses contain
colossal likenesses of the royal family,
while the inscription tells US the queen
his royal wife who loves him, made
for Rameses, the strong in truth, APP
proved of God, this abode in the noun
tain of pure waters"
A humble tomb in the Theban hills
tells touching story of faithful, loyal
loving constancy. Upon its wall is
portrayed a fair young wife with both
hands outstretched. and over her head
the inscription, "Welcome home
While clearing a tomb at Thebes, the
explorers were surprised to find upon
the wall the picture of a band of fe-
male musicians. Three thousand five
hundred years ago the new woman had
made such progress that she had
formed bands of her own. This young
| ladies' orchestra consisted of two
harpers, cittern, lutte, and dOuble-flute
players. Imagine the applause when
| these fair maidens plucked harp and
Lutte to accompany some singer chant
ing in Ptah's temple.
The earth-god let's his beauty grow in
| everyone,
Ptah makes of them balm for his heart
Nhen the pools ar full of water, and
| with his love the earth oerflowS."
a page from the journal of the
Superintendent of Thebes in the reign
of this Rameses III. reads singularly
like like page in one of our great
dailies. and shows how the old
proverb that there is nothing new I'M
der the SUM- applies to strikes as to
many other things. Upon the first day
of the month Tibi equal to OUR Decem-
Der q. the best working portion of the
year of course) the Workmen sent a
| deputation to the superintendent re-
| minding him that the strike had then
| been on for two months, and saying:
Behold, we are face to face with
| famine. We have neither nouriSh-
| ment. nor OIL nor VestmentS; we have
no fish; we have no vegetables; we
! have already sent petition to our
| sovereign lord, the Pharoah, praying
him to give us these things, and now
we address the governor in order that
he might give us the whereWithaI to
live" Some weeks after this they
were in full revolt. Three times they
emerged from their quarters, three
| times were the police sent after them in
pursuit, to whom they cried: go, tell
your chief what we tell you've will
not return
4 gave them the strongest answer 1
could imagine, but To argue with them
| was useless: there was great agitation,
writes the distracted superintendent in
his day-book.
Kohus was the leader Of the strikers.
and the man of the hour. Let us fail"
said he, upon the stores Of provisions
ana let the governor 5 men go and tell
him what We have done" His counsel
was acted upon as soon as given. They
forcibly entered the enclosure where the
provisions were kept, but failed to Sc
cure a great deal on account of the
guard. Eleven days later their move
ments began again. The commander Of
ThebeS, passing up, found them seated Oh
the ground holding a meeting behind the
Temple of Seti. Immediately they began
to shout out, famine, famine. The
commander gave an order for fifty meas
ures of wheat in the name of Pharaoh,
who has sworn an oath said ne, that
YOU shall have food gain" Most likely
Pharaoh never heard Of the event and
never received the petition addressed to
| him q couple of months previously.
But their dignity was appeased and
| work was resumed thankfully and the
name OF kOhus is enrolled at the head
of the list OF all labor agtatOrs, over 1900
years ago.
Strange is the story Of life Egypt tells
| to ", sculptured on monuments. planted
on the walls of temples and tombs. gath
cred by explorers from beneath the drift
ing sands of the Libyan desert. Notwith-
| standing the severity of the labor the soil
of Egypt is a land of wonders The ex-
piorer touches it with his spade and out
comes some marvellous new thing-l lost
city described by Herodotus, a papyrus
containing the oldest known copy of Ho-
mer, a record Illuminating 4 whole page
Of Jewish history. as in the case Of
the Egyptian portraits. a new
world of art
For twenty years has our work been
carried on between the periods of mum
datiOn and only a beginning has been
made in the recovery of these priceless
relics of civilization so strangely like our
own. our men and sites are doubled now
to reclaim all possible before final de-
struction snail overtake these buried
treasures of knowledge Two great dams
are nearing completion across the Mic,
one to ASSiOut, the other at ASSOuan
some 900 miles south of Cairo. The result
will be that when the $50 sluices of the
barrage are opened sufficient desert will
be reclaimed to support an additional
population Of 100000 of people.
The English have met ana solved the
problem that has veXed Egypt ever since
| Menes, the first civil engineer of the
first dynasty, turned aside the Nile from
his chosen site of Memphis by construct
ing dam of stone. For 5000 years the
problem has been 10 widen the fertile
strip of land between the river and the
desert. SfNty-one years ago Mehemet Ali
set about building a barrage to hold back
the Nile few miles south of Cairo. For
| twenty years the work of construction
| continued and then-the dam failed: only
the Rosetta half was used. and you can
see the curve in it today where the vast
. structure bent\ before the pressure of the
water. When Lower Egypt was threat
ened with destruction the barrage was
condemned and the sluices left wide open.
| In 1884 English engineers set to work
upon the abandoned dam. Since then the
cotton crop Of Lower Egypt has been
doubled and the population increased
| from 6.S1f.000 in 1882 to 1884 600 in 1897
The two great watergates at Assout and
AssOuan will do for Upper Egypt what
has been accomplished in Lower Egypt.
But this material gain will be loss to all
the rest of the world. Beautiful Philae
with its tempted ruins. its wonderful col
onnades, will sink forever beneath the
waters of the vast reservoir which will
reach back 100 miles into Nubia. Even
the temples on the main land will be eX-
posed to danger, and wherever the water