The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-03-20
TREASURES OF KINGS
Uncovered by Explorers in Mashon-
aland's Ancient Mines.
Rare Antiquities Which May Have
Belonged to King Solomon
Vast stores of Gold and
! Diamond DIS Found.

King Solomon secured most of his
treasures, is believed by DIR. Carl Pc
tiers, the German scientist, to be To-
Gated in Mashonaland, in South Africa,
where he has been making some ex-
plorations. Here are huge shafts of
'disused gold mines, great walls of gil
gantic stones, and hills terraced for
irrigation hundreds of feet up from
the valleys.
Few questions have been more de-
bated than the location of this Won
derful treasure land. Many who are
well qualified to judge put the land OF
Ophir in India. A resident in the
Wynaad, in southern India, recently
asserted that he emphatically differed
from DR.. Peters. Having washed gold
in its rivers, dug silver on its hills,
hunted elephants in it's forests, and
captured apes and peacocks in the
same locality, he was perfectly certain
of the identity of the Wynaad with
Solomon's land of Ophir, says the Chi
cago Tribune.
The vast stores of gold and diamonds
already taken from the mines of South
Africa give much weight to the claims
of DR.. Peters, and are evidence of the
enormous resources of the land in the
way of hidden treasure.
There is no authentic story to point
the way of the seeker in either case,
and the only hope lies in future discov-
cries to establish the claims of one
side or the other.
The mines of Ophir are shrouded in
the same mystery as hangs over the
lost Atlantis, which has been held to
be the location of the Garden of Eden.
Atlantis in itself is one of the great
est mysteries known to the historian.
Every race that lived around the Med
iterranean held the belief that some
where to the west of the Pillars of
Hercules (Gibraltar) there existed a
vast island in the ocean Plato men,
tions it as having been ingulfed by the
waves 5000 years before his time. The
extraordinary similarity between the
remains found in the peninsula of Yu-
catan, in Central America, with those
SO we'll known in Egypt, lends weight
to the tradition. 1t is supposed that
both the Egyptians and the ancient
people which preceded the Aztecs of
Mexico were descended from a race
which once inhabited Atlantis.
Geological researches prove that
such an Atlantic continent did once
actually exist, and that the Canary is
lands are its remains. But the geolo-
gists say that this continent persisted
IN tertiary times, and cannot, there.
fore, have ever been the home of civil.
lied man. 1t is possible that fresh
dredgings in the bottom of the Allan.
tic on the site of the lost continent
may throw more light on this uues-
ton, upon which there already ex-
lst over a dozen different volumes.
Although it is fairly certain that the
tower of Babel stood somewhere near
the present ruins of the city of
Babylon, its actual site is quite uncer-
tain. Some say it is the Birs Nimroud.
great pile whose remains still rise
153 feet above the plain. Sir Henry
Rawlinson found that this consisted
OF seven stages of brickwork. all of
different colors. Others put the tower
at Amram, some ten miles away, and
there are two or three other possible
sites.
Mention of Babylon brings to mind
the Babylonish captivity, and the
extraordinary disappe arance of the
len Tribes after they had been car
ried off by Sargon in 721 B. C. They
have been identified with the Sacae, or
Scythians, who a little later swept
westward into northern Europe and
were supposed to be the forefathers
OF the SaXons, who ultimately colon
lied England. But there is absolute
ly no proof either that the lost tribes
became the Scythians, or that the lat
ter were the progenitors of the Saxon
colonists of Britain
Britain has her mysteries. Who
built that giant stone circle at Stone
henge is one of them. Its origin has
been attributed to- the Belgae, the
Phoenicians, the Druids, the Danes
and the SaXons. Some have said that
it was erected to commemorate the
treacherous murder of the British
chiefs by Hengist. 1t has been called
a temple of the sun, shrine of Bud
dha, center of serpent worship, and q
calendar in stone. Lord Avebury as
signs it to the bronze age. Recent re-
searches go to prove that its age is
enormous. Long before Solomon's tenn
pie was built it is probable that the
double circle of sarsen stones stood
dim and silent in the center of Sails
bury plain, a monument to some for
gotten chieftain whose name and race
persisted thousands of years ago.
Arthur's seat, Arthur's oven and Ar
thurs head commemorate the name of
one whom we are fond of considering
the first of our great British mon
archs. But did King Arthur ever ex-
list at all is question which has been
lately troubling the heads of histo-
rians and antiquarians. He is said to
have lived in the sixth century A, d..
and to have led the British in a great
contest against the Saxons under Ger
die. The Saxon chronicle, however.
never mentions him at all. He is
claimed as prince by countries so
far apart as Cornwall, Brittany,
Wales, Cumberland and the lowlands
of Scotland. The stories of the Round
Table, of the wizard Merlin, and of
the Quest of the Holy Grail are known
to be romances pure and simple. 1t
seems likely that Arthur, too, was a
mere legendary personape