The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1904-01-14
INNEsoTA. THURSDAY. JANUARY IA, 1904

AIRY IA, 1904.
young man Of varied experience, and
the best diplomat in the world. The
other members Of our company are
specialists In their respective fields Of
antiquarian research. Our first step
toward the grand undertaking for the
achieyement of which we, thanks to
your munif'cence, are resolved to do or
die, was to persuade the powers that
be, from the Khedive down to the chief
of few wandering bedouins, to grant
us permits to dig. 1t is always best to
pay cash for concessions of this kind,
and Mr.. Smooth, my secretary, managed
to wheedle concessions from all who
had the power to grant them, and from
some three or four hundred local dig
nitaries who think such power reposes
in them, for about one-third the
amount it will cost ali ordinary person,
namely $123, ,49O. These concessions
gave us the right to dig where we
pleased, and to what depth we pleased.
"Our next step was to discover
lingering traces Of the old, cid legend
of the King and the Beggar Maid. You
may think that this was waste of
time; but If SO, you are mistaken. /
divided our company into five parties,
and instructed them to make diligent
inquiries-each party within limited
district the old story we
had come to unearth. I doubted not
but somewhere in Egypt and Nubia my
men would discover evidences not only
of the story itself but also Of the loca-
ton of the city that was the capital OF
the renowned and unconventional king.
Mr.. Smooth and myself formed the
sixth party, and we took the Nile valley
as our own territory. This systematic
search required much time and monay,
but the end justified the means.
awe learned from an sntiquary at
Cairo that he had often heard the story
of the King and the Beggar Maid from
the lips Of his grandfather, who was OF
pure Egyptian blood, and we'll versed
in the ancient lore of his people. He
advised us to confine our Investigations
to that part Of the Nile valley situated
between the first and the second cata-
racts. One of our parties tarried few
days at Coptish monastery, while OH
their way to Suakin. An old monk
upon being questioned, volunteered the
information that an allusion to the
king and his city could be found in one
Of tho sermons Of st. Inrim, who died
about the year 26O of the Christian era
and some of whose sermons had been
preserved, aud were at that time stored
away with records and sayings Of other
saints in cell to which only the abbot
had access. The abbot was approached
and tho obdurate at first, his heart
softened after his hand had been crossed
one hundred times with golden sover
eigns. The sermon was found. 1t wa.
about five yards long, and dealt chiefly
with the vanity and wickedness ol
those in high places. The one passage
of interest to our party denounced
king B'Um-Rel of B'Um-Lsh whit
married a beggar maid to enrich him
lself.
"This bit of information reached m,
when l was at Slut, and [ at ono,
ordered Mr.. Smooth to send instruc
tions to all our parties to use all dill
gence in locating the ancient city O
B'Um-Lah. After lapse of eigh
months letter from one of our partiel
in Nubia reached me at Assuan, i'm
parting the welcome intelligence tina
the site Of the city of B'Um-Lah wa
situated between sixty and eighty mile
northeast of Wady Halfa, on the lef
bank of the Nile. Our party had OBJ
tanned this information from an oil,
. Arabian, a learned man, whom hal
befriended on one of my former ex
peditions up the Nile. Knowing hin
, to be a man whose word could be relie
: upon, at once recalled all our parties
and commenced without further della
, to concentrate our efforts upon tn
, strip of territory indicated by M
Arabian friend"
{ Gentle reader, are you tired? LIE
this console you: you amt half as tire
8 as am. But I feel for you. wi
> not affiict you with the remainin