The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-06-03

| can not give the name of the Egypt
ian for the reason that all valuable
antiquities discovered in Egypt are
supposed to belong to the government,
and any one concealing an art treasure
or some document of rare value may
be severely punished. | can say this
much. however-the native from whom
| bought the papyrus assured me that
he was an honorable and truthful guide
and he gave me his personal guarantee
tnat he had removed the document
from the mummy's undergarment with
his own hands and had been waiting
for an opportunity to offer it to a tray
eler who was really a connoisseur Of
antiquities and reyerent student of
ancient languages. All this he told me
while we were out on the desert to-
gether. and after looking apprehensiye-
ly in all directions to make sure that
no human being was within three miles
of us he pulled a tin cylinder from I'M
der his robe and carefully removed
from 1t the time-stained but still in
tact roll of papyrus. I must say that
| never saw a more convincing docu-
ment in all my life. The hieroglyphs
looked as Egyptian as anything could
be. and as soon as | saw them | had
a burning curiosity to know what mes
sage to the world beyond this poor
mummy had been hugging in his bosom
through all these centuries | asked
regarding the mummy on which the
papyrus had been found and learned
that the inscription on his outer coffin
indicated that he had been an officer
assigned to the royal palace of Rame-
ses H. the type of courtier who must
bend the supple knee and wear the
smiling face, at all times eoncealing
his real opinion of things in general.
The guarantee which accompanied
the papyrus was so heartfelt and alto.
gether emphatic that | made the pur-
chase The price was large, but felt
justified in paying it, for the native as
sured me tnat I could sell it to the
British Museum at any time for twice
as much. | promised faithfully that
would never mention his name in con
neetion with the deal. and this promise
was easily kept, because he had
name that no one could have remem-
bered for two miutes.
For obvious reasons | did not show
the document to my travelling compan-
ions knew that if people heard of
my discovery and got to talking about
ii I might not be permitted to take it
out of the country.
When we arrived at Cairo | went
to Mr. Ralph Blanchard. an American
who is noted as an antiquarian, Egyp-
tologist and mummy collector, and
after a few cautious preliminaries told
him that | had a document in HERO
glyphs of which desired a translation.
| begged him not to inquire where Or
how | had obtained the papyrus All
] wanted him to do was to tell me what
the blamed thing meant
Blanchard was startled as soon as ne
looked at the document. | could see
that He said he had deciphered
good many acres of hieroglyphics, but
the record was unique and the moss
unique that had ever come under his
observation. He spent two days on
the translation, so as to be absolutely
accurate regarding every fine point and
get not only the cold words, but also
the literary style and the real spirit OF
the original communications.
Let the translation speak for itself
| must confess that when it was hand
ed me | was overwhelmed. Not only
had a flood of light been let In upon
most important epoch, but there were
also surprising revelations as to the
origin of valued words and phrases.
Here is the translation:
Rameses Second is Smooth Citizen.
His Foxy Scheme is to bunko Poster
ty. His Soldiers go out and put up a
hard Scrap and do up the enemy and
he hires a Stonecutter to give an Ac-
count of it on Granite Rock and hand
all the Bouquets to Rameses. He is
building many Temples. The Archl-
tects draw the Plans. The Laborers
do the Work. The Public Foots tho
Bill. Rameses and the Local Delties
are the only ones who butt into the In
scriptions He has the future doped
out as foIlows:-Three thousand years
from now, when Cooks Tourists see
my Pictures all over the Shops, they
will conclude that ! must have been
the real Works and they will call me
Rameses the Great