The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-06-03

Z scribe Luxor needs a new box of ad-
/ JectiVes every few minutes, and, be-
! sides, TO repeat over and over again
I that the columns and caVernous sane
/ tuaTies at Karnak are gigantic and
! colossal" and huge" and so on. can
I not bring the reader to any actual con-
/ ceptiOn OF the baTbaTiC masSiveness of
/ these ancient structures.
The rulers who built the main temple
1 Of kdrnak- d section at 2 time, thought
/ they were not doing themselves credit
1 unless they piled up columns about the
size Of the redwood trees in California
/ and guarded each entrance with stat
/ les as big as the Gd15<ss Of Liberty
4 in New York harbor, and when they
made a wall t. inclose a. courtyard.
I thy put UP something to resemble I
/ mountain range. The ordinary $50
pound mortal edging his way through
4 the corridors and under the vast shad-
/ OWS Of these overwhelming uplifts of
/ masonry feels about as large and as
/ important as a flea.
/ Everywhere about these temples
there are uniformed guards whose duty
/ 1t is II protect the remains against
| the vandal and the relic hunter TIE
! guard follows a few feet behind YOU
/ as YOU roam through the many acres
/ Of topping ruin. He IS afraid that
| you will steal something. Inasmuch
| as the smallest fragment of one %
| these hugh statues. or obeIisks would
/ weigh probably 500 pounds, We felt
/ that he was not justified in suspecting
/ Us. But he followed Us along and then
/ when we were leaving, he calmly came
( forward and indicated that he was
! 1eady to take a money insult. This
move on mis- part WIS most character
! lstiC Of the Egyptian attitude toward
I visitors in general Every native ex-
to TO-
eler for the simple reason that he
needs the money. Suppose that a sus-
piciOUs character should arrive in in
American city and the chief of police
sent out a detective to shadow him
and see that he did not blow open any
safes or crawl into any second stories.
The detective. having followed the
suspect all day. approaches him at
n1ghtfan and says, Look here: YOU
have put. me to a lot Of trouble
have been Oh my feet all day watch
ing YOU for fear that you were going
TO commit burglary, and I think It Is
only right that you should pay me
something
Every time We visited an antiquity
these guards tapped at our heels,
watching Us like hawks and invariably
they tried 10 hold US up for piece
Of silver before We departed. There Is
a Masonic understanding among the
natives that the tourist is to be fecced.
For instance, although the copper coins
are in common use among the natives
and in the cheaper shops the prices are
usually reckOned in miIliemes, it is al
most impossible for a traveller to get
any of these copper coins because the
natives want him To beStow MS graf
uities in piasteTs. A milIieme is worth
one-haif cent and then the milIieme
IS further 5ubdiyided into fractional
coins, some of which are about the
size of the mustard seed and worth
about as. much as a share of mining
stock
Egyptian money is very easily under
stood by Americans The plaster is the
same as our five-cent piece or nfck1e
The silver five plaster piece resembles /
our quarter and has the same value.
The ten plaster piece is the same as our
half dollar. The 100 plaster bill is worth
five dollars. InaSmuCh as many of the
prices sound large and important when
quoted in piasters, the dealers have