The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-03-19

Copyright. 1906. by r. F. Beasley.)

when the Queen of Sheba made
her famous visit To King Solomon. shf
uaS 20 a4tnnished 1T his wisdom and
the grand scale upon which ne vas
iunHiug things. that she exclaimed the
of.p half had never been told. 1t -
pr.ttV much the same way with one
coming to Egypt. We are astonish-
81 at what W. sec. W. have beer
hearing Of the wonder down here all
our lives. but We have merely half com
pretended only the sight Of them
tdn give anything like Il correct IDEA
ri what they are. 1t is no alone
their intrinsic grandeur and beauty
which rnak them 50 interesting, put
rather tn" purpose OF thelr creation.
Nearly all Of the principal sights We're
the products Of their religion. They
show the early struggle Of the human
mind to fathom the future and TO
Worship some higher poWer that rules
over all. Perhaps they did the best
tiev could with the lights before
tntin: but these sad remains, grand
and beautiful IN ruin, prove that 10Th
!hcir religion and their gods Wer"
+ lsc. There is food for thought in
ltaypt.
II is a singular fact that ancient
I@ypt's architects, SculptOrS and
laintcrs devoted their talents almost
entirely to the construction and dec
olatinn Of gods, temples or tombs, or
t. objects connected with the one or
the other. Evidently much attention
was given to the worship of their
Grange gods, and to the life beyond
the grave. one Ices not have to
be able To read hieroglyphics in q
to know how they lived here and
how they expected to live hereafter.
W in the mountains on the Libyan
desert, down at Thebes, are some
sights worth all the cost of a trip to
Egypt. Cut in the solid rock for
many yards are the royal tombs. Each
tomb consists of a slanting shaft,
composed of Il series of inclined planes
connected by rock steps, having on
each side chambers for the mummies
Of the Kings relatives and sometimes
chambers for his servants, with the
Kings chamber at the end Of the
shaft. On the walls Of the shaft and
the chambers are numerous carved
and painted forms Of gods, men,
heast-. birds, fish, reptiles, vessels, inn
plelnents, boats, food, etc. These are
50 range and combined as to show
how the King lived in this world and
how he hoped to live in the world to
come.
Finds Col. Fries an Occupant OF the
TOmbS OF the Kings.
RItnpuSI ii cIlou Ill1tlcI, IL l III
possible to repress Il smile at some Of
their crude representations. one was
Il certain god in a BOAT. on the river Of
life, judging the dead as they applied
for ferriage to a better shore. If
the applicant had lived properly, q
seat was given. if not. he was trans
formed into n hog and led away by a
baboon. Near the entrance to the
tomb were large cobra serpents paint
ed so life-like that they would
brighten away q ghost. The figures
were so arranged as to express ideas.
and d complete history Of the Kings
life is written in his tomb. 1t is
worthy Of note that the dog and the
camel are not in these representa-
lions. Their conception Of the gods
which they worshiped was unique. The
earliest Egyptians w~orshiped animals;
at a later period they gave human
forms to their gods, and still later
resented their god with a birds or a
beasts head on a human form-never
q human head on the bird or beast.
The sphinx with a mans head on
il BODY Of a liOr) represented the
King and not a god. They also wor-
these tombs have been discovered. and
opened, and the Egyptian government
IS still eXcavating. Future discoveries
may throw much light on the past.
There is an electric plant near there
already opened. n visitors examine
the interiors by electric light. A
novel surprise met me in one of them.
In the very bottom Of the tomb Of
Seti /. Gather of the Pharaoh Of the
OprressiOn), | met Col. F. H. Fries. of
W~inston-Salem. | would not nave
been much more surprised if Sati HIM
self had confronted me. With Col.
Fries were Mrs. Fries, Miss Eleanor
Fries. Miss Mary Louise Bahnson and
Mr.. A. H. Bahnson. They are making
the Nile voyage by a beautiful
dahabiyeh, name by sixteen men,
and are taking life leisurely and lux
uriantly. We accepted a kind invi-
tation to take tea with them on their
boat. and spent a most pleasant even
ing comparing experiences on his side
and talking of friends and loved ones
down in far away Dixie.
Wresilcd Much With the Question of
immortality.
The tomb of Rameses IT (Pha-
raoh of Oppression) is not open to
visitors now. out the work of clean
ing 1t out is going on. His mummy
has been removed to the Museum
at Cairo. From the carvings and
paintings in these royal tombs we
q get the religious beliefs of the
Kings, which were shared in by the
people Of their times. They a
Wrestled much With the problem of
a future life. The patriarch asked,
If a man die shall he live again %
THIS questions the carly Egyptians
settled in The affirmative without the
doubts of Hamlet. The walls of thc;r
tombs show that they believed in the
immortality Of the soul. They not only
believed IN q higher being, but believ-
cd that he would reward the good and
punish the wicked. They believed in
the resurrection of the body. That is
is why they embalmed it. They had
an idea that the soul lowered around
the tomb and would visit the body.
Hence they put foo and water in the
tomb. A some future time they be
lieVed the soul would reunite with tho
body end live in a better world. For
that reason they took great pains tC
preserve the body. The pictured mum
mics Of their gods show that they
knew their gods were mortal. They
had no conception of a god of spin,
that was immortal. AS / extracted