Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-02-12
ESTABLISHED 1856
MORE EGYPT :AND MORE HISTORY.
General Rogers Sees Ruins Of Memphis
andsTeils Of, People.

AOdS O4i litG CdHS up Tic MIG 10
station near the ruins of Memphis. At
this station we mounted donkeys for a
hard days work in the midst of ruins.
was pleased to ride into village of
Fellaheus and see the domestic life.
The villages are made of sun dried
bricks of Nile mud. The chickens, cam
els, asses, buffalos, men, women, and
children all live in one harmonious
house. The houses open to the sun and
only door for light. The overflow of
the Nile brings from the mountains far
away lime and solution, iron and other
fertilizing elements which enriches the
soil by deposits every year, therefore
no enriching by man. | noted the ma
nure was carefully gathered and heaped
by the door. | saw the young girls
mixing, with their hands, the excre-
ments, flattening with hands like pam
cake and laid in the sun TO dry. This
is the fuel used to cook with. saw
girls with loads of the dry dung on their
heads, giving it to the poor who had no
animals to supply them. Those who
crossed the plains in an early day will
remember cooking with buffalo chips
sun dried. The causeway leading to
Memphis and the desert is raised 25
feet above the farm land, to holdswater
and travel when inundated. Midway
from the station to the desert is located
the ancient city of Memphis, surrounded
with a grove of palm dates. We see
the visions of once a mighty city, q
city that sent an army of one million
charioteers and archers under Shishak
far away to Judah, destroyed Reho-
boam's (son of Solomon) army and
sacked Jerusalem, as described in First
Kings, XIV, also in Chronicles, XII, q
Ii. From here the army went over and
killed Josiah and destroyed the army
jeremiah proclaimed: "Memphis shall
become desert, she shall be forsaken
and become uninhabited. Memphis
lay in the path of invading nations and
she fell. We see the miles of sand,
red brick and broken pottery, but not
jackal, an owl or bat. The Saracens
took the granite and alabaster to build
mosques. The archeologists have in
their research turned everything over
to find history. By the causeway lie
two colossal statues of Rameses II,
made of granite; one rs feet, the other
As feet in length and the proportions
perfect. A falcon helmet six feet long
lies by the statue. These colossal stat
ues have remained here thirty-seven
centuries, and no modern engineers
have undertaken to remove what those
people carved and brought from the
quarry 4VS :tt:i@s away. We ride on
astride a donkey through the desert,
ride up grade to metropolis, Saceara.
This old city, the iurial place of Mem
phis, is one mile WIDE and four miles
long. Three pyramids, one we ascend
and overlook the Wiley, the desert, the
pyrG aids and the ruins. We visit two
payties of three hundred men each in
search of ruins and tombs. One party
has found tomb which is estimated
will take three men one year to clean
u3.
All this old metropolis has been dug
over By the never tiring archaelogist
who, like the grub-stake miner, keeps
up the search. Their efforts here have
been successful in finding two impor-
tant tombs of the kings and queens.
The drifting sands for centuries cover
the tomb which was an important find.
We enter the mighty place Of the dead,
we go from room to room lined with
granite and its written history of the
reign. There is cut in granite and in
basrelief, and in paintings, the life and
modes of that period. We wonder, we
are amazed, for the Psychologist tells
me no human hands in this marvellous
age can equal it-one picture cooking
poultry, fattening geese, feeding cranes,
sailing ships, winnowing corn, reaping,
the ass carrying grain, ship building,
saving and carpentering, village
court, milking cows, sewing seeds, rams
treading in the seed, and much more.
We enter another tomb of king, sim
liar, but on the walls illustrated the re-
view of the ships, his army of chariot
GERS, the Egyptian archers and Numid-
ian spearmen. In this tomb are many
rooms, all rich in picture writing; some
show musicians, some dancing, some
bringing to the alter libations. Here
with the crown jewels of the king and
queen rested the mummied bodies in
sarcophagi of ponderous weight, and
here they rested, covered in the desert
sands till a few years ago, when they
explored the tomb, took the jewels,
cofiins and mummies to the Egyptian
museum, which | had the pleasure TO
see in my walk through that great
storehouse of the recovered dead. Many
of the jewels have been copied by mod-
ern workers in silver and gold, espec
tally as to the queens necklaces and
ornaments, which were wrought with
great skill. Now we enter the tomb
of Apis, the sacred bull, which w
worshipped in a special TEN le at Mem
phis. This is a subterrs,nean gallery
300 yards in length, cut in solid lime
rock, with twenty-four vaults for sa-
cred bulls. The heWnway, 80 feet high
and Is feet wide, through this subway,
we were guided by candle light, tenn
perature of 80 degrees. In these
twenty-four great side chambers were
placed colossal sarcophagi, in which
were placed the embalmed bulls. When
we see the great gallery cut from the
har9 stone, the immensity of the sar-
coJhagi we were struck with astonish-
m mt at the herculean labor for 2 re-
lieious rite, sacred duty. No appii-
ance tdoay seems able to take from the
dark chamber the monster resting
places of the bulls. They we're wor-
SHIPPED in a temple in Memphis and pill
grims crowded to the tomb to pay their
devotion and offer votive offerings.
Many Islams go TO Mecca, and the
Christians to Bethleham. Within these
chambers was established a colony of
hermits who lived in strict seclusion,
receiving their food through narrow air
holes. Some one has written they We're
the prototype of the later Monks. We
eat our lunch midst ruins on the desert.
Wi,il our party was Baptist minister
from Montana, who asked God to bless
the food of the party so far from home.
then resting on people who performed
a herculean task to preserve the dead