The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-25
Tn The Land Of Goshen
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.

balancing their one-handled blows in front of them as they move slowly on.
 The City of the Cat
 It was here in Goshen that the Israeli ites worked after they were enslaved by the Egyptians They went from here also to build cities and towns in various parts of the Nile valley The archeol- ogists who are now excavating in Egypt tell me that they frequently find bricks which were probably made by them and | assert that the sun-dred bricks of today are practically the same as those which the children of Israel molded under the lash of their taskmasters
 This is the case in the ruins of Bubastis, or the city of the worship of the cat This town was situated within a stone's | throw of the Zagazig of today, and its ruins are still to be seen. Its many buildings of mud brick have crumbled almost to dust. but here and there the walls are plainly visible. There are sev- eral hundred acres of such ruins and spent an hour or so today driving through | them.
 | Bubastis dates back to the times when the pyramids were young. It is supposed | to have been built by the Israelites and was great city until 1t was captured by the Persians about 352 B. c. Bubatis was noted for It's temples devoted to the cat-headed goddess. This lady had the | form of a ltoness with the head of. cat and she held in one hand a lotus leaf as a scepter. Heredotus speaks of her and this city, saying that the temples were gorgeous and that the stone road leading to them was 1s0O feet long. He says that the people came in crowds here to worship, and at the annual festivals something like 100000 strangers were present. He relates that many of the | lworshipers were women who often danced and acted otherwise, fin an un- seemly manner leading us to believe that they were by no means so good as they should be.
 Egyptian Brick Makers of 1910
 Riding out to Bubastis, found there a brickyard in full swing. It was situated right on the edge of the ruins and the Fellaheen of today were holding the clay | used by the Israelites of the past into building material for 1910 As Hooked at them my mind went back to the days of the Pharaohs when Moses was still living end saw his people laboring under the lash. These men and women were work | ing under taskmasters or overseers. Their half-clad persons were burnt black | by the tropical sun overhead and they looked not unlike slaves. Here they were grinding the mud, there they were mold ing 1t Into bricks and further over they l dried in the sun. The carrying of the bricks was largely done by young girls, who labored under burly negro with a stick in his hand. At his direction the girls took the bricks on their heads and carried them of on the trot. I got a pro- tograph of this scene by bribing the negro, and doubt not my picture was a fair type of that which went on in those long ago days, when Pharaoh drove the Israelites to similar work without straw. With the Virgin Mary in Egypt
 It was down through Goshen that Jo- seph and Mary came with the infant Savior when they fled from the horrid Herod who slaughtered the innocents. This was then the chief highway from Palestine into Egypt. and there Is no doubt that they stopped at Bubastis as l they went on to Heliopolis, where the temple and college still existed at the time Christ was born. There Is a tree not far from the Obelisk of Heliopolis un- der which Mary and Joseph and the | young Jesus are said to have rested. It is about five miles from Cairo and guide books speak of 1t as one of the stock sights of Egypt. I doubt the reliability of their statements. The tree may be the descendant of one which stood there in the time of Christ. It is an old sycamore gnarled with many years and scared | with the names of tourists. It is on one oe the estates of the khedive, and 1t may be seen through the bars of fence, which has ben built around it to keep | off the relic hunters. During my visit | there I tried to climb the fence in order to get a photograph of 1t. but some of | the khedives servants came up and l warned me not to go in The tree is sur rounded by orange orchards. which are irrigated by sakiyehs drawn by water buffaloes with blankets over their eyes, l The Children of Egypt
 As I went by I stopped at one of i these sakiyehs and the men brought me some oranges from the khedive's or chard and sold them at the rate of eight | for 10c. They were wonderfully re- freshing, and as I sat in the shade of the trees outside the fence I wondered whether Mary and Joseph had not per haps thus quenched their thirst in that same place, now over 1900 years ago. l Any resting place must have been well come after the long ride through the country to the edge of the great city of the sun.
 | In addition to this there are other stories told of the stay of the holy fam | fly in Egypt. One Is that Joseph and Mary took our Saviour out to the pyra- mids, and from there to the sphinx. It Is said that Mary laid Him in the lap
 
 night on the paws of that mighty stone beast. half lion, half human be- ing.
 These stories seem vivid as one trav- els through Egypt. went down the other day to the banks of the Nile where the little baby Moses is said to lhave lain in the bulrushes in his boat of papyrus, and as stood by the Obelisk at Heliopolis I was reminded of the virgin and the Savior by young l girl who had babe in her arms. She must have been about the same age that Mary was then, and the little one l laughed and crowed as she rested there under the tropical sun. At the same time a score of other children. rang ing in age from to 12 years. gathered around me and posed for my camera with the obelisk behind. The obelisk was undoubtedly there when our Savior was carried through Egypt, and it was erected long before Moses was found in the bulrushes over there on the banks of the Nile not far away. The great stone seemed to tie the past and the present together, and the little ones of today brought back those of the times of the Saviour.
 Young America in Egypt
 The children were glad to pose for me, but as I snapped the camera they rushed to tho, front with hands outstretched begging for bakshesh. I was at loss how to fee so many and finally gave 25 | cents to my coachman and left him to | fight 1t out with the babies. The little l z,,o~ v,,chhad him and he had to threaten