The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-14


 known and most widely read of all the historical romances of George Ebers yet in it the story is so subordinated to the motive which moved the author that of instruction in .Egyptology-tha many people. have hard work to read 1t or throw 1t aside as thing which must, if persisted in, consume too much of their time and thought. It is, indeed, a book which needs to be read care fully and slowly with the whole mind undistracted by extraneous things But to those who will read it it contains a world of pleasure, interest and Nin7. formation. The plot, with its device of the changed child and the prince fall- ing in love with lowly maiden who proves to be the daughter of a king, seems very modern And yet this seem ingly modern plot was built by Ebers out of actual historical facts recorded upon the papyri and the temples and the monuments of that Egypt of which he writes. It is only the environment which is strange to us. The human heart was filled with the same pas- sion, the same aspirations and the same weaknesses 4000 years ago by the wa ters of the Nile which It holds in its possession today by the waters of the Hudson or the Thames.
 nY the walls of Thebes-the city N of a hundred gates-the Nile 0 spreads Into broad stream. The heigts which follow the river on both sides are more decided in outline solitary and almost unconnected peaks stand out sharply from the level of the background of the many-colored lime- stone hills. on which no palm tree flour ishes and on which no desert plant can strike root. Beyond the hills, to the east, stretches the desert, whose end is on the shores of the Red Sea. Be- yond the hills. to the westward, lies the vast desert stretching with out limit tas the Egyptians beieved) into infinity and in whose desolate places lay the region of the dead
 On the eastern bank of the Nile roso the lordly palace of the Pharaohs, the palaces of the nobles and the houses Of the citizens On the westrn bank lay the city of the dead--the metropolis of the capital of the descendants of Ra. Life was busy and gay in the City of the Hun dred Gates. The western shore showed quite another scene. There. too, was no lack of stately buildings and thronging men. But while on the eastern bank were compact masses of houses and the citizens cheerfully about their work. on the west ern side there were solitary and splendid structures around which little huts and houses seemed to cling as children cling to the protection of a mother. Andsthese buildings lay in detached groups. Yet gaily dressed barks stoppedson that west ern shore and there was noilack of min strel bands and grand processions. Yet the songs were songs of lamentation ana the processions followed the sarcophagus. On that western shore were tho great schools of learning. the most sacred tenn ples and the buildings where, the hier- archy of Egypt lived among their dis cples and their followers. There were the huts of the araschites-tlEose who first opened the bodies of the dead for embalming-and were accountedA uncean. Into the strange, weird city came a party of high-born people suchf as was seldom seen there at that hour, for it was already dark and the moon lit up tho stately structures and the little novels. Bent Anat, daughter of Rameses the Pharaoh, had been racing her chariot against that of Paaker, the Kings Pioneer, and the chariot of the Pioneer had been overturned, his horsesilay dying in one of the desert valleys. and the Princss had accidentally run lover young girl, Uarda granddaughter ofsParaschstes.
 She had rriven to the hut of the girls grandfather, and had sent Paaker,to sum- mon medical help from the great. House of Seti, the school and ecclesiasticab estab- lishment presided over by the tchief Of the priests of> Egypt, Amoni Bent Anat her self had with her own handsl placed the injured child in the arms finer grand mother in the squalid hut. But beauti- full young lady who accompanied her in litter had hesitated to enter, ,as had also Paaker. The laws were striot-
 The lady in the litter was wife of Mena the Kings charioteer, now away with IRameses to the wars in Syria Years be- z fore Nefert, now the wife of Nena, had been betrothed to Paaker. But the head strong and cruel nature of the Pioneer never had appealed to her gentle nature and when the girl had seen Mena and had fallen in love with him Rameses blessed the union between his charioteer and the Lady Nefert.
 Paaker knocked at the door of the House of Seti loudly with the metal handle oi his whip, so loudly that the blows rane far and wide through the silence of the night. The gatekeeper from within asked who knocked and what was his will. "F1oy long are we to wait for you, you dirty hound?" shouted back the Pioneer. .'Come down and open the door. and then if you do not know who I am my whip shal, write my name upon your shoulders and teach you how to receive princely vls- ,itors.1 The gatekeeper opened the door and a tall young priest stepped into the air, inauiring who knocked so loud and what was his will.
 Bent Ana In her chariot and Nefert in heriitter, with their throng of torch-bear- ing attendants, had now come up. and the princess announced her name and rank and told of the accident to the child Uarda. A priest and a physician were sent to the hut of the paraschites and Bent Anat went back with them to see that. every attention was paid to the vic. tim of her rashness. The priest who went with her to the place where Uarda lay suffering was the most gifted and promis ing of all those young men whom Ameni the high priest, had gathered about hin in the house of Seti. His hymns were