The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-15
DISCOVERING TOMB OF EGYPTIAN KING Believed Temple of Osiris Older Than Pyramids THE LEGENDS OF SETH Sale of Absinthe Prohibited in Mo- rocco-Exhibition of Old Wall
 Papers Made-"Beware of
 Kicks"

Paris, June 14.-Prof. Edward Naville, the Egyptologist who has been directing | 600 men and boys in excavations to unearth the temple and tomb of Osiris has re- turned to his chair at the University of Geneva elated with the belief that he has penetrated to the actual funeral cham Der of the ancient Egyptian king-god, and that another winters work which is already assured under auspices of the Anglo-Amerlcan Egyptian Exploration company, will bring to light important | details bearing upon the history of Osiris. l The legend is that Osiris, wise and | beneficient King who reclaimed the Egyp-
 tians from savagery, met a sudden and premature death by the scheming of his wicked brother Seth, who, with 72 fellow conspirators, invited Osiris to banquet I and induced him to enter cunnngly wrought coffin. They shut down the lid and cast the chest and it's body into the Nile. Iisis, faithful wife of the beloved King, recovered the body.
 The legend continues that Seth and his fellow consprators then cut the body into IA pieces and scattered the parts all over Egypt-each piece being en- tombed by worshippers of Osiris-which accounts for the numerous tombs to him. 1 The faithful Isis however, regathered the pieces and brought them back to the | Temple of Abydos.
 l This temple where Professor Navile l has been conducting the excavations. is, | he is sure, the true burial place of Osiris | The place is about equidistant between l Cairo and Assouan, in the desert about
 eight miles westward from the Nile Professor Navlle believes this temple l is older even than the pyramids. Reat- itacr data lo nf h tc tr tIa ciated Press correspondent at Geneva, he
 said:
 We worked from December 24 1913 to March Il. 1914, and during the II weeks we experienced some anxiety and excite ment. At nine yards under the soil we found a large building constructed of granite and very hard red sandstone. This edifice is divided into three naves,
 which are surrounded by 16 large cells,
 all identical in size and shape. They have no inscriptions on the walls whatever. This proves that the building is very an
 cient as the wall of more modern ed-
 fees in Egypt are covered with inscrip-
 tions.
 ln front of the cells is stone plat form supported by 10 huge blocks of granite. Skirting this platform we came | upon the reservoir-or well of Osiris, which undoubtedly is that mentioned by the Roman historian Strabo. While the
 
 probable that it's waters had been popular
 at one time for their supposed curative Il virtues.
 ''On the opposite side of the temple, 20
 "On the opposite side of the temple to that where we entered We found the
 burial place of Osiris as the Book of the Dead and the inscription on the walls of the funeral chamber. 20 | We found also that in some remote past Egyptian thieves had been at work
 there. They had entered the funeral chamber by piercing hole in the wall. but of course it will never be known | what the thieves carried away. Did they
 take the sarcophague of Osiris? All Egyp-
 tologists in the course of their researches in the ruins of Egypt have come across traces of thieves who were considered to
 be the cleverest in the then known world.
 They formed themselves into associations
 and gangs with the special object of rob-
 ping tombs as it was the ancient GUS
 tom among Egyptians to bury valuables
 with their dead. There was supervision
 of the tombs. but this the thieves seem
 to have avoided easily, judging by their
 exploits.
 .'The whole of the vast edifices we dis
 covered is in bad state of ruins, be- cause it and it's surroundings were used | as quarry in the time of Ramses II" Professor Naville, who is an elderly man, insited upon paying honor to his brave assistants" Messrs. Wainwright
 and Gibson of London. and Thomas Witt
 more of Tufts college, Massachusetts , One of the first things that General Ly- autey, the French president general in Morocco, did in taking office was to pro- hibit the sale of absinthe. This measure
 aimed at both the French troops of occu-
 patton and the natives. considerably af-
 fected business interests and steps were taken to try and stir up movement of opposition.
 An old Moor to whom trader tried tc explain the tyrannous nature of the gen. erals order. took a wholly unexpected at- titude: 'Absinthe, he said. lis an in. vention of the evil one. On it's roots he pours the blood of peacock; then. wher the leaves begin to grow he sprinkles them with the blood of a monkey: ther
 he dips the stalks in the blood of bear lastly he mlngles with the juice of thu
 plant the blood of a pig. fts4.
 "So that when the faithful drinks ab
 sinthe. at the first glass his appetite awakes. and he arises, proud as pea