The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1916-07-28

chaotically-chief among them "mys-
terious," ''unchanging," formidable"
terrific :" But the SINGLE bigger men,
ory that should link all these together
intelligibly hides from sight the emo
ton too deep for specific recognition,
too vast, somehow. for articulate re-
covery.
The Acropolis, the wonders of Japan
and India, the mind can grasp-Dr
thinks so; but this composite enormity
of Ramesseum, Serapeum Karnak,
CheOps, Sphinx, with hundred tenn
pies and thousand miles of sand, it
knows it cannot. The mind is blank.
Egypt, it seems, has faded. Memory
certainly fails, and description willis.
There seems nothing precisely to- re-
port, no interesting, clear, intelliglble
thing. What did you see in Egypt7
What did you like best? What impress
sion did Egypt make upon your seem
questions impossible to answer. Imagi-
nation fiickers, stammers and goes out
Thought hesitates and stops.
Monstrous to Some.
For some, rather dominant impress
sion is undoubtedly "the monstrous."
A splendor of awful dream, yet never
quite of nightmare, stalks everywhere,
suggesting an atmosphere Of Khubla
Khan. There is nothing lyrical. Even
the silvery river, the slender palms.
the fields OF clover and barley and the
acres of flashing poppies convey, no
lyrical sweetness, as e1sewhefei they.
might. All moves ito q statelieg meas
ure. Stern issues of life and death are
in the. air, and in the grandeur Of the
tombs and temples there is solemnity
of genuine awe that makes the blood
run slow a little.
Those Theban hills, where the kings
and queens lay buried, are forbidding
to the point of discomfort almost. The
listening silence in the grim Valley of
the Tombs of the Kings, the intoler-
able glare of sunshine on the stones.
the naked absence of any sign of ami
NAL or vegetable life, the slow ap-
proach to the secret hiding place
where the mummy of a once power
full monarch lies CHASTITY now beneath
the glitter of an electric light. the inn.
placable desert deadly with heat and
distance on every side-this picture.
once seen, rather colors ones memory
of the rest of Egypt with its somber
and funereal character.
And with the great deific monoliths
the effect is similar. Proportions and
sheer size strike bloav after blow upon
the mind. Stupendous figures, shroud-
| ed to the eyes, shoulder their way
| slowly through the shifting sands.
| deathIess themselves and half-appal-,
| ing. Their attitudes and gestures ex-
press the hieroglyphic drawings come
| to life. Their towering heads, coiffed
with zodiacal signs, or grotesque with
animal or bird, bend down to watch
you everywhere. There is no hurry in
| them; they move with the leisure of
| the moon. with the stateliness of the
sun, with the slow silence of the con-
stellations. But they move. There is,
between you and them, this effect Of
screen, erected by the ages, yet that
any moment may turn thin and let
| them through upon you. A hand of
shadow, but with granite grip, may
steal forth and draw you away into
some region where they dwell among
changeless symbols like themselves. u
region vast, ancient and indifferent
ated as the desert that has produced
them Their effect in the end is weird,
difficult to describe, but real. Talk
with a mind that has been steeped for
years in their atmosphere and pres
ence, and you will appreciate this odd
reality.
The spell of Egypt is an other-world-
ly spell. It's vagueness, it's elusiveness.
its undeniable reality are ingredients,
at any rate, in total result whose de-
tailed analysis lies hidden in mystery
and Silence-inscrutable.
i these, the Rainbow, 30S feet high.
I