Americus times-recorder., 1920-01-05
EGYPT CALLED A
RIP Van WINKLE
Present Agitation Calls
Up History of British
Colony

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3.-Egypt is
termed "a perennial Rip Van Minkle
Of history" in bulletin from the Ma
tional Geographic society, which
makes the present Egyptian home
rule agitation the occasion of a review
Of that country's glorious past.
Quoting from communication to
the society by James Baikie, the bulle-
tin says:
1--WE owe the framework into which
we try to fit the facts of Egyptian
history to the ancient historian,
Manetho, scattered fragments of
whose history of Egypt, dating from
the third century B. c., have come
down to US in the works Of various
ancient authors He recognized thir-
ty dynasties of Egyptian monarchs.
"Manetho's assertion that one of
the early kings was slain by hippo
potamus, and that in the reign of an
other the Nile flowed with honey,
may be mere fables, but the men
were there, and their royalty was a
very real and tangible thing. Since
the early nineties Investigations have
been carried out which have resulted
IN the discovery of the tomhs Of
many of these ancient royalties and
the accumulation of a most interest
ing mass of information with regard
to the civilization of their time, the
organization of their courts, and the
attainments of the race over which
they ruled.
THE kings of the earliest dynasties
reared no pyramids. Their tombs
were great structures mainly under
ground-that of the Aha (who is pos,
sibly Mena, the first king of Egype)
at Naquada measures IT'S feet by 88
and contains 21 chambers-built
sometimes Of BRICK, with lining of
wood, and sometimes fioored with
stone, as in the case of the tomb of
King Den at Ahydos. whose granite
floor furnishes the earliest known ex-
ample of the use of stone in build
ing.
The furniture of the tombs re-
veals an amazing proficiency in the
arts and crafts. Ebony chests inlaid
with ivory, stools with ivory feet cary
ed in the shape of bulls legs, vessels
cut and ground to translucent thin
ness, not only out of soft alabaster,
but out of an iron-hard stone like
diorite, finely wrought copper ewers,
all tell US that the Egyptian of the
earliest dynastic period was no rude
barbarian, but a highly civilized
craftsman. Perhaps the daintiest and
most convincing evidence of his skill
is given by the bracelets which were
found encircling tn skeleton arm of
the queen of King Ter, of the first
dynasty, which, alike for the grace of
their design and for the skill with
which the gold is wrought and solder
ed, are admirable.
"The civilization of the Nile vallev
no longer challenges with the Great
pyramid as the first essay of it's de-
velopment or seems to spring full
grown like Athene from the head of
Zeus. Petrie places the beginnings
of the first dynasty at $50 B. c.,
while another school brings them
down to 3400 B. C.
Like many of these ancient kings,
Zeser was not content with a single
tomb. He had another at Saqoara.
near Memphis, where the chambers
of the interior were lined with fine
blue and green glazed tiles.
ga king who could rear such a
structure had evidently at command
the resources of a very we'll organized
state and capable architects.
Accuracy equal to opticians work
but on a scale of acres instead of
inches,' is scarcely what one expects
in buildings reared nearly 5000
years ago. But the huge blocks of
the Great Pyramid, 100000 of
them weighing on an average 2 1-2
tons apiece, while some run to 40 and