Evening star., 1923-02-17

whelmed with consciousness Of the
deep pathos Of Il all.
There seemed something tragic on
the awakening of this once great
king now when his empire Is fallen
to pieces and its glory Departed. and
as took my place at the mouth Of
the tomb. / felt a deep sadness weigh
ing upon me.
The wind suddenly freshened and
blew the hot white sand about as
they descended. One might almost
have thought it was connected in
some way with the spirit OF the dead
pharoh- -petulant at being disturbed
or perhaps annoyed at the jokes and
laughter of the men who suddenly
abandoned their silence and became
sepulcher.
Ihe ante-chamber was empty OF all
the objects found there except two
royal statues, boxed up. A number
or cane chairs had been taken down
so the party could watch while the
sealed wall was being broken down.
Work OF Opening Begun.
The, proceedings were opened by
speech by Howard Carter, who. with
last November. At the end Of this
there was some nervous applause and
then a hammer and chisel were pro-
duced and that wall. which has tan
tiously attacked. This was at 1850 pm.
and as the first blow reverberated
through the hot chamber where the
party sat, in the glare OF the arc
! lamps thrill shot through me like
something that burnt in my veins and
seemed TO see Pharaoh in the dark.
ness on the other side of the door
way suddenly wake from his long
| slumber and listen.
1t was the ancient Egyptian belief
that the sleep Of the dead lasted 5000
years. and thus the time was up and
II might well have seemed to him
that the day Of resurrection was
come and that Anubis had arrived at
ment hall Of Osiris. Tap, tap, Went
! the hammer and down came the first
OF the stones which blocked the door
way, and as they did so / felt as though
TO the Pharaoh. some word of COM
fort to fortify him at this great mo-
! ment OF his resurrection.
l wanted to tell him that the world
still went its appointed way un-
changed and that God still reigned
IT was because I deem him to be the
Pharaoh of the oppression, or per-
haps 1t was the strange event of bis
disentombing which directed my
ment I felt that the message to be
given to the awakening dead was
that Ancient of Days" was still Lord
of mems lives and that the passage
Of the years which had changed so
much had left Him the still un-
changed hope and comfort of the
world.
Religious Texts Found.
1t was at 3:ae that the doorway was
sufficiently cleared to permit entrance
and Lord Carnarvon, Mr.. Cartier, Mr..
Lacau and Lady Evelyn Herbert
passed into the burial chamber, into
which the electric light was directed,
casting their shadow upon the oppo-
site wall.
The room was about twelve or
fourteen feet square, the walls being
inscribed with religious texts. In the
middle there was an immense wooden
structure covered with gold-a sort
of huge canopy such as we found in
the tomb Of Queen By-and- -Akhnaton.
At one end Of 1t were golden doors,
fastened with bolt. and on the top
was design in the form of a serpent.
Mr.. Carter opened these doors. and
inside he could see the golden sar-
cophagus of the king. but 1t could not
be touched. We shall not know for
some days whether this canopy actu-
ally holds the body. but there is
little doubt that 1t does
The amazed discoverers now turned
to gaze at huge statue of q goddess
in the form of a lioness, which Is
described as a superb work OF art,
and from this their eyes passed to
a little chamber on the right leading
from this burial room.
Chariots OF Gold.
This was seen to be full Of glorious
objects-superb. chariots Of gold. a
marvellous box of ivory and ebony
and many chests. vases and statuettes.
1t was a sight which took the breath
away, and the eyes OF the discoverers
turned in n-bewilderment from one eide
to another. 1t - too early to give
any proper account OF the contents OF
these chambers, and the fact that the
sarcophagust and its inclosing shrine
or canopy. are still undisturbed makes
tho discovery somewhat inconclusive.
At the .oficial opening Sunday we
shall learn more. -
While these- wonders were being
revealed below we sat in the sunlight
eagerly awaiting fer news to be
brought up. No representative Of any
newspaper was allowed In the tomb
and the correspondents OF the London
newspaper to which the information
has been exclusively sold were
actually not even in. the valley.
could not expect to receive any In
formation, but on an occasion such
as this men forgot their vows of
silence and when the party climbed
out of the tomb, just. a. tho sun
passed behind the hills. there was 80
much excitement that the secret was
"a 49, >$G>~