Evening star., 1923-01-29
NY ARTHUR wEIGALL.


Copyright, 1923, by North American Newspaper
Alliance and London Daily Mail.
LUXOR, Egypt. January 28.-Tne
clans are gathering at Luxor. EVERY
train deposits on the hot, dusty sta-
ton platform dazed but eager spe-
cial correspondents of the Worio 3
press. The huge Winter Palace Hotel
is crowded and private steamers, rull
OF tourists, are collecting at the
noorings 1t Is an animated scene,
and everywhere one hears talk of
Trutankhamen, who is called now by
he ribaid "Tutankscarter," or Tut
uarnarvon," or most usually simply
''Old Tut
Lull in Proceedings.
There is a lull in the proceedings In
The Valley of the Kings just now. Mr.
carter, who, with Lord Carnarvon, dis
covered the tomb Of Pharaoh Tutank-
hamen, has gone to Cairo to meet the
latter on his return from London.
Meanwhile MIR. Lucas, Mr.. Calender
and Mr.. Burton are working quietly
IN the tomb, in the glare of powerful
electric lights, or in AN adjacent
workshop set up in the large tomb OF
Seu III, a big. airy place, into whlch
a flood of daylight comes through tne
large, square door. Here the work
Of preservation and packing or the
under cool and comfortable condi.
lions, but Tutankhamen's tomb itself
is now very hot and stuffy. The cleo
trio light engine, installed IN the
Valley OF the Kings for lighting the
show toInbs, supplies the current, but
this works only in the morning, so
that the excavating party usually
spends the morning in the tomb and
rhe afternoon in the workshop
Deserted in Afternoon.
The hope Of seeing objects carried
cut of the tomb brings crowds of
eightseers into the valley every morn
ing, but in the afternoons the place
10 deserted, except for the excavators
and the ever-present police. Now.
however, only two statues. two
couches and three chariot bodies are
left, and work has been suspended at
the moment. AS the weather is ex-
reptiona1ly hot for this time of year;
I fancy sightseers are mighty siad
not to be impelled by their Unsuitable
curiosity to make the one hours jour
ney on donkey back UP to the valley
each day.
constantly hear it said, both by
amateur archeologists and by those
actually connected with the discov-
Pharaoh's history, but this IS quite
a mistake. Considering the short
ness of his reign, our 1nformatloI1 n =
about him is very considerable, ana
/ am sorry to say that it reveals q
seemingly rather vacillaing charac-
ter, though doubtless he was the VIC
tim of circumstances.
Was Court Chamberlain.
During the thirteen yearsof Akhno-
atoms reign at TeIlelamarna I3ll TO
1853 & c., while that strange, ro-
mantle figure was preaching there
lis monotheistic atom worship. Tu-
rankhamen appears to have held the
position Of court chamberlain, for to
me there seems little doubt that he
has to be identified with Tutu, or
DuLsu as the AsiaticS called MIN,
Akhnoaton's trusted courtier and
friend There is an inscription ex-
tant in which Tutu writes OF himselI.
My voice was not loud in the KING
nouse nor ny wa1s n ros owagggFlng sarlV eyerY r,
day to teach me, because or my zeai
III performing his teaching. / have
grown wealthy by the bounty, of the
king" And he tells US that ne was
the supreme mouthpiece of the entire
land. We find him, however, in close
friendship with a certain AZlru. q
traitorous vassal prince, who, in a let
ter preserved among the Famous lei
Ielamarna correspondence, calls him
leferentially. MY lord" or my IA
,ther,' which suggests, by the way,
that Tutankhamen was an elderly man.
No sooner had Akhnoaton died than
,rutankhamen got rid of the succeed
ing king, Smenkhkara, and seized the
throne, marrying Akhnoaton's daugh-
ter, then little girl about thirteen,
IN order to legitimatize the throne.
He was soon induced by the priests
pf Amen to bring the court back to
rThebes, and Tellelamarna finally was
abandoned, in such hurry that
modern excavators there had found
the bodies of the kings dogs, left to
starve in the royal kennels, and oxen
left to die on the royal farm.
Preserved Akhnaton's Mummy.
He had the decency. 1t seems, to
bring Akhnaton's mummy back with
him and buried him in the Valley of
The Kings, where Mr.. Davis and /
round him some years ago. But after
that he played up to the Amen priest
hood, Akhnaton's bttterest enemies, and
celebrated his return to Thebes by
building a famous colonnade in the
temple Of Luxor, afterward appropri-
ated by the Pharaoh Horemheb. This
aaAHro nr,aT DcroDn