Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-20
WILL OPEN TOMB
I Of MYSTERY KING
Harvard Man to Seek Mum
my CT Pharaoh Legendary
Even to Tut Ankh-Amen.
BY JOHN l.. BiIDERSTON.

BY JOHN l.. BALDERSTON.
tsp%cial Correspondent to The Star and
North American Newspaper Alliaa"el
CAIRO. December l9.-The mummy
OF an Egyptian king who lived prob
ably thousands OF wears betora the
famed Tut-Anl<h-Amen is the prize
which Prof. teisner Of Harvard hopes
10 Ind this Winter. when he opens
the mystery tomb" 81 King Senefru.
III The shadow of the Great Pyramid
The eternal boy turks in al o. us
unless we are very superior people
indeed. with very thin blood. We all
thrilled three years aEo when carnar
Won and Carter broke into that sealed
chamber in the Valley 81 the Kings
carter has told how he stuck a candle
through the hole he had made. At
first he could see nothing. Presently,
aS my eyes grew accustomed TO the
light, details of the room within
emerged slowly Strange animals,
statues and gold everywhere rhe CLINT
81 gold. For the momentum eternity
II must have seemed 10 those stand
IN" by was struck dumb with
Arrangement, and When Lord Caru;tr-
Won, unable to stand tho suspense
any longer. inquired anXiously. can
YOU see anythiuG?' il was all | could
DO TO get out the words. Yes. Won
derful things.
\ Legendary Race.
An that same moment will come
this Winter To Prof Resner. when he
enters the untouched tomb in the
shadow of the Great Pyramid. the
first man TO put his foot there since
the masons walled up the royal dead
and left him with his possessions and
his offerings III q past SO remote that
even 10 Tut-Ankh-Amen il was an age
o, legend. To ut-Ankh-Amen the
mummy that Reisner hopes TO find
would have seemed To belong to Il /
race half gods, half men who walked
the tarth, so Tut-Aukh-Amen's tutor
told the boy. when the world was
young.
The experience that awaits DR.
f;eisner has indeed probably come to
no man who has ever lived. For the
mysteries that he Will profane have
awaited his coming five or six thou
sand NcarS-the reign of Senefru is so
remote that his date cannot be GER
tain!y fixed within q millennium. Mas.
pero would date this tomb at 424O Be,
Breasted al 2900 r. {. And there is
a story i'll Cairo DO not Vouch for
lt-that when Reisners Young assist
ants last year broke a hole into the
yet unentered sanctuary and peered
inside by the aid of electric torches,
they saw in the dust. beside the
wailed-up doorway. the print of naked
human feet.
Lure OF Buried Treasure
Tie lure of the hunt for buried
treas ure has appealed to men In ali
ase&. And, as there was never treas
ure like that buried with the Pharoa his,
the stories whispered among the
tgyptians thousands of years ago of
the SplendorS within the royal tomhs
must have so profoundly impressed
the mind of the race that they contin-
ued as legends through all the dark
times when the very memory of the
ancient Kings of Egypt had persisted,
ana the mighty ruins along the Nile |
We're deemed the work of demons |
thlnk this thesis is susceptible of |
proof. There was published in Cairo |
IN 1907 translation from an old !
Arabic book on magic which contains |
iornulae for finding and dealing with |
buried treasure. The translator |
quotes directions as to publications
with incense before the earth is |
broken on the magic mountain. Then |
You dig, YOU find a stone with a brass
ring. You get into a passage and go
through three doorways. You come
into u large hall which has IL alcoves.
and in these are packed silver, weap-
ons, treasures of all kinds. arms |
Prof. Jean Capart thus translates the
next passage:
Turn toward the isolated chest
which is on the right hand side. and
which may be recognized because 1t |
has in front of its opening a talisman
OF precious stones which shines like a |
lighted lamp. The key is still there |
You enter the chamber of a king who |
lies on an ebony couch adorned with !
gold and incrusted with fine pearls |
and precious stones. He is the King of |
he ha III l.;
own riches and those of his father |
You will see all the products of Egypt !
spread out in this royal chamber
Cnaer the couch there is a slab which |
YOU will lift and go down 20 steps |
Then you will come TO a door of two |
leaves; open it and penetrate into an |
other great room"
Prof. Capart, who produced this |
passage from the Arabic. did not |
make the point that seems to me obyi- |
Gus. For at least $500 years, so evil |
dence that is pretty complete indi. |
Gates, no undiSturhed royal burial had !
been found in Egypt until Carriers
great strike. All the royal tombs |
known We're plundered long before the
time of Christ. And so, in this Arabic |
manual, first compiled in it's present |
form certainly within a few centuries.
we nave an oral tradition about the |
burial OF the Pharaohs that must have |
the Pharaohs themselves. Leaving |
out the magic, the description given |
ny the Arab compiler is not far re- |
moved from the truth. The story Of |
Aladdln'S cave may, and probably |
does, owe its origin to those same |
folk tales OF thousands of wears ago !
After this long preamble, | come |
10 a point about the Tut-ankh. Amen |
treasure, the greatest find of all the !
ages, that is obvious enough to eX- !
perts. but has not been made clear |
to the public. either during those !
early months of excited and often ig- |
norant and hySterical publicity, or !
during the two years that have fol |
lowed Of Sullen silence while sordid |
and diSgraceful quarreIS have sue |
ceeded one another behind the scenes !
Aladdin s author and Eastern mar
rators of buried treasure stories Law
stress always on the material value |
of the loot. Pearls, rubies. gold
sacks upon sacks of rubies tons upon !!
tons of gold. We in our time have
been almost as foolish. and the early. |
even the official" accounts of Tut's !
tomb have talked too much about |
charots of gold, shrines of gold, as |
though the Pharaoh's resting place !
We're 4 repository for half the ma |
terial national wealth of Egypt.
Value of Treasure.
Now. even though Carter announces |
that the inner coffin of Tut is solid |
gold, such conception of this find |
as Il whole is altogether false If |
somebody systematically smashed to
II.