Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-14
rNsrALMRNr xxxrrr

f THIS moment HAM appeared
- ut the door holding q small OBJ.
~ ject in his hand. walking for.
~ Inward, he laid It en- the center
table.
Here, effendi," he said in a Low
voice. lis the sheath of the royal dag.
ger. ! found it lying against the base.
board of the second-story hall. near the
head Of the stairs"
Vance scarcely glanced at 1t.
Thanks awfuliy," he drawleo. 81
rather thought you'd find 1t. But OF
course, it wasn't in the hall"
Il assure you--"
oh quite" Vance looked straigh,
into Hani's eyes, and presently faint
gentle smile crept into his gaze. Isn't
It true, Ham," he asked pointedly that
you found the sheath exactly where you
and believed It to be hidden?"
The Egyptian did not answer at
once Presently he said
II have told my story, effendi. You
may draw your own conclusion"
Vance appeared satisfied and waved
his hand toward the door.
And now, HAM, go to bed. We
sha'n't need you any more tonight.
Leiltak sa'ida."
'Ieiltak sa ida wemubaraka." The
man bowed and departed.
Vance picked up the sheath and,
taking the dagger from Salveter, fitted
the blade into its holder, looking at the
gold enclosing critically.
Aegean influence" he murmured.
pretty, but too fussy. These ornate
floral devices of the Eighteenth Dynasty
bear the same relation to early Egyp-
tian art that the Byzantine ginger thread
does t. the simple Greek orders H
held the sheath closer to his monoclc.
"And. by the by, here's decoration
that may interest. you. Mr.. Salveter.
The formal scrolls terminate in a
jackal's head"
"Anupu, Ell? Hani's given name.
That's curious" Salveter ro'. and
looked at the design. And another
point might be considered. Mr. Vance,
he went on, after a pause. These
lower-class Copts are, for all their SUI
perficial Christian veneer, rigfly SUI
perstitious. Their minds run along one
traditional groove: they like to At ev-
erything to a preconceived symbolism.
There have been nine morF or less CO.
Incidental deaths of late smong those
. connected with the exc avations in
Egypt, and the natives ridiculously i'm
agine that the afrits of their ancestors
lay in ambush in the various tombs to
NOW down the western intruderS, as a
kind of punitive measure They actu-
ally believe in such malefic forces
(Salveter was hefe referring to the Earl
of Carnarvon, Col the Honorable Au-
brey Herbert, Gen. Sir Lee Stack,
George j. Gould, Woolf Joel, Sir Archi-
bald Douglas Reid, Prof Lafieur, H. G.
Evelyn-White. and Prof Georges Aaron
Benedite. Since that time two more
liAllies have been added to the fatal
hst-those of the Honorable Richard
Bethel. secretary to Howard Carter.
and Lord Westbury.) And here is
Eani, at bottom a superstitious Egyp-
tian, who resents the Eork of Doctor
Bliss-is 1t not possible he might con-
slider the death of the doctor by dag
ger once worn by Pharaoh as a SOFT
Of mystical retribution in line with all
these other irrational ghost stories?
And HAM might even regard the
Jackal's head onstl1at sheath as a sign
that he-named after the jackal-headed
god, Anubis-had been divinely APP
pointed the agent in this act Of ven-
geance."
"a charmin' theory" was Vance's
somewhat uninterested comment. But
q bit too specious, fear. I'm comm
to the opinion that HAM Is not nearly
90 stupid and superstitious as he would