The sun. [volume], August 02, 1914, FOURTH SECTION PICTORIAL MAGAZINE, Page 2, Image 36

About The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916

Image provided by: The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation

                
THE SUM, SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 1914.
H
O
W
CAVATOR
DISCOVER
ED THE SHRINE OF OSI
Cnnllnuril row I'lritt Pnyr.
We hntl, It Is Iriif, tin- Indications which
lrnf. I'otrlc lind followed but aban
doned, Imt iluellv wo went by 1 1
testimony nf Strnbn, who t'ntiio tn
Abydos In tin' your 1(1 of our era nml
presses for mllo nrnund may have boon
obtained from this building.
In spite of this ilfxt r net Ion to the
monument I could but own to a kind nf
humanistic, satisfaction In tlio thought
Unit It had not boon lying nil these ages
unknown ami unused. Mutter was thcro
rotn nf n building possibly here "con- . rt spudding t i tlio demands imitlo upon It
ifn.ii,..i . 11... 1
r, lit nil 111 l 1-1 1111111 llltllllll'l lllll'l (III- ,
t.... ... . i . . .. . .. .
I'm ii oi ine i,nnyrintii; oui not com.
foxed of ninny parts. It had n wall,"
ho gom on to K.iy, "situated itt great
depth, mill then- wax a detent to It
through a lung passage Imllt of single
tones of tcnitii knblo size ami work
mnnKhlp." A building convincingly like
tills we were certainly finding.
Here wore enormous blocks, some
times hewn out in place. In parallel
horizontal courses of square Mniie of
ashlar masonry, with magtillloent
era n Ho dovetails. Those long solemn
italics Wen- like Unix of majestic prose.
like Iho precepts of the f kil lord
I'tnh.holcp of the llftli dynasty: "Tins
mariicrx of art are not close." "N .
artist Is In possession of perfection."
"Speak only of perfect things." Or like
the litterancex of the ! riunlil texts of
the'xlxth ilynaxty nt Sakkarah: "Thou
host not tiled; thou ltii.it become a
plnrloitx one In the horizon." "Thou
didst not tlepart dead; thou didst depart
living, thou h.ixt escaped the day of thy
death!" The oast wall of the hall only
Is Inxcrlhod by Meri'nptnli. nim of
Ilamcsos ll rilneteeutli ilynaxty. the
upiHixed Pharaoh of the Kxodux.
Our ilexcent downward wax xlow, for
Wc were In a motintaliiotix ruin, and we
encountered dllticultlos at every Inch of
our path In the Imnieuxe stones that
urroiinded ux. Stones must be mixed
ms they are met to take advantage of
the nxxlxtance of the ground on which
they lie.
Wo have only native workmen, ehiclly
from Arabat-el-.Madfuna nnd Ilent Man
our, the two villages nearext ux These
men move stones very xlmply and
wlftly, following ancient Instinctive
methods, operating In the force nf num.
bcrs. For the moxt part It Ix time loxt
to try to Introduce thorn to modern In
struments. I'ndcr the direction of
rclses. or foreman, the xtnne moverx lay
tracks of two heavy Ixniiiix. First pry
lnK the Ktone this way or that with n
lover of bcccliwond onto heavy rollers,
they then attach a rope to It and pull It
or hold It back as they raise it or lower
It to n resting place against the wall.
All this xtone moving, tli s strain
ing, this pulling .Mid h.iulinir, ix dune.
In the rhythm of brute force, in song.
The men nrc allowed their personal
choice In leadership, and a precentor Is
chosen, nnd valued, as ,s the conductor
of an orchestra, for the certainty of his
boat. "Hop Ir ragil. Hop!" the pre
centor sings, and the men answer on
Mraln: "Hop. hop, hop!" M. I.,egrand,
the director In chief of the excavations
nt Karnak, has recently printed nn In
tcrestln book. Including many of the
oncs tixed by on- workmen at their
work
by life, fir-1 as shrine and nctlve agent
of the spirit's liberty, then as patient
ipiairy to serve physical villain needs.
In mind or body, It hail helped hiis
tain the nncestry of many now alive.
Now we were uncovering It to serve us
i heme for iirclui'iiliiglHtM' Ink or for
tind tourists, with all their holiday mis.
understanding, Is that n greater obla
tion or u I 'xxer, I wonder?
The motto of every excavation might
be the Arab saw: "lie who lives, shall
see." Spirits ilso and fall. One of us
thought he had at last discovered the
light shaft Into it sanctuary, but nlas'
It was only a bin lug In a mlttxtone,
fuller' thought we had found n cham
ber; but It turned out to 1m- the roofed
co'ner of the hall, Krom the pongs nf
the liii-n one often gathers plilloxuphy
enough for the day. "The sea of gifts
Is very wide." sings one man. "The
bucket of the Shadotlf does not take up
all the water of the river. God
does not deny what we pray for."
If there should seem to bo delay In
the narrative of the excavator, It means
but the general sense of waiting In the
excavation Itself, Only very slowly do
the courses of gigantic red blocks, like
dusty porphyry, wonderfully nppoar to
us, and tlio enormous monoliths rise.
At the level of six meters from the
highest part of the remaining wall wo
came to n niche, then to another and
still nnother, until n series of niches was
displayed at Intervals, completely on
circling the hall. Knoh was about n.'i
tetitlmeters square, packed solidly with
so.l, through which n few broken frag
ments of pottery were scattered, but
nothing else. Prof. Navllle saw In thce
niches "tlio cells of the celestial abode
of Oxlrls," spoken of In the Hook of the
Dead.
Our Interest was now excited to find
the central niche, If there should be one,'
In the eastern wall. Would It be like
the others? Would It be the entrnncc
to something beyond?
In the fourth register of the oast
wall, we Indeed saw that wo were Hear
ing nn opening. There was n little
moulding, and the ligures near the
centre of this register were sum Her,
representing four genii. At the extreme
left of the register Thoth was purifying
tho king lu the presence of oxlrls. Then
came the genii, .Mestl, Hapi and O.un
nauxef nnd Keblsenouf. and the King
before Osiris, Anoup leading him by the
hand. Those genii "avenge Osiris" and
"xmlte f5et." as the Pyramid Texts say;
and are known especially as the four
genii who had charge of the viscera of
tho dead. Immediately on either side
of the door appeared King Merenntah
himself, kneeling, with hands raised In
breathless adoration of what Presence?
l.srge pieces of limestone which'
pencil which ha made luminous tho
walls of the Sell Tempo-. The rliiiinbor
with Its pointed roof reminds one of a
great (luthlc reliquary.
In the northeast corner of the
chamber there Is n break In the root
and wall, showing where tho robliors
probably entered the chamber; and In
the oast wall Ix n second break, where
had been made an unsuccessful nttempl
to find treasure. Otherwise the cluiinber
Is Intact.
This chamber, wholly subterranean,
lies parallel to the wall of .Soil's Temple
and within u few feet of it, but there Is
us yet no Indication whatever of com
munication between them. Our en
trance to the chamber was on Friday
February 13, continuing Shakexpeare's
belief in the divinity of odd ntimbtrs and
dispelling some old bogles of 111 luck.
Seventeen niches nt Inst came forth,
and we supposed of course that t!i '
rested upon the pavement of the hall
but to our astonishment, they pened
only upon n ledge, or mammoth mould
lug, sevi'nty centimeters wide, running
nil tho way around the wall except
across the engaged piers at either end,
where there Is no ledge. A similar
ledge, a little narrower, opposite, con
nected the piers In the aisles, and a
wider ledge similarly connected the
piers In what wo may call the nave.
This ledge Is cut out of the block
which forms the llrst course of masonry
below It.
At several points wo followed the wall
down for more than four meters Into
tho Infiltration water, hut as we had
no adequate appliances for dredging or
hoisting stone from such n depth wo
could not go further. From shallow
square basins In the ledge In the mid
dle two lllghts of twelve rough steps
r
.1
S3U.
.& 1 . 111-
End of the wall on the East.
mm
millstone fashioned from
of the missing lintels.
one
he lep.iired? Was It here In the dark
nosx that the oblations, as they were
plunged Into the waters, called forth
from the echoing granite the loud rr
spouse which reached the ears of the
belli vers? To prove this It will be
necessary to lltul the communicating
entrance Into the building of tho undis
covered cnnal.
The water of the Infiltration alone
clearly would not sutllce even nt its
Temple near the Sphinx ut Glzeh has
been detected by some critics of this
building; but a close study of tho Glzeh
Temple shows to others only the most
superllclnl resemblance. Hoth In ground
plan and In masonry construction, and
In the use of starch cement or mortar,
the differences appear to iho latter fun
damental. Nevertheless, this does not
necessarily argue that tho Abydns
building Is not Ancient Kmplre. and even
earlier than the temple near tho Sphinx.
M. Harsantl thinks It may hnvo a
cloxer relation to Kalnut-el-Arynn, which
ho Is at present excavating and which
he has dated from the cartouche, of Ha-
N'eb-K.i or Neh-Ka. King of tho Third
Dynasty. On the other hand. Dr.
tlorchardt strongly asserts that the en
tire building Is the work of tho Klgh
tcenth nnd Nineteenth dynasties.
A possible solution of tho rlddlo lies
In the nature of the soil In which tho
building is embedded. Is this orlglnnl
soil or subsequent accumulation? The
evidence, after cnrefullest consideration.
Is enough to baffle even a geologist with
the experience of Dr. Hume of the
Kgyptlan Geological Survey.
No building over dies, so long as It
knows what to do with Itself under the
circumstances. Egyptian temples, as
Samuel I littler said of the Unman Km
pire, "were puzzled to death by tho
Christian rillglon." Death intervenes at
length, when the demands to adapt the
body to the requlr' ments of life exceed
the power of response. We are actually
In a Christian atmosphere.
On the walls there are a considerable
number of red painted Greek Inscrip
tions, most, of them quite illegible, but
alt, from the form of the letters, con
Jecturally of the tlrst nnd second cen
turies after Christ, All 'appear to be
votive Inscriptions. One of these was
put up by a man whose name Is not
quite clear, but probably reads "Netro-
As a place of healing used by Coptic
Christians one can hut see a certain
likeness to the Abaton at Kpldaurus, as
well as to almost every medkeval shrine
wlicro n saint's relics have rested. These
Kgyptlan Inscriptions of ours, It Is to be
regretted, will probably throw no light
upon the original Intention of the monu
ment. They are not unlike the dated
Greek Inscriptions, ex-votos to the god
lies.i In tho Setl Tomplo or tho graffiti
which tho Carlan mercenaries (who were
tho dragomans of Kgypt when Herodo
tus visited It) have left upon the walls
of the westernmost Merenptah chamber
or the fragments of pottery dating from
Itoman times to the seventeenth cen
tury, which Ho scattered through the
rubbish. They mark merely the (Mexage
of time,
Tho digging Is not finished, the work
la not done. That our tribute may In
paid to history with the respect we owi
It, that we may Identify this stone. Mi,
pebble of tho structure of our nv ra
universe, we must continue. The inn
cal phrases are there almost wlth.n on;
grasp and we may not hazard khixm
until wo have made every utmo-' i if r
to let them reveal themselves.
Southwestern corner, showing ledge and cell doorway.
It may be asked If there Is not
great waste of Mile and money in all
this, and If machinery would not do the
work better and more rapidly. The nn
swer is direct that certain fdmple ma
chinery doex facilitate work, but that
human strength urn! the rocking lever
cannot Just bete be Improved upon.
When our work was in full tide we had
over 6S0 men an.l 1 oys, one of the larg
est, if not quite the largest, of any of
the forces excavating at any single site,
at one time In Hgypt, since Jlarlette'x
armies moved uion the Temples.
'c are a great community; names
are called at Minrlxe and aun"et and
cacn answers to nix name. At noon
men come In procession with long wav
ing stalks of sugar cane for wile, which
is enton with th" uniform hard bn.nl
and onions, the traditional diet, as wt
roe by the iiceoiintx of onlonx supplied
to the men constructing the pyramid
tomb of Kufu In the fourth dynasty
All i" orderly, m -.1 the men keep 'o
their allowed and allotted pUcex.
The overthrow of this bulldliiv Is not,
less amazing than its conx'ruct.on.
Commercialism ix not a characteristic
of our own age nbuie; it belongs, to
every ago. Itoinanci Is dead; the ciivm
man said'" Till- building ivax de
Mrnyed by hew el x of m.llMoties who
have left eMib nee ol similar ilex ruction
In most of the buildings of Nubia.
T'nllnixiied millstones weighing from
seven tons to two hundred pounds, leav
ing great gaps ill the piers, ami roof
blocks out of whii li lhe had been
hewn. I,i cm tywheie. (iiln r ptetx, roof
ing blocks and lintels were in.iikeit wIM,
red palm, nnd even drilled, lendy for
the wooden wedges and waif by which
means the blocks were to be cli-aved.
High up in the riilibixli near the In
scribed wall we found mi ancient camp
of the woikinen They had llvul on the
'pot ill the mldM of their Wo' I. Tiler'
were the axhi- nf tbejr r,,, t. b'i keil
water J.ir, the I nnd illxhis, the bones of
shf'P they h id eaten, and their rub
pot'e y lamp- liwt nx thoT i "M had
gone out. 'n crtinlte xb m , oil
a t blocked the entrance were removed. For t
a few minutes it seemed i,, be only a
niche like the others, but then one saw 1
a break In the further wall. A little
over a meter was broken out of the
Molten that had sealed the entrance to
Mimothlng In-ynuil. (me hardly suc
ceeded In crawling over the s ones and
thrusting one's head in.
It was utter darkness, but ono
wriggled one's way through anil downi
on the other side of a .-lope of stones
and sand, n little more than two meters
limb, and stood upright on a pavement!
It was like plunging Into steaming
waters, owing to the heat and moisture.
As one's eyes became ncciistonied to
the dark, light cast from the opening
showed a wall opposite, but how fur tho
chamber extended to the right or left
one could not guc"3. Hy the light of a
candle one felt one's way cautiously,
step liy step, over a slippery pavement
of large tlat stones. It seemed nn In
terminable, distance to the right, until
one came to the end of the room, nnd so
back to tlio entrance, nnd as far along
In tho other direction. As one turned,
the sun was consuming the Unlit sap
phlro vapors through the opening. The
limestone walls were wet and hung like
flakes of Ivory, touched with the red and
black pigments of tlio hieroglyphics.
The chamber was empty. Whatever
Its treasuio suddenly, as rare things
will, It had long slnee vanished'
It was only later, by the light of re
flecting mirrors, that we really saw tho
chamber, Twenty-seven meters long
ami about live meters wide, the walls
aie of limestone and the pitched roof
of ted sandstone about four meters
from Iho angle to the pavement. The
celling is Inscribed by Sell with the
"Imperishable stars," "the followers of
iNirW." A double representation of the
cUy goddess Nut, with full lips kissing
the sun Ite, spans the heavens, An
Important iitrnuomlcnl calendar of the
re-nig and lie setting of stars and other
scenes fiom the book commonly called
'I e Ho k of the Underworld" further
lin-illliex the celling, All this Is drawn
w'Mi the refinement of that marvellous
r.t.'J
3ECTIOH THROUGH
rM miiiii.f'.
UTAH.
SCTI TDMPUK
m LY""'' n tttYt ytZ
X
l MENGPHTAH V't lt'f'7.'f .l'i ,Ji,t.'v C
I I1 u'uiLJ1
v.-y- tHi i .-
WATER LEVEL"!"' I1
TOMD V OSIRIS fry
WATER LEVEL mach jnju
Men Who Are Never Late at Work
Ground plan of shrine as excavators unearthed it.
descend, one flight toward the east end
of the hall nnd the other toward the
west.
It was In consequence of finding no
pavement nnd of the grent (and even
as yet unknown) depth to which tho
walls descend, with other conditions
answering to Strabo's description, that
we were led to conclude too hastily that
our building was the well or pool which
Strabo saw. Certainly here, and of old
very famous as a place of offerings to
OxIrlB at Abydos, was a well supplied
with water from the river by nn ap
parently now totally effaced canal. The
offerings, It Is said, were thrown Into the
water amid great roarings and were be.
Ileved to pass at once to the god.
A certain Menthu-hetep of the
present level; still less so, as some hold
It to have been In the time of the an
cient empire lying three meters below
tho level of to-dny. From present evi
dence In either case the niches were In
accessible by water.
Not n few who have seen the building
think that there was a pavement, now
destroyed, or that there was to have
been one, perhaps never set In place.
Was this to connect the ledges or to
rest upon them? In support of this
theory masonry evidences ate not
wanting throughout the building, espe
cially In the abundant presence of
quarry knobs both above and below the
ledge, to prove that It wtis never llnlshed,
The walls below the ledge thus Inter
pretid become merely massive foiinda-
Floventh Dynasty says nn his stole that j lions, necessary for the enormous super
he built a well here by order of the Imposed weight In the uncertain condl
King, Is this the building that he bulll Hons of damp soil,
or Is this an earlier building which A likeness to the Fourth Dynasty
blanus." "After I'aln," he writes, "Iho
Good," "My pnln lias censed; and, hap
pily, my recovery continues,"
Of a somewhat later date than theso
Grieco.ltoman Inscriptions, in the simo
red paint (tin; oxide of iron still found
In the desert and used in Kgypt), are
Coptic Christian drawings. Most strik
ing among them are representations of
boats, and also figures In Christian
iconography, Including the Holy Name,
tho Dove, the Cross, the Fish and tho
I. Inn.
Those drawings range from the celling
of the building to the ledges, chielly on
the piers, the walls being too rough to
take the brush. The boats represent the
Nile craft lu which nieii came and snmo
of them bear their names and remind
one of the representations of boatH and
railway trains painted to-day on tho
house of a man who litis made a pil
grimage to Mecca.
'-T-MIERE Is n man up In tho Fordham
district or Tnc lironx wnoso nrst
names nro Thomas Joseph and
whoso last name rhymes with "train."
He Is 60 years of age and for forty
throe years he has reported for his day's
duty with a largo downtown paint and
varnish concern exactly at 8:30 A. M.
When tho hands of the clock reach that
hour ho Is seating himself at his desk,
lie often arrives ahead of time, but
never has Tie arrived late.
At first glance the making of such a
record seems an Impossibility owing to
the many chances of accident and delay
In travelling. Yet when you talk to the
man who has mvompllshed this font of
punctuality you find that he doesn't
consider It n dilllciilt thing to do nt all.
Hero's wliat ho says about It:
"Most pc'plo are tardy. It seems
nntural for them to want to gamble
with time. If they arrive with only a
second to spare they net as If they were
tickled nearly to dentil. These are
the same fellows and this means al
most evorylxidy who blame the results
of tardiness u Inanimate things nnd
circumstances. Instead of on their own
propensity to throw dlco against tho
clock,
"When a man tells you that It's Im
possible to arrive on time year nftor
year becouse of accident nnd forgetful-
ness he never seems to tlguro mat mini
Is superior to matter. First, make up
your mind that you will never be late,
and the battle Is won. If you don't
make up your mind that way, you nro
already half way late. The trick Is In
the mind In the resolution. When you
let your mind wlllle-wnflle as to cer
tainty about making your objective
point, why, you've about missed It al
ready. "I have been with one concern for
forty-three years, and punctuality with
me Is a passion. I call It a passion,
although It Is nn easy and simple life
rule with me, because so few peoplo
seem to find It easy. They dodge punc
tuality whenever they arc called upon
to bow to It.
"As for mo, I feel so good . thinking
that I have beaten a soulless thing like
a clock that there's happiness every
day for mo In my on-tlmeness. Talk
about tho Joy of the man who has
boarded tho water wagon and ticks off
another day and another year nn the
calendar, why. It's nothing to my pride
In tho record for punctuality I havo
made. And mind you, I'v made this
record with myself nnd for myself
mainly.
"It's a bargain that I made with my
strong side to beat my lazy side, l.nzy
was bealen to n frazzle years ago but
not to a finish. It can't be beaten to n
tin Hit until I die, for I find the lazy
tendency Is still sneaking around and
toady to give me a plausible argument
(Why I should take It easy Just for once,
i you Know, lhat s the way lazy talks.
"When I got my Job with this con
cern l made up my mind they'd never
catch inn late. I was not gulling much
salary, so I could have no reserve fund
against accidents. The reserve fund I
had was an utillmltid amouiii of time
In which to get wotk.
"I was up at a quarter to " every
morning, At half past ' 1 was board
ing my car at Fordham. It was gener
ally Just 8 A. .l. when I got to the
office. Hut several times in those years
I was delayed by snow and nccldent.
The ample time I allowed myself al
ways brought me to my work within
tho limit for reporting imo.
"As the years went by and I was pro
noted I found that my reputation had
spread and that made me morn than
ever determined never to be late. I
kept my day systematized, and as my
responsibilities and remuneration in
creased I arranged more thoroughly
to overcomo delay tlirnicli
than ever
mishaps.
"During tho big blizzard of H&S i
dozen of us chipped In for a team an,
sleigh and drove all the way from I on)
hnm down until railroad traffic wti re
sumed on schedule time, lbp
about tho several days before r.iffi.
was resumed and the streets wi p - , m
bound? Why. easy enough. I
down tho llrst morning before trafTIi
stopped. And I never went homo for
two days stopped at tho Astor House
"My last mishap was about three
years ago. Subway tied up. I trieil
the elevatul nnd the cars only crawled
along. I left the train at tv Mrs
station I could nnd took a t,il (lot
down with ten minutes to spii'i
A division superintendent of 'lie ol
the railroads going out of tin .! - e
side complimented tho Fordli.im nl.m
on his steadfastness when he heard
tho story, but did not think th f .rty
(hree year performance So w. i rfu
Said he;
"That rordham man Is cnt
praise for his con.nant willing!)
effort to report on time and not
fact that he has nlwaws bet n
report. There's a big elemeti'
In such things. Suppose win n
tho old Kast Illver steamer.
them had got stalled Just off lb
and had been hung up for ,i
Wouldn't he have been good w
And such nn accident has of '
pened. Suppose tho Hml.-nn 1 C . v
had been late at the 125th strif
the morning he ran down to i
Mutt Haven? Train. nro oftm
except, nhem, on my road. It
constant effort to I atlv. i'
that never tired, that makes
markahlo,
"Wo have engineers who ln
reported late slnco they hav. '
our employ, nut ns they gener.i
close to where they take their
It Is not so wonderful a case
tuallty ns the Fordham man -believe,
however, that there ,u
matlo men men who work !'
llko machinery. Will power 'j
what is required.
"Wo have trainmen who df i
ono mlnuto In their getting
nnd they don't set nlarm clc I
They've been doing It for m.u
And their day off? Some don't .
day off nnd they work extra. I
seem to dry them up, either.
Just as agreeable and cnni
as the tardy, pleasure sceK
It's their makeup.
"I In-long to n gymnasi','
there's a man who has
mlle.H before breakfast, rain
for twenty years. The day !
died they thought he'd lay off
Hut ho didn't, although he'd 1 .
up with the dead man all u.
nnd he walked the five the d
funeral."
Central I'nrk reservoir w
three times by a Hnrlein
every morning for ten jc.irs
his death. His ki.-t regret w.
couldn't leave his bed to tank
There's a New York Athletic i
whoxo hobby for the last tw
Is to do the promenade of F t1
from Fifty. ninth street to
square arch every often
shine. He Is away one nuur
port and one month in the V
during the summer and dert.r
out of .oftS becalle lie colli!
walk,
Unusual constancy of oil.'
reported In many places
street lawyer has visited
mnlden liuly, every Huud.i'
for thirty odd years, miKu
from Hrooklyn to lialntleid S
so.
led (
-- am'
f T the
,!! t.
r luck
. li'
' lia
' ir
I .it'
' .ip
i tram
-MllOtl
i from
Lite
Is hi"
effor
in re-
netcr
.n it
tv m
niilnr-
,f (Mini
I il
. aute
r l. I'
iIo It
jv!,it'
i time
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