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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The romance of excavation, by David
+Masters
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The romance of excavation
+       A record of the amazing discoveries in Egypt, Assyria, Troy,
+       Crete, etc.
+
+Author: David Masters
+
+Release Date: June 15, 2023 [eBook #70981]
+
+Language: English
+
+Credits: Bob Taylor, Aaron Adrignola and the Online Distributed
+         Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+         produced from images generously made available by The Internet
+         Archive)
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF
+EXCAVATION ***
+
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber’s Note
+  Italic text displayed as: _italic_
+
+
+
+
+THE ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION
+
+[Illustration: SOME OE THE ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION IS BROUGHT OUT BY
+THIS BUSY SCENE AT THEBES SHOWING A SMALL ARMY OF NATIVES DIGGING
+AMID THE RUINS OF A TEMPLE]
+
+
+
+
+  THE ROMANCE
+  OF EXCAVATION
+
+  A RECORD OF THE AMAZING
+  DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT,
+  ASSYRIA, TROY, CRETE, ETC.
+  WITH TWENTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  BY DAVID MASTERS
+
+  LONDON
+
+  JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITED
+
+
+
+
+  _First Published in 1923_
+
+  MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY MORRISON AND GIBB LTD., EDINBURGH
+
+
+
+
+  TO
+
+  A. A.
+
+  WHO SAVED MY LIFE
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+Now and again the world is stirred by a discovery such as that of
+the Tomb of Tutankhamen by Mr. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. In
+the following pages I have sought to reveal some of the romance of
+excavation, to tell the fascinating story of the men who have gone
+out into the desert places and dug up long-lost cities and the fabled
+treasure of ancient kings. Brilliant men, who have played their part
+in unearthing the glories of the past, have written many volumes on
+the subject which is nearest their hearts, and if, after closing
+this book, the reader and student feel a desire to seek them out,
+I shall be content. In conclusion, I wish to thank Major Kenneth
+Mason, M.C., R.E., The British School at Athens, and The Trustees of
+the British Museum, for their kindness in allowing me to use various
+illustrations in this volume.
+
+  DAVID MASTERS.
+
+  1923.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER I
+                                                                  PAGE
+
+  The Story of the Rosetta Stone—How it was found by
+  the French and passed into possession of Great
+  Britain—The puzzling picture writing of the ancient
+  Egyptians which no one could read—The English
+  medical man, Dr. T. Young, who began to tear the
+  secret from the Rosetta Stone, and the astounding
+  work of François Champollion, who built up the
+  first hieroglyphic dictionary                                      1
+
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+  The Ruins of Egypt—Men who are using their eyes to
+  bring back to us the glories of the past—Papyrus, the
+  paper of olden times, and how it was made—Bits of
+  pottery worth their weight in gold; how they act as
+  calendars—The cleverness of native thieves                        12
+
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+  Shifting 70,000 tons of rubble to find the tomb of Tutankhamen—The
+  dreadful monotony of digging in vain—A
+  lucky decision which led to the discovery of
+  Tutankhamen’s dazzling treasure—The genius of
+  Professor Flinders Petrie, and his great finds at
+  Abydos which the French overlooked—The mystery
+  of a Cretan pot                                                   22
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+  Signs which tell men where to dig—Egypt’s wonderful
+  climate, which preserves things almost for ever—Why
+  the Nile was worshipped—The annual floods and how
+  they were watched by the people of old—The strange
+  adventures of Cleopatra’s Needle—Pagans who
+  anticipated Christian teachings                                   32
+
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+  Graves which make history—The great age of Egyptian
+  civilization—Mud that tells a story—The first king
+  of Egypt—The romance of the tombs—The Book of
+  the Dead which contains some Christian commandments—The
+  sleight of hand of ancient scribes                                42
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+  Wonders of the Pyramids—The mystery surrounding
+  them and a simple explanation—How the Pyramids
+  were built—Amazing accuracy of architects who lived
+  6000 years ago—The secret entrance found at last by
+  thieves—Why the Pyramids were one of the plagues
+  of Egypt—The problem of the Great Sphinx—The
+  Colossi of Memnon that guard a vanished temple                    54
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+  Thebes, the one-time capital of Egypt, then and now—Armies
+  to transport stones—Handling the gigantic
+  obelisks—Controlling the floods thousands of years
+  ago—An endless battle of wits between the Pharaohs
+  and the tomb robbers—The greatest discovery of
+  Royal mummies ever made—Romantic lives of two
+  famous men—The appalling desolation of the Valley
+  of the Tombs of the Kings                                         71
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+  A despised statue that realised £10,000—Some American
+  discoveries—Finding treasure valued at £3,000,000—How
+  chance led Professor Flinders Petrie to a long-lost
+  city—His weird adventure with a mummy—The
+  tablets of Tell-el-Amarna—Dramatic moments at the
+  opening of Tutankhamen’s tomb—The mummy that
+  vanished—How relics are preserved—Ancient ladies
+  who painted their faces in modern fashion—A marvellous
+  knife made of stone                                               91
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+  The mystery of cuneiform writing—A young English
+  soldier who solved an age-old puzzle—Rawlinson’s
+  work on the Rock at Behistun—Perched on the
+  verge of a precipice—His thrilling escape from death—How
+  he read the unknown Persian writing that
+  revealed the civilizations of Babylonia and Assyria              105
+
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+  Hills which are buried cities—Romance of Sir Austin
+  Henry Layard—The young English lawyer who went
+  into the desert and dug up Nineveh of old—The
+  Arab who laughed at the men who hunted broken
+  bricks, and the remarkable result                                119
+
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+
+  How Layard, with £60, uncovered a lost civilization—A
+  wild boar hunt which was not quite what it seemed—Finding
+  the great winged bull—Deserts that were
+  once the Garden of Eden—Hardships and adventures
+  among the Arabs—Mining a way into Nineveh—Difficulty
+  of transporting the mighty Assyrian
+  statues—Ancient letters like modern puppy biscuits—The
+  clever Sumerian canal builders—Rise and fall of
+  Babylon, and the doom of Nineveh                                 129
+
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+
+  A mussel shell which proved that scientists were wrong—The
+  forerunner of modern Manchester in the heart
+  of ancient Mesopotamia—Finding the treasure of
+  the Moon God at Ur—The Tower of Babel—When
+  Nebuchadnezzar reigned in Babylon and Daniel saw
+  the writing on the wall—The Code of Hammurabi
+  and the Ten Commandments                                         149
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIII
+
+  Discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann—His amazing
+  life—The grocer’s boy who wept over Homer, starved
+  himself to buy books, and eventually made a fortune
+  to carry out his boyish dream of finding the city of
+  which Homer sang—How scientists laughed at him—The
+  astounding treasure of Troy and the wealth of
+  Mycenæ                                                           161
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIV
+
+  Schliemann vindicated and honoured—His 100,000 relics
+  from Troy—The Greek sculpture of Apollo—Glories
+  of ancient Greece—When Phidias, the world’s greatest
+  sculptor, carved the most beautiful statues ever seen—Turks
+  who smashed them for sport—Romance
+  of the Elgin Marbles—Lord Elgin’s fight for the
+  matchless relics                                                 176
+
+
+  CHAPTER XV
+
+  Did ancient Crete dominate the world like modern
+  Britain?—The Mediterranean civilization—Brilliant
+  discoveries of Sir Arthur Evans—The Throne Room
+  at Knossos—Some Cretan cameos—The problem of
+  the unknown writing of Minoa and what we may
+  learn from it                                                    183
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  Excavating at Thebes                                  _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                           FACING PAGE
+
+  The Rosetta Stone                                                  4
+
+  Temple of Karnak                                                  12
+
+  The Tomb of Tutankhamen                                           24
+
+  Temple of Luxor                                                   26
+
+  The Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak                                  36
+
+  A Scene from the Book of the Dead                                 50
+
+  The Pyramids of Gizeh                                             56
+
+  The Colossi of Memnon                                             69
+
+  A partly-hewn Obelisk in a Quarry                                 73
+
+  The Noble Ruins of Philæ                                          77
+
+  Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Thebes                              88
+
+  Two Marvellous Coffins                                           100
+
+  The Cuneiform Inscriptions at Behistun                           105
+
+  The Sculptures of Darius the Great                               117
+
+  Nineveh in Desolation                                            124
+
+  Excavating at Knossos                                            124
+
+  A Winged Lion from an Assyrian Palace                            134
+
+  A Quaint Spelling Book of Clay                                   146
+
+  A Clay Letter and Envelope                                       146
+
+  Babylon To-day                                                   156
+
+  Ruins of Troy                                                    170
+
+  Where the Treasure of Mycenæ was found                           174
+
+  A Digger’s Camp in Crete                                         183
+
+  The Palace of Knossos                                            184
+
+  Giant Store Jars of Minoa                                        189
+
+
+
+
+THE ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A scientist stood in the British Museum gazing at a piece of rock.
+Many people passed to and fro, but never one halted to see what held
+his attention, never one save a little boy, who wondered what the
+grown-up was looking at. Those who glanced in that direction merely
+saw a shattered stone, and passed on unheeding.
+
+Had the fragment of stone been the Cullinan diamond or a glowing
+ruby, everybody would have clustered round to gaze at it. As it was
+neither one nor the other, everybody walked on. Yet that fragment of
+stone was, and is, much more wonderful than the finest diamond or
+ruby ever dug out of the earth.
+
+The fragment over which the scientist dreamed was the Rosetta Stone.
+It is merely a piece of black basalt 28½ inches wide and 45 inches
+in length. The top left corner has disappeared in the dust of
+centuries, and both corners on the right side have been smashed off.
+The remainder is one of the world’s greatest treasures, for it has
+given us the clue to the past, unfolded for us the romance of ancient
+Egypt, and enabled us to glimpse the Pharaohs in all their glory.
+
+The Rosetta Stone is divided into three sections, each of which
+is covered with writing cut into the surface. The top section is
+composed of hieroglyphics, the curious picture-writing of ancient
+Egypt, the middle section is in the everyday writing of the ordinary
+people of ancient Egypt, known as demotic characters, and the bottom
+section is in Greek.
+
+This famous stone has travelled far from its original resting-place
+in the Nile delta, where it may have lain for close on two thousand
+years. Had Napoleon not made up his mind to conquer Egypt it might
+never have been recovered. By chance, Napoleon managed to escape
+Nelson, who was searching the Mediterranean for him, and landed his
+expedition at Alexandria. Sweeping everything before him, Bonaparte
+soon dominated the country and despoiled the conquered people of the
+relics of the past.
+
+Then Nelson, coming back to look for his foe, found the French fleet
+in Aboukir Bay, and swept it for ever from the seas. Napoleon was
+shaken, but hid his mortification, and in due course set off to
+invade Syria. Gazah, of Biblical history, fell before him, Jaffa was
+captured, but at Acre another British Admiral, Sir Sydney Smith,
+intervened. The French ships sailing along the coast with stores for
+Napoleon’s troops were captured, and the British sailor then threw
+himself heart and soul into the defence of the city. Napoleon fought
+desperately for weeks to capture Acre, but the Admiral was his match,
+and the French forces were at last compelled to retreat.
+
+About this time a sapper was digging away in the ruins of Fort St.
+Julian when his pick struck against a rock. He drove the tool into
+the soil to see if the rock were large or small, and whether it would
+be difficult to remove. He quickly discovered that the rock was of no
+great size, and in a few minutes it was lying clear at the bottom of
+the trench.
+
+Glancing idly at the stone, the Frenchman noticed it was covered with
+strange characters. The soldier was quite interested in his find, so
+interested that he cleaned the whole surface of the strange stone
+he had unearthed. That the characters were some sort of writing was
+obvious, but what it was all about was much more than he could tell.
+Other men might have thrown the stone aside and covered it up again,
+but fortunately the finder possessed intelligence and the curious
+stone was added to the rest of the booty collected by the French.
+
+That stone, unearthed in 1798, was the piece of black basalt which
+is now to be seen at the British Museum in London. It became known
+as the Rosetta Stone because it was found near Rosetta, the seaport
+whence Napoleon eventually fled from Egypt, and when the French were
+defeated it passed into our possession as one of the spoils of war.
+
+It seems strange that two of the greatest figures in history, Nelson
+and Napoleon, should be connected with the discovery of the Rosetta
+Stone. Stranger still to think what might have happened had the
+soldier who found the stone smashed it to pieces or tossed it out of
+the way. These things might easily have occurred, as they have no
+doubt occurred to many valuable relics in bygone times.
+
+Had the Rosetta Stone not come to light, one of the vital links with
+Egypt’s past would have been missing. We might still be groping
+in the dark, wondering what all the quaint picture-writing of the
+Egyptians meant, seeking for the clue that would tell us. Luckily the
+man who found the stone saw that it was something more than a broken
+piece of rock, and so preserved it for posterity.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British Museum_
+
+THE SHATTERED ROSETTA STONE WHICH PROVIDED THE CLUE TO THE PICTURE
+WRITING OF THE EGYPTIANS]
+
+Many people wondered what all the strange signs meant when they first
+saw the stone. Men of science pored over it and racked their brains
+in their efforts to solve the mystery. The Greek script was soon
+translated, and proved to be a decree of Ptolemy V, dating about 196
+B.C.
+
+The fact that there were three inscriptions seemed to indicate that
+it was one decree engraved in three different forms of writing in
+order to appeal to as many people as possible. But this was by no
+means certain. It might easily have been three different decrees,
+though in such a case no purpose could have been served by inscribing
+them all on one stone. It was, therefore, more than probable that the
+three inscriptions were one decree, and that the known writing would
+give a clue to the weird pictures to be found in the tombs and on the
+monuments scattered about Egypt.
+
+The hieroglyphics were a mystery of the past. No one could read
+them. The strange pictures of men and birds and beasts might have
+been merely decorative. They might have had no meaning at all, or no
+more meaning than the pictures we place on our walls to decorate our
+houses.
+
+Other signs, however, in combination with the pictures, indicated
+that the hieroglyphics were a form of writing. Some people think that
+this picture-writing of the Egyptians is actually the oldest writing
+in the world, and that all writings must have sprung from it. This
+idea, however, is not quite accurate. A child of three years old
+cannot draw wonderful portraits. Childish drawings of a house with
+four straight lines for the house, a door in the centre, and a window
+on each side of the door are well known.
+
+Man in the beginning may be likened to the child, and his earliest
+drawings must have been cruder than the childish drawings of our own
+age, far cruder than anything that is preserved for us. The first
+man to scratch a rough line or two on a rock was the forefather of
+Raphael and Michael Angelo and Rembrandt, but untold ages elapsed
+before the art of the first primitive artist developed into that of
+these masters.
+
+The Egyptian pictures in the picture-writing are cleverly drawn, and
+indicate true artistic perceptions. It must have taken a long time
+to reach the pitch of perfection that is shown. So it seems logical
+to assume that the hieroglyphics were the outcome of another form
+of writing. For years there were no proofs that this was the case,
+but it is now definitely established by Professor Flinders Petrie
+that crude signs were used in Egypt at a much earlier date than the
+picture-writing, and the extraordinary thing is that some of these
+signs may be traced in the alphabets of other countries.
+
+An English medical man, Dr. Young, was the first to furnish a clue to
+the mystery of the Rosetta Stone. Happening to take a keen interest
+in dead languages as well as in living people, he saw among the
+hieroglyphics two sets of signs with a line drawn round them, and as
+the name of Ptolemy was twice mentioned in the Greek text he reasoned
+that these signs stood for the name of the ruler who made the decree.
+He reasoned correctly, and we learned in time that a king’s name
+was always enclosed in a panel, which is now generally known as a
+cartouche.
+
+The deciphering of the king’s name was a happy discovery which
+pointed to the general significance of the cartouche in connection
+with royal names. But the deciphering of the rest of the
+hieroglyphics bristled with difficulties. No one knew whether the
+signs stood for sounds, letters, words or things.
+
+Egyptians had painted these puzzling pictures, but there was not a
+single man in all Egypt who knew what they meant. The oldest Egyptian
+peasant was ignorant on the subject, the most learned Egyptian
+scholar had not the faintest idea of their meaning. The Egyptians had
+forgotten how to read the writing of their forefathers. It was the
+writing of a dead age, of a vanished civilization.
+
+Dr. Young threw himself enthusiastically into the task of
+deciphering the signs. The difficulty seemed to add a zest to his
+search. He pored over the copy of the writing on the Rosetta Stone
+day after day. There was absolutely nothing to guide him. Everything
+was sheer deduction at first, and then his deductions had to be
+tested and verified.
+
+So difficult was his task that the discovery of a single letter
+was an event. Perhaps by great good fortune he would succeed in
+deciphering two signs in a week, then for a month he might study the
+copy until his brain reeled, and decipher nothing at all. It was a
+heart-breaking undertaking. On one occasion he announced that he had
+succeeded in translating a certain set of hieroglyphics into a word
+of seven or eight letters. It was afterwards proved that he was right
+in only one letter, and that the rest were hopelessly wrong.
+
+He began on his project in 1814 and, after struggling with it for
+four years, the sum total of his labours amounted to the deciphering
+of just over ninety characters. His discovery thus averaged fewer
+than twenty-five signs a year. It meant that he had to concentrate
+all the power of his exceptional brain, and all his knowledge of
+languages, for a whole month to decipher two characters. In doing
+what he did, he accomplished an astounding feat. It is impossible to
+praise Young too highly for his early work on the Rosetta Stone.
+
+At the same time that Young was wrestling with hieroglyphics in
+England, François Champollion was trying to solve the puzzle in
+France. Champollion’s interest in hieroglyphics did not spring up
+in a night; it was of slow growth, starting in his childhood when
+Egypt bulked large in the imaginations of most French boys owing to
+the stirring deeds of Napoleon against the Mamelukes. By the time
+Champollion was eleven years old, he was already taking more than
+an ordinary boyish interest in things Egyptian, and, as the years
+passed, he slowly gathered books and material bearing on the subject
+which he was to make peculiarly his own.
+
+He was eager, anxious, to decipher hieroglyphics. It was the ambition
+of his life, the thing for which he lived, of which he dreamed. He
+collected every copy of the strange picture-writing that he could
+find in order to study it, in the hope of deciphering one more
+character. He was terribly handicapped by the small quantity of
+material on which he could work, and while his brilliant contemporary
+Young lay dying in England, in 1829, Champollion was leading an
+expedition in Egypt, gathering material for France.
+
+Champollion found the picture-writing even more complex than any one
+anticipated. A single letter might be represented by seven or eight
+quite different signs, and a sign might represent a whole word or
+part of a word. A circle with lines radiating from it might represent
+the sun god, or it might stand for the word “day.” A sign which
+ordinarily stood for a letter might represent a god if a dot or some
+other sign came after it.
+
+The Egyptian hieroglyphics were indeed one of the greatest puzzles
+of the ages. The discovery of other inscriptions helped to verify
+Champollion’s work, and provide proof that he was deciphering the
+signs accurately. It is, nevertheless, incredible that any human
+being could read even a sign of this dead writing correctly. That
+any one could do what Champollion ultimately did is almost a
+miracle. He laboured at his self-appointed task with so much courage
+and determination that he eventually succeeded in building up a
+hieroglyphic dictionary—a marvellous feat.
+
+Champollion himself did not long survive Young, for he so sapped
+his strength over his Egyptian expedition that he fell ill and died
+in 1832. He was comparatively a young man, only forty-two, yet he
+crowded an enormous amount of work into these few years, and it may
+truly be said that his love of Egyptology cost him his life.
+
+By the aid of his dictionary, which grew directly out of the finding
+of the Rosetta Stone, our scholars are now able to read without
+much trouble the sacred writings of the ancient Egyptians. Thus
+that fragment of black basalt in the British Museum, which is passed
+unnoticed by so many people, is really one of the most interesting
+stones in the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+A little over a century ago the past of Egypt was concealed from
+living eyes. The Pyramids still stood four-square to the sandstorms
+of the desert as they had stood for ages, the Sphinx regarded the
+Nile with the same inscrutable gaze that had puzzled the ancients.
+Throughout Egypt were mighty ruins, but little was known about them.
+
+People used to sit astride their asses and jog along into the
+stony places to see the relics. They saw merely heaps of stones,
+buildings grown so old that they had toppled to pieces. There were
+broken statues and shattered columns lying in the utmost confusion.
+There were mountains of sand, with fragments of masonry protruding.
+Occasionally, amid the shifting sands, a few columns stood upright,
+some so strangely shaped that their like was not to be seen elsewhere
+on earth.
+
+They added to the general mystery of Egypt. The natives were poor,
+utterly incapable of building on such a gigantic scale. How, then,
+did the original buildings get there? By whom were they erected, and
+for what purpose?
+
+[Illustration: THIS PILE OF MIGHTY BLOCKS OF STONE, THROWN DOWN AS IF
+BY GIANTS IN PLAY, GIVES AN IDEA OF THE MAGNIFICENCE AND HUGE SIZE OF
+SOME OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BUILDINGS. THE PEOPLE GAZING IN WONDER
+ON THE GLORIES OF THE TEMPLE OF KARNAK ARE ALMOST LOST TO SIGHT AMONG
+THE MASSIVE RUINS]
+
+Most people asked many questions, and received different answers. The
+myths of the natives are as numerous as the broken monuments, but,
+whereas the broken stones are facts, the myths woven round them were
+often otherwise. Any fanciful story that served to win money from the
+traveller was repeated in a variety of ways, and any little truth
+there may have been originally was lost in continued repetition.
+
+The ruins, however, could not lie. They said, as plainly as stones
+can speak: “We were fashioned by Man in the long ago, and the sun
+shone on us in our glory just as it shines on us in our decay.”
+
+Fortunately, all men did not merely look at the ruins and pass on
+their way voicing their amazement. Some were so fascinated by what
+they saw that they could not leave it, and these are gradually
+unfolding to us one of the most romantic stories in the world, a
+romance beside which the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is but
+a single chapter.
+
+The spoils collected in Egypt during the time of Napoleon turned the
+attention of scientists to the Nile. Men began to work to see if they
+could unravel the past from the evidence afforded by the remains.
+They began to dig. And, to-day, in the arid places of the earth are
+many men toiling like navvies, suffering untold discomforts, living
+in huts and delving in ruins to add to our knowledge of the past.
+These are the men who are writing history. They are doing it not with
+a pen, but with spade and pick.
+
+People have eyes, yet they see so little. They are not trained to
+see. To most men a rose is only a flower, but to the exceptional
+man it is a miracle, for as he gazes at the glorious bloom with its
+many-tinted petals he visualizes the tiny single rose—the common
+dog-rose—from which all roses in their wondrous diversity of colour
+and shape and size and perfume have sprung. Many people regard the
+earthworm as an annoyance which disfigures the lawn, but Darwin saw
+in it the lowly creature that is helping to keep the earth sweet
+and clean by removing the decaying leaves, a blind thing that is
+continually providing the earth with a layer of new soil in which man
+may plant his seeds and harvest his crops. Countless earthworms are
+the servants of men.
+
+The diggers toiling in the heat of the sun in Egypt and Mesopotamia
+and Crete and other places are blessed with this keen vision. Without
+it they would be useless. If the Rosetta Stone to them were just a
+broken piece of rock, the romance of the past would not appeal to
+them. They would not possess the imagination which drives them into
+the lonely places to find traces of many lost civilizations.
+
+When they glimpse a ruin they can close their eyes and see the men
+quarrying the stones and the masons squaring them and the sculptors
+carving them; they can see kings consulting their architects, and
+architects giving orders to the masons; they can see the stone blocks
+being hauled in place and set one upon another. These and many
+other things they can see. They are using their eyes to benefit the
+majority of people, who cannot see these things for themselves.
+
+Unfortunately the men who were early interested in the past of Egypt
+had little to guide them, and they sought for written records. They
+were all papyri mad. So long as they could find papyri and carry them
+off to their museums they were content.
+
+In the light of our later knowledge we are wont to blame them, but
+there may be some excuse for them. The Egyptian papyri are wonderful,
+quite apart from what is written upon them. They are the gift of the
+Nile and of Egypt to the world. Almost they might be called the first
+sheets of paper ever made.
+
+Papyrus nearly six thousand years old has already been found, and it
+appears doubtful whether we shall ever be able to trace the name of
+the first man who thought of using the stem of the papyrus plant in
+so useful a manner.
+
+It seems likely that the discovery may have been due to Egyptian
+children. If you walk about the English country-side when the
+bulrushes are flourishing, it is a common sight to see children
+plucking the rushes and skinning them to make flowers out of the
+pith. The papyrus plant flourishes in the Nile water, where it roots
+in the mud just as the bulrush roots in the mud of English ponds. It
+often attains a height of 15 feet or more, and the green stem of the
+plant grows straight up without any joints from top to bottom.
+
+What children do in one country in one age they are likely to do
+in all countries in all ages. Human nature is fairly constant, and
+rushes growing in a river will always attract children. Probably some
+dark-skinned Egyptian children in the misty ages picked the skin
+off the papyrus reeds in order to play with the pith, which differs
+materially from that of the English bulrush. In the course of their
+childish games they may have cut the fibrous pith into layers and
+spread them on a rock, just as children spread out things to play at
+shops, whereupon the hot sun of Egypt would quickly dry the fragments.
+
+Perhaps the father, interested in the games of his children, seized
+on this curious substance and was struck by its fine texture and
+smooth surface. Experimenting for himself out of sheer curiosity,
+he may have cut some strips of pith and joined them in a simple
+manner by pressing the edges with his finger while they were still
+moist with sap, thus making the first sheet of papyrus. Whatever
+its origin, papyrus in time was made by cutting the pith into thin
+strips, placing the strips so that one edge overlapped another, and
+pressing them all together. When they dried, the overlapped edges
+adhered, and the result was a continuous sheet of white material on
+which it was possible to work with a brush and a reed pen.
+
+The papyrus reed still flourishes in the Upper Nile as it did in
+ancient days. Indeed it has become rather a curse to the country, and
+a few years ago it threatened to choke the river completely. It was
+such a menace, owing to its interfering with the flow of water on
+which the whole life of Egypt depends, that drastic steps, costing
+a huge sum of money, had to be taken to clear the upper reaches.
+Steamers slowly ate their way into it for hundreds of miles, clearing
+channels and destroying the sudd, as it is called, the sudd which
+is largely composed of the papyrus on which the ancients relied for
+their writing materials! Nowadays, the sudd is being compressed into
+blocks and used as fuel, so the papyrus is still serving humanity.
+
+As has been said, the early workers who sought for knowledge of old
+Egypt hunted mainly for papyri. Manuscripts were of undoubted value
+in throwing light on the past, and while the seekers were prepared
+to recover statues, jewels and similar objects, they placed the
+recovery of manuscripts before everything else. The fact that they
+could not read the papyri, in those early days when a glimmer of
+interest in Egypt was beginning to filter through to the outside
+world, was no drawback to the hunters. The rows of quaint pictures,
+with bird-headed men, the natives with mops of black hair, and other
+queer things, were attractive in themselves. They had a value to the
+collector for their strange writing alone. And those early collectors
+realized that, given the manuscripts, some brilliant men would manage
+to read them some day, as Young and Champollion actually did.
+
+So those early enthusiasts spent their time hunting tombs, digging
+here, there and everywhere in their endeavours to locate something
+that was worth carrying away. When they were successful they seized
+on the mummy cases and eagerly opened them to see if any manuscripts
+were inside with the mummy. In their eagerness they overlooked
+much. They searched haphazard. Their knowledge was small, and they
+undoubtedly cast aside many things which they looked upon as so much
+rubbish, trifles which to the scientist of to-day would light up the
+past as with a searchlight.
+
+A square inch of broken pottery is not particularly noticeable in a
+mound of rock and sand, and even if the eye does light on it the hand
+is seldom prompted to pick it up. But there are men so skilled in
+their knowledge of the pottery of past ages that a fragment may serve
+to link places thousands of miles apart, and thrust the history of
+mankind backward into the mists of time for several thousands of
+years.
+
+A brilliant scientist like Professor Flinders Petrie is able to
+deduce the most amazing things from a piece of pottery, even if
+it be but a fragment. To him the fragment serves the purpose of a
+calendar. It is as though he were picking up a modern calendar on
+which the year stood boldly out. Of course the fragment of pottery
+does not date quite so exactly as that, but it easily falls within a
+well-defined period.
+
+A glance would enable the famous scientist to say: “This is seven
+thousand years old.” And, seeing a different fragment, he would know
+that it was a great deal older—perhaps ten thousand years old.
+
+How much valuable evidence of this sort has been ignorantly destroyed
+in the past will never be known. In the early days of last century,
+and even to within measurable distance of this, men were too intent
+on the big things to pay attention to the little things that slipped
+through their fingers. It is the common things that tell us the
+history of a period, the things that people use and wear. If we
+recover these fragments of common things, they serve to indicate how
+the people lived.
+
+Thieves, too, have been responsible for the loss of most valuable
+evidence. The Egyptian natives are born pilferers. They have a
+natural aptitude for causing things to vanish, and when a discovery
+has been made the discoverer has seldom been able to preserve his
+find in its entirety. There have been cases where the greater part of
+a find has disappeared in a night, and once it is gone you might as
+well seek to find a particular grain of sand in the desert. Statues,
+vases, jewels, furniture—all have been carried off, and the finders
+have wakened to discover that their labour has been wasted, and that
+instead of enriching our knowledge of the world they have merely
+enriched a few native thieves.
+
+The natives, too, often seize the opportunity of digging in places
+where they know they will not be disturbed. They do not go to the
+trouble of obtaining a permit to dig. The last thing they desire to
+do is to call the attention of the authorities to their work, so they
+run the risk and dig surreptitiously. While it is obvious they must
+waste a lot of energy in conducting these illegal searches, it is
+also obvious that they are often rewarded by finding objects of value.
+
+The things they find, they smuggle to their huts, and in due
+course sell to some traveller, who places them in his private
+collection, where they are as completely lost to sight as if they
+had never existed. Then there are things that the natives stumble on
+accidentally. If their find is not portable, they may inform the
+authorities, but if it is easy to handle, there is little prospect of
+their discovery becoming known.
+
+No one has the faintest idea how much material has been lost in these
+ways. Its scientific value must be incalculable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+When Professor Flinders Petrie first set foot in Egypt he was a young
+man, only twenty-seven years of age. The older men of other nations
+who had spent their lives delving in the past smiled at the idea
+of the new-comer bringing about a revolution in the work they knew
+so well. They had done so much themselves that there seemed little
+more for him to do. They had found tombs and statues and papyri that
+took them back some five thousand years to what they thought was the
+beginning of Egyptian history.
+
+What else was there to discover?
+
+Nobody knew then. Nobody knows now. When men start digging up the
+earth in search of relics of the past, it is beyond human foresight
+to foretell what will come to light. Men may dig 50 feet and find
+nothing. They may say there is nothing to be found in that particular
+spot. Another man may come along, set up his tent a few yards away,
+just scratch the surface of the soil, and find a buried city. This
+is what lures men to the work; it is one of the fascinations and
+provides much of the romance.
+
+The wonderful discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamen by Lord
+Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter is a notable instance of this sort
+of thing. For years they dug, poured money into the sands of the
+desert, shifting mountains of sand and rock in their endeavours to
+discover something worth while. Lord Carnarvon himself stated that
+they had moved about 70,000 tons of rubble during their search. They
+were lucky to be rewarded in the end, for millions of tons of rock
+and sand have been dug up in Egypt without yielding to the diggers a
+single article of value.
+
+Mr. Howard Carter was hopeful that something might be found in the
+neighbourhood of the great discovery, and the work of excavation
+was started. The diggers wielded their picks week after week and
+shovelled the rubble into the baskets of the men who carried it away
+from the hole that was growing in the ground. Daily the hole grew
+bigger, the mound of sand and rock grew larger.
+
+Not a sign of a tomb was discovered. Work was continued in the hope
+that something would turn up. They were always hopeful, but the end
+of the day brought nothing to light and it proved so much wasted
+labour.
+
+The quest in the old place was thrown up, and the picks of the
+diggers were directed to a spot only a few yards away. There was the
+same monotonous, back-aching work, the same running to and fro of the
+natives with their little baskets of rubble. In such circumstances
+only a born optimist could carry on. The pessimist would throw up the
+task in despair at the end of two or three days.
+
+Even Mr. Howard Carter began to think that he had again drawn
+a blank; he began to consider whether it was time to shut down
+operations and have another try elsewhere. For a day or two his
+thoughts ran in this groove, until he decided to dig just one more
+day, and if nothing turned up then to stop it.
+
+Truly a momentous decision. But for it the tomb of Tutankhamen would
+still be undiscovered, and the world would yet be in ignorance of the
+marvels that it contained. Before the day’s digging was over, the
+shape of a step gladdened Mr. Carter’s eyes, and fully justified his
+selection of that particular spot for his operations. A yard or two
+more to the right or left, and he might have missed the tomb. It was
+a much nearer thing than the world imagines.
+
+The accuracy of Mr. Howard Carter in selecting his second site is
+rather amazing. Digging was not started there haphazard. The ground
+had been thoroughly gone over and studied, and the possibilities
+summed up before the pick was driven into the sand. It was a happy
+combination of expert knowledge and good luck.
+
+[Illustration: THIS PHOTOGRAPH INDICATES THE UTTER DESOLATION OF THE
+ARID VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS, WHERE EVEN A BLADE OF GRASS
+CANNOT LIVE. THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMEN, GUARDED BY SOLDIERS, IS SHOWN
+IN THE FOREGROUND]
+
+It at once became obvious why the tomb had remained for so long
+undiscovered, for just above it the last resting-place of Thothmes
+III was cut into the rock, and all the debris from this later tomb
+had been shot by the builders on top of the earlier tomb. This
+rubbish had completely covered in the site of the tomb of Tutankhamen
+and buried it for centuries.
+
+Few men would think of looking immediately under one tomb for the
+site of another. Such a place is so unexpected that Mr. Howard Carter
+deserved every credit for selecting so unlikely a spot in which to
+carry on his search.
+
+Every man digging in Egypt has learned something from Professor
+Flinders Petrie. He has a keen, analytical brain, and for years
+before going to the Nile valley he brought his acute mind to the
+study of the prehistoric remains to be found in Great Britain. Many
+a day he might have been seen within the magic circle of Stonehenge,
+pondering on the origin of the most massive ancient monument in
+England. His work on the prehistoric remains in Great Britain was but
+a preliminary to his greater work in the land of the Pharaohs.
+
+With the coming of Flinders Petrie, all the old, haphazard methods
+went by the board. What he sought was evidence, something that would
+throw light on the past, that would help to fix dates. The actual
+intrinsic value of an object was of no concern to him. A bead, in
+his eyes, found in a certain place, would be of greater value than a
+nugget of gold. The bead might prove that glass was made centuries
+earlier than men thought, whereas the golden nugget might prove
+nothing at all.
+
+Many things slipped through the fingers of the earlier seekers.
+Nothing slipped through his. He directed the attention of all to the
+value of every trifling thing that could claim to have been fashioned
+by the hand of man. He introduced scientific methods. He noted where
+everything was found; how it was found; the depth at which it was
+found; what was found with it.
+
+He was not out for an easy life. He lived hard, pitched his tent on
+the edge of the eternal desert, and at dusk washed the dust out of
+his eyes and nostrils, took his meal by his camp fire, and wrote
+up the notes of his day’s work. He snatched what sleep he could,
+and was up early to get to work before the heat of the day became
+insufferable. He wasted no time going to and from the site. He slept
+near by, with the scene of his labours only a few yards from his tent
+pegs.
+
+[Illustration: THE RUINS OF THE TEMPLE WHICH AMENHOTEP BUILT AT
+LUXOR ABOUT 1,450 B.C. THE COLUMNS IN THE DISTANCE ARE UNIQUE, BEING
+FASHIONED IN THE SHAPE OF LOTUS BUDS. THEY INDICATE HOW THE ANCIENT
+EGYPTIANS DERIVED MANY OF THEIR ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES FROM NATURAL
+FORMS]
+
+Flinders Petrie is one of the outstanding explorers of the ruins
+of Egypt. He started with an innate genius for the work, and to
+this genius he added a sound scientific knowledge and an all-round
+mastery of his subject. He used his muscles as well as his brain, and
+he preferred to trust his own trained eyes to those of his native
+diggers.
+
+He went to Egypt with hands that were soft, unused to manual labour.
+He knew how often careless workmen have ruined things by striking
+them with their picks, and the first thing he did was to make a rule
+that directly anything peeped out of the sand, he would himself
+uncover the object to prevent it being injured.
+
+He began tracing the contours of the things in the soil, digging
+away with his fingers and scratching away with his nails, his hands
+perhaps buried up to the wrist in sand. Thus he would clear an object
+a little at a time, so carefully that it could not possibly suffer
+damage.
+
+But his hands were not made for such work. Finger-nails of steel and
+a skin of tanned leather were needed to grub about in the sands of
+the desert. No wonder that his fingers became frightfully sore and
+tender, that his nails were almost worn away by continual contact
+with the sand. That was one of the minor hardships of such work, a
+discomfort that he treated lightly.
+
+The soreness of his hands did not prevent him from using them as
+digging implements, and in a week or two he was having a personal
+lesson in evolution. Soft hands were useless to him in such a task.
+So nature quickly readjusted itself to the different circumstances
+and evolved hard hands for him, toughened the skin of the palms and
+back and tempered the finger-nails until he could rummage about all
+day in the sand with absolute impunity, running no more risk of
+injuring his fingers than if he were actually wearing thick leather
+gloves.
+
+When he turned his attention to Abydos in Southern Egypt, he found
+a Frenchman had been granted the privilege of exploring the spot.
+Amelineau was installed at Abydos. He had dug away for four years,
+finding tombs and exploring them, and adding a little to the sum
+total of the knowledge of Egypt.
+
+The Egyptian Government gave Amelineau a five years’ concession, and
+at the end of the fourth year’s work he surveyed the site. He went
+over it, looked at the mountains of rubbish his diggers had shifted,
+summed up his discoveries, and at last concluded that it was useless
+digging there any longer. He decided that he had explored the place
+thoroughly, and had found all that existed there.
+
+Not one man in a thousand would have thought it worth while to look
+for anything at Abydos after that. Apparently the field had been
+thoroughly explored and worked out. But Flinders Petrie happened to
+be the one man who thought otherwise. While he respected the opinion
+of the Frenchman, he yet felt that here was a field for further
+investigation, that Abydos had not yielded up all its secrets to the
+previous seekers.
+
+So he set his diggers to work. He went over the ground
+systematically, digging away, picking over and casting aside the
+debris. His sharp eyes detected things to which previous eyes had
+been blind. He found pots that were not turned on the potter’s wheel,
+pots made before the potter’s wheel had been invented. These pots
+were shaped solely by hand, fashioned from the bottom upward, and
+they were almost as true in form as if they had been turned on a
+wheel.
+
+He was hot on the scent, turning back the wheels of time. He found
+the hitherto unknown names of four of the ancient kings of Egypt, the
+first men who could lay claim to rule the tribes, the men who figure
+before the first Dynasty. He was pushing civilization back, and yet
+farther back. Whereas others set the limit of the civilization of
+Egypt as five thousand years, he added another fifty centuries to it,
+doubled the life of the civilization that flourished and decayed and
+flourished and decayed many times in the valley of the Nile.
+
+Came a day when his eyes lit up at the unusual in a piece of pottery,
+not that it was so wondrously beautiful, but because the markings
+on it linked it up with Crete far away to the north in the middle of
+the Mediterranean, proving that intercourse existed between the two
+peoples in those dim ages.
+
+The native diggers cast casual glances at the jar. They were not
+particularly interested. To them it was merely an ordinary piece of
+pottery.
+
+If that same piece of earthenware were placed in a china shop in
+London to-day with the rest of the oddments of china, and marked at
+five shillings, no one would trouble to buy it, unless by chance he
+possessed expert knowledge.
+
+It seems remarkable that this piece of pottery, so fragile that a
+moderate blow would shatter it, should have survived for all these
+thousands of years. The ancient potter who shaped the soft clay
+and baked it until it was hard was indeed working for posterity.
+He little knew, as the jar grew under his nimble fingers, how many
+centuries would elapse and find it still as perfect as when he took
+it from the fire; nor could he guess how much his little jar, which
+he moulded so cunningly, would tell to the brilliant man who found it.
+
+Fate ordained that his handiwork should be buried in a grave, and
+there remain in absolute security until the centuries brought the
+right man along to unearth it.
+
+It was but a Cretan pot in an Egyptian grave, but that little pot for
+a time made scholars wonder whether the civilization of Egypt was
+founded on a far older civilization which came from Crete, the little
+island in the Mediterranean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The men who are digging history out of the earth with pick and shovel
+rely upon something more than chance to obtain their results. The
+general idea of a man casually strolling out into the desert, and
+uncovering a city which has never been heard of, has little relation
+to the facts. It would be just as reasonable to start fishing for
+Japanese pearls in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, as to start
+blindly digging through the sands of Egypt in the hope that something
+would turn up.
+
+Ancient monuments, papyri and wall-paintings, even the legends of
+the country, are carefully considered with a view to finding a clue
+to the past. The sites of the ancient tombs and palaces and cities
+have gradually been located, and the explorers naturally select a
+spot which holds out some prospect of success. They generally have a
+definite object in view when they start their search. For instance,
+Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter were hoping to find another tomb
+when they came across that of Tutankhamen. When Maspero made his
+discovery of so many of the Pharaohs about forty years ago, the mummy
+of Tutankhamen was missing, and there was accordingly the possibility
+that some diligent man might eventually unearth it.
+
+For forty years the search went on. Other tombs were found, but that
+of Tutankhamen still eluded discovery, until the autumn of 1922. The
+digger always has hopes of finding a certain thing, but as often as
+not he comes across something else.
+
+Before a pick is stuck into the ground, the digger will spend
+several days on the spot, going over it carefully, and noting any
+irregularities. Long experience teaches him many things. What the
+ordinary man cannot see, even when it is pointed out to him, may be
+quite plain to the trained eye. A slight depression may indicate to
+the expert the site of a buried building, a tiny bank may tell him
+where the sand of the desert has blown against a wall and gradually
+accumulated until the wall is covered beneath the drift. It is
+invisible, but there is the slight slope to prove that the sand has
+been heaped against something, to show that its path has been stayed
+by some object. These are some of the things which help the experts
+to select the spot on which to dig. The man who prospects for gold
+knows what signs to look for, and the scientist prospecting for
+relics of past ages is equally proficient in reading the signs.
+The gold prospector digs a hole, and washes the contents to find a
+colour of gold; the seeker for relics prospects by digging a trench
+to see if he can find a bit of brick or stone showing traces of man’s
+handiwork.
+
+Egypt happens to be a particularly happy hunting-ground, inasmuch as
+it not only possessed an extremely ancient civilization, but also
+enjoys a wonderful climate, which preserves the relics of the past.
+The sun is always shining, and rain falls so seldom that things are
+preserved almost indefinitely from damp and mildew where in other
+countries they are destroyed in a few years.
+
+The ancient cities of Egypt were founded on the banks of the
+Nile, just as are the modern cities. Away from the river, life
+is insupportable. It has often been said that the Nile is Egypt,
+and Egypt is the Nile. This is true, for the cultivable land of
+Egypt above the Delta is just a green strip a mile or two wide on
+each side of the river all along its course. On the margin is the
+encroaching desert, which only the waters of the Nile prevent from
+overwhelming the land. Where the waters of the Nile flow into the
+little irrigation canals and feed the fields, there abundant crops of
+cotton, sugar-cane, and other things are raised. Beyond, are the arid
+hills, and the cruel sands where the rock in summer becomes so hot
+that it is possible to bake bread by the heat of the sun.
+
+The people living in lands that are blessed with an adequate rainfall
+can have no conception of what the Nile means to Egypt. The drought
+which occasionally affects our own country brings home to us the
+importance of rain to the land. Our whole country-side soon begins to
+complain about lack of water. Wells begin to run dry. Water has even
+to be carried to some villages by train.
+
+A traveller spent a night at an old inn on the Sussex downs, and
+found an inch of chalk sediment at the bottom of his small jug of
+shaving water in the morning. Crops which should have been 4 feet
+high had struggled up only a few inches. There was no moisture to
+help them to develop. Fields of heavy land were all ploughed up, but
+before the farmer could harrow them and prepare a fine tilth for the
+seeds, the clods were baked as hard as iron, so hard that it was
+impossible to do anything with them, and the fields carried no crops
+at all. A succession of such seasons would have a profound effect on
+the life of this country, and compel our people to live where water
+could be obtained.
+
+That is why the Egyptians were—and are—chained to the Nile. The
+floods fed the land. When the river failed to rise, and the water was
+confined within the banks, there was famine. No wonder those ancient
+Egyptians worshipped the Nile. Their lives depended on it.
+
+They watched the river anxiously to see what it was going to do,
+scanning the chocolate-coloured waters as they went flowing by. They
+wondered whether the river was going to condemn them to starvation,
+or whether it was about to scatter plenty over the land. Far away
+from Cairo, up at Khartoum, the rise began about the end of April,
+but so great is the distance that no perceptible increase was to be
+noticed at Cairo until the end of June.
+
+As the water rose, so did the spirits of the natives. We can imagine
+with what joy they saw the flood break over the banks and sweep into
+the fields on either side. Stone pillars were put up to measure the
+rise. They were marked off in cubits, and the officials would watch
+the water stealing up and up. If it only reached 12 cubits there
+would be wailing throughout the land, for the people knew that famine
+would overtake them, that the life-giving water would not reach
+their fields. Another 3 cubits would suffice to feed them until the
+next harvest came round, if they exercised care and were not unduly
+wasteful, while 16 cubits, or 28 feet, would fill their granaries to
+overflowing, and every one would have enough and to spare.
+
+[Illustration: ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE GRAND AVENUE OF SPHINXES AT
+KARNAK, ORIGINALLY A MILE LONG, TO REMIND US OF THE GLORIES OF EGYPT
+LONG AGO (_see page 71_)]
+
+They prayed long and earnestly to the Nile god, and held great
+festivals in his honour in a temple built in the vanished city
+of Nilopolis. Here they performed their rituals and made their
+offerings, and gave thanks to the god in years of plenty, expressing
+their joy and gratitude for the bounty they had received. They
+worshipped the Nile as the source of their blessings, just as they
+worshipped the sun.
+
+The sun worshippers built a magnificent temple to their god, whom
+they called Ra, at Heliopolis, and Cleopatra’s Needle, now standing
+on the Thames Embankment, is one of the two monuments which Thothmes
+III set up before the Temple of the Sun on the banks of the Nile.
+Here they remained until the legions of Augustus Cæsar defeated
+Cleopatra just before the dawn of the Christian era. Eight years
+after the dramatic death of the beautiful Egyptian queen, whom
+Julius Cæsar loved and Mark Antony worshipped, Augustus set his
+engineers and slaves to work transporting the obelisks down the
+Nile, to set them in front of the wonderful palace of the Cæsars
+built in Alexandria. The new palace of the Roman invaders grew old,
+decayed, and fell in ruins, but the ancient obelisks of Heliopolis
+still reared their pinnacles to the skies. For fifteen hundred years
+Cleopatra’s Needle stood firm before crashing to the ground, to lie
+half buried in the drifting sands for three centuries, leaving the
+twin obelisk standing alone.
+
+Then British soldiers, flushed with their victory over the French
+in Egypt in 1801, craved a memento of their triumph. Seizing on the
+fallen obelisk, they subscribed their hard-earned money, and sought
+to remove the stone to England. That weight was too much for them; it
+defied their efforts, so, fixing a commemorative brass plate, they
+left the stone lying in the sands.
+
+Mehemet Ali, knowing the British were interested in the obelisk,
+presented it to George IV. That monarch made no effort to remove the
+unwieldy present. Once more, in 1831, Mehemet Ali approached the
+British Government, and this time offered to ship the monument free
+to Great Britain. The offer was politely declined. By the time the
+British Government decided to remove the stone, in 1849, there was
+such opposition to spending £7000 on its removal, that the matter was
+dropped.
+
+Eighteen years later, the land on which the monolith lay was sold,
+and the new owner quickly requested the British Government to remove
+their property. The Government were so loath to do anything at all
+that the Khedive informed them they must either remove it, or forfeit
+the title to it. The threat had no effect. The Government seemed to
+look upon the present much as a suburban dweller would look upon the
+present of an elephant.
+
+The owner of the land began to plan to break up the obelisk, and use
+it for building purposes. For ten years all the efforts of General
+Alexander were needed to induce the landowner to refrain from such an
+act of vandalism, and at last, when it was seen that the Government
+would do nothing, Sir Erasmus Wilson came forward and offered to
+remove the obelisk to England.
+
+Accordingly a mighty iron cylinder 100 feet long was made. The
+obelisk, which measures 86½ feet high, and weighs 186 tons, was dug
+out of the sand, and after tremendous trouble safely housed in the
+cylinder, which, upon being completely sealed, was quite buoyant.
+Eventually it was floated, and taken in tow for England. All went
+well until the Bay of Biscay was reached, when a terrific gale sprang
+up, so terrific that Cleopatra’s Needle threatened to drag the tug to
+the bottom. At midnight the situation became so desperate that the
+captain ordered the obelisk to be cut adrift, feeling certain it was
+sinking, and when he arrived in England Cleopatra’s Needle was given
+up for lost.
+
+But the monument, which had survived the accidents of Time for so
+long, was fated to survive the storm. Instead of plunging to the
+bottom of the Bay of Biscay, it tossed about on the heaving waters
+for nearly three days. Then it was sighted by a steamer, and taken
+in tow, to be brought at last to England.
+
+It is remarkable that this same monolith, which a Pharaoh erected on
+the banks of the Nile to tell the sun-worshippers of his glorious
+deeds in war, should now be reposing on the banks of the river
+Thames, and that it has survived the age of bows and arrows to be
+damaged by bombs from aeroplanes. What a story Cleopatra’s Needle
+would tell if it could only speak.
+
+Kings were more than kings to the common people of Egypt. They were
+looked upon as gods, the possessors of divine power. They were called
+the sons of Ra, and Ra often figures in their titles. From being
+called the son of Ra, the ruler in the eyes of the people acquired
+the mythical power of the god himself, and was worshipped by his
+subjects, who shielded their faces from the glory which the monarch
+spread around him.
+
+The Egyptians have worshipped many gods in many ages. Gods have
+risen, grown powerful, and been superseded, but always the kings have
+shared the powers of the various gods, and the people looked upon the
+king as the living image of the god they worshipped.
+
+Their religions, after the lapse of ages, seem very strange to
+peoples in other lands. Yet they had much to commend them, and many
+of the teachings of the Christian religion were anticipated in the
+religions of the ancient Egyptians.
+
+We look upon the Nile dwellers as pagans, but we cannot deny the
+logic of the religion which taught them to worship the sun and the
+Nile, on which they depended for light and life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Gradually the romance of ancient Egypt is being revealed by the
+graves of those who died in remote times, yet to read the romance at
+first hand requires exceptional ability that is possessed by only
+a few men. Little bits of evidence of no importance to the casual
+onlooker are fraught with immense importance to the scientific seeker.
+
+The most wonderful tombs in the world are to be found in Egypt in
+the shape of the Pyramids, and as the centuries recede the tombs
+gradually become simpler until they arrive back at the simplest of
+all—just a shallow hole scooped out of the ground, in which the dead
+man rests on a skin.
+
+Consequently the graves of Egypt reveal the rise of Egypt’s
+civilizations; they indicate how man’s ideas have changed, how
+primitive customs have slowly passed away and given rise to the most
+remarkable practices connected with the dead of which we have any
+trace. The later stone tombs needed no seeking; they were plain to
+every traveller who journeyed up the Nile. Earlier tombs built of
+brick were found, revealing a more ancient state of civilization,
+when men were ignorant of the ways of working stone, or found it too
+difficult to devote their energies to shaping stone to be built into
+a tomb. Going back and back, the brick tombs get smaller and smaller,
+until they disappear, and only the grave remains in which the dead
+lie doubled up. These were the things that years of work taught, but
+the earliest graves of all long eluded the eyes of modern workers.
+
+One day Professor Flinders Petrie came across remains. The greatest
+care was exercised in digging, so that every shred of evidence could
+be collected, and as the sand and soil were drawn aside he saw it
+was a very ancient grave, older than anything ever dreamed of in
+connection with Egypt. No one had any idea that Egypt was inhabited
+so long ago, but here was proof that men lived in the Nile valley in
+the dark ages of Time.
+
+The evidence goes to show that a crude civilization existed there ten
+thousand years ago, and that men may have lived in the Nile valley
+over twenty thousand years ago. Whether any relics will ever be found
+to throw any light on this epoch of Egyptian history remains to be
+seen, but it would not be astonishing if something did eventually
+appear, for the country has powers of preservation which even to-day
+are only faintly recognized, and the earth can hide things so
+cunningly that human beings may search for centuries and never find
+them again. The fact that they are not found is no proof that they
+never existed.
+
+When this ancient man hunted on the banks of the Nile, he gazed upon
+a very different land from that which exists to-day. The river was
+wider and shallower. It overflowed its banks for greater distances.
+The banks of gravel which show where the waters of the river lapped
+in bygone centuries still exist, but they are far removed from the
+river, and a hundred feet or so higher.
+
+In all the thousands of years that have elapsed since then, the Nile
+has been cutting a deeper and deeper channel for itself. In all the
+years that it has been bringing down the mud in solution, flowing
+over the land, some of the mud has sunk to the bottom and remained;
+much of it has been carried from the Delta to the sea. The mud that
+sank has got deeper and deeper. The river has added to the deposit
+inch by inch, until there is now a wonderful layer of alluvial soil:
+just the mud of the Nile, between 30 and 40 feet thick on each side
+of the stream.
+
+This deposit itself has helped to give scientists an idea of the age
+of the earliest human remains that have been found. The rate at which
+the river leaves the mud behind has been carefully measured, and men
+have learned that in a century the Nile will add 4 inches of soil to
+the fields by flooding. Test holes have revealed the present depth
+of the alluvial, and if roughly about a yard of deposition is allowed
+for one thousand years, and about 10 or 12 yards are allowed for the
+depth, then the age of the deposit is fixed at ten or twelve thousand
+years.
+
+In some quarters this time is considered as absolutely accurate and
+definitely fixed, but there are so many factors to be taken into
+account that we should hesitate to regard them as unalterable. The
+Nile, it is true, has been depositing mud at the rate of 4 inches to
+the century in modern times, but this is no proof that it has always
+deposited mud at this rate, and there may have been considerable
+changes in the rate at which the mud banks have grown on each side
+of the stream. We know the floods vary considerably, and the rate of
+deposition must vary similarly. There seems at least the possibility
+that it took twice as long as the accepted estimate to deposit the
+mud on each side of the river, that is twenty thousand years. For
+aught we know, it may have taken two hundred thousand years.
+
+It will be seen how difficult it is in dealing with the lapse of
+such ages to mention any definite dates. This is why the men who are
+digging up the past in Egypt refer to Dynasties, starting with the
+First Dynasty, and working up to the last or Thirtieth Dynasty.
+
+A great deal has been done towards discovering the names of the
+various kings in the different Dynasties, but there are still many
+gaps to fill in. Most of our information in this respect has been
+given us by a list of names compiled by a priest named Manetho, who
+lived about two thousand one hundred years ago. Manetho undoubtedly
+based his names of kings on more ancient lists which have totally
+disappeared, but that he was fairly accurate is borne out by the
+Turin papyrus so far as it has been translated. The difficulty with
+this papyrus is that it was discovered in a number of fragments, and
+some parts of it are missing. However, the parts that remain have
+been most carefully pieced together, and seem to verify Manetho’s
+list, which starts with Menes, who is looked upon as the first king
+of the First Dynasty, and is thought to have reigned about seven
+thousand years ago.
+
+Throughout the ages that followed the reign of Menes, there grew up
+those religious beliefs and quaint burial customs which have done so
+much to unfold to us the life of the past. At first sight there seems
+to be no reason for all the statues, the tiny figures, and wonderful
+wall inscriptions to be found in the ancient tombs of Egypt. It seems
+incomprehensible that the dead should be buried with food and flowers
+beside them, that all this artistic talent should be wasted in this
+manner. Yet some such customs exist in all lands, and survive to
+this day, for we still place wreaths of flowers on the graves of our
+departed in memory of them, but actually the giving of a wreath is
+based on a custom that recedes so far back that all trace of it has
+been lost.
+
+The Egyptians believed that there was another world, to which the
+soul journeyed after death. But the journey was long and hazardous,
+and the soul faced many perils on the way. In order to protect the
+soul from danger, the Egyptians used to paint an image of the Sun God
+within the tomb, thus placing the soul directly under the protection
+of the god, and the soul would wander over the heavens in the company
+of the god, immune from all harm, so long as the daylight lasted.
+
+Directly darkness fell, all the evil spirits would come forth from
+their retreats, and try to trap the soul as it stumbled blindly
+through the labyrinths of the lower regions. All night the soul
+would fight against these perils, struggling continually towards the
+dawn. Then, as the sun came up, the soul would escape from the evil
+demons, and wander free of danger through the heavens once more until
+darkness fell.
+
+Every human being was also considered to possess a perfect duplicate,
+a double, and the Egyptians were taught that the life of this double
+depended on the survival of the body, and if the double had no body
+to return to, the double would become extinct and die for good.
+Such a thing was too terrible to contemplate, and had it happened
+it would have signified eternal disgrace to the living, as well as
+obliteration to the dead. Consequently the body was embalmed, so
+that it would be preserved for all time as a place of refuge for the
+double.
+
+There was the risk, however, that despite all precautions, something
+might happen to the embalmed body, that it might be destroyed by some
+accident quite unforeseen and unforeseeable. The Egyptians must have
+considered this danger long and earnestly before they arrived at a
+method of averting it.
+
+The method was simplicity itself. What could serve the purpose better
+than a statue of the deceased? If the mummy became damaged, there was
+always the likeness in stone for the double to inhabit. Then somebody
+decided that two statues would provide two chances for the double to
+survive in case of accident to the mummy, and once the idea was fully
+established the number of statues multiplied until there was a dozen
+or more, all the same, carved in stone, to represent the dead man. To
+avoid the possibility of the double making any mistake, the likeness
+of the dead man was portrayed. This accounts for the finding of so
+many statues of kings; each statue gave the king a chance in the
+afterlife.
+
+To provide sustenance for the double before it reached the Egyptian
+equivalent of Paradise, jars of water, meat and bread were buried
+with the mummy. It would not do for the dead to go hungry.
+Theoretically the foodstuffs should have been replenished from time
+to time, and no doubt for long this was done, but the Egyptians
+finally found that it was difficult enough to provide for the living,
+without toiling to feed the dead.
+
+There is no doubt that the offerings to the dead became somewhat of
+a drain on the resources of these ancient Nile dwellers, so again
+they solved the problem in quite a simple way. If they painted all
+the offerings on the walls of the tombs, and prayed to the gods to
+provide the departed with the things needed in the afterworld, such
+painted offerings would last for ever, and relieve the living of
+the demands on their foodstuffs. Consequently, all over the tombs,
+these pictures of offerings may be found, to serve the deceased if he
+should need food during his wanderings to the Egyptian Paradise.
+
+The little images known as Ushabti were placed in the tomb, in case
+the deceased were called upon to work in the next world. They were
+his servants, who would labour for him and save their master from
+performing menial tasks. The boats or barges that are found were
+to ferry the dead man over the sacred waters to the Fields of the
+Blessed.
+
+The Egyptians, indeed, considered that everything required in this
+life would be needed in the next. It is well for us that they had
+these ideas, for they have resulted in many remarkable relics being
+found in the tombs, relics which help the scientists to reconstruct
+the life of these wonderful ancients, to revive the romance of their
+lost civilization.
+
+In order that the dead man might not lose his identity, his name was
+graven within the tomb, and in time the outstanding features of his
+life were also mentioned, so that the gods should be conversant with
+all he had done. Some of these notes are short, others long, but
+all of them are of importance as showing us what happened while the
+dead man was alive. We have our own National Biography printed on
+paper, and carefully bound to place on our shelves, but the National
+Biography of Ancient Egypt is carved upon mountains of stones in the
+tombs of the land. They are the books of the distant past, but there
+is the possibility that they will survive when many of our modern
+books have perished utterly from the earth.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British Museum_
+
+A SCENE FROM THE FAMOUS BOOK OF THE DEAD, PAINTED 3,000 YEARS AGO ON
+PAPYRUS, SHOWING KING HER-HERU AND QUEEN NETCHEMET PRAYING TO OSIRIS
+WHILE THE HEART OF THE QUEEN IS BEING WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE]
+
+The commonest of all the ancient manuscripts that have survived to
+our day is the well-known Book of the Dead. It is another relic which
+serves to indicate the thought devoted by the Egyptians to life in
+the next world. The Book of the Dead is a sacred book, which tells
+the dead man what to say to the gods when he meets them, how to
+answer their questions. Osiris is the Judge who weighs the man’s
+heart, and considers if he be worthy to enter the Realms of Bliss.
+And the departed is instructed what to say. “I have not played the
+hypocrite,” he avers. “I have not stolen,” is another answer he must
+make. “I have not lied. I have not committed adultery. I am no slayer
+of men.”
+
+There are forty-two of these Confessions in the Book of the Dead, and
+it is astounding how they resemble the Ten Commandments upon which
+are based the Christian religion. In the replies just quoted may be
+traced three commandments: “Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not
+commit adultery. Thou shalt do no murder.”
+
+Who can say after this whence the wisdom of the Bible sprang? The
+religion of the ancient Egyptians seems false to our eyes, but
+underlying it are many fine principles, and much of the truth that is
+eternal.
+
+Even in those remote times, however, there were people who were
+ever ready to take advantage of the grief of the relatives of the
+departed. A Book of the Dead was essential to the well-being of the
+departed, once he came into the presence of the gods, and the living
+would go to the scribe and acquire the finest copy of the Book that
+lay within their means. The wonderfully painted Books were only for
+the wealthy and the nobles. The poor people had to be satisfied with
+something that was much inferior, from which a great deal of the text
+was missing.
+
+The poorer classes were, of course, unable to read the sacred
+script, and would therefore be unaware that much of the text was
+missing; that the Book was, in fact, so much abridged, that they
+were acquiring a garbled version, bearing little resemblance to the
+full Book. They would have the body embalmed, and see the sacred
+Book placed within reach of the mummy’s hand, so that it could be
+consulted directly it was required, little knowing that the Book upon
+which they relied was but an imitation of the genuine sacred Book.
+
+In fact, in those days, it was more or less the same as it is to-day.
+The scribe scamped the work of the Book that he was poorly paid for,
+and took more pains with the Book for which he received a better
+price.
+
+Discoveries seem to indicate that although the people had faith in
+the Book of the Dead, the scribes themselves were inclined to be
+unbelievers. It is fairly evident that they had no compunction in
+defrauding the relatives, for when the scribe had sold a beautiful
+copy to place with one of the departed, he would very often slip in
+a blank papyrus along with the mummy, and abstract the fine Book,
+knowing full well that his fraud would never be found out. Probably
+he reasoned that it was rather a waste to place such a fine specimen
+of his work where it would be lost for ever. It is quite likely that
+some of the scribes devoted a vast amount of time and skill to making
+a wonderful copy of the Book of the Dead that they could show to
+relatives to get their order, with the intention of substituting an
+inferior work, or even a blank. Thus their one fine copy would be a
+source of income to them, and they would never part with it if they
+could possibly avoid it.
+
+Judging from the blanks and poor copies that have been recovered,
+there is little doubt that the Egyptians of old were quite as guilty
+of sharp practices as are some of the people of to-day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Since the dawn of history the Pyramids have been considered one
+of the wonders of the earth. They are unique. There is nothing to
+compare with them in any other land. Strangers have gazed upon them
+in amazement, and pondered what they were and how and why they were
+built.
+
+Myths that they were the work of the gods became numerous, for the
+structures were so gigantic that it seemed impossible that puny man
+could have built them. About their human origin there was no doubt to
+discerning travellers, but the object in building them was not always
+so plain.
+
+Long and learned books have been written to show that the Pyramids
+bore some special astronomical significance; that one of the main
+passages in the Great Pyramid was built at a certain angle to enable
+the astronomers of earlier days to watch a certain star pass in its
+course across the opening in the face of the Pyramid; that the height
+of the Great Pyramid bore a definite relation to the distance of the
+earth from the sun; that the base of the Pyramid meant something
+else. In fact, the Pyramid has been measured in all directions, in
+all sorts of manners, and these measurements have been made to fit in
+with pet theories which have been the basis of many books.
+
+There is not the slightest mystery as to what the Pyramids actually
+are. They are merely tombs. But people have not been content to
+accept this explanation, perhaps because it is too simple, so they
+have endowed the Pyramids with all sorts of wonderful meanings which
+would astound the builders were they to come back from the Fields of
+the Blessed. Astrologers who puzzled on the meanings of the stars in
+the heavens claimed the Great Pyramid as peculiarly their own, and
+pointed out certain coincidences in measurements to support their
+claim; the astronomers adduced their own reasons for claiming that
+the Pyramid had some astronomical meaning; Biblical students, on the
+other hand, who sought the hidden meanings of the Bible, concluded
+that the Pyramid was definite proof of certain of their own theories.
+
+The Pyramids have indeed been so enwrapped in mystery, by the
+writings and theories of successive generations, that thousands of
+people to-day regard them with a sort of religious belief.
+
+Notwithstanding all that has been written on the subject, and the
+undoubted cleverness with which these theories have been propounded,
+the Pyramids are only tombs. But they are the most wonderful tombs
+in the world. They are simple and grand, with the desert sands
+surging round their bases, while a short distance away the Nile flows
+along to the blue sea. There is one other tomb without peer, the Taj
+Mahal, in India, that beautiful dream in marble which Shah Jehan
+erected in Delhi to the memory of the lady he loved so well. But the
+Taj is very different—graceful, glorious. Yet the Pyramids, in their
+simple grandeur, are not without a beauty of their own.
+
+Kings have come and gone, civilizations have bloomed and vanished,
+the very earth itself has altered since the Pyramids were first
+built. Whirlwinds have caught up the sands of the desert and used
+them as a giant sandblast in their attempts to wear away the stone,
+earthquakes have shattered temples, but on the monuments the forces
+of Nature have had little effect. The hand of man has wrought more
+destruction in a few centuries than Nature herself wrought in two or
+three thousands of years. What man built, man has partly destroyed;
+yet man, with all his ingenuity for destruction, has done little but
+touch the outer surface of the Great Pyramid.
+
+[Illustration: THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH, ONE OF THE WONDERS OF THE
+WORLD, WITH THE GREAT SPHINX IN THE FOREGROUND, LAPPED BY THE ETERNAL
+SANDS OF THE DESERT]
+
+There are nearly eighty Pyramids of different sizes scattered
+throughout the Nile valley. The greatest and most renowned is that of
+King Khufu or Cheops, at Gizeh, which originally measured 355 feet
+8 inches at the base, and 481 feet 4 inches in height. The base of
+the Great Pyramid covers well over 12 acres, and an idea of the size
+of the monument may be gained when it is known that to walk round it
+means trudging through the sands for more than half a mile.
+
+Over nineteen centuries ago, Julius Cæsar sent from Egypt one of the
+most famous letters ever written. It was short, but three words:
+“Veni, Vedi, Veci.” These three words carried a wealth of meaning.
+They told of a safe journey, of an emperor gazing on the land he
+was going to conquer, of a successful invasion. “I came, I saw, I
+conquered,” wrote Cæsar, who in turn was conquered by the beauty of
+Cleopatra.
+
+Who can say what were the thoughts of the Roman emperor as he
+stood within the shadow of the age-old Pyramids? He was a powerful
+potentate, but the same thoughts must have flitted through his mind
+as have surged through the brains of countless unknown men when
+they first caught sight of the Wonders of the Desert. He must have
+meditated on their origin, and how they were built.
+
+In modern times Napoleon, the greatest soldier the world has ever
+seen, paced in the shadow of these same Pyramids, and reflected on
+the eternal questions regarding them. Lord Kitchener, before he
+attained to fame, gazed on them hundreds of times. The great ones go
+to their eternal rest, but the Pyramids remain.
+
+They were built to endure for all time. The Egyptians looked upon the
+tomb as their permanent home, which was to last for all eternity.
+This is the reason for the erection of these mountains of stone, for
+their solidity of construction, for their gigantic size. They have
+grown out of Egypt’s religious beliefs. They were built solid and big
+and strong, so that nothing should overturn them, so that they should
+defy the hand of Time and Man, and forever provide a resting-place, a
+home for the shadow-self of the King.
+
+Directly a Pharaoh came to the throne, he began preparing for his
+last long sleep. His lifework was to prepare a tomb for himself
+befitting his rank and power, and he spared no pains nor means to
+accomplish his desire. He called his chief architects and his high
+priests around him, and demanded that plans be made and a site
+selected. Then he saw the foundation stone laid, and year by year
+watched the pile of masonry grow.
+
+Judging by the number of Pyramids in existence and their size, it
+has been reckoned that the total man-power of Egypt was devoted
+for over a thousand years to building tombs for the rulers, that
+tomb-building, in fact, was the main industry of the country for
+centuries.
+
+To build another pyramid the size of the Great Pyramid of Khufu
+or Cheops would be a brilliant engineering feat even in our time,
+with all the engineering means we have at our disposal. The more
+we consider the Great Pyramid, the more amazing it seems that the
+Egyptians should have succeeded in erecting such an enormous monument
+some six thousand years ago. To this day it is not fully understood
+how it was done, but gradually evidence is accumulating which serves
+to indicate the principal methods that were adopted.
+
+A few miles away, on the other side of the Nile, the limestone was
+quarried from the hillside at Turah. Thousands of men laboured at
+cutting out the mighty blocks. These were probably squared up roughly
+in the quarries, and then either transported to the barges on rollers
+made from the trunks of palm trees, or else mounted on wooden sledges
+that were dragged over the ground by the united efforts of hundreds
+of slaves. Great skill must have been required to get them safely
+aboard, and to unload them from the barges when they arrived on the
+other side of the river. There is little doubt that the site of the
+Pyramid was chosen close to the river and to the Turah quarries to
+make transport as simple as possible.
+
+The Pyramid is built in a series of steps, the lower courses of
+blocks being 4 feet 11 inches high, the size diminishing as the
+Pyramid gets higher. Before a stone was cut or laid the Pyramid must
+have been carefully planned on papyri; for aught we know models may
+have been built to ensure its accuracy. It is plain that the builder
+must have calculated the sizes of all the stones course by course
+and the number required, for their regularity in size is not only
+amazing, but is also proof that the building of the Pyramid was most
+carefully worked out.
+
+So extraordinary was the degree of accuracy attained by the ancient
+architects, that it is doubtful if a single building in all London
+is so correctly and accurately built as was the Great Pyramid sixty
+centuries ago. The Egyptians were clever enough to fix their site
+so that the sides of the Pyramid faced exactly north, south, east
+and west, without any deviation whatsoever. They had some means of
+measuring whereby they were able to build the lengths of the sides
+so truly, that there was not half an inch of difference in any one
+of them. The builder who is able to build four such walls over 750
+feet long, without varying them half an inch in all that length, is a
+king of his profession. Probably there is not a house put up to-day
+that does not vary considerably more in the length of its small
+walls. For sheer accuracy in its measurements, the Great Pyramid is
+one of the most marvellous structures on earth, and the Egyptians
+were apparently able to do six thousand years ago what we find it
+difficult to accomplish to-day.
+
+The Great Wall of China was built at the sacrifice of hundreds of
+thousands of lives, and probably thousands of men perished in the
+building of the Pyramids. Accidents must have been happening all day
+long. The huge blocks were handled by men who dragged and pushed
+them to their positions. The labourers were kept hard at it by their
+taskmasters, whose one thought was to keep up the supply of stone.
+Mighty blocks weighing many tons must have often slipped and crushed
+the workers to death. Many of the labourers must have been maimed for
+life; legs were broken, arms smashed, heads and bodies crushed, as
+the blocks rolled and swerved in their progress.
+
+From inferences from papyri, the great Pyramids were looked upon by
+the Egyptians as one of their plagues, as a scourge to the land. Men
+were pressed into the work, were compelled to go on with it. What
+mattered it to Khufu if his subjects and slaves died, so long as he
+built a home that would last his shadow-self for ever? We are wont
+to marvel at the building of the Pyramids, but under it all there
+must have been great cruelty as well as an incredible skill. Those
+monuments which to-day are the glory of Egypt, were in the past one
+of the afflictions of the land.
+
+The building of the Great Pyramid entailed the creation of a mighty
+sloping road, which Herodotus says took 100,000 men ten years to
+construct. Men swarmed over the desert like ants over a disturbed
+anthill, making this enormous slope up which to drag and push these
+gigantic blocks. The centre of the slope was paved with polished
+stone, so that the blocks would slide easily along, but in spite of
+this attempt to ease the burden, the moving of the stones must have
+been a heart-breaking task. As the Pyramid rose, so the road grew
+higher.
+
+The blocks would be heaved out of the barges by dozens of men.
+Great wooden levers would be inserted under the stones to prise
+them up to allow the rollers to be slipped under; then hundreds of
+men would take hold of the long ropes, harnessing themselves like
+beasts of burden, and drag the stones along. Men with levers would
+help by thrusting behind; others would walk at the sides to attend
+to the rollers, and run to the front with new ones directly the last
+had passed underneath the stone at the back. We can imagine ropes
+breaking, and mighty stones plunging down the causeway, sweeping
+scores of poor victims to destruction. Blood and tears as well as
+labour went to the building of the Pyramids.
+
+From first to last, so far as we are able to gather, about 100,000
+men slaved for thirty years to build the tomb of Khufu. The site
+chosen was not exactly level. A little hillock of rock rose on one
+part of it, and this was cleverly squared off and incorporated into
+the Pyramid, saving the transport of so many hundreds of tons of rock.
+
+The great aim of Khufu, or Cheops, as that of all the other Pharaohs,
+was to protect his mummy, and prevent thieves getting into his
+burial chamber. To this end were devised numerous secret passages,
+all of which show an extraordinary ingenuity in planning, and great
+engineering skill in execution. The entrance to the Great Pyramid
+is about 45 feet up on the north face. One of the blocks of stone
+was made to swing inward on a pivot, and when closed it was quite
+impossible to locate the entrance. The Pyramid looked quite solid,
+without a single breach in any one of its sides. So cleverly was
+the entrance contrived that it baffled men for thousands of years,
+although countless thieves went over the Pyramid seeking eagerly for
+a way in. Only a lucky accident could have led the discoverer to
+touch that particular stone in the right way to make it swing back
+and disclose the opening.
+
+Even when he found the opening, he was not much nearer the burial
+chamber. An underground passage was driven for over 350 feet through
+the solid rock at an angle below the foundations of the Pyramid,
+until it opened out in a chamber immediately beneath the point of
+the Pyramid. The chamber is really a fine hall about 46 feet long
+by 27 feet wide, with a roof 11½ feet above the level of the floor.
+On the other side of the chamber the underground passage continues
+for over 50 feet, but we are quite at a loss to divine the reason
+for this extension. Maybe the engineers drove this gallery with the
+definite intention of misleading any one who should eventually break
+a way into this underground retreat. At any rate, it is, like the
+rest of the passage, driven through the solid rock, and finishes up
+against the rock wall. No other outlet from this passage has ever
+been discovered, so its object is a mystery. Perhaps the engineers’
+plans were altered, or perhaps it was designed to baffle thieves,
+and compel them to waste time by searching for an opening where none
+exists.
+
+Khufu did not underrate the skill of the plunderers of the tombs. He
+realized to the full their patience and cleverness, and did all in
+his power to outwit them. The passage is lined throughout with blocks
+of stone, and we can imagine the robbers searching anxiously up and
+down the dark passage, casting back and fore, tapping the stones to
+try to find the outlet leading to the King’s Chamber. All the blocks
+look exactly alike, and they may have sought for months before they
+found that block in the roof which pivoted in a similar manner to
+the stone covering the entrance. This passage branched upward to the
+Queen’s Chamber, and opened out to the Grand Gallery, which is very
+narrow and high, at the end of which comes another passage leading
+to the Chamber of King Khufu.
+
+Before the robbers were able to reach these chambers, they had many
+difficulties to surmount and problems to solve. At various intervals
+the passage was sealed by four mighty blocks of very hard granite.
+These blocks must have been supported until after the funeral
+ceremonies were completed; then the priests withdrew, the supports
+were knocked away, and the blocks crashed down into position in the
+deep grooves that were cut for them in the passage.
+
+When the intruders surmounted one block, they were confronted by
+another. Their labours on the second brought them to a full stop
+against the face of the third. No one knows how long it took for
+the thieves to break into the Pyramid, but it must have taken years
+from the time the first secret opening was discovered. So hard was
+the granite with which the passage leading to the King’s and Queen’s
+Chambers was closed, that in one case the thieves despaired of ever
+getting through it, so they laboriously cut a way through the roof
+of the passage and clambered over the top of the granite block. They
+must have reaped a very rich booty, of which every trace has long
+since vanished.
+
+All that remains to-day is the red granite sarcophagus in the King’s
+Chamber. It is an enormous stone coffin, so big that its removal is
+an impossibility. It is too big to be taken through the passages.
+The size of it indicates that it must have been placed in position
+when the Pyramid was being built. It shows how carefully everything
+was planned.
+
+The King’s Chamber is 34 feet 3 inches long, by 17 feet 1 inch wide,
+with a height of 19 feet 1 inch. It is one of the wonders of the
+Pyramid, lined with enormous slabs of highly polished granite which
+reach from floor to ceiling, slabs 19 feet 1 inch high. The ceiling
+itself is composed of the same granite, in giant slabs nearly 4 feet
+wide and 17 feet 1 inch long. There are nine of these mighty slabs
+of polished stone, reaching from wall to wall. Their weight must be
+enormous, and the difficulty of getting them into position must have
+been prodigious. So skilfully and accurately fitted were many of the
+stones in the passages, that even now the point of a needle cannot be
+inserted between the slabs where they join.
+
+It seems incomprehensible at first sight why this King’s Chamber
+has not been crushed out of existence thousands of years ago by
+the weight of the masonry over it. It must be remembered that what
+amounts to a mountain of stone rears its peak 200 feet or more
+above. Investigation reveals that the builders were fully alive
+to this danger, and the steps they took to avoid it were not only
+very clever, but they have worked perfectly for thousands of years.
+Earthquakes have occurred from time to time and displaced some of
+the stones, but the King’s Chamber is still intact and uncrushed.
+
+The methods adopted by these clever old builders to preserve the
+Chamber are very simple, yet anything more brilliantly successful it
+would be difficult to devise. Above the King’s Chamber four other
+chambers were built to take the weight off the roof, and over these
+chambers two mighty slabs of hard stone were placed astride, leaning
+together at the top edges, which were so accurately cut that they
+could not possibly become displaced. These two stones, with their
+tops resting against each other, just as children lean two cards
+together on a table, take the weight of all the masonry above them,
+and deflect the thrust of the weight outwards instead of downwards,
+so that the King’s Chamber is amply protected.
+
+The Pyramid of Khafra or Chephren, slightly smaller than the Great
+Pyramid, is still a mighty monument of the past, and although the
+Egyptians were free from foreign wars when it was built, they groaned
+under the necessity of doing this work for the king at home. The
+building of the Pyramids was one of the hardships of the Egyptian
+nation.
+
+When the Great Pyramid was finished, a pinnacle of hard limestone
+was set on the top, and all the steps were filled in from the peak
+downwards with the same stone, to make the surface of the Pyramid
+quite smooth from apex to foundation. But the facing blocks of stone
+have now all disappeared. Many of them have been carried off to put
+into new buildings, others lie shattered all about the base, where
+the debris rises for 40 feet or so. The point of the Great Pyramid
+has also gone, and there is now a platform about 36 feet square, on
+which visitors may stand and gaze on the wonders of the desert.
+
+Only 500 yards away the head of the Great Sphinx emerges from the
+sands. Nobody knows what the Sphinx represents. The most learned
+investigators are uncertain of its origin and age. Some think it
+may have been carved by the sculptors of one of the great pyramid
+builders, but others regard it as very much older. Probably it
+represents the sun god Ra, but for centuries the Arabs have known it
+as the Father of Terrors.
+
+From the tip of its paws to the end of its back it measures 190
+feet. It is 65 feet high, and its neck is 69 feet round, while the
+tallest man could roll in between the lips, were they open, for
+they are 7 feet wide. The Sphinx is still joined to the mother rock
+which forms the floor of the desert hereabouts. It was carved out
+of the outcropping stone, which the sculptors chipped and fashioned
+with infinite labour into the shape of the Father of Terrors. The
+astounding thing is that in spite of the gigantic size of the figure,
+the proportions are faultless.
+
+[Illustration: THE COLOSSI OF MEMNON, SET UP BY AMENHOTEP III., IN
+FRONT OF HIS TEMPLE AT THEBES. THE TEMPLE HAS DISAPPEARED, BUT THESE
+GIGANTIC FIGURES, WHICH ARE ABOUT 50 FEET HIGH, ARE AMONG THE MARVELS
+OF THE NILE]
+
+Between its paws was a temple, that gave up a statue of Khafra,
+the builder of the Second Pyramid, but temple and paws are now
+covered with sand. Indeed the Sphinx has spent the greater part of
+its existence under the sands of the desert. One of the first things
+Thothmes IV did when he came to the throne over three thousand years
+ago, was to set men to uncover the Sphinx, and dig the sand away from
+its 140-foot-long body. From time to time others have removed the
+sand, but always the sand comes back and quickly steals over the body
+and covers it, leaving the head emerging like some monster of the
+desert.
+
+In the past the Sphinx has been badly treated by the ignorant Arabs,
+who have smashed its face about and given it that strange expression
+which is a half-wry smile. Probably thousands of years hence, when
+our present civilization has disappeared and been forgotten, the
+Sphinx will still be regarding the Nile and the world with the same
+half-sad, half-mocking expression.
+
+The Sphinx is as lasting as the mountains, as eternal as the rock out
+of which it is carved. The riddle of the origin of this masterpiece
+of an ancient civilization may yet be solved by a man digging with a
+spade in the desert sands.
+
+The famous Colossi of Memnon, set up by Amenhotep III in front of his
+chapel on the bank of the Nile at Thebes, almost rival the Sphinx in
+their gigantic stature. The great figures, 50 feet high, are carved
+out of solid blocks of limestone, and there they sit on guard as they
+have sat for thousands of years. The floods of the Nile swirl about
+them, laving their injured feet, but the temple they guarded has long
+since vanished from the face of the earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Thebes at its zenith was one of the glories of the old world, with
+some of the most marvellous temples ever imagined by the mind of
+man or executed by human hand. The ancient capital of Egypt was
+unequalled in magnificence. King after king increased the wonders
+of the temple of Ammon; their sculptors carved great sphinxes out
+of stone, which were set up in an avenue over a mile long. Building
+after building was added to the original one. Mighty gateways,
+or pylons, 142 feet high, were built, and from these projected
+flagstaffs on which gaily coloured banners fluttered in the breeze.
+
+The great hall of Ammon was composed of pillars 78 feet high and 33
+feet round, all carved and painted in vivid colours. Lesser halls and
+temples were added, and here, amid a blaze of colour and sunshine,
+the festivals were held, the high priests performed their sacred
+rites, the Pharaoh drove up in his gorgeous chariots with the harness
+of his horses ablaze with gold, while his subjects shielded their
+faces from the monarch who shared the glory of Ammon. At intervals
+the high priests brought out the sacred boat of the god, raised it
+aloft on their shoulders, and carried it around the temple, while
+the populace stood silent with awe. For a brief instant the curtains
+were drawn aside, and the god was disclosed to the multitude before
+returning to the silence and sanctity of the temple, from which the
+common people were rigidly excluded.
+
+About the king gathered all the wit and wisdom of the Egyptian
+empire. Magnificent banquets were held, at which were served to the
+guests fine dishes of venison, roast ducks and other fowl, and fish.
+Wine flowed, maidens danced. There was talk and laughter and love.
+
+To-day Thebes has vanished. The one-time capital of Egypt is a desert
+ruin. Near by are the villages of Karnak and Luxor, with a few
+natives living in their humble dwellings, and just a big hotel for
+the use of travellers, who come here to gaze on the ruins of the past.
+
+It is strange that thousands of years ago, when these islands
+were inhabited by a few savages who painted their bodies, threw a
+skin about them for warmth, and lived in the rudest of huts for
+shelter, far away to the south on the Nile a mighty civilization was
+flourishing, that would compare very favourably with the civilization
+of to-day.
+
+[Illustration: A PARTLY-HEWN OBELISK STILL ATTACHED TO THE ROCK IN
+ONE OF THE ANCIENT QUARRIES]
+
+While the barbarians of Britain were building their rude huts, the
+Egyptians were carving colossal pillars for the Hall of the
+Temple of Ammon, pillars over 30 feet round, and painting them with
+colours which are still fresh after all this lapse of time. Even then
+they had been building with brick for thousands of years. The tomb
+paintings show the brickmakers puddling the alluvial soil with their
+feet, shaping the mud into bricks, and baking them hard in the fierce
+heat of the sun. Moreover these bricks endured for centuries, and
+still endure; whereas many of the red bricks made in England thirty
+or forty years ago are perishing fast.
+
+Speculation is still going on as to how the Egyptians used to handle
+the enormous stones found in the ruins, and how they managed to place
+in position monuments like Cleopatra’s Needle. There is mention of
+certain engines having been used to lift the stones of the Pyramids,
+but what these engines were, nobody to-day can say with certainty.
+
+Cleopatra’s Needle was roughly shaped on three sides in the
+quarry, before it was detached from the mother rock. The methods
+of detaching a monument from the rock show that the Egyptians were
+quite conversant with natural laws, that they possessed the ability
+to harness these laws in order to save human labour. How many modern
+craftsmen would succeed in separating one of these huge stones from
+the mountain-side, by using such simple things as a drill, some
+wooden pegs, and water? With these crude implements the task would be
+looked upon nowadays as impossible. Yet from obelisks still attached
+to the rock, it is obvious that such primitive appliances were
+sufficient to enable the Egyptians to perform their ancient miracles.
+
+On the exact line where they desired to sever the stone, they cut a
+deep groove, and at frequent intervals along this groove they drilled
+holes, into which they hammered wooden pegs very tightly, until the
+tops were a little below the surface of the stone. Then water was
+poured on the pegs, and as it soaked into the wood they swelled,
+until the expansion of them all together was so irresistible that the
+rock was split along the groove.
+
+Many huge pillars and statues were also sculptured in the living rock
+before being detached, for areas of rock have been found all marked
+off in squares with figures drawn on them ready to be carved by the
+sculptor. Like the stones of the Pyramids, many of these figures
+and monoliths were transported on sleds, others were dragged over
+rollers. It was a common practice to send thousands of men to some
+distant place, to cut out a giant block of stone, and bring it back
+for the use of the king. Ancient drawings showing gigantic statues
+being dragged along on sledges by armies of slaves, reveal to us how
+the transport was effected.
+
+But there was the difficulty of erecting an obelisk when it had
+reached the spot for which it was intended. A weight of 186 tons,
+like that of Cleopatra’s Needle, is a tremendous problem to handle,
+yet the Egyptian engineers accomplished it successfully. Such a
+weight was actually small compared with some of the weights they
+tackled, for they moved and erected single stones weighing twice and
+thrice as much, that is weights up to nearly 600 tons.
+
+If our engineers to-day were given the same problem, they would
+still have to puzzle over it, in spite of the giant cranes that
+could be brought to the spot to help them. The mammoth lifting
+machines designed by modern engineers were unknown in the days of the
+Pharaohs, yet the ancients were able to do work without them which we
+would find it rather difficult to do with them.
+
+Ever so many theories have been propounded as to how they set up
+these huge blocks of stone. One suggestion is that the stones were
+dragged to the site and their bases placed in position; then in some
+way, perhaps by the use of giant beams over which the ropes attached
+to the top ends of the stones were passed, they were pulled upright,
+a little at a time. As they were hauled up, blocks of stone may have
+been slipped under them to carry the weight.
+
+Other theories abound, but the likeliest theory of all is that
+the Egyptians built a big sloping embankment like that used in the
+construction of the Pyramids. Up this the obelisk was hauled, base
+first, until it reached the very top, and projected on to a bed of
+sand. Labourers shovelled the sand away from under the obelisk, just
+as ants dig the earth from beneath a mouse they want to bury, and as
+the sand was removed, so the base of the obelisk sank down, until it
+gradually tilted upright exactly in the position designed for it.
+No simpler, or more brilliant, way could be found of solving this
+difficult problem.
+
+One of the monoliths erected by Queen Hatshepsut, at Karnak, is 109
+feet high, and she records that at her bidding this mighty stone,
+weighing hundreds of tons, was hewn out of the quarry, the sides were
+properly shaped, and the stone conveyed to the site, all within seven
+months. The Queen gave her orders, and the people obeyed.
+
+Such methods, if they were followed to-day, would be so expensive as
+to be prohibitive. In those days there were no unions, and no union
+rates of wages. The overseer of the works could have all the labour
+he needed. If he could not manage with a thousand labourers, then
+he could have ten thousand. The king was the lord and master of his
+people, as well as of his slaves. The overseer had only to say that
+he wanted more men, and the king would give orders for the men to be
+procured. If they did not come willingly, they would be seized and
+pressed into the service of the king. So long as they were doing the
+king’s work they would be fed, but wages in the present sense were
+unknown.
+
+[Illustration: THE BEAUTIFUL TEMPLE KNOWN AS PHARAOH’S BED, CRADLED
+IN THE WATERS OF THE NILE, WHICH HAVE COVERED THE ISLAND OF PHILÆ AND
+PARTLY SUBMERGED THE NOBLE RUINS SINCE THE BUILDING OF THE ASSOUAN
+DAM]
+
+Those noble ruins on the island of Philæ higher up the Nile above
+Assouan may no more be seen in all their glory. They have been
+sacrificed to the Nile god and to modern necessities. Realizing that
+the building of the great dam at Assouan would raise the level of the
+river and submerge the island, the builders went to enormous trouble
+to underpin the ruins and make them secure against the flood. This
+work was carried out with great difficulty, and in a masterly manner.
+The completion of the Assouan dam saw the waters of the Nile slowly
+creep over the ruined temples, and there may now be seen peeping
+above the surface of the water the tops of a few columns which, owing
+to their peculiar resemblance to a fourpost bed, are generally known
+as Pharaoh’s Bed.
+
+A wonderful work in a land of wonders is the barrage of Assouan,
+but the benefits that would accrue to the land by holding up and
+deflecting the waters of the Nile were not unrealized by the
+ancients. Thousands of years ago the problems of controlling the Nile
+were studied as carefully as they have been studied in our own time.
+One Pharaoh, known as Amenhotep III, ordered his engineers to work
+out a scheme for controlling the inundation. He desired to store up
+some of the Nile water when there was an excess, and draw on these
+surplus supplies when the river was low.
+
+The work he undertook was in its way as wonderful as that at Assouan,
+but when we consider that it was started nearly four thousand years
+ago it appears even more marvellous. Labourers swarmed over the land,
+cutting channels in the rock, and driving canals connected with the
+great expanse of water near Fayoum known as Lake Moeris, a natural
+reservoir which served to store the water just as the barrage at
+Assouan stores the water to-day. The Pharaoh had the foresight to
+tap this huge supply of water to irrigate the surrounding country,
+and the land, no longer at the mercy of the Nile floods, prospered
+accordingly.
+
+Amenhotep, like all the other Pharaohs, was anxious to protect his
+treasure from thieves, and he commanded his cleverest architects to
+design a palace in which people who went inside without permission
+might wander for ever without finding their way out again. The whole
+of the interior of the palace was composed of small rooms, in number
+three thousand, leading by narrow passages one into the other. The
+way in and out was a strict secret, and those who broke in might
+wander round and in and out of the chambers until they died of
+starvation. This palace was the famous Labyrinth, a maze in stone to
+defeat thieves and robbers. No trace of it now remains.
+
+The kings of Egypt and the chief men were obsessed with the idea that
+their tombs would be plundered, and that the robbers would deprive
+their doubles of all chance of future life. It must be admitted that
+they had good cause for their obsession. They knew that the same
+subjects who had buried previous kings and lamented their deaths, had
+seized the first opportunity of rifling the tombs of their treasures,
+and the Pharaohs were well aware that their own subjects would not be
+above doing the same thing.
+
+To rifle a tomb was one of the greatest crimes that could be
+committed, but the thieves were quite prepared to sacrifice their
+chances in the next life for the prospect of gaining something in
+this.
+
+The tombs indicate that for thousands of years a continual battle
+of wits was being fought between the kings, who wished to preserve
+their tombs from desecration, and the thieves who wished to plunder
+them. The kings built temples for themselves, and had a strong burial
+chamber placed at one end. The thieves broke in easily and abstracted
+the treasure. Then the kings made secret burial chambers in their
+temples for the safeguarding of their mummies, but the thieves
+located them, and robbed them just the same.
+
+At last a queen hit on the idea of building a fine temple for herself
+at Thebes, with a special sanctuary for her mummy. But not for a
+moment did she intend her mummy to rest within the shade of the
+temple. She sent her priests and tried servants into the desolate
+valley, to seek a secret hiding-place for her mummy high up in the
+cliff. They cut a chamber in the rock, and made the tomb in that
+valley known to-day as the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings.
+
+Other kings came to the valley. They erected temples, and their
+engineers cut into the heart of the mountains, to make chambers in
+which to hide their bodies. They built up the places as strongly as
+they could. They devised obstructions to stop any one from entering.
+They hid the entrances to the tombs so carefully, that it was
+impossible to tell whether the places had ever been disturbed.
+
+All their labour, all their secrecy, was in vain. Not a single tomb
+in all Egypt has yet been found intact. Every tomb discovered has
+been rifled of its treasure. Even the tomb of Tutankhamen is no
+exception. The actual holes which the robbers made to enter the tomb
+were discovered, and, judging by the wealth of the furniture and
+other things remaining, the haul of gold and silver must have been
+enormous.
+
+The high priests, horrified at the desecration of the tombs, feared
+so much for the royal mummies in their charge, that they went out
+stealthily into the deserted hills and sought a secret hiding-place.
+Then they brought many royal mummies to it, one by one, probably
+under cover of darkness, and hid them away from thievish eyes and
+hands.
+
+For centuries, for thousands of years, the robbers were defeated;
+the ancient kings and queens of Egypt slept on undisturbed in their
+secret sepulchre. Yet in the end the tomb robbers triumphed. Somehow,
+sometime, they managed to find the tomb. They did not blazon their
+discovery to the world. The booty was too rich for that, so they
+began systematically robbing the tomb and disposing of the relics to
+travellers who passed that way.
+
+The ultimate discovery of the tomb by Sir Gaston Maspero is one of
+the greatest romances of Egyptology. One day in 1881, a visitor
+showed Maspero some wonderfully illuminated pages of a royal ritual.
+Maspero, gazing on them in amazement, inquired whence they came, and
+learned that they had been bought at Thebes.
+
+Instantly all Maspero’s suspicions crystallized into action. He
+had long suspected that the Arabs had found a royal tomb, and here
+was definite evidence. Without delay he journeyed to Thebes, and
+discussed the matter with the authorities. Secret inquiries pointed
+to four brothers, who lived in some deserted tombs, as having
+knowledge of the find. A decision to arrest one of them, in the hopes
+that he would speak, was at once carried into effect. The Arab was
+thrown into prison, but he said nothing, denied all knowledge of the
+matter for seven or eight weeks. Maspero could not wait. Offering a
+big reward for information of the discovery, he returned down the
+Nile, and ultimately his reward tempted one of the brothers to come
+forward and agree to lead the authorities to the tomb.
+
+Maspero, back in Cairo, sent an Egyptologist with an assistant
+hot-foot to Thebes. A rendezvous was fixed at Deir-el-Bahari. Picking
+their way over the rocks, the Arabs led the two strangers along the
+foot of the escarpment which frowned bare and sinister above their
+heads. In a short while they came to a boulder which had fallen from
+the cliffs above. Screened in the most remarkable manner by this
+mighty rock, the entrance had escaped human eyes for three thousand
+years. Arabs and strangers lit their candles, a rope was uncoiled and
+shaken down the black shaft, and one after another they slid down 40
+feet to the bottom.
+
+The strangers groped their way along a tunnel, following the
+flickering candles just ahead, stooping to escape the rocky ceiling,
+at times almost having to go down on their hands and knees. They
+turned a corner, still groping and climbing along the rocky passage,
+down a flight of rock-cut stairs, deeper and deeper into the recesses
+of the mountain, kicking against bits of mummy cases, fragments of
+bandages. On they went, their excitement rising with every step.
+
+At last they came to a chamber in the rock. It was like an Aladdin’s
+cave. Mummy cases were everywhere, standing up against the wall,
+lying down and piled on top of each other. Great piles of boxes,
+alabaster vases, statuettes—it was incredible, absolutely amazing.
+
+Without giving the newcomers time to take in the wonderful sight, the
+Arabs led the way through this chamber down and down through another
+passage. After traversing 60 yards they came to a chamber that was
+even more amazing, more wonderful than the last. The strangers
+could hardly believe their eyes. All around the burial chamber were
+royal mummies, the glitter of gold and colour showing up under the
+flickering candles. The cases were exquisitely carved and decorated,
+so well preserved that it was as though they were made but yesterday.
+
+So intensely excited was the Egyptologist, that it required an effort
+of will to make him realize this was not a dream, but reality, that
+he was the first white man in the history of the world to gaze on
+such a glorious sight; to see the ancient kings and queens as they
+had slumbered through the centuries.
+
+He looked around him, examined the royal names and titles. Here were
+Seti I, Thothmes II, Thothmes III, Rameses II. Wherever he looked
+the mummy of a king or queen greeted his astonished gaze. He was
+literally astounded, hardly able to take it all in. The magnitude of
+the find overwhelmed him. He counted the mummies one by one—eleven
+kings, nine queens, a prince and a princess! It was unbelievable.
+
+In a little while, when the first excitement had passed away, he
+became the man of action once more. Realizing to the full that only
+the promptest measures could save the tomb from being looted, he
+quickly collected three hundred Arabs, and he and his assistant began
+to remove the treasures. They never halted, never rested, labouring
+on all through that day and the next without a moment’s sleep,
+removing the kings and queens from their resting-place, sewing them
+up in sailcloth, and getting them into the open. In forty-eight hours
+they cleared the tomb of everything it contained, and in another
+three days they had conveyed the mummies over the plain of Thebes to
+the Nile.
+
+The natives were ugly, threatening, angry that their kings should
+be disturbed—still more angry that there was no chance for them to
+plunder the tomb any more. Not for a moment dared the Egyptologist
+and his assistant leave their precious charge, not until the steamer
+arrived that was to take the royal mummies down to Cairo.
+
+The news of the discovery spread like wildfire through the villages,
+and as the steamer passed slowly down the Nile, the Egyptian women
+hailed the passing with the death wail, running along the banks,
+tearing their hair and uttering their awful cries. Men wailed and
+fired their guns. It was one of the most remarkable sights ever
+witnessed, the natives of our own time mourning the Pharaohs who
+reigned thousands of years ago.
+
+It was the triumph of a man whose whole life was wrapped up in the
+past life of Egypt, whose own life was as romantic as that of any man
+who was destined to throw a little light upon the dead civilizations
+of the Pharaohs. Maspero was but a boy of fourteen when he was
+attracted by some of the ancient picture-writing of the Egyptians.
+The queer little figures exercised a strange spell over him. He was
+quite fascinated by them, so much so, that he made up his boyish mind
+to learn to read them.
+
+Probably hundreds of thousands of boys have seen pictures of the
+hieroglyphics and thought them very funny, but who has heard of
+another boy who was so anxious to read them that he studied them
+at any and every opportunity, as Gaston Maspero did? He who seeks
+knowledge will always find some way of acquiring it. Gaston Maspero
+studied the picture-writing to such good purpose that he learned
+to read it quite easily and translate it with considerable skill.
+He used to read the pictures to his school friends, and they were
+considerably impressed by this ability.
+
+One night in 1867, some of Maspero’s fellow-students were having
+dinner with their tutor, and Mariette, the famous Egyptologist,
+was present. Naturally the talk turned on Egypt, and the students
+tried to impress Mariette by mentioning that Maspero could read
+hieroglyphics, and that he had taught himself.
+
+Mariette was amused at the idea. “Ask him to read this for me,” he
+said, and gave them an inscription he had just discovered and which
+had not been translated.
+
+Maspero’s companions took the inscription, and Maspero sat down and
+translated it. When Mariette received the translation he was far
+more amazed at finding this young man of twenty-one in Paris who
+could read hieroglyphics, than he would have been at finding some new
+temple on the Nile. It seemed to him simply incredible, so he gave
+Maspero something else to translate—lines that were all mutilated and
+from which a great deal was missing.
+
+Maspero sat down to the problem, and after a few days managed to
+translate the fragments and supply the missing parts. Then Mariette
+realized that he had indeed found a born Egyptologist, and it is not
+surprising that the boy who was so interested that he taught himself
+to read the picture-writing should succeed Mariette in Egypt.
+
+Who knows what Mariette thought when the translations of Maspero
+were brought to him? Perhaps his mind flashed back over the years to
+the rather unhappy time when he, a lad of eighteen, was professor
+of French at a school in Stratford-on-Avon, to the days when his
+talent for drawing was confined to designing ribbons for a Coventry
+manufacturer. Maybe he remembered how happily he returned to France
+to take his degree at Douai, those articles he wrote to add to his
+income, the cousin who had been dealing with Champollion’s material,
+and whose death brought all the material of that great man under
+Mariette’s own fingers.
+
+From that period dates Mariette’s own romantic career. He was under
+thirty when he went to Egypt in search of manuscripts, and found
+instead the ruins of the Serapeum at Memphis. His diggers fought the
+desert, and rescued the Sphinx from the grasping sands, tore the
+drift of centuries from the ruins of the temples of Edfu, uncovered
+the glories of Karnak. The years brought more discoveries, his work
+was acclaimed, honours were heaped upon him. The call of Egypt to
+Mariette was irresistible, as it had been to Champollion, as it was
+to Maspero. Fate linked these three Frenchmen together to add to our
+knowledge of the past. They loved France, but the deserts and the
+debris of Egypt became part of their lives.
+
+Often they went in the burning sun to the Valley of the Tombs of
+the Kings—one of the most desolate places on earth. Not a tree to
+be seen, not a flower, not even a blade of grass. Vegetation cannot
+live there. It is a veritable valley of the dead, an inferno of
+desolation. Birds avoid it, animals shun it, only the bats haunt the
+tombs. There at the base of the hills is the wonderful temple of
+Queen Hatshepsut, with its rows of pillars standing like sentinels
+before the blackness which is beyond. Years ago no trace of it could
+be seen, but a man with a spade came along and found it, and after
+prodigious labours it was dug out of the overlying rubble and rock in
+which it was buried.
+
+Everywhere is the eternal rubble and sand. Huge piles of debris mark
+the sites where the diggers have been working; broken steps leading
+downwards into the mountains indicate where tombs have been found.
+
+Rain hardly ever falls there.... If you sat and waited for a shower
+of rain, you would have to wait on an average for five years! Perhaps
+twenty times in a century the clouds break over the Valley of the
+Tombs of the Kings, but the ground is so parched and rocky that a
+deluge is almost swallowed up as it falls. In an hour the valley is
+again as dry as a bone.
+
+[Illustration: THE WONDERFUL TEMPLE OF QUEEN HATSHEPSUT AT THE BASE
+OF THE CLIFFS IN THE VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS. THE TINY
+FIGURE OF A MAN, NO BIGGER THAN A PIN-HEAD, ON THE CENTRAL ROAD,
+SERVES TO INDICATE THE SIZE OF THE TEMPLE]
+
+The valley leads nowhere, except into the desert. There was nothing
+to call the natives in that direction. It was like a lonely valley in
+another world, and this loneliness no doubt was one of the factors
+which decided the Pharaohs to seek their last resting-places here.
+Another factor was that the limestone of the hills was an excellent
+stone in which to cut the chambers which were to be the eternal homes
+of the kings.
+
+All their thought, all their secrecy to keep their tombs inviolate,
+was in vain. The most trusted men were chosen to carve out these
+underground chambers, but where many men are engaged on a secret
+mission, the secret is bound to leak out.
+
+Some of the workers may have told their wives, who in turn may have
+dropped a remark in all innocence which led the robbers to the exact
+spot. The workers themselves, despite the faith of their masters,
+were not always to be trusted, and there is little doubt that some of
+them led the thieves to the tombs and told them exactly where and how
+to break in, that in some cases the very men who had built the tombs
+came back afterwards by night and plundered them.
+
+It may easily have been the builders who robbed the tomb of
+Tutankhamen, for Mr. Carter discovered that the thieves entered
+within a few years of the King’s burial, and that the tomb was then
+resealed by the keepers of the royal burial-places.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+The romance of ancient Egypt is not nearly told. Hundreds of volumes
+have been written about it; hundreds more are still to write. Day
+by day something is being turned up under the spade to increase our
+knowledge of those far-off times, and though we know more than the
+people of a century ago, our present knowledge will probably prove
+trifling compared with the knowledge of a century hence.
+
+For years the French, favoured by important digging concessions, made
+many fine discoveries, among them those of Mariette who, going up
+to Thebes, saw a few columns sticking out of the sand at Karnak and
+began to excavate the site. Most men would have quailed before the
+gigantic task, but Mariette set his diggers to work, and slowly but
+surely rescued from the clutches of the desert all that remained of
+one of the most remarkable temples in the world. Mountains of sand
+and broken rock were shifted, not by mammoth machines that dug out
+a truck-load of sand at once, but by natives who shovelled it into
+baskets and ran off with it, seven pounds at a time!
+
+When Mariette returned to Egypt with Louis Napoleon some years later,
+the Egyptologist was as keen on the work as ever. He again began to
+excavate, and among other things found a statue representing the god
+Ammon, in whose honour the temple at Karnak was originally built.
+Standing by the knee of the god was a headless figure, said to be
+that of Tutankhamen in his boyhood.
+
+Mariette, well knowing the value of the group, showed his regard
+for Prince Napoleon by making him a present of the statue, and the
+Prince, fired by what he saw in Egypt, and no doubt by Mariette’s
+enthusiasm, started to collect things Egyptian.
+
+The time came when Prince Napoleon made up his mind to sell his
+Egyptian treasures. He sold many things, but no one would look at
+the statue, so it was bought in at the sale for £20. For long it
+remained in the Prince’s château, until a dealer eventually acquired
+it for a trifling sum. Quickly assuring himself of the antiquity of
+the statue, the dealer went to the Louvre to offer the piece to the
+nation.
+
+The authorities inquired the price.
+
+“I have been offered 300,000 francs by an American, but I would
+rather let France have it for 250,000 francs,” was the reply.
+
+It was true. An American had offered £12,000 for the despised statue,
+which no one would buy at the original sale, the same statue which
+the Louvre gladly acquired for £10,000.
+
+Museums will pay almost anything for fine specimens that throw some
+light on past ages. They will willingly fit out special expeditions
+to various parts of the world. Often museums cooperate in working
+a site, as in the case of the Temple of the Moon God at Ur, in
+Mesopotamia, which has been worked by the University Museum of
+Philadelphia and the British Museum. The Americans are indeed taking
+an increasing interest in digging up the past, and they have many
+fine discoveries to their credit, not least among them being the
+finding of the famous Nippur tablets in Mesopotamia, tablets which
+now grace the museum at Philadelphia. Theodore Davis, too, has done
+splendid work in the Nile Valley, and found several important tombs,
+among them that of Thothmes IV.
+
+Yet, since men began to dig in Egypt, no tomb has revealed so many
+treasures as that of Tutankhamen. The value of the contents of the
+tomb, with its lion-couches and chariots and alabaster statues and
+vases, is computed at £3,000,000. It is indeed impossible to fix the
+monetary worth of such things. All that can be said is that their
+value to science is incalculable.
+
+This is by no means the first big find to be made by Mr. Howard
+Carter, for years ago he revealed the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, whose
+temple is one of the sights of the Valley of the Kings. The entrance
+to her tomb, high up on the face of the rocky hillside, led to a
+gallery winding round and round like a corkscrew. The builders of
+the tomb must have had a terrible time, for they unluckily selected
+a very bad spot, where the rock was soft, and so they were driven to
+go down and down, until they hit on a place where the rock was hard
+enough to serve for the burial chamber. Here the chamber was hewn
+out of the rock, and here it was found by Mr. Howard Carter several
+thousand years later, after the usual thieves had plundered it. The
+stench and heat were almost overpowering.
+
+Mr. Howard Carter is more familiar with Thebes than most Londoners
+are with London. At one time he was Inspector-General of Antiquities
+there, so it will be realized that his knowledge of the Valley of the
+Tombs of the Kings is quite exceptional, and that it was something
+more than good luck which led him to his greatest find of all.
+
+It is astonishing how trifles sometimes lead to big discoveries.
+For instance, when Professor Flinders Petrie was at Gizeh in the
+’eighties, an Arab offered to sell him part of an alabaster
+statuette. Instantly Petrie recognized it as a very early Greek work.
+
+“Where did you get it?” he asked.
+
+The Arab told him, and at the first opportunity the Egyptologist took
+the train to the nearest point. For 20 miles he trudged over the
+country, often going astray, but coming in the end to many mounds
+in the desert. Countless fragments of early Greek pottery furnished
+Petrie with all the evidence he needed. Quickly filling his pockets,
+he started on his long walk back to the train.
+
+The following year he returned to the mounds. His first task was to
+find a shelter. He had barely done this when he noticed two stones
+lying just outside. He stooped and turned one over, to find it was
+a proclamation of the long-lost city of Naukratis carved in Greek
+characters, a city which men had eagerly sought, a city the very
+existence of which some men doubted. It was a sudden revelation, a
+mighty discovery to spring from a little alabaster statue, and it
+provides one more indication of the genius of its discoverer.
+
+Perhaps the weirdest experience in all Egyptology was Petrie’s
+discovery of the noble Horuta at Hawara down a well 40 feet deep.
+Here in a flooded chamber, amid impenetrable blackness, he and his
+labourers wrestled continually with mighty blocks, in order to get to
+the stone sarcophagus which he suspected was there. They found it at
+last, with the lid barely peeping above the surface of the icy water.
+
+For days they strove to shift it, but it was immovable, so he decided
+to cut the sarcophagus in halves in order to get at the inner coffin.
+Weeks of fatiguing labour saw this gigantic task accomplished, and
+there was another desperate fight, with men working up to their
+chests in water, to get it out.
+
+Instead of the coveted head-end of the sarcophagus, the foot-end
+came to light. It was a terrible disappointment. The coffin still
+remained in the other half, and was apparently as far off as ever.
+The Egyptologist, groping in the murky water, fought with it, strove
+to shift it with his hands, with his feet. It was firmly fixed.
+
+Still he was not beaten. After a sustained effort lasting several
+days, he and his workers managed to raise the lid of the other half
+of the sarcophagus with wedges, until the inside of it was a few
+inches above water-level. Then he wriggled inside, and for hours in
+the darkness he sat astride the coffin and struggled to loosen it.
+The top of his head touched the lid of the sarcophagus, he had hardly
+room to move at all, the water came up to his mouth and compelled
+him to breathe through his nose. More than once in the course of
+his tremendous exertions he took in a mouthful of the nauseous
+water. The sand clung to the coffin as though it were set in a bed
+of cement. He tried scraping away the sand with his feet, he prised
+at the coffin with crowbars. All his efforts failed to shift it a
+fraction of an inch.
+
+Few men would have continued under such hopeless conditions; most
+would have acknowledged defeat and betaken themselves to an easier
+task. But Flinders Petrie was possessed of a determination that
+would not be denied. He set to work drilling holes in the coffin—a
+most difficult feat. When this was done bolts were inserted, strong
+ropes were attached, and the men went along the passage and hauled
+away with all their strength. For a time it was like heaving at a
+mountain, then the coffin stirred slightly, moved more and more.
+Backs were bending under the strain, arms almost cracking as the men
+taking part in that fantastic tug-of-war with a dead man finally
+triumphed and dragged the water-blackened coffin out of the depths.
+
+Breathlessly they opened it, found the mummy of Horuta, “wrapped in a
+network of lapis lazuli, beryl, and silver.... Bit by bit the layers
+of pitch and cloth were loosened, and row after row of magnificent
+amulets were disclosed, just as they were laid on in the distant
+past. The gold ring on his finger which bore his name and titles, the
+exquisitely inlaid gold birds, the chased gold figures, the lazuli
+statuettes, the polished lazuli and beryl and carnelian amulets
+finely engraved.”
+
+Forgotten were the herculean labours of the past months, forgotten
+the icy water that froze their bodies, the blackness that blinded
+them, swept away by the sight of the treasures disclosed to their
+delighted eyes, the treasures for which they had endured so much and
+fought so long. The recovery of the mummy of Horuta is one of the
+epics of the Nile.
+
+The world-famous tablets of Tell el Amarna were accidentally
+discovered by an Arab woman, who happened on them while searching
+the ruins for trifles to sell to tourists. The tablets were letters
+sent by the King of Babylon to the King of Egypt, written in the
+usual cuneiform characters on slabs of clay, and they disclose much
+concerning the life of that time. A remarkable thing is that in one
+of the letters, the King of Babylon mentions that he is sending a
+present of some couches to the King of Egypt, and the discovery of
+the tomb of Tutankhamen has brought to light what appear to be the
+very couches which were presented to the King of Egypt nearly four
+thousand years ago.
+
+Professor Petrie has little doubt that the strange lion-couches are
+of Babylonian origin, and that these are the couches referred to
+in the Tell el Amarna letters. The couches found in Tutankhamen’s
+tomb are secured with bronze clasps. The Babylonians secured their
+furniture in this way, but the Egyptians never did, for in the
+Nile valley the furniture was held together with wooden pegs; so
+the evidence distinctly favours the view that these are indeed the
+Babylonian couches mentioned.
+
+Lord Carnarvon, in a lecture at the Central Hall, Westminster, gave
+a vivid account of the opening of the tomb, telling how they cleared
+the passage leading to the first chamber, how they broke a hole
+through the sealed wall just large enough to see through, how Mr.
+Howard Carter held up his candle and peered into the tomb, uttering
+no word. All the time Lord Carnarvon was on tenterhooks, wondering
+what was behind the wall. A moment later he peered through, and saw
+one of the most wonderful sights that has ever greeted an excavator.
+
+To come on such a wealth of treasure is actually a grave
+responsibility. Before now men have seen statues suddenly collapse
+into dust before their amazed eyes, have watched brilliantly
+decorated mummy cases crumble without warning into heaps of powder.
+
+A most dramatic incident occurred after the unique discovery of all
+the royal mummies in 1881. Exercising the utmost care, Maspero slowly
+unwrapped one of the mummies in order to gaze on the actual features
+of the dead monarch. A camera was focused, the plate exposed, and
+even as the photograph was taken the face vanished into nothingness.
+Maspero was terribly upset at the loss of the mummy, so upset that he
+refused to allow the mummy of Rameses the Great to be unwrapped, for
+fear it, too, should vanish.
+
+For things cannot last for ever, even in the dry air of Egypt. They
+cannot spend thousands of years in tombs without becoming fragile.
+Their preservation is therefore imperative. Everything must be
+photographed from many angles, in order to provide a complete record
+in pictures. In the case of the treasures of Tutankhamen, electric
+lamps of 2000 candle-power were installed in the tomb, for the use of
+the photographer. Paraffin wax, dissolved celluloid, sheets of glass,
+various acids, are used to prevent decay.
+
+Even when all precautions are taken, things have to be very carefully
+handled. They literally need wrapping in cotton wool, and one of Lord
+Carnarvon’s first purchases, when he saw the extent of his discovery,
+was a mile and a half of cotton wool to wrap round the treasures.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British Museum_
+
+THESE MARVELLOUS COFFINS, FOUND AT THEBES, ARE DECORATED WITH SCENES
+FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. THE REPRODUCTIONS GIVE ONLY A FAINT IDEA
+OF THE WONDERFUL BEAUTY OF THE ORIGINALS, WHICH ARE ALL PAINTED IN
+THE MOST GORGEOUS COLOURS AND IN SOME CASES HEAVILY OVERLAID WITH
+GOLD. THEY ARE FINE EXAMPLES OF THE REMARKABLE SKILL OF THE EGYPTIAN
+ARTISTS. THAT OF HU-EN-AMEN ON THE LEFT IS ABOUT 2,700 YEARS OLD, AND
+THE OTHER OF ATHA-NEB IS ABOUT 2,400 YEARS OLD]
+
+As far back as 1888, Flinders Petrie was confronted by the problem
+of preserving a coffin from which the stucco was peeling. After much
+consideration, he dropped melted paraffin wax on the weak spots,
+and thought he had solved the difficulty. To his dismay the wax made
+matters worse. The outer margins of the wax contracted in cooling,
+and formed saucer-like depressions which pulled the stucco away from
+the wood.
+
+He was so gravely concerned that for days he racked his brains to
+find a remedy. At last, he took a brazier full of glowing charcoal,
+and held it near the waxen saucers. To his joy he saw the wax melting
+into the cracks and under the stucco, cementing it firmly to the wood
+again.
+
+Nowhere else on this earth are the past and present so intermixed
+as at Thebes. Here extreme antiquity may be seen side by side
+with modern science, motor-cars passing asses, and electricity
+illuminating the ancient tombs. The mummy of Seti II lies with
+an electric light above his head, so that visitors may have no
+difficulty in gazing on his features!
+
+The remarkable paintings in the tombs are executed so skilfully, the
+outlines are drawn and coloured so correctly, that the possibility
+of doing such work in the darkness of an underground chamber has
+often been questioned. More than once it has been said that the light
+of torches or candles would be quite inadequate, and it has been
+suggested that the Egyptians may have anticipated modern science by
+using electric light thousands of years ago.
+
+That the Egyptians were clever is beyond all doubt, that they may
+have known things of which we to-day are ignorant is more than
+possible, but the decorations of the tombs are no evidence that they
+were conversant with the use of electricity. The ancient methods of
+lighting the tombs so that the artists could see to work were after
+all quite simple. The artists worked by the light of the sun. The sun
+might be perhaps a hundred feet or more away along a passage, yet a
+white garment would serve excellently for reflecting the light into
+the tomb.
+
+Professor Flinders Petrie has worked wonders with the lid of a
+biscuit box, and in bygone days a man might often have been seen
+holding a tin lid at the mouth of a tunnel leading into a tomb,
+deflecting the ray of light right into the tomb, to enable the
+Egyptologist to take photographs. If the lid of a biscuit box
+happened to be missing, then a turkish towel was made to serve the
+same purpose. The actinic qualities of the sun in the Nile valley are
+indeed remarkable.
+
+Many things have turned up under the spade in Egypt, wonderful stone
+vases, jars with faint traces of perfume still pervading them, slate
+palettes on which the people mixed the paints with which they touched
+up their eyes and faces. While the Ancient Britons were painting
+themselves with woad, the Egyptian ladies were sitting at their
+dressing-tables making up their eyes in quite the modern fashion, the
+Egyptian children were playing with toys such as the children play
+with to-day. The Egyptian forerunner of Pepys carved his diary on a
+piece of ebony, one page to a whole year!
+
+Glass was in use in Egypt thousands of years before it was heard of
+in Europe; Egypt taught the world the use of bronze; and the flint
+implements found on the banks of the Nile are finer than any others
+so far discovered in the world. Some of the knives of the best period
+are simply marvellous and disclose extraordinary skill on the part
+of the Egyptian flint workers. There are stone knives in the British
+Museum with teeth as regular and as fine as those of a modern,
+machine-cut fret saw, teeth so minute as to be almost invisible to
+the naked eye. One masterpiece of a flint knife, cleverly flaked
+in the most remarkable manner, has about fifty tiny teeth to the
+inch, and it is astounding to think that such amazing hand work was
+performed by the Egyptians of the Stone Age. Probably there is not a
+living man who could duplicate such work.
+
+Now the treasures of Tutankhamen grip the imagination and dazzle the
+eye. Tutankhamen made a priceless, a magnificent gift to posterity,
+yet it is to Ptolemy v. that we owe the greatest gift of all. The
+gift is merely that broken stone in the British Museum, the stone
+which was dug out of the ruins of Fort St. Julian in 1798. In causing
+that stone to be carved, Ptolemy presented us with the key to the
+knowledge of ancient Egypt.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British Museum_
+
+THE FAMOUS INSCRIPTION OF KING DARIUS AT BEHISTUN, IN PERSIA, FROM
+WHICH SIR HENRY RAWLINSON WRESTED THE LONG-LOST SECRET OF CUNEIFORM
+WRITING. AT THE EDGE OF THE NARROW LEDGE ON WHICH THE ARAB STANDS,
+THE ROCK DROPS SHEER FOR 300 FEET TO THE BOULDER-STREWN FOOT OF THE
+CLIFFS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Countless caravans wended their way from the parched plains of
+Mesopotamia eastwards over the Persian border, past Kermanshah,
+winding along the road that skirts the range of hills rising to the
+left, and so through Behistun, a mere collection of huts with a name
+that is famous throughout all the seats of learning in the world.
+Here the caravans halted while men and beasts slaked their thirst in
+the pool, but few of the travellers troubled to look a second time
+at the great stone of Behistun rising above the plain. Users of the
+road were ever more interested in the spring than in the figures
+sculptured in the rock.
+
+The carvings were old—as old as the hills—and like the hills they
+became part of the landscape. They were legendary, carved, so
+people said, by the gods in the dim past. Age-old myths concerning
+them were poured into the ear of the stranger who passed that way,
+but those who used the road regularly, and those who dwelt in the
+neighbourhood, took no more notice of the rock carvings of Behistun
+than they took of the other features of the scenery. The most aged
+man was as ignorant of the origin of the carvings as was the youngest
+stripling.
+
+There the figures stood for centuries, for thousands of years. The
+traders drove their animals along the road to the sound of jingling
+bells, quaffed the waters of the spring, and passed onward, much more
+concerned about their merchandise than about the carvings on the
+bluff.
+
+Had the figures been more accessible, they would have vanished long
+ago. Senseless wanderers would have taken pleasure in smashing them,
+and rain and frost and sun would have completed the destruction. But
+the figures were carved too high, and the rock below had been cut
+away by the masons of old, leaving a perpendicular wall which could
+only be scaled at considerable risk. Above them was the sheer cliff.
+There was no way down to them, no easy way up to them. The escarpment
+on which they were carved rose for 1700 feet, and they were graved
+out of the living rock 300 feet above the ground.
+
+Except for a few travellers’ tales, the carvings at Behistun were
+unknown to the teeming multitudes dwelling in the great cities. Few
+men would have thought of looking in this lonely spot in Persia for
+the lost key to Babylon and Assyria. Yet here was the key for the
+man who had the courage and determination to wrest it from the
+mountains. Such a man came in the end, over two thousand four hundred
+years after the ancient sculptors had carved the last figure and
+removed the last scaffolding.
+
+The discovery of the key to Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the discovery
+of the key to cuneiform writing, resemble each other in more ways
+than one. It will be remembered that a soldier found the Rosetta
+Stone, and that an Englishman was the first man to indicate the
+manner of reading it. Rawlinson, whose genius solved the puzzle of
+Persian cuneiform, was also a soldier and an Englishman. It seems
+strange that science should be indebted to a doctor and a soldier for
+lifting the curtains of the past, that scholars who had spent their
+lives studying foreign languages should have to rely upon two men to
+whom these things were just an absorbing hobby.
+
+When Henry Rawlinson sailed for Bombay to enter the service of the
+East India Company in 1827, he was only seventeen years old. Blessed
+with an uncanny knack for learning languages, he found this ability
+stood him in good stead upon his arrival in India. Where other men
+were beaten by native dialects, he took to them as a duck takes to
+water. Before he was twenty, he was one of the interpreters for the
+army of the East India Company, and long before he was thirty he
+could speak Persian like a native.
+
+His remarkable abilities stamped him as a man who would go far, as
+one destined to play many parts in the ever-changing East. For a time
+he concentrated his energies on reorganizing the Persian army; at
+other periods he was frequenting the courts of the Shah and the Amir
+of Afghanistan, filling the intervals with hard fighting, a good deal
+of administration, and the pleasure that lay nearest his heart—the
+study of dialects.
+
+The Orient cast a spell over him, and the legends of Persia
+particularly appealed to his imagination. He was in the land where
+history began. The past called to him. Little bits of burnt brick
+with strange marks on them intrigued him. It was as though a robin
+had hopped all over them while they were wet, and had left behind
+impressions something like a bird leaves in the snow. He knew these
+fragments were the old writings, though they were like no known
+writings on earth, and at last he made up his mind to see if he could
+find the key to the cuneiform characters.
+
+In 1835 Rawlinson, then a young man of twenty-five, took up his
+residence at Kermanshah, as commander of all the troops in the
+province. Behistun was no more than 20 miles away, and something must
+have told the soldier that here was the key to the riddle he sought.
+So, when opportunity served, he jogged along the old road to the rock
+of Behistun, and began to copy the inscription. He had no rope, no
+ladder to assist him. All he had to rely upon were his own sure feet
+and strong hands. A slip meant certain death, yet the risk sat so
+lightly on his shoulders that he made his dangerous way up and down
+the precipice three and four times a day.
+
+There came a time when ladders were absolutely essential to secure
+the copies he needed. So narrow was the ledge at the foot of the
+sculptures that Rawlinson was forced to place his ladder almost
+perpendicularly against the face of the rock. For long periods he
+perched in a most precarious position at the top of the ladder and
+glued himself to the rock. The least little movement outwards on his
+part and the ladder would have overbalanced and plunged with him
+to destruction. He knew it, yet he continued his work as calmly as
+though he were at a desk instead of standing on a crazy ladder at the
+edge of a precipice.
+
+On one never-to-be-forgotten occasion he escaped death by a miracle.
+He sought with his ladder to bridge a chasm in order to copy other
+inscriptions, but the formation of the rock made it impossible to
+place the ladder flat. Eventually, after some trouble, he arranged
+the ladder with one side resting firmly on each opposing rocky ledge,
+while the other side hung free immediately below.
+
+Standing on the lower side, he took hold of the upper side of the
+ladder with his hands and started to walk across. Suddenly, without
+warning, the lower side of the ladder with all the rungs broke away
+from the upper side and dropped into the dizzy chasm. Rawlinson, as
+he fell, clung desperately to the top side of the ruined ladder. For
+a brief moment he swung on the verge of a terrible death, then, hand
+over hand, he made his way back to safety. In the end he managed to
+copy the Persian and Median inscriptions, but the other inscription
+in Babylonian on the outjutting rock defeated all his efforts to
+reach it.
+
+For three years he studied his inscriptions, and began to lay their
+secrets bare. The first draft of his great work was written. Then
+duty called him elsewhere, and the Afghan War put an end to his
+studies, compelling him to lay his book aside.
+
+It was 1844 before he was able to resume the work he was so anxious
+to do. That year saw him appointed British Consul at Baghdad, and he
+took up his residence in the city on the Tigris and his studies at
+the same time. He was once more in the neighbourhood of Behistun,
+and eventually he made his plans for procuring a copy of the
+Babylonian inscription which had defeated him years before.
+
+Riding along the old highway to Behistun, he carried with him this
+time much rope and many sheets of thick paper. He studied the
+well-known rock from below. There was the long line of figures carved
+in the limestone, to their left the series of inscriptions cut in
+column. A little above, on the slanting rock, was the inscription
+he desired. Through a telescope he could make out the inscriptions
+he had already copied, but he needed the wings of an eagle to lift
+him to the other rock. He made his way round the top of the bluff,
+studying it from all angles, and concluded that it was impossible for
+him to obtain a copy of the last inscription.
+
+He inquired among the Kurdish peasants for one who would climb up to
+the rock and make a copy in the way he directed. He offered a good
+reward, but the peasants shook their heads. They considered the feat
+impossible. Rawlinson, paying no heed, pushed his inquiries further
+afield, and at last came on a Kurdish boy who willingly undertook the
+task.
+
+The lad was lithe, agile, sure-footed as a chamois, and he climbed
+up to the platform in front of the sculptures with little trouble.
+Equipping himself with some ropes and pegs and a hammer, he gazed up
+at his objective. The rock jutted outwards over the sheer precipice;
+it seemed impossible for anything but a fly to crawl over its face.
+For a little while the keen eyes of the lad sought for handholds and
+footholds; then he squeezed himself into a crevice at the side of the
+big rock and began to worm his way upward.
+
+Rawlinson gazed on while the lad mounted a foot at a time. Often
+the climber stopped while his fingers sought another hold, then he
+progressed a little higher. But at last even he came to a stop; he
+was unable to go on.
+
+Reaching above his head, he drove one of the wooden pegs deep down
+into the soil covering the rock. Attaching a rope to it, he tested
+it, pulling this way and that, to make sure that the peg held firmly.
+
+The onlookers watched with bated breath as the lad attached himself
+to the end of the rope, as he tried to swing himself across to the
+other side of the rock, clinging with hands and feet to the rocky
+surface, with death yawning for him below. Failure met his gallant
+attempt. Once more he tried, swinging over the rock face, with only
+a rope between himself and Eternity. Ten, fifteen, twenty feet he
+traversed, to find that further progress was impossible. Quickly
+reaching out, he drove another peg deep down into the soil above his
+head, as quickly attached a rope. The fixing of a seat to the ends of
+the two ropes to form a cradle was not very difficult, and sitting
+in this cradle the lad was able to go all over the rock, taking
+impressions of the inscription under Rawlinson’s direction on sheets
+of damp paper. In ten days the task was finished, and Rawlinson
+possessed the first complete copy of the cuneiform inscriptions at
+Behistun ever held in the hands of man.
+
+The supreme task of deciphering these inscriptions occupied Rawlinson
+on and off for many years. As already mentioned, the first draft of
+his book on the inscriptions was finished before he left Kermanshah;
+and when he came to the consulate at Baghdad he threw himself heart
+and soul into making a complete revision of his draft to embody his
+later studies and knowledge. Often in the intense heat he worked in
+a summer-house at the bottom of the garden, a pet lion lying at his
+feet, and a water-wheel from the river Tigris pouring water over the
+roof of the summer-house to keep it cool.
+
+There was the Greek script to assist Young and Champollion to
+decipher the hieroglyphics of the Rosetta Stone, but there was no
+known writing at all in the inscriptions at Behistun. There were
+three inscriptions carved on the rock face, Persian, Babylonian and
+Median cuneiform. The clue to them was lost. No living race wrote
+in such a manner, and not a single man knew how to read the curious
+wedge-shaped writing of the ancients.
+
+Rawlinson therefore laboured under a much bigger handicap than that
+imposed on Young and Champollion. But Rawlinson was one of those
+men to whom a handicap means something to be surmounted. The bigger
+the handicap, the greater the satisfaction in overcoming it. The
+inscriptions at Behistun seemed to challenge him, to defy him to read
+them, as from their lofty pinnacle they had challenged men for ages
+past.
+
+Rawlinson was the man in a million. The lure of the past and the
+fascination of the East spurred him on to do the impossible. His
+courage was as great as his knowledge of dialects was profound. It
+was no hope of reward, of glory, that urged him to wrest the secret
+from his sheets of paper impressions. It was the desire to pit his
+brain against the baffling writing, to master it.
+
+Grotefend years before had pointed the way, but Rawlinson was
+ignorant of this fact. All the years that Rawlinson was writing and
+studying at Baghdad, an Irish clergyman, Dr. Hincks, was engaged
+on the same mighty task in a quiet rectory in Ireland, solving the
+puzzle which Rawlinson had already solved. Other men were wrestling
+with the same difficulties, but Rawlinson knew absolutely nothing
+of them or their endeavours. He worked away incessantly, relying
+upon himself alone. He studied the queer, wedge-shaped impressions
+for months, noted their resemblances, found the characters that were
+repeated, and little by little, a character at a time, he built up
+that dead language, succeeded in reading the writing of the peoples
+who inhabited Persia and the plains of Mesopotamia long before the
+birth of Christ.
+
+In 1846 his great book, giving his reading of the inscriptions at
+Behistun, was published in London by the Royal Asiatic Society.
+The scientific world was astounded. People thought such a thing
+impossible. Many imagined that Rawlinson had invented some sort of
+reading of his own for the cuneiform characters. They reasoned that
+as there was no guide whatsoever, no man could ever read them.
+
+They reasoned wrongly, as time was to prove. The unearthing in
+Mesopotamia of a romantic cylinder of clay, all covered with
+arrow-headed characters, brought the longed-for opportunity of
+testing whether Rawlinson was right or wrong, whether he had indeed
+solved the mystery.
+
+Copies of the cylinder were given to four men who had learned to
+read cuneiform writing, among them Rawlinson. Each was asked to make
+a translation, and to submit it to the authorities of the British
+Museum. The four translations were made, and the authorities sat down
+and compared them.
+
+Each translation told the same story of Tiglath-pileser, gave the
+same names and dates! It was a wonderful triumph for Rawlinson, for
+it proved beyond all doubt that he had indeed solved the mystery of
+the dead writing of Persia and Babylon.
+
+Rawlinson himself attributed his triumph to his familiarity with
+the local Persian dialects; it was his intimate knowledge of the
+languages spoken by the peasants and tribes of Persia that enabled
+him to get to the root of many of the words which so sorely puzzled
+him. By the time he managed to obtain his copy of the Babylonian
+inscription through the aid of the little Kurdish boy, he had already
+wrested the secret from the Persian inscription, and his book had
+been published a year.
+
+He found the clue to cuneiform in the name of two kings, just as
+Young found his first clue in the name of Ptolemy. Before he bent his
+energies on deciphering the Behistun inscriptions, he had closely
+studied two other inscriptions which were identical but for two
+words. Rawlinson, puzzling over these words, at length concluded they
+were the names of two kings, that one king was the father and the
+other the son. He reasoned correctly, and thus obtained a clue to the
+inscriptions at Behistun, the deciphering of which ranks as one of
+the greatest achievements of the human brain.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British Museum_
+
+A RARE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ROCK SCULPTURES AT BEHISTUN, SHOWING DARIUS
+THE GREAT RECEIVING CAPTIVES OF WAR]
+
+Over five hundred years before the birth of Christ, Darius, King of
+Persia, caused an account of his campaigns to be engraved on the rock
+in Persian, Babylonian and Median, so that all men who passed that
+way might read of the deeds of the great king. A full-length portrait
+of the monarch was carved in stone for posterity to gaze on his
+features, and to add to his glory he was shown receiving some of the
+prisoners captured in his campaigns.
+
+The remarkable skill shown by the Persian king in selecting the site
+is proved by the fact that the figures still exist, in spite of the
+storms beating on them for two thousand four hundred years. Darius
+was not ignorant of human nature. He knew full well the tendency of
+man to destroy. To defeat this tendency he had the rock cut away
+sheer to the foot of the cliff, while to preserve his inscription
+from the ravages of time he caused it all to be brushed with a sort
+of yellow varnish, a varnish of such unique quality that some of it
+protects the stone to this very day.
+
+We know much, can do many things. We fly in the air, tunnel the
+mountains, travel beneath the sea. Yet there is still a little that
+is hidden from us; and one thing of which we remain ignorant is the
+secret of that old Persian varnish, which will endure frost and hail
+and rain and shine for twenty-four centuries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+To within a few years of the middle of the nineteenth century,
+Babylon and Assyria were only names. People read about them in the
+Bible, but no visible trace remained. They had vanished utterly
+from the face of the earth. Some thinkers, who knew how stories
+become distorted by the passage of time, questioned if such places
+ever existed, whether they were not just myths, the figments of the
+imaginations of some ancient scribes.
+
+The rivers Tigris and Euphrates flowed through deserts. It seemed
+impossible that such lands could once have been flowing with milk and
+honey, that they could have supported a big population and a high
+civilization.
+
+Wandering Arabs roved the plains, encamping where they listed,
+warring against the Sultan and each other. They drove their sheep
+wherever the scanty herbage offered them fodder. The spring saw the
+desert blossom like the rose, the summer sun changed it of a sudden
+to desolation, burning up everything, sometimes leaving the tribes
+struggling in the grip of famine.
+
+Great mounds of sand stood up from the deserts on each side of the
+rivers, hills on which the Arabs used to set their black tents
+of goat hair, while their flocks fed on the scanty grass that
+clothed the mounds in spring. No sign was apparent of a previous
+civilization; just the great mounds humping out of the desert and the
+black tents of the Arabs.
+
+Those who saw the mounds did not trouble their heads about them. They
+took them for natural hills. There was no reason for them to think
+otherwise.
+
+No one questioned why such hills should crop suddenly out of the flat
+desert. The Arabs who set up a village or two of mud huts on some
+of the mounds did not ask themselves why they should occasionally
+turn up bricks among the rubbish on the hills. When things have been
+in existence as long as the mounds on the Tigris, and when bricks
+have been turned up as often as the Arabs have unearthed them, these
+things are accepted without question as a matter of course. Neither
+Turks nor Arabs troubled about the mounds. It was left to foreigners
+to prove that these lofty eminences were the handiwork of man, and
+that the mounds on the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates covered
+all that was left of Assyria and Babylonia.
+
+In deciphering the stone of Behistun, Rawlinson did wonderful work.
+He was but thirty-five when he made the announcement that astounded
+the scientific world. The credit of uncovering the remains of ancient
+Assyria rests with Austin Henry Layard, who started life by studying
+law, and finished by making one of the greatest discoveries of the
+nineteenth century.
+
+Layard’s whole life was one long romance. He was endowed with a vivid
+imagination, which probably came from his mixed descent, for his
+mother was a Spanish lady and his father an Englishman. As a young
+man, Layard was set to studying law, but instead of attaining great
+legal honours, he was made a baronet for wielding pick and spade to
+such good purpose out in Mesopotamia, that he dug up more knowledge
+of the past than any one man before or since.
+
+Layard in his teens read the _Arabian Nights_ with avidity. All the
+colour, the romance of the East appealed to his mind. He dreamed
+dreams of bazaars and eastern palaces, with veiled ladies and their
+lovers. While he dreamed these dreams he was compelled to study musty
+legal documents, in which he took not the slightest interest. Being
+confined in an office he hated, his great desire was to see the
+scenes he had read and dreamed about. Yet there was no escape for
+him. His father had chosen the law for him as a profession, and he
+continued his studies against his own inclinations.
+
+Working in his uncle’s office, Layard was not much impressed by the
+imagination or the generosity of his relative. Often when the lawyer
+thought his nephew was studying in his room, Layard was chatting with
+refugees, listening eagerly to their tales, and filling his rooms
+with the smell of fried sprats.
+
+His eagerness to travel and see the world was not wholly unsatisfied.
+He visited the Continent once or twice with a wealthy friend and
+saw much. There came a day when he made up his mind to see the land
+of the Tsars. He counted up his money. It was little enough, but by
+exercising strict economy he decided he might just manage to obtain
+another glimpse of the world. So he set out practically on the spur
+of the moment, and made his first acquaintance with Russia and
+Scandinavia.
+
+This adventurous young fellow was born with the desire to wander and
+see new lands and peoples. To a youth of his temperament, an office
+was a prison. While he was poring over his law-books, the figures of
+the _Arabian Nights_ were flitting through his brain. His whole life
+was practically influenced by these tales of the East. “To them,” he
+wrote, “I attribute that love of travel and adventure which took me
+to the East, and led me to the discovery of the ruins of Nineveh.
+They give the truest, most lively and most interesting pictures of
+manners and customs which still existed amongst Turks, Persians and
+Arabs when I first mixed freely with them.”
+
+Despite this overwhelming desire to travel, he grappled with his
+legal studies, and managed to pass his final examination. At that
+time his uncle arrived home from Ceylon, and it may be imagined
+how delightedly the young man listened to accounts of life in that
+far-off island. With his usual impetuosity he determined to go to
+Ceylon, to take up the profession he had studied.
+
+“I will travel overland,” he said. De Lesseps had still to carve the
+Suez Canal out of the desert sands. Why should Layard coop himself
+up in a ship and make his slow way all round Africa to India? It
+was then the usual way, but the usual way was not Layard’s way. He
+studied his maps and traced his route. Travelling overland would give
+him a splendid opportunity of seeing the world, and he hugged the
+secret thought in his heart that he would be able to wander in the
+lands of his dreams, to see Constantinople and Baghdad.
+
+He received £600 from his mother, to set him on the road to fame and
+fortune. Half this sum was sent to a bank in Ceylon so that he might
+collect it on his arrival, the other half he carried with him to pay
+his expenses on the long journey half across the world. He was only
+twenty-two years old when he said good-bye to his mother, and set out
+with a friend in 1839 to make his way to Ceylon. By the autumn they
+were adventuring in Syria. They had no one to guide them, no servants
+to wait on them. They tended their own horses, and for the rest
+relied on their youth and their weapons.
+
+Layard’s thoughts turned in the direction of Nineveh and Babylon,
+and his horse’s head was turned in the same direction. He realized
+that the opportunity of seeing the land might never recur. So in the
+spring of 1840 the two friends jogged along from Aleppo to Mosul.
+They were lucky to get through unscathed, for the Arabs were warring
+with each other on all sides. The dwellers of the deserts were
+raiding right and left, and Layard often happened on encampments
+that were picked clean by the marauders. Once or twice the young
+Englishmen came upon bands of the raiders, but their luck stood
+them in good stead and they passed on their way unmolested. The two
+friends made light of these adventures, yet there was always the
+chance that a bullet might stretch them dead on the desert sands and
+that they would for ever disappear in the East.
+
+The great mounds of Nimroud, opposite Mosul, wielded a potent spell
+over Layard. He climbed about them, dreamed over them, picked up bits
+of brick with arrow-headed writing on them. Often he asked himself
+what lay under his feet. He saw bits of alabaster sticking out of
+the soil where the rains had washed them bare. The remains of a dam
+peeped out of the river Tigris. He asked an Arab who built it.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British School at Athens_
+
+EXCAVATING THE THRONE ROOM AT KNOSSOS. THE STONE THRONE MAY BE SEEN
+IN THE BACKGROUND (_see page 185_)]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of R. Campbell Thomson_
+
+THE DESOLATION OF NINEVEH. THIS HILL WAS ONCE ONE OF THE WALLS OF THE
+CAPITAL OF ASSYRIA]
+
+“Nimrod,” said the Arab, referring to the great mythical god of the
+past.
+
+The stones of the dam were locked securely together. The waters
+poured over it in a cataract. Layard visioned the men in past ages
+building that dam, saw the waters held back and flowing into the
+canals to make the desert into a fertile plain. He galloped over the
+desert and saw traces of the silted-up canals, and he knew that the
+fertile land of the past and the desolate land through which he rode
+were one and the same. The neglect of man, the passage of time, and
+the absence of water were responsible for the change.
+
+He left Mosul on a raft of goatskins, floating down the Tigris to
+Baghdad as men had floated down for thousands of years. As he glided
+by on the slow-moving river the hillocks on the banks were beckoning
+to him, and he vowed to lay bare the past with a spade at the very
+first opportunity.
+
+It was two years before that opportunity arrived. When he got back to
+Mosul he found a Frenchman, M. Botta, was digging. For a long time
+Botta found little to encourage him to proceed with the work. A few
+fragments of brick and other trifles were all that turned up under
+the pick.
+
+Then one day an Arab gazed down on the trenches that Botta’s workmen
+were digging, wondering what on earth his compatriots from Mosul
+were searching for, and why they were going to all the trouble.
+
+“What are you looking for?” he asked at last.
+
+The labourer who was digging straightened his back, and glancing
+round among the rubbish he had turned up, picked up a piece of brick
+with a few cuneiform characters on it. “This,” he said.
+
+The Arab laughed. It seemed to him a huge joke that men should be
+wasting their time digging in the earth for bits of broken brick.
+“Why, where I live there are thousands of them,” he said. “We find
+them when we are digging the foundations of our houses.”
+
+Botta was told what the peasant had said. The Frenchman was very
+dubious. He had heard such things before, and the rumours always
+proved false. The diggers, however, were so insistent, that at last
+he sent one or two off to the village of Khorsabad, where the peasant
+lived, to see what they could find.
+
+It was some little time before the diggers could persuade the
+villagers to allow them to sink a test hole. Eventually, the
+inhabitants were won over, and the excavators sank a shaft—which
+quickly ended at the top of a mighty wall!
+
+Hastening at once to the spot, Botta set his men furiously to work.
+They unearthed an ancient Assyrian palace. Great slabs of stone were
+covered with sculptured scenes of war. Botta was astounded. He, nor
+any other modern man, had never seen the like.
+
+They proved to be the ruins of a king’s palace, but unfortunately
+as soon as they were laid bare the slabs began to crumble. A huge
+fire had destroyed the palace. In the heat the slabs were reduced to
+lime, and directly they were uncovered they fell in little pieces.
+Nothing could be done to preserve them. They had remained hidden
+for thousands of years. The kindly earth had kept them intact, but
+directly the air played about them they decayed.
+
+Layard was for long in close touch with Botta. More than once the
+Frenchman wrote to Layard about his non-success, and Layard displayed
+his fine character by urging the Frenchman to continue.
+
+The Briton had studied the spot with a view to working there. All
+thoughts of reaching Ceylon had passed from his mind. He wrote to
+friends, and tried to interest them in his proposed work. He received
+no encouragement. Despite all this disappointment, he was great
+enough to encourage his rival. It throws considerable light on the
+character of the man who eventually accomplished so much on the banks
+of the Tigris.
+
+If Layard did not make the first discovery there, he had much to do
+with it. But for his encouragement, Botta might have ceased digging
+long before the peasant stood looking down into his trenches, to tell
+him that there were heaps of the funny old bricks in his village of
+Khorsabad.
+
+The influence of the Englishman, and the laughing words of a peasant,
+led to the Frenchman taking the first step back into the Assyria of
+the past.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Layard, disappointed that his own countrymen were so little
+interested in his proposals, was impelled by the success of Botta
+to make a strong effort to begin the work he was longing to do.
+Hastening to Constantinople, he saw Sir Stratford Canning, the
+British Ambassador, told him his plans, and succeeded in interesting
+him to such an extent that the Ambassador advanced the amount of £60.
+
+It was a trivial sum with which to start excavating the mounds of
+the Tigris, and not many men would have undertaken the work with so
+little money behind them. Layard did not hesitate for a moment. He
+left Constantinople without breathing a word about his intentions,
+and in less than a fortnight was back in Mosul.
+
+The country, through misrule, was very unsettled, and the authorities
+were so antagonistic that Layard dared not tell them of his project.
+He knew that if he let fall the slightest word as to what he was
+about, he would immediately be stopped. Keeping his plans to himself,
+he collected one or two men and announced that he was going on an
+expedition to shoot wild boars.
+
+A raft was built, the goatskins were blown up to support it, and
+Layard made a brave show of the guns and spears he put aboard. The
+other hunting weapons were so strange that he thought it prudent to
+smuggle them on to the raft. They were, in fact, picks and shovels!
+
+It needed a man of resource to beat the wiles of the Turks. Layard
+was certainly resourceful, and anything more amusing than the way he
+set out to hunt wild boar with picks and shovels would be difficult
+to imagine. The raft was pushed out into the stream, and for a few
+hours the hunters floated slowly along, landing some distance from
+the mound and spending the night with a party of Arabs.
+
+Early next morning Layard set off with six Arabs for the mound, and
+began collecting the fragments of brick he saw lying about. The
+collecting of these trifles was soon discarded for a more important
+task which centred round a piece of alabaster sticking out of the
+soil. The Arabs tugged at it, Layard tried to drag it out, and as it
+remained immovable, he set his men to dig it up. In a few hours, many
+plain slabs of alabaster were laid bare, and Layard knew he was on
+the track of the lost civilization of Assyria.
+
+He possessed a peculiar genius for the task he had undertaken,
+while his insight in selecting spots for his operations was almost
+uncanny. Where Botta dug and found nothing, Layard dug later and laid
+bare the most remarkable sculptures. As he looked at the hills of
+desolation, he imagined the palaces as they must have been in their
+glory, and reasoned where the walls must have stood. Sometimes he was
+wrong, but more often he was right.
+
+The Governor of Mosul, thinking the Englishman was digging for gold
+and silver treasure, tried to stop his work. Sinister rumours spread
+through the bazaars that the stranger was interfering with the graves
+of their forefathers, and trying to release all the evil spirits that
+were chained up in the mounds. The temper of the population grew very
+ugly. Superstition was everywhere rife.
+
+Layard told the Pasha the truth, and that gentleman, sympathizing
+with him to his face, put all sorts of obstacles in his way behind
+his back. The worst of the matter was that Layard had no permission
+to dig. Until he obtained authority he knew he would meet with
+opposition from the local officials. So he sent an urgent letter to
+Sir Stratford Canning, urging the Ambassador to obtain an order that
+would smooth away the opposition of the people in power in Mosul.
+Luckily the Ambassador eventually succeeded in getting an order from
+the Porte, giving permission to excavate and to ship any sculptures
+discovered. To that order, and to Layard’s own indomitable will, we
+owe our wonderful gallery of Assyrian sculptures now in the British
+Museum.
+
+The sullen murmurs of the mob reached Layard’s ears, and he rode into
+Mosul. “You are disturbing their dead,” he was told. “It will be
+wiser for you to stop before they get out of hand.”
+
+Crossing the rickety bridge of boats, Layard rode along the bank back
+to Nimroud. With him were some irregular soldiers, to see that he did
+not dig any more. He dared not deliberately run counter to the wishes
+of the Pasha, and was not anxious to risk an outbreak of the mob.
+
+He talked to the Arab in charge of the soldiers to such good purpose
+that the man’s tongue wagged a little more than the Pasha imagined
+was possible. It revealed an amusing conspiracy which the Pasha had
+hatched to stop further excavations. It was a trick worthy of the
+East. The Turkish soldiers actually dug graves in the dark, in order
+to point them out by day as having been violated. “We have destroyed
+more real tombs of true Believers in making sham ones, than you could
+have defiled between the Zab and Selamiyah. We have killed our horses
+and ourselves carrying those accursed stones,” the leader confessed
+to Layard.
+
+Layard quickly hit on a simple plan of winning the soldiers over.
+He employed a few to guard the sculptures he had already uncovered,
+and the rest turned a blind eye to him if he happened to be digging
+instead of copying inscriptions, as he was supposed to do! The
+trifling sums he gave the soldiers for their nominal services were
+indeed well spent.
+
+All the time Layard was digging he ran continual risk of being raided
+by the Arabs. He was compelled to organize defences, and more than
+one pitched battle took place between the hostile Arabs and those who
+guarded the mound of Nimroud. Often the excavator had to call his
+diggers out of the trenches to beat off marauders who coveted the
+belongings of the stranger within their gates.
+
+It was extraordinary the way Layard followed the workings of the
+Oriental mind. In this direction he had a unique gift, and with such
+tact and judgment did he treat those with whom he came into contact,
+that his reputation soon spread abroad among the Arab tribes. Many
+of the chiefs held him in high esteem, and were dominated by his
+personality. In those days Layard exercised as much power among
+the Arabs, and went among them as freely, as did Colonel Lawrence
+during the Great War. He possessed a determination and intuition that
+carried him through everything. He lived with the Arabs, and liked
+them.
+
+At his behest great slabs all carved with sculptures and inscribed
+with cuneiform characters saw the light of day once more, after
+lying beneath the soil for three thousand years. There were quaint
+figures, beautifully carved with the bodies of men and the heads
+of birds, while wings were attached to the shoulders. These were
+the ancient gods of the Assyrians. Winged lions were found partly
+destroyed by the fire which had raged over the palace. Great carvings
+of campaigns were found in a similar state.
+
+One day, as he was riding towards the mound on his return from Mosul,
+some Arabs galloped up to him like madmen.
+
+“Hasten, O Bey! hasten to the diggers, for they have found Nimrod
+himself. Wallah, it is wonderful, but it is true. We have seen him
+with our eyes. There is no God but God!” they cried, and turning
+their horses they pounded away to the black tents of their tribe.
+
+When Layard got to the trench he saw something concealed by Arab
+cloaks and baskets. The diggers tore the coverings off as he
+approached, and Layard beheld the giant head of a sculptured figure
+buried up to the neck in the soil. It was a human head, nearly as
+tall as a man, and belonging to one of those fine human-headed winged
+bulls now in the British Museum.
+
+One Arab was so terrified of the monster that he dropped his basket
+and ran madly to Mosul. He babbled the most alarming tales of the
+terror that the stranger was releasing from the earth, and the
+rumours quickly spread through the bazaars. People for miles around
+rushed to the scene to gaze on the idol of the infidels.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British Museum_
+
+ONE OF THE COLOSSAL, HUMAN-HEADED, WINGED FIGURES, TWICE AS TALL AS
+A MAN, WHICH SIR A. H. LAYARD DUG OUT OF THE MOUNDS ON THE TIGRIS,
+AND WHICH REVEAL THE HIGH CIVILIZATION TO WHICH THE ANCIENT ASSYRIANS
+ATTAINED. IT IS COVERED WITH AN INSCRIPTION IN CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS,
+AND A NOTABLE FEATURE IS THE FIVE LEGS]
+
+The diggers were delighted at the discovery, and under Layard’s
+direction they managed to uncover the top of another head a dozen
+feet away. The men worked in a half frenzy, digging away and running
+to and fro with the baskets of rubbish like mad creatures.
+
+To celebrate the find, Layard gave a great feast. Sheep were killed,
+musicians made music. Figures whirled hither and thither in the
+flicker of the campfires, dancing wildly over the desert in front of
+the goat-hair tents, shouting and leaping until far into the night.
+
+If by a miracle the clock could have been put back twenty-five
+centuries, the simple tents would have changed to noble palaces and
+the feasting Arabs into Assyrian courtiers, with King Sennacherib
+drinking out of a golden goblet! As it was, the Arabs were stamping
+the past under their feet.
+
+Wonder after wonder was laid bare by the picks of Layard’s diggers.
+He found three palaces, all of different ages, some of which had been
+built with slabs of alabaster taken from earlier edifices. It was
+plain that the latest had been destroyed by fire, the vengeful fire
+which led to the final obliteration of Assyrian civilization.
+
+In the days of their glory the palaces were magnificent, standing
+on massive platforms about 20 feet high, built of sun-dried bricks,
+with fine wide terraces and sculptured halls. The Tigris flowed by
+the walls, and mighty winged lions and bulls guarded the entrances.
+The ancient sculptors who carved these figures were no mean artists.
+Their art was highly developed, and their skill in carrying out the
+details and ornamentation quite remarkable. They had arrived at a
+better idea of perspective than the Egyptians, and their figures were
+more lifelike, especially the animals, the muscles of which were
+carved very faithfully.
+
+The irrigation works engineered by the ancient Babylonians and
+Assyrians were more wonderful than those carried out in Egypt. The
+deserts of Mesopotamia were intersected with an intricate network of
+canals. The rivers Tigris and Euphrates were dammed at intervals, to
+hold back the waters and direct them into the canals, feeding the
+fertile lands of the country round about. The banks of the rivers
+and canals were tended with scrupulous care, and heavy fines were
+inflicted on those who were responsible if the banks gave way.
+
+Mesopotamia in those days was the finest granary in the world. Here
+was the Garden of Eden, the fairest, most fruitful land under the
+sun, where, according to the Bible, the story of Man began, the land
+of the rivers of which the Bible says: “And the fourth river is the
+Euphrates.” Here Adam and Eve wandered in the Land of Plenty, until
+they were cast out for eating of the Tree of Knowledge.
+
+Now the smiling land is a waste. When Layard found these relics of a
+glorious past, the descendants of those who builded and carved were
+wanderers over the face of the desert, nomads, barely civilized,
+living in mud huts and tents. The difference between the past and
+present of Mesopotamia is stupendous, almost incredible.
+
+Before Layard started digging at Nimroud, relics of Assyria
+practically did not exist. All that were known might have been
+carried about comfortably in a kit-bag. In a short two years he
+crowded discovery on discovery. The past was revealed at his touch as
+if by magic.
+
+Even the Arabs realized the wonder of it. “God is great! God is
+great!” exclaimed an aged sheik to Layard. “Here are stones which
+have been buried ever since the time of the holy Noah—peace be with
+him. Perhaps they were underground before the Deluge. I have lived
+on these lands for years. My father, and the father of my father,
+pitched their tents here before me; but they never heard of these
+figures. For twelve hundred years have the true believers been
+settled in this country, and none of them ever heard of a palace
+underground. Neither did they who went before them. But lo! here
+comes a Frank, from many days’ journey off, and he walks up to the
+very place and he takes a stick, and makes a line here, and makes a
+line there. ‘Here,’ says he, ‘is the palace; there,’ says he, ‘is the
+gate;’ and he shows us what has been all our lives beneath our feet,
+without our having known anything about it. Wonderful! Wonderful! Is
+it by books? Is it by magic? Is it by your prophets that you have
+learnt these things? Speak, O Bey! Tell us the Secret of Wisdom.”
+
+The passing of the years has not diminished the wonder. All the time
+Layard carried his life in his hand. He took risks no native of
+the country would face. Once he was hunting a wolf, when his horse
+slipped and threw him right on top of the animal he was hunting.
+Layard picked himself up, by which time the startled wolf had made
+off. Often he rode boldly into the tents of unfriendly Arabs, and
+came out unharmed. With his imperious words he brought insolent
+chiefs to heel, made them feel the strength of his personality, and
+sometimes the strength of his arm.
+
+He lived a strenuous life, slaving on far into the dreadful heat of
+summer, erecting a bower of branches beside the river to sleep in.
+The ruins were infested with scorpions, yet he escaped their sting.
+He was not so lucky with the mosquitoes. Nothing alive could escape
+these winged pests. He had attack after attack of malaria. Often he
+was so stricken with fever that he found it impossible to work at
+all. In spite of all these drawbacks and difficulties, he triumphed.
+
+Once when he was investigating the ruins of Babylon, a Turkish
+governor presented him with an unruly lion! Another time he was
+travelling over the desert under the escort of an Arab chief, when a
+thief stole two of his horses. Taking the blame on himself, the chief
+vowed solemnly to recover the animals, no matter how long it took,
+even if it meant going to the ends of the earth. Layard parted from
+the chief at the end of his journey, and gave no further thought to
+the incident. For six weeks the chief relentlessly tracked the stolen
+horses from place to place, and one day he quietly rode into Layard’s
+encampment and left the two horses for their owner. Without waiting
+for thanks, he rode swiftly away.
+
+Extraordinary results were achieved by Layard with the little
+money at his command. Certainly his scale of wages would not now
+be considered very extravagant. He paid his diggers sixpence a
+day; those who filled the baskets fourpence a day, the labourers
+threepence, and the boys twopence. It seems little enough, but the
+tent-dwellers had no rent, rates or taxes to pay, and in those days
+they could buy 240 lb. of corn for two shillings. To many of them,
+living on the border line of starvation, a settled wage of two or
+three shillings a week meant affluence.
+
+Layard himself had a host of duties to perform, not least of which
+were sketching the sculptures as they were revealed and making
+immediate copies of all inscriptions found. Such work had to be done
+at once for fear the stone crumbled to pieces, for much of it only
+lasted a short time after being uncovered.
+
+At Kouyunjik he found the palace of Sennacherib, buried 30 feet
+deep under an accumulation of debris and soil, so deep, in fact,
+that it was quite impossible to open trenches from the top, owing
+to the prodigious quantities of soil to be removed. Layard met this
+difficulty by driving tunnels, and the whole mound was in time
+honeycombed with his gloomy passages. Occasionally a shaft was opened
+to the top to let in light, and the faint glimmer that filtered down
+lit up the most astounding sculptures ever seen by human eyes. Thus
+was Nineveh found lying in its grave, so overwhelmed that Layard had
+to mine a way into it.
+
+Once Layard gained enormous prestige among the Arabs, by telling
+them that the sun would be eclipsed, and the day grow dark. Sure
+enough the sun began to grow dim, and the Arabs, who thought that
+devils had caught hold of the planet, took up all the pots and pans
+they possessed, and nearly knocked the bottoms out of them in their
+endeavours to frighten the evil spirits away!
+
+The removal of the sculptures from the ruins and their safe
+transport to England, was not the least of the many problems that
+Layard had to solve. The river Tigris was the only highway to the
+sea, and as it was too shallow to allow steamers to steam up to
+Mosul, it was necessary to build rafts to float the sculptures down
+to Basra, where they could be transhipped to the vessels that were
+to take them to England. It needed a deal of persuasion to induce a
+native to build a raft big enough to support the weighty lion and
+the bull. The raft was eventually constructed and supported by six
+hundred sheep and goat skins, every one of which had to be blown up
+by the mouth of the raftsman and tied securely. It was a task which
+must have severely tested the lungs and temper of the blower.
+
+Layard made his plans carefully. As no timber was available, a man
+was sent high up the river to cut down mulberry trees to make a
+rude cart for transporting the bull and lion to the river edge. The
+trees were floated down the Tigris, and four solid wooden wheels
+a foot thick were cut out of the trunks and bound with iron. Big
+beams formed the body of the cart, and when it was ready half the
+population of Mosul crowded to see the buffaloes drag it over the
+bridge of boats spanning the river.
+
+The bull was buried 20 feet deep in the earth. Layard had no tackle
+for lifting a weight of fifty tons, so his diggers cut a sloping
+road from the statue to the edge of the mound, paving it with planks
+of wood. The bull, which stood upright, was to be lowered on its side
+to a frame of strong planks. The ropes were placed round the bull,
+and over a mighty rock some distance away. Scores of men slowly paid
+out the ropes, while the bull canted over on its side. The statue was
+about 5 feet from the ground, when all the ropes broke, the men fell
+backwards in a heap, and the bull descended with a crash.
+
+Layard rushed down from his post expecting to find it shattered, but
+it proved to be quite uninjured by its fall. Then the men began to
+haul the bull over rollers to the edge of the mound. The noise made
+by the onlookers was deafening. They danced and shouted and behaved
+like mad people. Gradually the bull was pulled up the incline until
+it stood just above the cart, which had been placed in an excavation
+to bring it on a level with the end of the road. The earth was dug
+away from under the bull, and it slowly settled in the cart.
+
+That was the beginning of a few strenuous days full of troubles. The
+buffaloes, upon being harnessed up, refused to pull. Cracking whips
+and the shouts of Arabs alike failed to have any effect, so at last
+they were taken out, and three hundred natives caught hold of the
+ropes and began to drag the cart to the river. The road had been
+carefully surveyed to make sure that there were no secret holes in
+which the villagers were wont to store their corn, but unluckily one
+was overlooked. A perverse fate directed the cart straight to it, and
+before any one realized what was happening a wheel suddenly sank into
+the covered hole, nearly capsizing the rough cart.
+
+Spades and timbers were brought to the spot, and the natives dug and
+hauled with all their might, but it was night before the cart was
+extricated. The next day saw the long lines of Arabs straining at the
+cart once more, and this time progress was stopped by a bed of soft
+sand in which the wheels sank. Not until the third day was the great
+bull brought down to the water’s edge.
+
+Here it remained until the melting snows on the Kurdish mountains
+made the river rise, and when there was a sufficient depth of water
+to float the bull down to Basra, the final task was undertaken. A
+slipway of poplar beams was first of all built from the bull to the
+top of the raft. This was thoroughly greased, just as the slipways
+are greased when a battleship is launched, and down this slipway
+Layard began to lower the bull. For a moment he thought all his
+carefully laid plans were to end in disaster. The natives hung on
+to the ropes in their attempt to check the descent of the bull. It
+was too much for them. Getting out of hand, the bull dropped with a
+thud on to the raft. The raft gave a terrific lurch, but luckily it
+withstood the impact, and all was well.
+
+Before the bull was embarked, Layard was faced with the prospect of
+being defeated by the marauding Arabs. He ordered all the felts and
+ropes and other materials to be brought down to Nimroud on a raft,
+but the raft, owing to its late start from Mosul, was unable to reach
+the mound before dark, so the Arabs in charge tied up to the bank to
+pass the night. In the middle of the night a raiding party swarmed
+down on them and stripped the raft of everything.
+
+Layard was quickly stirred to action. Directly he discovered who the
+culprits were he galloped off to their camp, and in the very face of
+the hostile tribe seized the sheik and carried him off. Under the
+lash of Layard’s tongue that worthy soon repented, and ordered all
+the missing articles to be returned.
+
+On another occasion a sudden flood swept away many Arabs, and
+sent one of his rafts of sculptures swirling through a break in
+the bank into the swamps, from which they were rescued with the
+utmost difficulty. Even in those days lightning strikes were not
+unknown, for Layard contended with one on the part of his Arabs. His
+sculptures were all waiting to be placed aboard the raft, when the
+Arabs, who knew he dare not miss the spring floods, told him they
+were moving camp, thinking to induce him to give them more money for
+the work. Layard bade them good-bye, and galloped off into the desert
+to get helpers from another tribe. When the strikers came back,
+finding their bluff of no avail, they were already superseded.
+
+It is rather a striking commentary on the progress that has been made
+in three thousand years, to know that Layard’s methods in removing
+the bulls were almost identical with those of the ancient Assyrians
+who placed them in position. One of the sculptured slabs uncovered by
+Layard at Kouyunjik, furnished full particulars of how the ancients
+tackled the difficulty of moving such masses.
+
+The original huge block was brought from the quarry in the hills on
+rafts supported by skins, just as the bull was sent down to Basra.
+It was dragged ashore by bands of slaves, and the sculptor carved
+the block into the form of the man-headed winged bull, giving the
+statue five legs, as was the general practice in Assyria, so that
+four might be seen from the side and two from the front. The bull was
+then placed on a sledge, something like that used by the Egyptians
+for moving similar masses, and dragged and levered along, the lever
+used being a great pole to which ropes were attached for men to throw
+their weight upon. A sloping road was built up to the place where the
+bulls were to stand, and up this the statues were gradually hauled
+and pushed. The man directing the operations of the army of workmen
+is clearly shown, though whether he is signalling by blowing on a
+trumpet, or shouting through the first megaphone ever invented, is
+an open question. He appears to be using a trumpet, but for aught we
+know it might have been something to magnify the voice.
+
+There were carved ivories, Egyptian cartouches, sculptured sphinxes,
+to link Babylon and Assyria with ancient Egypt, to show that
+intercourse existed between the two peoples, just as the monuments
+of Egypt indicated. Three thousand years ago letters written in
+cuneiform characters on clay tablets were regularly passing to and
+fro between the two countries. Apparently at that time the cuneiform
+characters could be read equally well by Egyptians and Babylonians
+and Assyrians, as is proved by the Tell el Amarna tablets discovered
+in Egypt. Some of the clay letters of those days are very similar
+to puppy biscuits in colour, shape and size; others might easily be
+mistaken for oblong tablets of toilet soap.
+
+Whether the civilization of Egypt and that of Mesopotamia developed
+simultaneously independent of each other is a question that is
+still unsettled. The general opinion is that the beginnings of
+all civilization are to be found in Mesopotamia, but men who have
+spent their lives studying ancient Egypt give precedence to the
+civilization of the Nile. These are things which may never be solved.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British Museum_
+
+THIS CLAY SPELLING BOOK OF BABYLON WAS THE FORERUNNER OF THE MODERN
+SPELLING BOOK]
+
+[Illustration: IN OLDEN DAYS LEGAL DOCUMENTS WERE GRAVED IN STONE
+AND WRITTEN IN CLAY. THIS CLAY TABLET WITH ITS QUAINT CUNEIFORM
+CHARACTERS IS A DEED RECORDING THE SALE OF A PIECE OF LAND]
+
+[Illustration: MODERN ENVELOPES FOR LETTERS WERE ANTICIPATED BY THIS
+RARE BABYLONIAN ENVELOPE OF CLAY WHICH ENCLOSED THE DEED]
+
+The evidence seems to indicate that the original inhabitants of
+Babylonia were the Sumerians, who were already possessed of a fair
+culture. They were able to read and write, and their writing, in
+archaic cuneiform characters, was the writing out of which the
+Babylonian cuneiform characters in the course of time developed.
+Later variants of it were the Persian and the Median cuneiform, which
+were carved by order of Darius on the rock at Behistun.
+
+A peaceful, pastoral people, the Sumerians lived by agriculture and
+not by war, and they were swamped by invading Semites, who adopted
+the culture of the Sumerians they had conquered. The conquerors made
+Babylon the first city of the world. The same people left their
+impress on Egypt, and their characteristics—dark eyes, big lips and
+hook noses—are well preserved for us in the sculptures of Assyria.
+
+The power of Babylon waxed and waned. The Assyrians, seizing their
+opportunity, threw off their bondage, and, sweeping across country,
+conquered the walled city of mighty Babylon itself. Sennacherib razed
+the city to the ground. For a time Nineveh blossomed as the first
+city of the East. Then came the Babylonians with fire and sword, and
+utterly destroyed Assyria and its civilization.
+
+There are few more remarkable romances than that of the young
+lawyer, who went out to the East to practise law, and dug up Babylon
+and Assyria instead; or of the young English soldier, who wrested the
+secret of an unknown writing from the rock at Behistun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Since Layard dug up the vanished cities of Nineveh and Calah on the
+banks of the Tigris three-quarters of a century ago, many gifted men
+have followed in his footsteps, and wielded pick and shovel among the
+mounds dotting Mesopotamia. No one coming upon the utter desolation
+of Abu Shahrein could imagine that this great mound of sand, with
+the ruined brick tower peeping out at the top, was some six thousand
+years ago the flourishing port of Eridu.
+
+Eridu to-day is a dead city, buried under a sea of sand, yet
+this desolation marks, so far as we know, the very beginnings of
+civilization in Mesopotamia. Here it was that the Sumerians rose out
+of the dim past, with a culture that was far higher than that of many
+nations still peopling the world. They wrote on clay tablets, and had
+their code of laws, and traded by ship with distant places.
+
+For long it was thought that Eridu in that far-off time must have
+stood upon the seashore. The evidence that it was a port, and that
+ships discharged their cargoes at the quays of the city, is beyond
+all dispute. Yet to-day Eridu stands inland over a hundred miles—the
+seashore is a long journey from the one-time seaport.
+
+Men of science strove to solve the seeming contradiction of a seaport
+so far inland. They studied the question very carefully. Measurements
+were taken as to the amount of silt deposited by the Euphrates and
+the Tigris at their deltas, and it was proved that in the last six
+thousand years the area of land at the mouths of the rivers has been
+very considerably extended, indicating that the ancient seashore
+has receded inland. The only uncertainty was whether the rivers had
+created a new belt of land over 90 miles wide since the Sumerians
+lived their peaceful lives at Eridu of old. It was thought that the
+rivers must have accomplished this feat, and it came to be accepted
+as the explanation of why Eridu is now so far away from the coast.
+
+But there is another explanation, and the correct one. The Sumerians
+were the people who taught the Babylonians the art of making canals.
+In the days of the Sumerians a system of canals spread over the
+country to irrigate the land, and we now know that the Babylonians
+and Assyrians obtained their knowledge of irrigation from the
+Sumerians, for the latter were highly capable engineers.
+
+The site of Eridu, about 20 miles from the Euphrates, stands on the
+edge of a big depression in the desert. The skill of the Sumerians
+in building canals is beyond question, and herein lies the answer
+to the puzzle of an inland seaport. The big sandy depression sixty
+centuries ago was a lake, and the outlet from the lake was by canal
+to the Euphrates, and so to the sea. Eridu of old was merely the
+forerunner of Manchester of to-day, and the ancient people solved
+the problem of bringing the galleys to their very doors, in the same
+way that the people of Manchester solved the problem of bringing
+the steamers into the heart of their city six thousand years later.
+Solomon spoke truly when he said that under the sun there is nothing
+new.
+
+Mr. Campbell Thomson, who has done fine work in Mesopotamia during
+the past few years on behalf of the British Museum, was the man who
+solved the mystery of ancient Eridu, and definitely proved that it
+never stood on the seashore. His Arabs were digging there, to throw
+some light on the vexed question of the past, when they came across
+quantities of shells, just as the kitchen middens of Denmark are
+marked by the shells of the fish the ancient peoples ate. The shells
+at Eridu were similarly the sole remains of repasts eaten seventy or
+eighty centuries ago, perhaps longer.
+
+The average man would shovel such debris aside, and take no further
+notice of it, but Campbell Thomson knew only too well the importance
+of trifles in reconstituting the past. He put specimens of the
+shells aside, and brought them to England with his other finds.
+
+These shells were submitted to an expert, who was asked to identify
+them. The expert found that the shells were those of fresh-water
+mussels.
+
+Instantly all the theories of those who asserted that the city once
+stood on the seashore were refuted. If Eridu actually stood on the
+seashore, the mussels eaten by these primitive inhabitants would have
+been salt-water fish. As the shells found were those of fresh-water
+fish, they revealed that Eridu stood on a lake, which the Sumerians
+undoubtedly connected up by canal with the Euphrates. In this way did
+a simple thing like a mussel shell reveal another long-lost secret.
+
+About four thousand years ago Eridu was deserted by man, and the
+encroaching sands have gradually silted up the canal and lake. The
+fact that human beings ceased to live there so long ago might be
+considered a disadvantage to those exploring the spot, but actually
+it has proved a tremendous advantage. Human beings have a habit of
+destroying the remains of those who go before them. They knock down
+former habitations and rebuild, using previous materials, until all
+traces of former peoples are lost.
+
+At Eridu, Campbell Thomson set his diggers to cut through the layers
+of the mound, until they came to the bottom layer of sand, which had
+never been disturbed by human hands. He found that men of the Stone
+Age lived here, men who used flints to cultivate the soil in the days
+when the use of metal was unknown. They cut their corn with sickles
+made of clay baked hard, and they were intelligent and clever enough
+to make pottery, although the use of the potter’s wheel was not then
+known. It was a pottery of a fine texture, painted with taste in a
+number of designs. The hands that made it were skilled, and the eyes
+of the potters were true enough to guide their hands aright.
+
+Only a dozen miles across the desert is Ur of the Chaldees, where Mr.
+Taylor, who was British vice-consul at Basra in the days when Layard
+was making a stir, managed to find the remains of the temple of the
+Moon God. Seas of sand have been shifted since on behalf of the
+British Museum, and the mighty walls of the temple are now laid bare,
+while in the background rises the huge mound covering the city.
+
+The luck of digging was never better exemplified than at Ur. A
+Persian and a Babylonian pavement adjoined, and Mr. Woolley, who was
+in charge of the digging operations, states that he was anxious to
+know whether there were any traces of a Babylonian pavement below the
+Persian pavement. He describes how he set his diggers to take up a
+portion of the Persian pavement, and left them wielding their picks
+while he betook himself to another part of the diggings.
+
+In a little while a small Arab boy came rushing up, his black eyes
+aglow with astonishment, words coming breathlessly from his mouth.
+“Come quick, Sahib! Come quick and see what the diggers have found!”
+he cried.
+
+Mr. Woolley wasted no time in returning. Directly he entered the
+ruins he saw an old cloak spread on the floor, and lying upon it
+were gold and silver ornaments, which had lain undiscovered under
+the pavement for twenty-five centuries or more. Giving a few sharp
+orders, he cleared the room of the diggers. Then he undertook further
+operations with his own hands, and brought up beads and bits of gold
+necklaces, with lapis lazuli and other semi-precious stones. But the
+gem of the find was a beautiful gold statuette of a woman.
+
+Quickly he sent out for boxes and packing materials, and he was
+placing the treasure trove in the boxes, when he was still further
+astonished. The Arab in charge of the diggers came up.
+
+“Here, Sahib!” he exclaimed, and began to take more jewels from his
+capacious pockets. “I was afraid to let the men see them, in case
+they murdered me for the treasure,” he added simply.
+
+This discovery of ancient treasure follows another important
+Mesopotamian find, by Dr. Hall, of the British Museum, at Tell el
+Obeid in 1919. Wonderful life-size heads of lions, most cunningly
+modelled in bitumen, were uncovered. The Sumerian artists, striving
+after realism, simulated the fiery eyes and red tongues of the
+animals by imitating them in red jasper. Originally the heads were
+covered with fine copper masks, but the metal became corroded and
+only the grey-green fragments of the masks remain. The heads, now
+among the treasures of the British Museum, are undoubtedly some of
+the finest examples of early Sumerian art in existence.
+
+Richer treasures still may await the spade of the excavator, for the
+deserts of Mesopotamia hide the relics of many nations; traces of
+many a hard-fought battle are swallowed up in the sands. Bits of the
+mighty past peep out of Babylon, great gateways and walls that have
+been uncovered by the hands of strangers, men who speak in divers
+tongues, even as the slaves who toiled to build the Tower of Babel.
+
+No longer is there any uncertainty as to the site of the Tower of
+Babel. Here in Babylon itself was the Tower erected that was to reach
+to Heaven. The power of Babylon went to the building of the enormous
+square tower which, rising terrace on terrace, dominated the plains
+for many miles, a landmark for the whole country-side, and a symbol
+of the Strength of Babylon. Thousands of slaves toiled at making the
+bricks, thousands more expended their energies in the building of the
+gigantic square platforms which gradually rose above the city like a
+series of boxes, each smaller than that below.
+
+A flick of the Finger of Time and the mighty tower toppled, changed
+into a mountain of broken brick and debris. Amid the debris, the
+lower platform of the tower stood firm, to prove to us that Babel
+existed in the days of old.
+
+Here in Babylon Nebuchadnezzar reigned, the city echoed to the tramp
+of his armies as he led them forth to triumph; out on the plains he
+caused the golden image to be set up for his subjects to worship;
+here followed the ordeal by fire of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
+the madness which drove the monarch to eat grass as the beasts of
+the field. Daniel once paced the palaces that stood here in their
+glory, found favour with the king, saw the writing on the wall and
+prophesied the downfall of the city when Belshazzar came to the
+throne. “God has numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Thou art
+weighed in the balance and found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided and
+given to the Medes and Persians,” says the prophet in the Book of
+Daniel. The pages of the Bible whisper to us the history of the world.
+
+Gone is the glory. Only thousands of bricks stamped with the name
+of Nebuchadnezzar remain to call up visions of the pleasure-loving
+Babylonians who were swept away by fire and sword.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E._
+
+THE REMAINS OF MIGHTY BABYLON, WHICH WERE BURIED UNDER THE DRIFT OF
+CENTURIES UNTIL OUR OWN TIME. THE ISHTAR TOWER SEEN TO THE LEFT WAS
+COMPLETELY COVERED WITH DEBRIS BEFORE PROFESSOR KOLDEWEY EXCAVATED IT]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E._
+
+THE RUINS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PALACE IN BABYLON. THE SEEMING CLIFFS
+HERE AND IN THE TOP PHOTOGRAPH SHOW THE MODERN GROUND LEVEL AND
+INDICATE THE ENORMOUS QUANTITIES OF SOIL WHICH THE DIGGERS HAVE
+REMOVED IN ORDER TO UNCOVER THE RUINS]
+
+The clay tablets of Mesopotamia have told us many things since
+Rawlinson stripped them of their secret; they are pages from the
+Book of Mankind. Not the least remarkable discovery we owe to George
+Smith, who, going out to the East on an expedition for the _Daily
+Telegraph_, found among hundreds of the clay books of the ancients an
+account of the Flood. He crowded some fine work into his short life,
+before succumbing at Aleppo in 1876 at the age of thirty-six.
+
+Just across the borders in Persia the French have explored many an
+ancient site in the quest for knowledge. De Morgan, in the remaining
+years of last century, dug down and down at Susa for 80 feet, until
+he came to the virgin soil. Throughout this huge deposit were
+scattered the relics of many civilizations, among them a stone which
+has provided us with a unique record of the time when the Sumerians
+held sway over the land. Inscribed on this stone is the code of laws
+made by Hammurabi, the Sumerian king who reigned about four thousand
+years ago.
+
+Throughout the ages history has been repeating itself. Just as we
+carried off the Rosetta Stone from Egypt as one of the spoils of war,
+so the people of Susa, setting their heel on Babylon, conveyed the
+stone of Hammurabi back in triumph to Susa. Then the sword of the
+Assyrians swept through Susa, and the code of Hammurabi was engulfed
+in the ruins, to await the spade of de Morgan.
+
+The laws of Hammurabi set forth on his stone are good laws, and they
+indicate a people governed justly. The sun god himself is shown
+taking the stylus from the king in order to set down the laws,
+implying that the laws were derived from the god himself.
+
+Instinctively the mind reverts to the vision of Moses coming down
+from the mountain, with the Ten Commandments graven on two tablets of
+stone. It may be that some such stone as that of Hammurabi was itself
+the foundation of the Ten Commandments, that the very code of laws on
+which all Christian morality is based may one day reward some ardent
+excavator. It is impossible to say. What was unknown to us yesterday
+may be revealed to us to-day.
+
+England has cause to be proud of the part played by Britons in
+reading the story of mankind. Young in deciphering hieroglyphics,
+Rawlinson in reading cuneiform, and Professor Sayce in mastering the
+mysterious Armenian writing of Van—now known as Vannic—provide a
+glowing tribute to the intelligence and determination of the British
+race.
+
+Mesopotamia, despite the many things to be found there, has no
+tombs like those of Egypt to yield up the secrets of its lost
+civilizations. The bodies of the dead were mostly burned. Sometimes
+they were buried in two huge jars placed mouth to mouth, at other
+times in a pottery coffin shaped something like a foot-bath, on which
+a stone cover was placed; sites of ancient cemeteries have been
+found, revealing strangely shaped pottery coffins, highly glazed in
+blue.
+
+These things have told the diggers much, but the records written on
+clay bricks and barrel-shaped cylinders found in the temples and
+palaces have yielded more information than has yet been deciphered or
+translated. The ancient peoples used to place baked clay records in a
+special niche in the foundations of their buildings, and these have
+proved invaluable. The same custom persists to this day in our own
+land, for it is a common practice to place coins and other records
+under the foundation stones of modern large buildings of public
+importance.
+
+It may truly be said that Layard gave the impetus to digging in
+the East, that all the men working in those parched lands are the
+disciples of the Englishman who gave up his best years to the science
+he loved. He suffered untold hardships, his life was often in dire
+danger, illness afflicted him, but through it all he went on digging.
+He was subjected to bitter attacks and intrigues, but he countered
+them to perform his lifework. The hardships did not weigh with him,
+the lack of money for carrying on the work was not an insuperable
+handicap, but he was terribly disappointed at the lack of interest
+shown by his countrymen in his discoveries, and by the way his
+priceless relics were damaged during transit. Apparently people
+thought they were so much rubbish, hardly worth the taking away.
+
+He entered politics and gained honours as a diplomat, but his name
+and his fame will ever rest on his wonderful work in digging up
+ancient Assyria out of the deserts of Mesopotamia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Romantic as are the Egyptian discoveries, amazing as the work of
+Layard remains, the discovery of Troy ranks as the most amazing
+and romantic of all. The excavation of Troy is, indeed, an epic,
+interwoven with boyish dreams, the pictures in a book, dire poverty,
+and a gallant struggle for fortune. While Layard’s lifework was
+largely inspired by the _Tales of the Arabian Nights_, Heinrich
+Schliemann, who excavated Troy, found his inspiration in Homer.
+
+When the pastor of the hamlet of Neu Buckow in Mecklenburg Schwerin
+gazed for the first time on his new-born son in 1822, he little knew
+what strange experiences confronted the boy. A year or two passed,
+and the boy grew to love the stories of the Greek heroes of old that
+his father used to pour into his eager ear. Heinrich Schliemann was
+enraptured, transported with delight. To him the stories were real,
+the deeds which Homer sang were true. The gift of a book showing the
+burning of Troy set all doubts at rest in the boy’s mind. He saw
+Troy itself being devoured by flames, the people fleeing for their
+lives.
+
+“I’m going to find Troy,” he said to his little playfellows.
+
+They laughed at him, and he drew aside, rather hurt, unable to
+understand why they did not share his enthusiasm. Then a little girl
+joined him, listened to his tales of Troy and of how he was going to
+set out one day to find it.
+
+“I’ll help you,” she said.
+
+The little boy remembered. Years afterwards he returned to her, but
+she had forgotten and married another.
+
+Desolation came on the home, and the boy was driven to face life in
+a grocer’s shop. For eighteen hours a day he expended his boyish
+strength in the services of the grocer, sweeping out the shop,
+cleaning the windows, doing menial tasks for which he had not the
+slightest inclination. While customers were demanding salt herrings
+of him at the counter, he was dreaming of Helen of Troy, and as he
+patted the butter his thoughts followed the adventures of Ulysses,
+saw him sailing ’twixt Scylla and Charybdis, heard the sirens calling
+to his hero.
+
+It was a desperately hard life for the boy. His spirit rebelled, but
+he could do nothing to escape. He was the creature of circumstance,
+a grocer’s boy who dreamed of Homer while serving a litre of milk.
+Continual contact with customers who were rough, crude, uneducated,
+gradually drove from his mind the little Latin and learning of
+earlier days. Loving knowledge, he yet had no time to acquire it.
+What opportunity was there for a boy to learn while working eighteen
+hours a day?
+
+Schliemann was one of the shop slaves of last century. His life was
+sheer drudgery all the time, just drudgery and a few hours of sleep
+for the exhausted frame; no pleasure, no holidays, only work.
+
+Through all his misery sometimes flashed the memories of the happy
+days when his father used to delight him with the tales of Greek
+heroes. Somehow, in spite of everything, he retained a glimmer of
+hope, although he could see no way out of his environment. From dawn
+to long after dark he was selling food for the body and craving food
+for the mind. That childish picture of the burning of Troy was as
+a beacon to him, often nearly overwhelmed, but always flickering
+up again in his imagination. Buried deep down in him was still the
+determination to find Troy.
+
+It was growing dusk one day when a drunken miller lurched into the
+shop, and suddenly began to recite in Greek some passages from Homer.
+Schliemann was transfixed with amazement. The meaning of the words
+was lost to him, but the beauty of the lines, their music, entered
+his soul.
+
+“Say it again,” he said eagerly to the miller.
+
+The miller repeated the passages, and Schliemann, feeling in his
+pocket for coppers, bought a glass of spirits to reward the drunkard.
+
+“Again,” said Schliemann, and gave the man another glass of spirits
+to induce him to repeat the lines.
+
+Even then the grocer’s boy was not satisfied. He fumbled in his
+pocket and produced his last coppers, the only wealth he owned in
+the world, and with them bought a third glass of spirits so that he
+might hear the lines from Homer once more. Imagine the tragedy of
+it, a grocer’s boy giving everything he possessed just to hear a
+drunken miller—the son of a clergyman—recite Homer to him in Greek.
+One clergyman’s son a grocer, weeping because he loved Homer and
+could not speak Greek, the other clergyman’s son drinking to drown
+his misery because he knew Greek and Homer, and was condemned to be a
+miller.
+
+Bitter tears flowed down the boy’s face. He hungered for learning,
+but his intellect was starved. Every night, utterly wearied with the
+day’s work, he went down on his knees beside his bed, and prayed to
+God that he might live to learn Greek. To the poor grocer’s boy, life
+could hold no greater boon.
+
+What at the time seemed his crowning misfortune proved in the end to
+be his way of escape. Straining one day to lift a big cask, a sharp
+fit of coughing brought his exertions to a sudden end. There was
+blood on his lips and despair in his heart. Work in the shop was no
+longer possible.
+
+The lad knew not what to do. Ill, without money, he drifted to
+Hamburg. No one would employ him in his weak state, and at last
+in desperation he shipped as a cabin boy in a vessel bound for
+Venezuela. A storm brought the ship to disaster, and for hours the
+crew faced death in an open boat before being cast on the Dutch coast.
+
+The darkest days in Schliemann’s life followed, days when he was
+compelled to beg to keep body and soul together. A poorly paid
+situation in an office revived hope in the breast of the shipwrecked
+lad. Renting a garret at eighteenpence a week, he nearly starved
+himself in order to buy books for study. Less than a shilling a day
+sufficed to pay his rent and keep him alive.
+
+No longer could his hunger for education be denied. Always he had
+a book with him, every minute found him studying. If he waited in
+a shop, out would come his book from his pocket; had he to walk on
+an errand down the street, then he walked with an open book in his
+hand. In six months he learned English; during the next six months he
+mastered French.
+
+He was mad to learn. His whole soul craved for knowledge. All
+the unknown powers of his undeveloped brain began to awaken.
+He possessed a genius for learning languages which was almost
+unparalleled. With every language he learned, the next came easier.
+In the following six months he mastered Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish
+and Italian. His memory, which previously was bad, became remarkably
+retentive, as is proved by this wonderful feat.
+
+He did not stop to rest. His thoughts turned to Russian, and
+his method of learning it was not without a touch of humour. A
+better-paid post provided money to pay a teacher, so he scoured
+the city on his quest. He hunted here, there and everywhere. In
+all Amsterdam was not a single teacher of Russian, not a soul who
+understood a word of the language.
+
+Schliemann, thrown back on himself, unearthed an old Russian grammar
+and dictionary and began to study the language alone. In less than
+a week he learned the alphabet, and soon he was writing simple
+exercises in Russian. Somehow his progress did not please him, he
+felt the monotony of working alone. To lessen this monotony he hit on
+the plan of hiring some one to listen to his Russian recitations for
+the sum of sixpence a night. Every evening he declaimed in Russian
+to the listener. The listener, understanding not a word, sat and was
+shouted at by Schliemann.
+
+As the listener was paid to listen, he could not object. It was
+otherwise, however, with Schliemann’s landlords. They were not paid
+to listen, and they objected strongly to the noise their lodger made,
+so strongly that he was asked to find other lodgings because of the
+annoyance he created. If the landlords thought to stop his studies
+in this way, they were mistaken. Twice Schliemann was driven to new
+lodgings, but he calmly continued his studies, and in six weeks was
+writing letters in Russian.
+
+By the time he was twenty-four, this amazing young man was sent on
+business to Russia, and within a year he was starting in business
+there for himself, fully determined to make a fortune so that he
+could travel and realize the dreams of his childhood.
+
+The remarkable thing is that the man who revered Greece and
+everything Greek should spend his energies in learning so many other
+tongues to the exclusion of the language of his beloved Homer. The
+truth is that he, who had the gift of languages, was afraid to learn
+Greek. He dared not trust himself to begin. The desire implanted
+by the befuddled miller had grown stronger with the years, and
+Schliemann, knowing the potent spell the language cast over him,
+feared that once he began to study Greek, he would neglect his
+business altogether, and never make the fortune which was to set him
+free to wander in the land of Homer.
+
+He threw himself into his business just as he had thrown himself
+into his studies, and for years all his energies were concentrated
+to one end, that of making money. Once, when Memel was burned down,
+he gave himself up as ruined. His fortune was locked up in a cargo
+of indigo at the docks, and all the dock warehouses were a smoking
+mass. Hours later he learned that as the stone warehouses were choked
+so full of goods, his indigo had been stored in a wooden shed some
+distance away, and the direction of the wind had saved the shed. It
+was an ill wind for Memel, but it trebled Schliemann’s fortune.
+
+In ten short years his industry and exceptional ability, coupled with
+the Crimean War, brought him the fortune he had planned. He, a young
+man of thirty-five, was free to order his life as he chose. He gave
+himself up wholeheartedly to learning the tongue of his Greek heroes,
+and in six weeks Greek was no longer an unknown language to him.
+Within three months he was reading his beloved Homer in the original
+tongue.
+
+Schliemann, who had the phenomenal ability to learn a language in six
+weeks, wandered far over the world, acquiring languages as souvenirs
+of the lands he visited, just as modern travellers pick up souvenirs
+in shops. But in the end his travels brought him to Greece.
+
+Where other people regarded the songs of Homer as mere legends,
+Schliemann never doubted their basic truth. While many wondered
+whether Troy ever existed at all, Schliemann in his innermost heart
+knew that Troy had been a real city. The wonderful work of Layard
+fired his imagination, and gradually the idea formed in his mind that
+if Layard had succeeded in digging up the lost city of Nineveh he
+himself might find Troy with a spade.
+
+In 1870, filled with the knowledge of years of study, he came to the
+desolate Hill of Hissarlik standing on the Plain of Troy, a short
+distance from the Dardanelles. He climbed the hill, feeling sure that
+beneath his feet were buried the remains of the city of his heroes.
+Scholars laughed at his enthusiasm, ridiculed the idea that Hissarlik
+could possibly have been Troy. If Troy ever existed, the one thing
+certain, they averred, was that it could not possibly have been at
+Hissarlik. To most people Troy was merely a myth, a city of the gods
+created by Homer himself.
+
+Countering the ridicule with cold logic, Schliemann decided to set
+all doubts at rest by the test of excavation. For £300 he bought the
+greater part of the site from the Turkish owners and, after many
+vexatious delays, began digging into the side of the mighty hill in
+1871. He was desperately keen to clear up the mystery of Troy. He set
+his labourers to work, cutting the secret out of the heart of the
+hill. Men, at Schliemann’s bidding, began to run away with the hill
+of Hissarlik in wheelbarrows.
+
+Schliemann’s energy was remarkable, his driving force irresistible.
+From dawn till dark he was on the site. His wife, a Greek lady, was
+as enthusiastic as her husband, so enthusiastic, indeed, that she and
+her maid took picks and spades and dug trenches and made discoveries
+for themselves.
+
+So long as Schliemann was eating into the hill, he was happy. His
+greatest enemies were feast days and rainy days, for in wet weather
+it was impossible to work, and on feast days the Greeks positively
+refused to work—a cart-load of money would not win a day’s labour
+from them. So on these days Schliemann sat down and wrote up his
+discoveries.
+
+He laid bare great walls, and as his diggers burrowed into the hill
+they found others immediately below the first, the lower walls buried
+in soil and rubbish. Schliemann was amazed. The Hill of Hissarlik was
+the most wonderful hill in the world. All the history of thousands of
+years was concentrated on this one spot, heaped up there by the hands
+of men long dead.
+
+The deeper he dug, the more he marvelled. Here was city heaped on
+city, civilization on civilization. The city of one people had been
+overwhelmed and covered with debris, then on top of the buried city
+another people had erected their own dwellings, probably not
+knowing nor caring what lay under their feet. So it went on here for
+centuries, for thousands of years, back into the past to the Greeks,
+to the Trojans, to an earlier race linked with Crete.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British School at Athens_
+
+A GENERAL VIEW OF THE RUINS OF TROY, SHOWING THE REMARKABLE EXTENT OF
+SCHLIEMANN’S EXCAVATIONS AND DISCOVERIES. THESE ANCIENT TROJAN WALLS
+WERE COMPLETELY COVERED UNTIL SCHLIEMANN DUG THEM OUT AND LAID BARE
+THE LONG-LOST SITE OF THE FAMOUS CITY.]
+
+The original hill increased in size with the centuries. As the
+cities were overwhelmed, so the hill grew until in places it was 50
+feet higher than the virgin soil on which the first dwellings were
+founded. As the height increased, so did the length and breadth. Foot
+by foot the debris of vanished peoples accumulated on the hill, foot
+by foot the rubbish fell, until in one direction Schliemann found the
+hill 250 feet longer than it had originally been, while in another
+place he found that 150 feet had been added!
+
+And in all this mountain of debris Schliemann came across relics,
+hundreds of them, thousands of them, walls and pieces of pottery and
+stone battleaxes, with copper nails used by ladies as hair-pins. His
+industry was astounding. He marked the depth at which everything
+was found, paid rewards to the finders. If a piece of pottery
+with an inscription turned up, the man who turned it up received
+additional pay. The diggers, anxious to make all they could, were
+more interested in the money than in the work. Some tried to deceive
+him by scratching inscriptions on bits of pottery. A magnifying glass
+soon laid the frauds bare, and the finders, instead of getting extra
+pay, were fined for their deceit. The old diggers soon realized that
+it was useless to attempt to deceive Schliemann in this way, and new
+diggers were not long in learning the same lesson.
+
+The hill was like an anthill, men scurrying about with wheelbarrows,
+men digging away. At times Schliemann had one hundred and fifty
+labourers at work, with horses and carts. Once his men were striving
+to lever down a mighty wall of earth which long resisted their utmost
+efforts. No sooner was it down than another wall collapsed without
+warning on some of the diggers. Schliemann saw the catastrophe with
+horror. He rushed down and began to dig with all his strength, while
+the cries and groans of the buried men fell on his ears. Fortunately
+the timbers shoring up the work slipped in such a way that they kept
+the weight off the imprisoned men, who were eventually dug out little
+the worse for their premature burial.
+
+Not without reason did Homer call Ilium the “windy place,” as
+Schliemann realized when he experienced to the full the awful blasts
+that swept over the plain. Sometimes the temperature dropped suddenly
+and the wind came through their wooden houses and nearly froze
+them to death. The only way it was possible to keep warm on these
+occasions was to go into a sheltered trench and work at the face of
+the hill.
+
+Hundreds of thousands of tons of debris were shifted in driving a
+great road like a railway cutting with huge sloping embankments
+through the hill. In one trench Schliemann fought his way through two
+walls 10 feet thick, and in a little while came to two more walls 6
+and 8 feet thick. Mighty blocks of stone had to be wrenched out and
+broken up before they could be carted away. The Greeks, coveting this
+stone for building purposes, quickly carted it away, but they were
+too indolent to assist Schliemann in breaking it up.
+
+Just as a lady cuts into a cake of many layers, so he cut into the
+Hill of Hissarlik, and instead of finding one city he found seven,
+built one on top of another, with layers of burned ashes and debris
+between to mark the calamities which had wiped them out. In some
+places the ashes were from 5 to 10 feet thick, irrefutable proof of
+the way fire and sword had played about this desolate hill throughout
+the ages. He found his city of Troy at a depth of about 30 feet, the
+city which flourished three thousand years ago before the Greeks took
+it by subterfuge. He laid bare the ancient gate, and while cutting
+a trench through a wall near the gate, his delighted eyes caught
+their first glimpse of the great Trojan treasure, golden cups and
+jugs and silver goblets, some of the gold cups weighing a pound, with
+silver cups twice as heavy. Here were necklaces and other jewels all
+hurriedly thrust into a hole in the town wall as if some one were
+fleeing with the treasure when he was overwhelmed.
+
+Quickly Schliemann sent his men to breakfast before they knew of the
+discovery, and very carefully he cut out the treasure from the debris
+with his knife, giving it to his wife, who, concealing it beneath her
+cloak, hurried with it to their little wooden house on the hill. At
+any moment the great wall above him might have collapsed and killed
+him, but he was too excited to heed the risk.
+
+For three years Schliemann dug into the Hill of Hissarlik, finding
+ruined temples, laying bare castles and towers and city walls. When
+he published his discoveries, a storm of criticism arose among men of
+science. They laughed him to scorn, refused to believe him, to accept
+his evidence. They considered that he was utterly wrong, that his
+enthusiasm for Homer had led him astray and betrayed him into error.
+
+The storm of controversy raged on while Schliemann went to Mycenæ and
+dug up an even more wonderful treasure than that of Troy, finding the
+bodies of ancient kings buried in golden masks and with golden armour
+about them. It was a dazzling discovery of the wealth of the Mycenæan
+age, and Schliemann proved that his interests were purely scientific
+by presenting it all to the museum at Athens.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British School at Athens_
+
+THE CIRCLE OF GRAVES AT MYCENÆ, WHERE SCHLIEMANN FOUND THE ANCIENT
+KINGS ALL BURIED IN GOLDEN ARMOUR AND MASKS. IT WAS THE MOST
+WONDERFUL TREASURE TROVE EVER DISCOVERED]
+
+Not until the great English statesman, William Ewart Gladstone,
+arose and championed Schliemann, did men of science begin to realize
+that they were wrong and Schliemann was right. Thus the poor German
+grocer boy, who had listened with tears in his eyes to a drunken
+miller reciting passages from Homer, lived to lay bare the city of
+his dreams with a spade. Working in direct opposition to the opinions
+of science, he dug up the city of Troy in the very place where he
+knew it must be, and where scientists said it could not possibly have
+stood.
+
+The discovery of Troy was the triumph of Schliemann’s faith and
+genius.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Science, which began by doubting, finished by honouring Schliemann
+for his remarkable discoveries. Multitudes had gazed on the desolate
+Hill of Hissarlik, the Turks had long quarried it for stones for new
+buildings, but none except Schliemann suspected the wonders that lay
+concealed beneath the great mound. Even he was puzzled at first to
+read all the records aright, but gradually the evidence was sifted
+out and the story was made plainer. In all, Schliemann recovered
+from the site a hundred thousand relics, every one of which was
+photographed, drawn and catalogued with the depth at which it was
+found.
+
+The peculiar thing was that Schliemann learned, as those who have
+worked in Egypt have also discovered, that the deeper he dug and
+the farther he went back, the more artistic did the pottery become;
+that the potter’s art decayed through the later ages until it was
+quite crude. Some of the wonderful golden cups he found, weighing
+upwards of a pound, were beaten into shape by the goldsmith, others
+were actually cast gold. He was pleasantly surprised one day when,
+knocking down a great thick piece of what he imagined to be fused
+copper wire, the wire broke apart and the silver and golden bracelets
+of which it was composed fell on the floor, some of them melted
+together by the heat of a mighty fire.
+
+He found weights made of burnt clay, with seals of similar material,
+and quaint objects of pottery on which were inscriptions in an
+unknown writing. There were Egyptian and Assyrian relics, with relics
+of Crete, and a fine sculpture of Apollo driving the horses of the
+Sun, which pointed to the remarkable uprising of art in Greece,
+when Greek sculptors produced the most beautiful statues the world
+has ever seen, works which modern sculptors acknowledge as the
+masterpieces of all time. The building of the Parthenon at Athens in
+the time of Phidias, two thousand four hundred years ago, saw Greek
+art at the height of its glory, with artists doing finer work than
+has ever been done before or since.
+
+The glory of Greece faded, but the Parthenon still lifted its noble
+columns to the skies and withstood the ravages of time. Loving
+hands designed it, skilled fingers shaped the stones, modelled the
+exquisite statues that decorated it. That which man had builded so
+wonderfully, those who were blind to beauty wantonly destroyed. Time
+and weather caressed the marbles, but the hand of man sought their
+destruction.
+
+About the time that the Rosetta Stone was brought to light at Fort
+St. Julian to reveal the mystery of hieroglyphics, Lord Elgin, the
+British Ambassador to Constantinople, made up his mind to try to save
+a few of the priceless fragments scattering the Acropolis at Athens.
+For years the Turks had been using the Parthenon as a quarry, carting
+off the stones and building them into their houses. The vandalism
+of the Turks was almost incredible. They ripped out the stones of
+the most glorious building the world has ever seen and built them
+into their forts; they fired their guns at the sculptures in a fury
+of sheer destruction. They broke off arms and legs and gave them
+to passing travellers. Anything and everything they could do to
+obliterate the glory of ancient Greece was done.
+
+Lord Elgin, knowing how much had vanished within living memory, knew
+that in a few years little would be left, for the Turks delighted in
+destroying those things which the Christian infidels came so far to
+see. He treated with the Turkish authorities, he even went so far as
+to gain the ear of the Sultan’s mother, and in the end he was granted
+an order to dig and remove any stones and sculptures which he desired.
+
+A staff of artists went to Athens on behalf of Lord Elgin to sketch
+the ruins on the Acropolis. Athens, however, was a long way from
+Constantinople, and the power of the Porte diminished as the
+distance from the capital increased. The local officials, reading
+the order in their own way, would only let the artists enter the
+Acropolis upon payment of £5 a day. For the greater part of a year
+Lord Elgin paid this exaction without demur. Money was nothing to him
+so long as he saved these beautiful relics of the past.
+
+Over four hundred men were employed in collecting what was to be
+saved of the fragments which, shattered and smashed, were still
+of unique beauty. They dug among the gigantic heaps of ruins for
+remains of marbles. Scaffolding was erected to take down some of the
+matchless figures in the frieze. Stones were taken out of the forts
+and replaced with less valuable stones.
+
+A rumour that some marbles had been built into a Turkish house
+reached Lord Elgin’s ears, and at once he sent to Constantinople for
+special permission to pull down the house. After much delay and a
+great deal of trouble, coupled with the expenditure of a considerable
+sum in bribes, the permission was granted. Lord Elgin set his men
+to work, and stone by stone the house was pulled down. No trace of
+marbles could be found.
+
+Not until the house was entirely destroyed did the one-time owner
+calmly stroll up to the ruins and announce that all the marbles
+had been ground down to make mortar for his dwelling. It seems
+incredible, yet it is literally true that the greatest works of
+art ever created by man were pulverized to make cement for a
+workman’s house. The incident was but one of a series of such acts
+of vandalism. On another occasion a Turk, getting at some of the
+statues, smilingly knocked the head off one of the figures and
+deliberately smashed it to bits because the people, whom he called
+Christian dogs, admired it.
+
+The fragments of sculptures that remained were gathered up by loving
+hands and packed into cases. But there was much delay before they
+reached England. Lord Elgin, owing to our war with France, became
+a prisoner in Paris, and the cases containing the sculptures lay
+neglected in Malta and other places.
+
+Some of the Elgin marbles which now grace the British Museum were
+for a period at the bottom of the sea. The _Mentor_, on which they
+were shipped, was wrecked at Cerigo in the Grecian Archipelago, and
+went down in 60 feet of water. For three years a fight was waged to
+rescue these treasures from the sea-bed, and only after considerable
+difficulty were all the cases eventually recovered by divers.
+
+While the art world acclaimed Lord Elgin for having saved some of
+the most beautiful statues in the world, the Government looked upon
+him askance. He spent a fortune of about £80,000 in acquiring the
+wonderful collection, and it was questioned whether the sculptures
+were really his private property. Directly he gave the State the
+opportunity of acquiring them on behalf of the public, the Government
+began to haggle about the price as though the sculptures were an
+everyday article of commerce such as tea or sugar. A Commission was
+appointed to go into the matter and many people were examined, giving
+the impression that Lord Elgin, in expending his private fortune
+to rescue the priceless sculptures of Phidias from the destroying
+hands of the Turks, had committed some grave crime. Famous sculptors
+like John Flaxman, R.A., and Joseph Nollekins, R.A., went before the
+Commission and spoke enthusiastically about the beauty of the ancient
+marbles that had once graced the Parthenon; artists like Sir Thomas
+Lawrence sang their praises; the President of the Royal Academy said
+the marbles were incomparable.
+
+All the time the question of value kept cropping up. “How much do you
+think they are worth?” the artists were asked. The artists did not
+know. How could they say? It was impossible for them to fix a price
+on beautiful things they considered priceless.
+
+But it was not impossible for the Government. The value of the Elgin
+Marbles was set down at £35,000. The wonderful sculptures which
+many American millionaires to-day would pay anything to obtain
+were valued then at £35,000. The nation owes much to Lord Elgin for
+acquiring from the ruins of Athens these matchless relics of the
+time when Athens was the first city of the world and Greek art was
+blooming in all its beauty.
+
+Lord Elgin rescued the glories of Greece that were still visible,
+but Schliemann nearly three quarters of a century later had the
+extraordinary insight and genius to delve into the dim past before
+Greece was, before Troy was a nation, back to the misty beginnings of
+that ancient race whose writings even now we are unable to read.
+
+The puzzling characters inscribed on the pottery dug up by Schliemann
+gave him the clue where to look for the earliest traces of that race.
+With rare judgment, amounting to genius, he pointed to Knossos, in
+Crete, as the seat from which the Mediterranean civilization sprang.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British School at Athens_
+
+THE PICTURESQUE CAMP OF A DIGGER IN THE ISLAND OF CRETE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+On the map of the world, Great Britain is small. That men should go
+forth from this little island and win their way in so many distant
+lands, that this island people should wield such power over the
+earth, that they should venture into the unknown places and bring
+vast areas under the dominion of England, seems incredible. If we
+were not aware that this is the literal truth, we should find it hard
+to believe, we might even feel inclined to doubt it. The fact that
+the mighty British Empire has all sprung from this little island in
+the North Sea is one of the most astounding things in the world.
+
+In olden times it was thought that all the world centred round the
+Mediterranean Sea, that the earth consisted only of those lands
+bordering the Mediterranean. In bygone days, long before the dawn of
+history, it is possible that Crete dominated the known world of that
+day just as the Island of Great Britain dominates the world of our
+own day.
+
+The British Empire is tangible proof of what one little island
+can do. There is no reason why Crete should not have done the
+same in the past, why that little island set in the vivid blue of
+the Mediterranean should not have influenced all the lands on the
+Mediterranean shore. We do not know. We cannot say. We have learned
+much, but more remains to be unravelled from the tangled skein that
+Time has woven in Crete.
+
+As already mentioned, Schliemann, bringing all the knowledge he
+had gained in his amazing excavations at Troy, at Mycenæ and other
+places, to bear on the subject of the origin of the Mediterranean
+civilization, placed his finger on Knossos as the centre whence it
+sprang. His uncanny instinct was once more right. He wandered about
+the lonely places of Crete, still with faith in the Homer who led
+him to discover Troy, feeling sure that at Knossos he would find the
+fabled palace of King Minos, but death prevented him from making the
+biggest discovery of all.
+
+The work that the German excavator left undone was taken up by Sir
+Arthur Evans. Unfolding his tent on the barren site of Knossos, Sir
+Arthur Evans set his diggers to work. They dug diligently, scanning
+every spadeful of earth for traces of man. They excavated a yard of
+soil, 6 feet, 10 feet, wielding pick and shovel, carrying the debris
+away in baskets. They found many things, broken jars, decorated
+pottery, but most important of all were the clay tablets inscribed
+with the puzzling writing of the Minoans.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British School at Athens_
+
+A GENERAL VIEW OF THE RUINS OF THE PALACE OE KNOSSOS IN CRETE,
+WHERE SIR ARTHUR EVANS HAS DISCOVERED A NEW AND HIGHLY DEVELOPED
+CIVILIZATION, WITH A WRITING WHICH CANNOT YET BE READ]
+
+Still they went on, getting deeper and deeper, until the pick of a
+digger struck a paving stone. They shovelled the rubbish away and
+disclosed another stone, then another. At last Sir Arthur Evans had
+reached the stone pavement of a palace.
+
+Excavations were continued, and gradually the throne-room of the
+Palace of Knossos was bared once more to human eyes, after lying
+under the debris for countless generations. Here were the stone
+seats arranged round the walls for the councillors, here was the
+throne on which sat the king who laid tributary on all the lands
+about the Mediterranean, a stone throne, hollowed in the seat to give
+comfort, with a stone back carved in a series of six curves rising
+to a half-circle at the top, the solid block comprising the seat
+carved at the front to indicate legs. Here in this ancient palace he
+held audiences, sent his messengers forth in their galleys to claim
+tribute at Athens, issued his decrees.
+
+“Go,” he said, and they went.
+
+And when after feasting he desired amusement and relaxation, he
+would beckon his henchman. “Fetch me maidens to dance and sing,” he
+would say, and there would be the sound of twanging strings and the
+pitter-patter of little naked feet on the stone floor, feet with
+toes pink as rosebuds, lithe limbs, flowing draperies.
+
+And the king, feasting his eyes on the beauty of his dancers, would
+dream of the youths and maidens even then aboard his galleys on their
+way from Athens to Crete, the youths and maidens who were the yearly
+tribute.
+
+The hot sun, beating down on the well-tended vineyards, drew the
+nectar of the earth to the grapes, brushed them with a delicate bloom
+ere they fell beneath the feet of the winepressers to yield the juice
+that made the feasters merry. The blossom of the olive groves was
+succeeded by tiny green olives which swelled in the heat until they
+were ready to yield their rich oil which was so welcome to the people
+of other lands. Artists worked happily on the plaster walls, laying
+on their colours to delight the eye, potters kneaded their clay until
+it was as butter under the ball of the thumb. The people spun and
+sewed and draped their bodies in comely garments. But most of all
+they valued health, realized the necessity for adequate drainage.
+
+Did they become too civilized, these ancient people? Did they grow
+lazy in their luxury, disinclined to work? Who knows! Perhaps it was
+so. At any rate, desolation swept over them and blotted them out,
+just as the cities on the site of Troy were blotted out again and
+again.
+
+We can imagine the galleys of the invaders approaching the rocky
+coasts, the cries of alarm running through the palaces and over the
+island, the invaders springing ashore, fierce, strong, hard, not
+softened by too much civilization, relying on their own strength
+and weapons for sustenance, not upon the tribute exacted from
+other lands. Muscular arms that had thrust the galleys through the
+Mediterranean, dropped the sweeps and caught up weapons as the keels
+grounded. The sea curled about the legs of the invaders as they
+dropped over the prow and swarmed ashore. Fighters, every one, asking
+no quarter, giving none, seeking plunder with the sword, valuing
+other lives not at all and their own but little.
+
+See the women shrinking into the corners of the palaces, eyes full
+of fear, sensing approaching doom; men shouting and gasping, the
+invaders sweeping forward and cutting them down. A semi-barbarous
+people conquering a civilized people, cold iron superseding bronze,
+uncultured men with superior weapons triumphing over culture with
+inferior weapons.
+
+Long, long ago something like this happened in Crete; the palaces
+of the ancient people were toppled about their ears and palaces and
+people vanished into oblivion.
+
+Gaze on another scene thousands of years later. Absolute desolation
+on the hill of Kephala. No sound of music nor pitter-patter of pink
+feet on naked stones, only the song of the breeze; no sign of
+palaces, conquered and conquerors alike swept into the gulf of Time;
+only the same blue sea a mile or two away singing its eternal song on
+the same rocky coast.
+
+Men are swinging picks into the bosom of the earth, making great
+gashes and gaps in the hill, picking over the loosened rubbish,
+throwing it into baskets and carrying it away. An easy movement of
+the arm sends the contents of the basket sliding down the face of the
+dump, and the black-haired labourer turns back for another load.
+
+Suddenly a digger glimpses something amid the heap of rubbish
+loosened by the point of the pick. He stoops like a hawk to its prey
+and brushes aside the soil with his fingers, scrapes carefully about
+the object, and in a minute has it free.
+
+It is merely a piece of yellow pottery with red decorations. Almost
+before the finder has had time to look at the fragment, a man
+scrambles down to him and, taking the fragment, carefully removes all
+traces of soil.
+
+Keen eyes scrutinize the little piece of pottery, and thoughts go
+crowding through the brain. Visions of Egypt leap up, of a similar
+fragment found in a tomb far over the blue sea to the south, past
+the age-old Pyramids and the modern wonder of Assouan. Back and
+back thoughts fly through the ages, back to the earliest kings who
+swayed the earliest communities in the Nile Valley, all because
+of a fragment of burnt earth, bits of pottery, links in the Eternal
+Chain of Time, binding together in some unknown way Egypt and Crete.
+Most of the links are missing, but who knows how and when the pick
+and shovel of the seeker after truth may come across them?
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _By courtesy of the British School at Athens_
+
+ONE OF THE MAGAZINES UNCOVERED BY SIR ARTHUR EVANS AT KNOSSOS IN
+CRETE. THE MIGHTY STORE JARS, BIG ENOUGH TO CONTAIN A MAN, ARE SEEN
+IN THEIR ORIGINAL POSITIONS AND THE SIDE OF THE TRENCH INDICATES HOW
+DEBRIS COMPLETELY COVERED THEM IN THE COURSE OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS]
+
+Once more let us glimpse that hill in Crete. The diggers are
+gesticulating, running about. Carefully they dig and loosen the
+soil about another object. A band of carved stone comes to light;
+it is a curved band, and as they work about it ever so carefully,
+they find it is part of a cylinder buried deep in the earth. They
+work excitedly, removing the earth, digging down until they reveal a
+mighty stone jar, a jar big enough for a man to stand upright in, a
+jar which the ancients used as a store. It is the giant forerunner of
+those tiny canisters to be found in the modern pantry, canisters for
+storing tea and coffee and sugar and rice.
+
+Deeper yet dug Sir Arthur Evans, until he had penetrated to nearly
+twice the depth of the floor of the Palace of Knossos, until he was
+nearly 40 feet below the surface. Here were stone implements, the
+scrapers and knives of the unknown people who first dwelt in this
+island in the Mediterranean. And through all the different strata he
+found relics of man, relics by which it was possible to trace the
+rise of civilization in Crete, from stone to copper, and copper to
+bronze and bronze to iron.
+
+But the biggest find of all are the stones and clay tablets and seals
+with their hieroglyphic and script writing. For years Sir Arthur
+Evans has puzzled over them, tried to solve the mystery of this
+strange writing. The finest scholars of the world have racked their
+brains for the clue to the mystery writing. There is the writing, but
+we cannot read it. The key is lost.
+
+Still the search for it goes on, and some day Sir Arthur Evans will
+surely achieve his crowning triumph and solve the riddle of the
+pictographs and script of Crete. What we may learn then about the
+origins of our own civilization, nobody can foretell. The inscribed
+stones and clay tablets of Crete have yet to yield up their secret.
+
+For years Sir Arthur Evans has laboured in Crete, finding the money
+to move mountains of soil so that light may be thrown on the past.
+Discoveries of the highest importance have followed his excavations,
+for he has proved with pick and spade that here in this little
+island flourished a civilization almost undreamed of till the
+present century, a civilization maybe as old as that of Egypt and
+Mesopotamia, a civilization that flourished at least five thousand
+years ago, that endured for ages before the Phœnicians launched their
+galleys on the Mediterranean.
+
+Perhaps in the years to come the researches of those who are
+working in the desert places will make the origin of these early
+civilizations clearer, and we may be able to assign to each its
+proper place in the Story of Mankind.
+
+
+THE END
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION ***
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+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <title>
+      The Romance of Excavation | Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
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+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The romance of excavation, by David Masters</p>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
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+</div>
+
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The romance of excavation</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>A record of the amazing discoveries in Egypt, Assyria, Troy, Crete, etc.</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: David Masters</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 15, 2023 [eBook #70981]</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
+  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Credits: Bob Taylor, Aaron Adrignola and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION ***</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 85%">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover">
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<h1>THE ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION</h1>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_004" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_004.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">SOME OE THE ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION IS BROUGHT OUT BY THIS BUSY SCENE AT THEBES SHOWING A SMALL ARMY OF
+NATIVES DIGGING AMID THE RUINS OF A TEMPLE</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center no-indent">
+<span class="fs300">THE ROMANCE<br>
+OF EXCAVATION</span><br>
+<br>
+A RECORD OF THE AMAZING<br>
+DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT,<br>
+ASSYRIA, TROY, CRETE, ETC.<br>
+WITH TWENTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS<br>
+<br>
+<span class="fs150">BY DAVID MASTERS</span><br>
+<br>
+<br>
+LONDON<br>
+
+JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITED<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center no-indent">
+<em>First Published in 1923</em><br>
+<br>
+<span class="fs80">MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY MORRISON AND GIBB LTD., EDINBURGH</span><br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center no-indent">
+<br>
+TO<br>
+<br>
+<span class="fs130">A. A.</span><br>
+<br>
+WHO SAVED MY LIFE<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span></p>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOREWORD">FOREWORD</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">Now</span> and again the world is stirred by a
+discovery such as that of the Tomb of
+Tutankhamen by Mr. Howard Carter and
+Lord Carnarvon. In the following pages I have
+sought to reveal some of the romance of excavation,
+to tell the fascinating story of the men who have
+gone out into the desert places and dug up long-lost
+cities and the fabled treasure of ancient kings.
+Brilliant men, who have played their part in unearthing
+the glories of the past, have written many
+volumes on the subject which is nearest their hearts,
+and if, after closing this book, the reader and
+student feel a desire to seek them out, I shall be
+content. In conclusion, I wish to thank Major
+Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E., The British School
+at Athens, and The Trustees of the British Museum,
+for their kindness in allowing me to use various
+illustrations in this volume.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+DAVID MASTERS.<br>
+</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="fs80">1923.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER I</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdr fs60">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Story of the Rosetta Stone—How it was found by
+the French and passed into possession of Great
+Britain—The puzzling picture writing of the ancient
+Egyptians which no one could read—The English
+medical man, Dr. T. Young, who began to tear the
+secret from the Rosetta Stone, and the astounding
+work of François Champollion, who built up the
+first hieroglyphic dictionary</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER II</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Ruins of Egypt—Men who are using their eyes to
+bring back to us the glories of the past—Papyrus, the
+paper of olden times, and how it was made—Bits of
+pottery worth their weight in gold; how they act as
+calendars—The cleverness of native thieves</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER III</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Shifting 70,000 tons of rubble to find the tomb of Tutankhamen—The
+dreadful monotony of digging in vain—A
+lucky decision which led to the discovery of
+Tutankhamen’s dazzling treasure—The genius of
+Professor Flinders Petrie, and his great finds at
+Abydos which the French overlooked—The mystery
+of a Cretan pot</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Signs which tell men where to dig—Egypt’s wonderful
+climate, which preserves things almost for ever—Why
+the Nile was worshipped—The annual floods and how
+they were watched by the people of old—The strange
+adventures of Cleopatra’s Needle—Pagans who
+anticipated Christian teachings</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER V</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Graves which make history—The great age of Egyptian
+civilization—Mud that tells a story—The first king
+of Egypt—The romance of the tombs—The Book of
+the Dead which contains some Christian commandments—The
+sleight of hand of ancient scribes</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Wonders of the Pyramids—The mystery surrounding
+them and a simple explanation—How the Pyramids
+were built—Amazing accuracy of architects who lived
+6000 years ago—The secret entrance found at last by
+thieves—Why the Pyramids were one of the plagues
+of Egypt—The problem of the Great Sphinx—The
+Colossi of Memnon that guard a vanished temple</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Thebes, the one-time capital of Egypt, then and now—Armies
+to transport stones—Handling the gigantic
+obelisks—Controlling the floods thousands of years
+ago—An endless battle of wits between the Pharaohs
+and the tomb robbers—The greatest discovery of
+Royal mummies ever made—Romantic lives of two
+famous men—The appalling desolation of the Valley
+of the Tombs of the Kings</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">A despised statue that realised £10,000—Some American
+discoveries—Finding treasure valued at £3,000,000—How
+chance led Professor Flinders Petrie to a long-lost
+city—His weird adventure with a mummy—The
+tablets of Tell-el-Amarna—Dramatic moments at the
+opening of Tutankhamen’s tomb—The mummy that
+vanished—How relics are preserved—Ancient ladies
+who painted their faces in modern fashion—A marvellous
+knife made of stone</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The mystery of cuneiform writing—A young English
+soldier who solved an age-old puzzle—Rawlinson’s
+work on the Rock at Behistun—Perched on the
+verge of a precipice—His thrilling escape from death—How
+he read the unknown Persian writing that
+revealed the civilizations of Babylonia and Assyria</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER X</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Hills which are buried cities—Romance of Sir Austin
+Henry Layard—The young English lawyer who went
+into the desert and dug up Nineveh of old—The
+Arab who laughed at the men who hunted broken
+bricks, and the remarkable result</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">How Layard, with £60, uncovered a lost civilization—A
+wild boar hunt which was not quite what it seemed—Finding
+the great winged bull—Deserts that were
+once the Garden of Eden—Hardships and adventures
+among the Arabs—Mining a way into Nineveh—Difficulty
+of transporting the mighty Assyrian
+statues—Ancient letters like modern puppy biscuits—The
+clever Sumerian canal builders—Rise and fall of
+Babylon, and the doom of Nineveh</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">A mussel shell which proved that scientists were wrong—The
+forerunner of modern Manchester in the heart
+of ancient Mesopotamia—Finding the treasure of
+the Moon God at Ur—The Tower of Babel—When
+Nebuchadnezzar reigned in Babylon and Daniel saw
+the writing on the wall—The Code of Hammurabi
+and the Ten Commandments</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann—His amazing
+life—The grocer’s boy who wept over Homer, starved
+himself to buy books, and eventually made a fortune
+to carry out his boyish dream of finding the city of
+which Homer sang—How scientists laughed at him—The
+astounding treasure of Troy and the wealth of
+Mycenæ</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Schliemann vindicated and honoured—His 100,000 relics
+from Troy—The Greek sculpture of Apollo—Glories
+of ancient Greece—When Phidias, the world’s greatest
+sculptor, carved the most beautiful statues ever seen—Turks
+who smashed them for sport—Romance
+of the Elgin Marbles—Lord Elgin’s fight for the
+matchless relics</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Did ancient Crete dominate the world like modern
+Britain?—The Mediterranean civilization—Brilliant
+discoveries of Sir Arthur Evans—The Throne Room
+at Knossos—Some Cretan cameos—The problem of
+the unknown writing of Minoa and what we may
+learn from it</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Excavating at Thebes</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_004"><em>Frontispiece</em></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdr fs60">FACING PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Rosetta Stone</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_023">4</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Temple of Karnak</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_033">12</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Tomb of Tutankhamen</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_047">24</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Temple of Luxor</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_051">26</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_063">36</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">A Scene from the Book of the Dead</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_079">50</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Pyramids of Gizeh</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_087">56</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Colossi of Memnon</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_102">69</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">A partly-hewn Obelisk in a Quarry</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_108">73</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Noble Ruins of Philæ</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_114">77</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Thebes</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_127">88</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Two Marvellous Coffins</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_141">100</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Cuneiform Inscriptions at Behistun</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_148">105</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Sculptures of Darius the Great</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_162">117</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Nineveh in Desolation</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_171-2">124</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Excavating at Knossos</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_171-1">124</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">A Winged Lion from an Assyrian Palace</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_183">134</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">A Quaint Spelling Book of Clay</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_197-1">146</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">A Clay Letter and Envelope</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_197-2">146</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Babylon To-day</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_209-1">156</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Ruins of Troy</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_225">170</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Where the Treasure of Mycenæ was found</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_231">174</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">A Digger’s Camp in Crete</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_242">183</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">The Palace of Knossos</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_245">184</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Giant Store Jars of Minoa</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i_252">189</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs150 wsp">THE ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center no-indent fs130">THE</p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs150 wsp">ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION</p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">A scientist</span> stood in the British Museum
+gazing at a piece of rock. Many people
+passed to and fro, but never one halted
+to see what held his attention, never one save a
+little boy, who wondered what the grown-up was
+looking at. Those who glanced in that direction
+merely saw a shattered stone, and passed on unheeding.</p>
+
+<p>Had the fragment of stone been the Cullinan
+diamond or a glowing ruby, everybody would have
+clustered round to gaze at it. As it was neither one
+nor the other, everybody walked on. Yet that
+fragment of stone was, and is, much more wonderful
+than the finest diamond or ruby ever dug out of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>The fragment over which the scientist dreamed
+was the Rosetta Stone. It is merely a piece of
+black basalt 28½ inches wide and 45 inches in length.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span>
+The top left corner has disappeared in the dust of
+centuries, and both corners on the right side have
+been smashed off. The remainder is one of the
+world’s greatest treasures, for it has given us the
+clue to the past, unfolded for us the romance of
+ancient Egypt, and enabled us to glimpse the
+Pharaohs in all their glory.</p>
+
+<p>The Rosetta Stone is divided into three sections,
+each of which is covered with writing cut into the
+surface. The top section is composed of hieroglyphics,
+the curious picture-writing of ancient Egypt,
+the middle section is in the everyday writing of
+the ordinary people of ancient Egypt, known as
+demotic characters, and the bottom section is in
+Greek.</p>
+
+<p>This famous stone has travelled far from its
+original resting-place in the Nile delta, where it
+may have lain for close on two thousand years.
+Had Napoleon not made up his mind to conquer
+Egypt it might never have been recovered. By
+chance, Napoleon managed to escape Nelson, who
+was searching the Mediterranean for him, and
+landed his expedition at Alexandria. Sweeping
+everything before him, Bonaparte soon dominated
+the country and despoiled the conquered people of
+the relics of the past.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nelson, coming back to look for his foe,
+found the French fleet in Aboukir Bay, and swept
+it for ever from the seas. Napoleon was shaken,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span>
+but hid his mortification, and in due course set off
+to invade Syria. Gazah, of Biblical history, fell
+before him, Jaffa was captured, but at Acre another
+British Admiral, Sir Sydney Smith, intervened.
+The French ships sailing along the coast with stores
+for Napoleon’s troops were captured, and the
+British sailor then threw himself heart and soul
+into the defence of the city. Napoleon fought
+desperately for weeks to capture Acre, but the
+Admiral was his match, and the French forces were
+at last compelled to retreat.</p>
+
+<p>About this time a sapper was digging away in
+the ruins of Fort St. Julian when his pick struck
+against a rock. He drove the tool into the soil
+to see if the rock were large or small, and whether
+it would be difficult to remove. He quickly discovered
+that the rock was of no great size, and in
+a few minutes it was lying clear at the bottom of
+the trench.</p>
+
+<p>Glancing idly at the stone, the Frenchman
+noticed it was covered with strange characters.
+The soldier was quite interested in his find, so
+interested that he cleaned the whole surface of
+the strange stone he had unearthed. That the
+characters were some sort of writing was obvious,
+but what it was all about was much more than
+he could tell. Other men might have thrown the
+stone aside and covered it up again, but fortunately
+the finder possessed intelligence and the curious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span>
+stone was added to the rest of the booty collected
+by the French.</p>
+
+<p>That stone, unearthed in 1798, was the piece of
+black basalt which is now to be seen at the British
+Museum in London. It became known as the
+Rosetta Stone because it was found near Rosetta,
+the seaport whence Napoleon eventually fled from
+Egypt, and when the French were defeated it
+passed into our possession as one of the spoils of
+war.</p>
+
+<p>It seems strange that two of the greatest figures
+in history, Nelson and Napoleon, should be connected
+with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.
+Stranger still to think what might have happened
+had the soldier who found the stone smashed it
+to pieces or tossed it out of the way. These
+things might easily have occurred, as they have
+no doubt occurred to many valuable relics in
+bygone times.</p>
+
+<p>Had the Rosetta Stone not come to light, one
+of the vital links with Egypt’s past would have
+been missing. We might still be groping in the
+dark, wondering what all the quaint picture-writing
+of the Egyptians meant, seeking for the clue that
+would tell us. Luckily the man who found the
+stone saw that it was something more than a
+broken piece of rock, and so preserved it for posterity.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_023" style="max-width: 48.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_023.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British Museum</em></p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">THE SHATTERED ROSETTA STONE WHICH PROVIDED THE CLUE TO THE
+PICTURE WRITING OF THE EGYPTIANS</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p>
+
+<p>Many people wondered what all the strange
+signs meant when they first saw the stone. Men of
+science pored over it and racked their brains in
+their efforts to solve the mystery. The Greek
+script was soon translated, and proved to be a
+decree of Ptolemy V, dating about 196 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span></p>
+
+<p>The fact that there were three inscriptions seemed
+to indicate that it was one decree engraved in three
+different forms of writing in order to appeal to as
+many people as possible. But this was by no
+means certain. It might easily have been three
+different decrees, though in such a case no purpose
+could have been served by inscribing them
+all on one stone. It was, therefore, more than
+probable that the three inscriptions were one
+decree, and that the known writing would give
+a clue to the weird pictures to be found in the
+tombs and on the monuments scattered about
+Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>The hieroglyphics were a mystery of the past.
+No one could read them. The strange pictures
+of men and birds and beasts might have been
+merely decorative. They might have had no
+meaning at all, or no more meaning than the
+pictures we place on our walls to decorate our
+houses.</p>
+
+<p>Other signs, however, in combination with the
+pictures, indicated that the hieroglyphics were a
+form of writing. Some people think that this
+picture-writing of the Egyptians is actually the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>
+oldest writing in the world, and that all writings
+must have sprung from it. This idea, however, is
+not quite accurate. A child of three years old
+cannot draw wonderful portraits. Childish drawings
+of a house with four straight lines for the house,
+a door in the centre, and a window on each side of
+the door are well known.</p>
+
+<p>Man in the beginning may be likened to the child,
+and his earliest drawings must have been cruder
+than the childish drawings of our own age, far
+cruder than anything that is preserved for us. The
+first man to scratch a rough line or two on a rock
+was the forefather of Raphael and Michael Angelo
+and Rembrandt, but untold ages elapsed before the
+art of the first primitive artist developed into that
+of these masters.</p>
+
+<p>The Egyptian pictures in the picture-writing are
+cleverly drawn, and indicate true artistic perceptions.
+It must have taken a long time to reach
+the pitch of perfection that is shown. So it seems
+logical to assume that the hieroglyphics were the
+outcome of another form of writing. For years
+there were no proofs that this was the case, but
+it is now definitely established by Professor
+Flinders Petrie that crude signs were used in
+Egypt at a much earlier date than the picture-writing,
+and the extraordinary thing is that some
+of these signs may be traced in the alphabets
+of other countries.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p>
+
+<p>An English medical man, Dr. Young, was the first
+to furnish a clue to the mystery of the Rosetta Stone.
+Happening to take a keen interest in dead languages
+as well as in living people, he saw among the
+hieroglyphics two sets of signs with a line drawn
+round them, and as the name of Ptolemy was twice
+mentioned in the Greek text he reasoned that these
+signs stood for the name of the ruler who made the
+decree. He reasoned correctly, and we learned in
+time that a king’s name was always enclosed in
+a panel, which is now generally known as a
+cartouche.</p>
+
+<p>The deciphering of the king’s name was a happy
+discovery which pointed to the general significance
+of the cartouche in connection with royal names.
+But the deciphering of the rest of the hieroglyphics
+bristled with difficulties. No one knew
+whether the signs stood for sounds, letters, words
+or things.</p>
+
+<p>Egyptians had painted these puzzling pictures,
+but there was not a single man in all Egypt who
+knew what they meant. The oldest Egyptian
+peasant was ignorant on the subject, the most
+learned Egyptian scholar had not the faintest idea
+of their meaning. The Egyptians had forgotten
+how to read the writing of their forefathers. It
+was the writing of a dead age, of a vanished
+civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Young threw himself enthusiastically into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span>
+the task of deciphering the signs. The difficulty
+seemed to add a zest to his search. He pored over
+the copy of the writing on the Rosetta Stone day
+after day. There was absolutely nothing to guide
+him. Everything was sheer deduction at first,
+and then his deductions had to be tested and
+verified.</p>
+
+<p>So difficult was his task that the discovery of a
+single letter was an event. Perhaps by great good
+fortune he would succeed in deciphering two signs
+in a week, then for a month he might study
+the copy until his brain reeled, and decipher
+nothing at all. It was a heart-breaking undertaking.
+On one occasion he announced that he
+had succeeded in translating a certain set of
+hieroglyphics into a word of seven or eight
+letters. It was afterwards proved that he was
+right in only one letter, and that the rest were
+hopelessly wrong.</p>
+
+<p>He began on his project in 1814 and, after
+struggling with it for four years, the sum total of
+his labours amounted to the deciphering of just over
+ninety characters. His discovery thus averaged
+fewer than twenty-five signs a year. It meant
+that he had to concentrate all the power of
+his exceptional brain, and all his knowledge of
+languages, for a whole month to decipher two
+characters. In doing what he did, he accomplished
+an astounding feat. It is impossible to praise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>
+Young too highly for his early work on the
+Rosetta Stone.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time that Young was wrestling with
+hieroglyphics in England, François Champollion
+was trying to solve the puzzle in France. Champollion’s
+interest in hieroglyphics did not spring
+up in a night; it was of slow growth, starting in his
+childhood when Egypt bulked large in the imaginations
+of most French boys owing to the stirring
+deeds of Napoleon against the Mamelukes. By
+the time Champollion was eleven years old, he was
+already taking more than an ordinary boyish
+interest in things Egyptian, and, as the years passed,
+he slowly gathered books and material bearing on
+the subject which he was to make peculiarly his
+own.</p>
+
+<p>He was eager, anxious, to decipher hieroglyphics.
+It was the ambition of his life, the thing for which
+he lived, of which he dreamed. He collected every
+copy of the strange picture-writing that he could
+find in order to study it, in the hope of deciphering
+one more character. He was terribly handicapped
+by the small quantity of material on which he could
+work, and while his brilliant contemporary Young
+lay dying in England, in 1829, Champollion was
+leading an expedition in Egypt, gathering material
+for France.</p>
+
+<p>Champollion found the picture-writing even
+more complex than any one anticipated. A single<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>
+letter might be represented by seven or eight quite
+different signs, and a sign might represent a whole
+word or part of a word. A circle with lines radiating
+from it might represent the sun god, or it might
+stand for the word “day.” A sign which ordinarily
+stood for a letter might represent a god if a dot
+or some other sign came after it.</p>
+
+<p>The Egyptian hieroglyphics were indeed one of
+the greatest puzzles of the ages. The discovery of
+other inscriptions helped to verify Champollion’s
+work, and provide proof that he was deciphering
+the signs accurately. It is, nevertheless, incredible
+that any human being could read even a sign of
+this dead writing correctly. That any one could
+do what Champollion ultimately did is almost a
+miracle. He laboured at his self-appointed task
+with so much courage and determination that he
+eventually succeeded in building up a hieroglyphic
+dictionary—a marvellous feat.</p>
+
+<p>Champollion himself did not long survive Young,
+for he so sapped his strength over his Egyptian
+expedition that he fell ill and died in 1832. He
+was comparatively a young man, only forty-two,
+yet he crowded an enormous amount of work into
+these few years, and it may truly be said that his
+love of Egyptology cost him his life.</p>
+
+<p>By the aid of his dictionary, which grew directly
+out of the finding of the Rosetta Stone, our
+scholars are now able to read without much<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>
+trouble the sacred writings of the ancient Egyptians.
+Thus that fragment of black basalt in the British
+Museum, which is passed unnoticed by so many
+people, is really one of the most interesting stones
+in the world.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">A little</span> over a century ago the past of
+Egypt was concealed from living eyes.
+The Pyramids still stood four-square to
+the sandstorms of the desert as they had stood for
+ages, the Sphinx regarded the Nile with the same
+inscrutable gaze that had puzzled the ancients.
+Throughout Egypt were mighty ruins, but little
+was known about them.</p>
+
+<p>People used to sit astride their asses and jog
+along into the stony places to see the relics. They
+saw merely heaps of stones, buildings grown so old
+that they had toppled to pieces. There were
+broken statues and shattered columns lying in the
+utmost confusion. There were mountains of sand,
+with fragments of masonry protruding. Occasionally,
+amid the shifting sands, a few columns stood
+upright, some so strangely shaped that their like
+was not to be seen elsewhere on earth.</p>
+
+<p>They added to the general mystery of Egypt.
+The natives were poor, utterly incapable of building
+on such a gigantic scale. How, then, did the
+original buildings get there? By whom were they
+erected, and for what purpose?</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_033" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_033.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">THIS PILE OF MIGHTY BLOCKS OF STONE, THROWN DOWN AS IF BY GIANTS IN PLAY, GIVES AN IDEA OF THE MAGNIFICENCE
+AND HUGE SIZE OF SOME OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BUILDINGS. THE PEOPLE GAZING IN WONDER ON THE
+GLORIES OF THE TEMPLE OF KARNAK ARE ALMOST LOST TO SIGHT AMONG THE MASSIVE RUINS</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span></p>
+
+<p>Most people asked many questions, and received
+different answers. The myths of the natives are
+as numerous as the broken monuments, but,
+whereas the broken stones are facts, the myths
+woven round them were often otherwise. Any
+fanciful story that served to win money from the
+traveller was repeated in a variety of ways, and
+any little truth there may have been originally
+was lost in continued repetition.</p>
+
+<p>The ruins, however, could not lie. They said,
+as plainly as stones can speak: “We were fashioned
+by Man in the long ago, and the sun shone on us
+in our glory just as it shines on us in our decay.”</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, all men did not merely look at the
+ruins and pass on their way voicing their amazement.
+Some were so fascinated by what they saw
+that they could not leave it, and these are gradually
+unfolding to us one of the most romantic stories
+in the world, a romance beside which the Decline
+and Fall of the Roman Empire is but a single
+chapter.</p>
+
+<p>The spoils collected in Egypt during the time of
+Napoleon turned the attention of scientists to the
+Nile. Men began to work to see if they could
+unravel the past from the evidence afforded by the
+remains. They began to dig. And, to-day, in the
+arid places of the earth are many men toiling like
+navvies, suffering untold discomforts, living in huts
+and delving in ruins to add to our knowledge of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>
+the past. These are the men who are writing
+history. They are doing it not with a pen, but
+with spade and pick.</p>
+
+<p>People have eyes, yet they see so little. They
+are not trained to see. To most men a rose is
+only a flower, but to the exceptional man it is a
+miracle, for as he gazes at the glorious bloom with
+its many-tinted petals he visualizes the tiny single
+rose—the common dog-rose—from which all roses
+in their wondrous diversity of colour and shape
+and size and perfume have sprung. Many people
+regard the earthworm as an annoyance which disfigures
+the lawn, but Darwin saw in it the lowly
+creature that is helping to keep the earth sweet
+and clean by removing the decaying leaves, a
+blind thing that is continually providing the earth
+with a layer of new soil in which man may plant
+his seeds and harvest his crops. Countless earthworms
+are the servants of men.</p>
+
+<p>The diggers toiling in the heat of the sun in
+Egypt and Mesopotamia and Crete and other places
+are blessed with this keen vision. Without it they
+would be useless. If the Rosetta Stone to them
+were just a broken piece of rock, the romance of
+the past would not appeal to them. They would
+not possess the imagination which drives them
+into the lonely places to find traces of many lost
+civilizations.</p>
+
+<p>When they glimpse a ruin they can close their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>
+eyes and see the men quarrying the stones and the
+masons squaring them and the sculptors carving
+them; they can see kings consulting their architects,
+and architects giving orders to the masons; they
+can see the stone blocks being hauled in place and
+set one upon another. These and many other
+things they can see. They are using their eyes to
+benefit the majority of people, who cannot see these
+things for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately the men who were early interested
+in the past of Egypt had little to guide them, and
+they sought for written records. They were all
+papyri mad. So long as they could find papyri and
+carry them off to their museums they were content.</p>
+
+<p>In the light of our later knowledge we are wont
+to blame them, but there may be some excuse for
+them. The Egyptian papyri are wonderful, quite
+apart from what is written upon them. They are
+the gift of the Nile and of Egypt to the world.
+Almost they might be called the first sheets of
+paper ever made.</p>
+
+<p>Papyrus nearly six thousand years old has already
+been found, and it appears doubtful whether we
+shall ever be able to trace the name of the first man
+who thought of using the stem of the papyrus plant
+in so useful a manner.</p>
+
+<p>It seems likely that the discovery may have been
+due to Egyptian children. If you walk about the
+English country-side when the bulrushes are flourishing,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>
+it is a common sight to see children plucking
+the rushes and skinning them to make flowers out
+of the pith. The papyrus plant flourishes in the
+Nile water, where it roots in the mud just as the
+bulrush roots in the mud of English ponds. It
+often attains a height of 15 feet or more, and the
+green stem of the plant grows straight up without
+any joints from top to bottom.</p>
+
+<p>What children do in one country in one age they
+are likely to do in all countries in all ages. Human
+nature is fairly constant, and rushes growing in a
+river will always attract children. Probably some
+dark-skinned Egyptian children in the misty ages
+picked the skin off the papyrus reeds in order to
+play with the pith, which differs materially from
+that of the English bulrush. In the course of their
+childish games they may have cut the fibrous pith
+into layers and spread them on a rock, just as
+children spread out things to play at shops, whereupon
+the hot sun of Egypt would quickly dry the
+fragments.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the father, interested in the games of his
+children, seized on this curious substance and was
+struck by its fine texture and smooth surface.
+Experimenting for himself out of sheer curiosity,
+he may have cut some strips of pith and joined
+them in a simple manner by pressing the edges
+with his finger while they were still moist with
+sap, thus making the first sheet of papyrus. Whatever<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span>
+its origin, papyrus in time was made by
+cutting the pith into thin strips, placing the strips
+so that one edge overlapped another, and pressing
+them all together. When they dried, the overlapped
+edges adhered, and the result was a continuous
+sheet of white material on which it was
+possible to work with a brush and a reed pen.</p>
+
+<p>The papyrus reed still flourishes in the Upper
+Nile as it did in ancient days. Indeed it has become
+rather a curse to the country, and a few years ago
+it threatened to choke the river completely. It
+was such a menace, owing to its interfering with
+the flow of water on which the whole life of Egypt
+depends, that drastic steps, costing a huge sum of
+money, had to be taken to clear the upper reaches.
+Steamers slowly ate their way into it for hundreds
+of miles, clearing channels and destroying the sudd,
+as it is called, the sudd which is largely composed of
+the papyrus on which the ancients relied for their
+writing materials! Nowadays, the sudd is being
+compressed into blocks and used as fuel, so the
+papyrus is still serving humanity.</p>
+
+<p>As has been said, the early workers who sought
+for knowledge of old Egypt hunted mainly for
+papyri. Manuscripts were of undoubted value in
+throwing light on the past, and while the seekers
+were prepared to recover statues, jewels and similar
+objects, they placed the recovery of manuscripts
+before everything else. The fact that they could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>
+not read the papyri, in those early days when a
+glimmer of interest in Egypt was beginning to
+filter through to the outside world, was no drawback
+to the hunters. The rows of quaint pictures,
+with bird-headed men, the natives with mops of
+black hair, and other queer things, were attractive
+in themselves. They had a value to the collector
+for their strange writing alone. And those early
+collectors realized that, given the manuscripts,
+some brilliant men would manage to read them some
+day, as Young and Champollion actually did.</p>
+
+<p>So those early enthusiasts spent their time
+hunting tombs, digging here, there and everywhere
+in their endeavours to locate something that was
+worth carrying away. When they were successful
+they seized on the mummy cases and eagerly opened
+them to see if any manuscripts were inside with the
+mummy. In their eagerness they overlooked much.
+They searched haphazard. Their knowledge was
+small, and they undoubtedly cast aside many things
+which they looked upon as so much rubbish, trifles
+which to the scientist of to-day would light up the
+past as with a searchlight.</p>
+
+<p>A square inch of broken pottery is not particularly
+noticeable in a mound of rock and sand, and even if
+the eye does light on it the hand is seldom prompted
+to pick it up. But there are men so skilled in their
+knowledge of the pottery of past ages that a fragment
+may serve to link places thousands of miles<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>
+apart, and thrust the history of mankind backward
+into the mists of time for several thousands of
+years.</p>
+
+<p>A brilliant scientist like Professor Flinders Petrie
+is able to deduce the most amazing things from a
+piece of pottery, even if it be but a fragment. To
+him the fragment serves the purpose of a calendar.
+It is as though he were picking up a modern calendar
+on which the year stood boldly out. Of course the
+fragment of pottery does not date quite so exactly
+as that, but it easily falls within a well-defined
+period.</p>
+
+<p>A glance would enable the famous scientist to
+say: “This is seven thousand years old.” And,
+seeing a different fragment, he would know that
+it was a great deal older—perhaps ten thousand
+years old.</p>
+
+<p>How much valuable evidence of this sort has
+been ignorantly destroyed in the past will never
+be known. In the early days of last century, and
+even to within measurable distance of this, men
+were too intent on the big things to pay attention
+to the little things that slipped through their fingers.
+It is the common things that tell us the history of
+a period, the things that people use and wear. If
+we recover these fragments of common things, they
+serve to indicate how the people lived.</p>
+
+<p>Thieves, too, have been responsible for the loss
+of most valuable evidence. The Egyptian natives<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span>
+are born pilferers. They have a natural aptitude
+for causing things to vanish, and when a discovery
+has been made the discoverer has seldom been
+able to preserve his find in its entirety. There have
+been cases where the greater part of a find has
+disappeared in a night, and once it is gone you
+might as well seek to find a particular grain of sand
+in the desert. Statues, vases, jewels, furniture—all
+have been carried off, and the finders have
+wakened to discover that their labour has been
+wasted, and that instead of enriching our knowledge
+of the world they have merely enriched a few native
+thieves.</p>
+
+<p>The natives, too, often seize the opportunity of
+digging in places where they know they will not
+be disturbed. They do not go to the trouble of
+obtaining a permit to dig. The last thing they
+desire to do is to call the attention of the authorities
+to their work, so they run the risk and dig surreptitiously.
+While it is obvious they must waste
+a lot of energy in conducting these illegal searches,
+it is also obvious that they are often rewarded by
+finding objects of value.</p>
+
+<p>The things they find, they smuggle to their huts,
+and in due course sell to some traveller, who places
+them in his private collection, where they are as
+completely lost to sight as if they had never existed.
+Then there are things that the natives stumble on
+accidentally. If their find is not portable, they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>
+may inform the authorities, but if it is easy to
+handle, there is little prospect of their discovery
+becoming known.</p>
+
+<p>No one has the faintest idea how much material
+has been lost in these ways. Its scientific value
+must be incalculable.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">When</span> Professor Flinders Petrie first set
+foot in Egypt he was a young man,
+only twenty-seven years of age. The
+older men of other nations who had spent their
+lives delving in the past smiled at the idea of
+the new-comer bringing about a revolution in the
+work they knew so well. They had done so much
+themselves that there seemed little more for him
+to do. They had found tombs and statues and
+papyri that took them back some five thousand
+years to what they thought was the beginning of
+Egyptian history.</p>
+
+<p>What else was there to discover?</p>
+
+<p>Nobody knew then. Nobody knows now. When
+men start digging up the earth in search of relics
+of the past, it is beyond human foresight to foretell
+what will come to light. Men may dig 50 feet and
+find nothing. They may say there is nothing to be
+found in that particular spot. Another man may
+come along, set up his tent a few yards away, just
+scratch the surface of the soil, and find a buried
+city. This is what lures men to the work; it is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>
+one of the fascinations and provides much of the
+romance.</p>
+
+<p>The wonderful discovery of the tomb of King
+Tutankhamen by Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Howard
+Carter is a notable instance of this sort of thing.
+For years they dug, poured money into the sands
+of the desert, shifting mountains of sand and rock
+in their endeavours to discover something worth
+while. Lord Carnarvon himself stated that they
+had moved about 70,000 tons of rubble during their
+search. They were lucky to be rewarded in the
+end, for millions of tons of rock and sand have
+been dug up in Egypt without yielding to the
+diggers a single article of value.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard Carter was hopeful that something
+might be found in the neighbourhood of the great
+discovery, and the work of excavation was started.
+The diggers wielded their picks week after week
+and shovelled the rubble into the baskets of the
+men who carried it away from the hole that was
+growing in the ground. Daily the hole grew bigger,
+the mound of sand and rock grew larger.</p>
+
+<p>Not a sign of a tomb was discovered. Work was
+continued in the hope that something would turn
+up. They were always hopeful, but the end of
+the day brought nothing to light and it proved so
+much wasted labour.</p>
+
+<p>The quest in the old place was thrown up, and
+the picks of the diggers were directed to a spot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span>
+only a few yards away. There was the same
+monotonous, back-aching work, the same running
+to and fro of the natives with their little
+baskets of rubble. In such circumstances only
+a born optimist could carry on. The pessimist
+would throw up the task in despair at the end
+of two or three days.</p>
+
+<p>Even Mr. Howard Carter began to think that he
+had again drawn a blank; he began to consider
+whether it was time to shut down operations and
+have another try elsewhere. For a day or two his
+thoughts ran in this groove, until he decided to dig
+just one more day, and if nothing turned up then
+to stop it.</p>
+
+<p>Truly a momentous decision. But for it the
+tomb of Tutankhamen would still be undiscovered,
+and the world would yet be in ignorance of the
+marvels that it contained. Before the day’s digging
+was over, the shape of a step gladdened Mr. Carter’s
+eyes, and fully justified his selection of that particular
+spot for his operations. A yard or two
+more to the right or left, and he might have missed
+the tomb. It was a much nearer thing than the
+world imagines.</p>
+
+<p>The accuracy of Mr. Howard Carter in selecting
+his second site is rather amazing. Digging was
+not started there haphazard. The ground had
+been thoroughly gone over and studied, and the
+possibilities summed up before the pick was driven
+into the sand. It was a happy combination of
+expert knowledge and good luck.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_047" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_047.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">THIS PHOTOGRAPH INDICATES THE UTTER DESOLATION OF THE ARID VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS, WHERE
+EVEN A BLADE OF GRASS CANNOT LIVE. THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMEN, GUARDED BY SOLDIERS, IS SHOWN IN THE
+FOREGROUND</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span></p>
+
+<p>It at once became obvious why the tomb had
+remained for so long undiscovered, for just above
+it the last resting-place of Thothmes <span class="allsmcap">III</span> was cut into
+the rock, and all the debris from this later tomb
+had been shot by the builders on top of the earlier
+tomb. This rubbish had completely covered in
+the site of the tomb of Tutankhamen and buried
+it for centuries.</p>
+
+<p>Few men would think of looking immediately
+under one tomb for the site of another. Such a
+place is so unexpected that Mr. Howard Carter
+deserved every credit for selecting so unlikely a spot
+in which to carry on his search.</p>
+
+<p>Every man digging in Egypt has learned something
+from Professor Flinders Petrie. He has a
+keen, analytical brain, and for years before going
+to the Nile valley he brought his acute mind to
+the study of the prehistoric remains to be found in
+Great Britain. Many a day he might have been
+seen within the magic circle of Stonehenge, pondering
+on the origin of the most massive ancient
+monument in England. His work on the prehistoric
+remains in Great Britain was but a
+preliminary to his greater work in the land of
+the Pharaohs.</p>
+
+<p>With the coming of Flinders Petrie, all the old,
+haphazard methods went by the board. What he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>
+sought was evidence, something that would throw
+light on the past, that would help to fix dates.
+The actual intrinsic value of an object was of no
+concern to him. A bead, in his eyes, found in a
+certain place, would be of greater value than a
+nugget of gold. The bead might prove that glass
+was made centuries earlier than men thought,
+whereas the golden nugget might prove nothing
+at all.</p>
+
+<p>Many things slipped through the fingers of the
+earlier seekers. Nothing slipped through his. He
+directed the attention of all to the value of every
+trifling thing that could claim to have been fashioned
+by the hand of man. He introduced scientific
+methods. He noted where everything was found;
+how it was found; the depth at which it was found;
+what was found with it.</p>
+
+<p>He was not out for an easy life. He lived hard,
+pitched his tent on the edge of the eternal desert,
+and at dusk washed the dust out of his eyes and
+nostrils, took his meal by his camp fire, and wrote
+up the notes of his day’s work. He snatched what
+sleep he could, and was up early to get to work
+before the heat of the day became insufferable.
+He wasted no time going to and from the site. He
+slept near by, with the scene of his labours only a
+few yards from his tent pegs.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_051" style="max-width: 43.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_051.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">THE RUINS OF THE TEMPLE WHICH AMENHOTEP BUILT AT LUXOR
+ABOUT 1,450 B.C. THE COLUMNS IN THE DISTANCE ARE UNIQUE,
+BEING FASHIONED IN THE SHAPE OF LOTUS BUDS. THEY INDICATE HOW
+THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS DERIVED MANY OF THEIR ARCHITECTURAL
+FEATURES FROM NATURAL FORMS</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span></p>
+
+<p>Flinders Petrie is one of the outstanding explorers
+of the ruins of Egypt. He started with an innate
+genius for the work, and to this genius he added
+a sound scientific knowledge and an all-round
+mastery of his subject. He used his muscles as
+well as his brain, and he preferred to trust his own
+trained eyes to those of his native diggers.</p>
+
+<p>He went to Egypt with hands that were soft,
+unused to manual labour. He knew how often
+careless workmen have ruined things by striking
+them with their picks, and the first thing he did was
+to make a rule that directly anything peeped out
+of the sand, he would himself uncover the object to
+prevent it being injured.</p>
+
+<p>He began tracing the contours of the things in
+the soil, digging away with his fingers and scratching
+away with his nails, his hands perhaps buried up
+to the wrist in sand. Thus he would clear an object
+a little at a time, so carefully that it could not
+possibly suffer damage.</p>
+
+<p>But his hands were not made for such work.
+Finger-nails of steel and a skin of tanned leather
+were needed to grub about in the sands of the desert.
+No wonder that his fingers became frightfully sore
+and tender, that his nails were almost worn away
+by continual contact with the sand. That was one
+of the minor hardships of such work, a discomfort
+that he treated lightly.</p>
+
+<p>The soreness of his hands did not prevent him
+from using them as digging implements, and in a
+week or two he was having a personal lesson in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>
+evolution. Soft hands were useless to him in such
+a task. So nature quickly readjusted itself to the
+different circumstances and evolved hard hands
+for him, toughened the skin of the palms and
+back and tempered the finger-nails until he could
+rummage about all day in the sand with absolute
+impunity, running no more risk of injuring
+his fingers than if he were actually wearing thick
+leather gloves.</p>
+
+<p>When he turned his attention to Abydos in
+Southern Egypt, he found a Frenchman had been
+granted the privilege of exploring the spot.
+Amelineau was installed at Abydos. He had dug
+away for four years, finding tombs and exploring
+them, and adding a little to the sum total of the
+knowledge of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>The Egyptian Government gave Amelineau a
+five years’ concession, and at the end of the fourth
+year’s work he surveyed the site. He went over it,
+looked at the mountains of rubbish his diggers had
+shifted, summed up his discoveries, and at last
+concluded that it was useless digging there any
+longer. He decided that he had explored the
+place thoroughly, and had found all that existed
+there.</p>
+
+<p>Not one man in a thousand would have thought
+it worth while to look for anything at Abydos after
+that. Apparently the field had been thoroughly
+explored and worked out. But Flinders Petrie<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>
+happened to be the one man who thought otherwise.
+While he respected the opinion of the Frenchman,
+he yet felt that here was a field for further investigation,
+that Abydos had not yielded up all its
+secrets to the previous seekers.</p>
+
+<p>So he set his diggers to work. He went over the
+ground systematically, digging away, picking over
+and casting aside the debris. His sharp eyes
+detected things to which previous eyes had been
+blind. He found pots that were not turned on the
+potter’s wheel, pots made before the potter’s wheel
+had been invented. These pots were shaped solely
+by hand, fashioned from the bottom upward, and
+they were almost as true in form as if they had
+been turned on a wheel.</p>
+
+<p>He was hot on the scent, turning back the wheels
+of time. He found the hitherto unknown names
+of four of the ancient kings of Egypt, the first men
+who could lay claim to rule the tribes, the men
+who figure before the first Dynasty. He was
+pushing civilization back, and yet farther back.
+Whereas others set the limit of the civilization
+of Egypt as five thousand years, he added another
+fifty centuries to it, doubled the life of the civilization
+that flourished and decayed and flourished
+and decayed many times in the valley of the
+Nile.</p>
+
+<p>Came a day when his eyes lit up at the
+unusual in a piece of pottery, not that it was so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>
+wondrously beautiful, but because the markings
+on it linked it up with Crete far away to the north
+in the middle of the Mediterranean, proving that
+intercourse existed between the two peoples in
+those dim ages.</p>
+
+<p>The native diggers cast casual glances at the
+jar. They were not particularly interested. To
+them it was merely an ordinary piece of pottery.</p>
+
+<p>If that same piece of earthenware were placed
+in a china shop in London to-day with the rest
+of the oddments of china, and marked at five shillings,
+no one would trouble to buy it, unless by
+chance he possessed expert knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>It seems remarkable that this piece of pottery,
+so fragile that a moderate blow would shatter it,
+should have survived for all these thousands of
+years. The ancient potter who shaped the soft
+clay and baked it until it was hard was indeed
+working for posterity. He little knew, as the jar
+grew under his nimble fingers, how many centuries
+would elapse and find it still as perfect as when
+he took it from the fire; nor could he guess
+how much his little jar, which he moulded so
+cunningly, would tell to the brilliant man who
+found it.</p>
+
+<p>Fate ordained that his handiwork should be
+buried in a grave, and there remain in absolute
+security until the centuries brought the right man
+along to unearth it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was but a Cretan pot in an Egyptian grave,
+but that little pot for a time made scholars wonder
+whether the civilization of Egypt was founded on
+a far older civilization which came from Crete, the
+little island in the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">The</span> men who are digging history out of
+the earth with pick and shovel rely upon
+something more than chance to obtain
+their results. The general idea of a man casually
+strolling out into the desert, and uncovering a city
+which has never been heard of, has little relation
+to the facts. It would be just as reasonable to start
+fishing for Japanese pearls in the middle of the
+Atlantic Ocean, as to start blindly digging through
+the sands of Egypt in the hope that something
+would turn up.</p>
+
+<p>Ancient monuments, papyri and wall-paintings,
+even the legends of the country, are carefully
+considered with a view to finding a clue to the
+past. The sites of the ancient tombs and palaces
+and cities have gradually been located, and the
+explorers naturally select a spot which holds out
+some prospect of success. They generally have a
+definite object in view when they start their search.
+For instance, Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Howard
+Carter were hoping to find another tomb when
+they came across that of Tutankhamen. When<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>
+Maspero made his discovery of so many of the
+Pharaohs about forty years ago, the mummy of
+Tutankhamen was missing, and there was accordingly
+the possibility that some diligent man might
+eventually unearth it.</p>
+
+<p>For forty years the search went on. Other
+tombs were found, but that of Tutankhamen
+still eluded discovery, until the autumn of 1922.
+The digger always has hopes of finding a certain
+thing, but as often as not he comes across something
+else.</p>
+
+<p>Before a pick is stuck into the ground, the digger
+will spend several days on the spot, going over it
+carefully, and noting any irregularities. Long
+experience teaches him many things. What the
+ordinary man cannot see, even when it is pointed
+out to him, may be quite plain to the trained eye.
+A slight depression may indicate to the expert
+the site of a buried building, a tiny bank may tell
+him where the sand of the desert has blown against
+a wall and gradually accumulated until the wall
+is covered beneath the drift. It is invisible, but
+there is the slight slope to prove that the sand
+has been heaped against something, to show that
+its path has been stayed by some object. These
+are some of the things which help the experts
+to select the spot on which to dig. The man who
+prospects for gold knows what signs to look for,
+and the scientist prospecting for relics of past<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>
+ages is equally proficient in reading the signs.
+The gold prospector digs a hole, and washes the
+contents to find a colour of gold; the seeker for
+relics prospects by digging a trench to see if he
+can find a bit of brick or stone showing traces of
+man’s handiwork.</p>
+
+<p>Egypt happens to be a particularly happy
+hunting-ground, inasmuch as it not only possessed
+an extremely ancient civilization, but
+also enjoys a wonderful climate, which preserves
+the relics of the past. The sun is always shining,
+and rain falls so seldom that things are preserved
+almost indefinitely from damp and mildew where
+in other countries they are destroyed in a few
+years.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient cities of Egypt were founded on the
+banks of the Nile, just as are the modern cities.
+Away from the river, life is insupportable. It has
+often been said that the Nile is Egypt, and Egypt
+is the Nile. This is true, for the cultivable land of
+Egypt above the Delta is just a green strip a mile
+or two wide on each side of the river all along its
+course. On the margin is the encroaching desert,
+which only the waters of the Nile prevent from
+overwhelming the land. Where the waters of the
+Nile flow into the little irrigation canals and feed
+the fields, there abundant crops of cotton, sugar-cane,
+and other things are raised. Beyond, are the
+arid hills, and the cruel sands where the rock in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>
+summer becomes so hot that it is possible to bake
+bread by the heat of the sun.</p>
+
+<p>The people living in lands that are blessed with
+an adequate rainfall can have no conception of
+what the Nile means to Egypt. The drought
+which occasionally affects our own country brings
+home to us the importance of rain to the land. Our
+whole country-side soon begins to complain about
+lack of water. Wells begin to run dry. Water has
+even to be carried to some villages by train.</p>
+
+<p>A traveller spent a night at an old inn on the
+Sussex downs, and found an inch of chalk sediment
+at the bottom of his small jug of shaving water in
+the morning. Crops which should have been
+4 feet high had struggled up only a few inches.
+There was no moisture to help them to develop.
+Fields of heavy land were all ploughed up, but
+before the farmer could harrow them and prepare
+a fine tilth for the seeds, the clods were baked as
+hard as iron, so hard that it was impossible to do
+anything with them, and the fields carried no crops
+at all. A succession of such seasons would have
+a profound effect on the life of this country, and
+compel our people to live where water could be
+obtained.</p>
+
+<p>That is why the Egyptians were—and are—chained
+to the Nile. The floods fed the land.
+When the river failed to rise, and the water was
+confined within the banks, there was famine. No<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>
+wonder those ancient Egyptians worshipped the
+Nile. Their lives depended on it.</p>
+
+<p>They watched the river anxiously to see what it
+was going to do, scanning the chocolate-coloured
+waters as they went flowing by. They wondered
+whether the river was going to condemn them to
+starvation, or whether it was about to scatter plenty
+over the land. Far away from Cairo, up at Khartoum,
+the rise began about the end of April, but
+so great is the distance that no perceptible
+increase was to be noticed at Cairo until the end
+of June.</p>
+
+<p>As the water rose, so did the spirits of the natives.
+We can imagine with what joy they saw the flood
+break over the banks and sweep into the fields on
+either side. Stone pillars were put up to measure
+the rise. They were marked off in cubits, and the
+officials would watch the water stealing up and
+up. If it only reached 12 cubits there would be
+wailing throughout the land, for the people knew
+that famine would overtake them, that the life-giving
+water would not reach their fields. Another
+3 cubits would suffice to feed them until the next
+harvest came round, if they exercised care and were
+not unduly wasteful, while 16 cubits, or 28 feet, would
+fill their granaries to overflowing, and every one
+would have enough and to spare.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_063" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_063.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE GRAND AVENUE OF SPHINXES AT KARNAK, ORIGINALLY A MILE LONG, TO REMIND US OF
+THE GLORIES OF EGYPT LONG AGO (<em>see page <a href="#Page_71">71</a></em>)</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>They prayed long and earnestly to the Nile god,
+and held great festivals in his honour in a temple
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span>built in the vanished city of Nilopolis. Here they
+performed their rituals and made their offerings,
+and gave thanks to the god in years of plenty,
+expressing their joy and gratitude for the bounty
+they had received. They worshipped the Nile as
+the source of their blessings, just as they worshipped
+the sun.</p>
+
+<p>The sun worshippers built a magnificent temple
+to their god, whom they called Ra, at Heliopolis,
+and Cleopatra’s Needle, now standing on the
+Thames Embankment, is one of the two monuments
+which Thothmes <span class="allsmcap">III</span> set up before the Temple of the
+Sun on the banks of the Nile. Here they remained
+until the legions of Augustus Cæsar defeated Cleopatra
+just before the dawn of the Christian era.
+Eight years after the dramatic death of the
+beautiful Egyptian queen, whom Julius Cæsar
+loved and Mark Antony worshipped, Augustus
+set his engineers and slaves to work transporting
+the obelisks down the Nile, to set them in front of
+the wonderful palace of the Cæsars built in Alexandria.
+The new palace of the Roman invaders
+grew old, decayed, and fell in ruins, but the ancient
+obelisks of Heliopolis still reared their pinnacles to
+the skies. For fifteen hundred years Cleopatra’s
+Needle stood firm before crashing to the ground,
+to lie half buried in the drifting sands for
+three centuries, leaving the twin obelisk standing
+alone.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p>
+
+<p>Then British soldiers, flushed with their victory
+over the French in Egypt in 1801, craved a memento
+of their triumph. Seizing on the fallen obelisk,
+they subscribed their hard-earned money, and
+sought to remove the stone to England. That
+weight was too much for them; it defied their
+efforts, so, fixing a commemorative brass plate,
+they left the stone lying in the sands.</p>
+
+<p>Mehemet Ali, knowing the British were interested
+in the obelisk, presented it to George <span class="allsmcap">IV</span>. That
+monarch made no effort to remove the unwieldy
+present. Once more, in 1831, Mehemet Ali approached
+the British Government, and this time
+offered to ship the monument free to Great Britain.
+The offer was politely declined. By the time the
+British Government decided to remove the stone,
+in 1849, there was such opposition to spending
+£7000 on its removal, that the matter was
+dropped.</p>
+
+<p>Eighteen years later, the land on which the monolith
+lay was sold, and the new owner quickly requested
+the British Government to remove their
+property. The Government were so loath to do
+anything at all that the Khedive informed them
+they must either remove it, or forfeit the title
+to it. The threat had no effect. The Government
+seemed to look upon the present much as a
+suburban dweller would look upon the present of
+an elephant.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span></p>
+
+<p>The owner of the land began to plan to
+break up the obelisk, and use it for building
+purposes. For ten years all the efforts of General
+Alexander were needed to induce the landowner
+to refrain from such an act of vandalism, and
+at last, when it was seen that the Government
+would do nothing, Sir Erasmus Wilson came
+forward and offered to remove the obelisk to
+England.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly a mighty iron cylinder 100 feet
+long was made. The obelisk, which measures
+86½ feet high, and weighs 186 tons, was dug out
+of the sand, and after tremendous trouble safely
+housed in the cylinder, which, upon being completely
+sealed, was quite buoyant. Eventually
+it was floated, and taken in tow for England. All
+went well until the Bay of Biscay was reached,
+when a terrific gale sprang up, so terrific that
+Cleopatra’s Needle threatened to drag the tug to
+the bottom. At midnight the situation became so
+desperate that the captain ordered the obelisk to
+be cut adrift, feeling certain it was sinking, and
+when he arrived in England Cleopatra’s Needle
+was given up for lost.</p>
+
+<p>But the monument, which had survived the
+accidents of Time for so long, was fated to survive
+the storm. Instead of plunging to the bottom of
+the Bay of Biscay, it tossed about on the heaving
+waters for nearly three days. Then it was sighted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>
+by a steamer, and taken in tow, to be brought at
+last to England.</p>
+
+<p>It is remarkable that this same monolith, which
+a Pharaoh erected on the banks of the Nile to tell
+the sun-worshippers of his glorious deeds in war,
+should now be reposing on the banks of the river
+Thames, and that it has survived the age of bows and
+arrows to be damaged by bombs from aeroplanes.
+What a story Cleopatra’s Needle would tell if it
+could only speak.</p>
+
+<p>Kings were more than kings to the common
+people of Egypt. They were looked upon as gods,
+the possessors of divine power. They were called
+the sons of Ra, and Ra often figures in their
+titles. From being called the son of Ra, the
+ruler in the eyes of the people acquired the
+mythical power of the god himself, and was worshipped
+by his subjects, who shielded their faces
+from the glory which the monarch spread around
+him.</p>
+
+<p>The Egyptians have worshipped many gods in
+many ages. Gods have risen, grown powerful,
+and been superseded, but always the kings have
+shared the powers of the various gods, and the
+people looked upon the king as the living image of
+the god they worshipped.</p>
+
+<p>Their religions, after the lapse of ages, seem very
+strange to peoples in other lands. Yet they had
+much to commend them, and many of the teachings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>
+of the Christian religion were anticipated in the
+religions of the ancient Egyptians.</p>
+
+<p>We look upon the Nile dwellers as pagans, but
+we cannot deny the logic of the religion which
+taught them to worship the sun and the Nile, on
+which they depended for light and life.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">Gradually</span> the romance of ancient Egypt
+is being revealed by the graves of those
+who died in remote times, yet to read the
+romance at first hand requires exceptional ability
+that is possessed by only a few men. Little bits
+of evidence of no importance to the casual onlooker
+are fraught with immense importance to the
+scientific seeker.</p>
+
+<p>The most wonderful tombs in the world are to be
+found in Egypt in the shape of the Pyramids, and
+as the centuries recede the tombs gradually become
+simpler until they arrive back at the simplest of all—just
+a shallow hole scooped out of the ground,
+in which the dead man rests on a skin.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently the graves of Egypt reveal the rise
+of Egypt’s civilizations; they indicate how man’s
+ideas have changed, how primitive customs have
+slowly passed away and given rise to the most
+remarkable practices connected with the dead of
+which we have any trace. The later stone tombs
+needed no seeking; they were plain to every
+traveller who journeyed up the Nile. Earlier<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>
+tombs built of brick were found, revealing a more
+ancient state of civilization, when men were
+ignorant of the ways of working stone, or found it
+too difficult to devote their energies to shaping
+stone to be built into a tomb. Going back and
+back, the brick tombs get smaller and smaller,
+until they disappear, and only the grave remains
+in which the dead lie doubled up. These were the
+things that years of work taught, but the earliest
+graves of all long eluded the eyes of modern workers.</p>
+
+<p>One day Professor Flinders Petrie came across
+remains. The greatest care was exercised in
+digging, so that every shred of evidence could be
+collected, and as the sand and soil were drawn
+aside he saw it was a very ancient grave, older than
+anything ever dreamed of in connection with Egypt.
+No one had any idea that Egypt was inhabited so
+long ago, but here was proof that men lived in the
+Nile valley in the dark ages of Time.</p>
+
+<p>The evidence goes to show that a crude civilization
+existed there ten thousand years ago, and that
+men may have lived in the Nile valley over twenty
+thousand years ago. Whether any relics will ever
+be found to throw any light on this epoch of
+Egyptian history remains to be seen, but it would
+not be astonishing if something did eventually
+appear, for the country has powers of preservation
+which even to-day are only faintly recognized, and
+the earth can hide things so cunningly that human<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span>
+beings may search for centuries and never find them
+again. The fact that they are not found is no
+proof that they never existed.</p>
+
+<p>When this ancient man hunted on the banks of
+the Nile, he gazed upon a very different land from
+that which exists to-day. The river was wider
+and shallower. It overflowed its banks for greater
+distances. The banks of gravel which show where
+the waters of the river lapped in bygone centuries
+still exist, but they are far removed from the river,
+and a hundred feet or so higher.</p>
+
+<p>In all the thousands of years that have elapsed
+since then, the Nile has been cutting a deeper and
+deeper channel for itself. In all the years that it
+has been bringing down the mud in solution,
+flowing over the land, some of the mud has sunk
+to the bottom and remained; much of it has been
+carried from the Delta to the sea. The mud
+that sank has got deeper and deeper. The river
+has added to the deposit inch by inch, until there
+is now a wonderful layer of alluvial soil: just the
+mud of the Nile, between 30 and 40 feet thick on
+each side of the stream.</p>
+
+<p>This deposit itself has helped to give scientists
+an idea of the age of the earliest human remains
+that have been found. The rate at which the river
+leaves the mud behind has been carefully measured,
+and men have learned that in a century the Nile
+will add 4 inches of soil to the fields by flooding.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span>
+Test holes have revealed the present depth of the
+alluvial, and if roughly about a yard of deposition
+is allowed for one thousand years, and about 10
+or 12 yards are allowed for the depth, then the age
+of the deposit is fixed at ten or twelve thousand
+years.</p>
+
+<p>In some quarters this time is considered as
+absolutely accurate and definitely fixed, but there
+are so many factors to be taken into account that
+we should hesitate to regard them as unalterable.
+The Nile, it is true, has been depositing mud at the
+rate of 4 inches to the century in modern times,
+but this is no proof that it has always deposited
+mud at this rate, and there may have been considerable
+changes in the rate at which the mud
+banks have grown on each side of the stream.
+We know the floods vary considerably, and the
+rate of deposition must vary similarly. There
+seems at least the possibility that it took twice as
+long as the accepted estimate to deposit the mud
+on each side of the river, that is twenty thousand
+years. For aught we know, it may have taken
+two hundred thousand years.</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen how difficult it is in dealing with
+the lapse of such ages to mention any definite
+dates. This is why the men who are digging up
+the past in Egypt refer to Dynasties, starting with
+the First Dynasty, and working up to the last or
+Thirtieth Dynasty.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span></p>
+
+<p>A great deal has been done towards discovering
+the names of the various kings in the different
+Dynasties, but there are still many gaps to fill in.
+Most of our information in this respect has been
+given us by a list of names compiled by a priest
+named Manetho, who lived about two thousand
+one hundred years ago. Manetho undoubtedly
+based his names of kings on more ancient lists
+which have totally disappeared, but that he was
+fairly accurate is borne out by the Turin papyrus
+so far as it has been translated. The difficulty
+with this papyrus is that it was discovered in a
+number of fragments, and some parts of it are
+missing. However, the parts that remain have
+been most carefully pieced together, and seem to
+verify Manetho’s list, which starts with Menes,
+who is looked upon as the first king of the First
+Dynasty, and is thought to have reigned about
+seven thousand years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the ages that followed the reign of
+Menes, there grew up those religious beliefs and
+quaint burial customs which have done so much
+to unfold to us the life of the past. At first sight
+there seems to be no reason for all the statues, the
+tiny figures, and wonderful wall inscriptions to be
+found in the ancient tombs of Egypt. It seems
+incomprehensible that the dead should be buried
+with food and flowers beside them, that all this
+artistic talent should be wasted in this manner.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span>
+Yet some such customs exist in all lands, and
+survive to this day, for we still place wreaths of
+flowers on the graves of our departed in memory
+of them, but actually the giving of a wreath is
+based on a custom that recedes so far back that
+all trace of it has been lost.</p>
+
+<p>The Egyptians believed that there was another
+world, to which the soul journeyed after death.
+But the journey was long and hazardous, and the
+soul faced many perils on the way. In order to
+protect the soul from danger, the Egyptians used
+to paint an image of the Sun God within the tomb,
+thus placing the soul directly under the protection
+of the god, and the soul would wander over the
+heavens in the company of the god, immune from
+all harm, so long as the daylight lasted.</p>
+
+<p>Directly darkness fell, all the evil spirits would
+come forth from their retreats, and try to trap
+the soul as it stumbled blindly through the labyrinths
+of the lower regions. All night the soul
+would fight against these perils, struggling continually
+towards the dawn. Then, as the sun came
+up, the soul would escape from the evil demons,
+and wander free of danger through the heavens
+once more until darkness fell.</p>
+
+<p>Every human being was also considered to possess
+a perfect duplicate, a double, and the Egyptians
+were taught that the life of this double depended
+on the survival of the body, and if the double had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span>
+no body to return to, the double would become
+extinct and die for good. Such a thing was too
+terrible to contemplate, and had it happened it
+would have signified eternal disgrace to the living,
+as well as obliteration to the dead. Consequently
+the body was embalmed, so that it would be preserved
+for all time as a place of refuge for the double.</p>
+
+<p>There was the risk, however, that despite all
+precautions, something might happen to the
+embalmed body, that it might be destroyed by
+some accident quite unforeseen and unforeseeable.
+The Egyptians must have considered this danger
+long and earnestly before they arrived at a method
+of averting it.</p>
+
+<p>The method was simplicity itself. What could
+serve the purpose better than a statue of the
+deceased? If the mummy became damaged, there
+was always the likeness in stone for the double to
+inhabit. Then somebody decided that two statues
+would provide two chances for the double to survive
+in case of accident to the mummy, and once the
+idea was fully established the number of statues
+multiplied until there was a dozen or more, all
+the same, carved in stone, to represent the dead
+man. To avoid the possibility of the double
+making any mistake, the likeness of the dead man
+was portrayed. This accounts for the finding of
+so many statues of kings; each statue gave the
+king a chance in the afterlife.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p>
+
+<p>To provide sustenance for the double before it
+reached the Egyptian equivalent of Paradise, jars
+of water, meat and bread were buried with the
+mummy. It would not do for the dead to go
+hungry. Theoretically the foodstuffs should have
+been replenished from time to time, and no doubt
+for long this was done, but the Egyptians finally
+found that it was difficult enough to provide for the
+living, without toiling to feed the dead.</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt that the offerings to the dead
+became somewhat of a drain on the resources of
+these ancient Nile dwellers, so again they solved
+the problem in quite a simple way. If they painted
+all the offerings on the walls of the tombs, and
+prayed to the gods to provide the departed with
+the things needed in the afterworld, such painted
+offerings would last for ever, and relieve the living
+of the demands on their foodstuffs. Consequently,
+all over the tombs, these pictures of offerings may be
+found, to serve the deceased if he should need food
+during his wanderings to the Egyptian Paradise.</p>
+
+<p>The little images known as Ushabti were placed
+in the tomb, in case the deceased were called upon
+to work in the next world. They were his servants,
+who would labour for him and save their master
+from performing menial tasks. The boats or barges
+that are found were to ferry the dead man over
+the sacred waters to the Fields of the Blessed.</p>
+
+<p>The Egyptians, indeed, considered that everything<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>
+required in this life would be needed in the
+next. It is well for us that they had these ideas,
+for they have resulted in many remarkable relics
+being found in the tombs, relics which help the
+scientists to reconstruct the life of these wonderful
+ancients, to revive the romance of their lost
+civilization.</p>
+
+<p>In order that the dead man might not lose his
+identity, his name was graven within the tomb,
+and in time the outstanding features of his life were
+also mentioned, so that the gods should be conversant
+with all he had done. Some of these notes
+are short, others long, but all of them are of importance
+as showing us what happened while the dead
+man was alive. We have our own National
+Biography printed on paper, and carefully bound
+to place on our shelves, but the National Biography
+of Ancient Egypt is carved upon mountains of
+stones in the tombs of the land. They are the
+books of the distant past, but there is the possibility
+that they will survive when many of our
+modern books have perished utterly from the
+earth.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_079" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_079.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British Museum</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">A SCENE FROM THE FAMOUS BOOK OF THE DEAD, PAINTED 3,000 YEARS AGO ON PAPYRUS, SHOWING KING HER-HERU AND
+QUEEN NETCHEMET PRAYING TO OSIRIS WHILE THE HEART OF THE QUEEN IS BEING WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>The commonest of all the ancient manuscripts
+that have survived to our day is the well-known
+Book of the Dead. It is another relic which serves
+to indicate the thought devoted by the Egyptians
+to life in the next world. The Book of the Dead is
+a sacred book, which tells the dead man what to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>say to the gods when he meets them, how to answer
+their questions. Osiris is the Judge who weighs
+the man’s heart, and considers if he be worthy to
+enter the Realms of Bliss. And the departed is
+instructed what to say. “I have not played the
+hypocrite,” he avers. “I have not stolen,” is
+another answer he must make. “I have not lied.
+I have not committed adultery. I am no slayer of
+men.”</p>
+
+<p>There are forty-two of these Confessions in the
+Book of the Dead, and it is astounding how they
+resemble the Ten Commandments upon which are
+based the Christian religion. In the replies just
+quoted may be traced three commandments:
+“Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit
+adultery. Thou shalt do no murder.”</p>
+
+<p>Who can say after this whence the wisdom of
+the Bible sprang? The religion of the ancient
+Egyptians seems false to our eyes, but underlying
+it are many fine principles, and much of the truth
+that is eternal.</p>
+
+<p>Even in those remote times, however, there were
+people who were ever ready to take advantage of
+the grief of the relatives of the departed. A Book
+of the Dead was essential to the well-being of the
+departed, once he came into the presence of the
+gods, and the living would go to the scribe and
+acquire the finest copy of the Book that lay within
+their means. The wonderfully painted Books were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span>
+only for the wealthy and the nobles. The poor
+people had to be satisfied with something that
+was much inferior, from which a great deal of the
+text was missing.</p>
+
+<p>The poorer classes were, of course, unable to read
+the sacred script, and would therefore be unaware
+that much of the text was missing; that the Book
+was, in fact, so much abridged, that they were
+acquiring a garbled version, bearing little resemblance
+to the full Book. They would have the body
+embalmed, and see the sacred Book placed within
+reach of the mummy’s hand, so that it could be
+consulted directly it was required, little knowing
+that the Book upon which they relied was but an
+imitation of the genuine sacred Book.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, in those days, it was more or less the
+same as it is to-day. The scribe scamped the work
+of the Book that he was poorly paid for, and took
+more pains with the Book for which he received a
+better price.</p>
+
+<p>Discoveries seem to indicate that although the
+people had faith in the Book of the Dead, the
+scribes themselves were inclined to be unbelievers.
+It is fairly evident that they had no compunction
+in defrauding the relatives, for when the scribe had
+sold a beautiful copy to place with one of the
+departed, he would very often slip in a blank
+papyrus along with the mummy, and abstract the
+fine Book, knowing full well that his fraud would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>
+never be found out. Probably he reasoned that it
+was rather a waste to place such a fine specimen of
+his work where it would be lost for ever. It is
+quite likely that some of the scribes devoted a vast
+amount of time and skill to making a wonderful
+copy of the Book of the Dead that they could show
+to relatives to get their order, with the intention of
+substituting an inferior work, or even a blank.
+Thus their one fine copy would be a source of
+income to them, and they would never part with it
+if they could possibly avoid it.</p>
+
+<p>Judging from the blanks and poor copies that
+have been recovered, there is little doubt that the
+Egyptians of old were quite as guilty of sharp
+practices as are some of the people of to-day.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">Since</span> the dawn of history the Pyramids
+have been considered one of the wonders
+of the earth. They are unique. There is
+nothing to compare with them in any other land.
+Strangers have gazed upon them in amazement,
+and pondered what they were and how and why
+they were built.</p>
+
+<p>Myths that they were the work of the gods became
+numerous, for the structures were so gigantic that
+it seemed impossible that puny man could have built
+them. About their human origin there was no
+doubt to discerning travellers, but the object in
+building them was not always so plain.</p>
+
+<p>Long and learned books have been written to
+show that the Pyramids bore some special astronomical
+significance; that one of the main passages
+in the Great Pyramid was built at a certain angle
+to enable the astronomers of earlier days to watch a
+certain star pass in its course across the opening in
+the face of the Pyramid; that the height of the
+Great Pyramid bore a definite relation to the distance
+of the earth from the sun; that the base of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>
+Pyramid meant something else. In fact, the
+Pyramid has been measured in all directions, in all
+sorts of manners, and these measurements have
+been made to fit in with pet theories which have
+been the basis of many books.</p>
+
+<p>There is not the slightest mystery as to what
+the Pyramids actually are. They are merely
+tombs. But people have not been content to accept
+this explanation, perhaps because it is too simple,
+so they have endowed the Pyramids with all sorts
+of wonderful meanings which would astound the
+builders were they to come back from the Fields
+of the Blessed. Astrologers who puzzled on the
+meanings of the stars in the heavens claimed the
+Great Pyramid as peculiarly their own, and pointed
+out certain coincidences in measurements to support
+their claim; the astronomers adduced their own
+reasons for claiming that the Pyramid had some
+astronomical meaning; Biblical students, on the
+other hand, who sought the hidden meanings of the
+Bible, concluded that the Pyramid was definite
+proof of certain of their own theories.</p>
+
+<p>The Pyramids have indeed been so enwrapped
+in mystery, by the writings and theories of successive
+generations, that thousands of people to-day regard
+them with a sort of religious belief.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding all that has been written on the
+subject, and the undoubted cleverness with which
+these theories have been propounded, the Pyramids<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>
+are only tombs. But they are the most wonderful
+tombs in the world. They are simple and grand,
+with the desert sands surging round their bases,
+while a short distance away the Nile flows along
+to the blue sea. There is one other tomb without
+peer, the Taj Mahal, in India, that beautiful dream
+in marble which Shah Jehan erected in Delhi to
+the memory of the lady he loved so well. But the
+Taj is very different—graceful, glorious. Yet the
+Pyramids, in their simple grandeur, are not without
+a beauty of their own.</p>
+
+<p>Kings have come and gone, civilizations have
+bloomed and vanished, the very earth itself has
+altered since the Pyramids were first built. Whirlwinds
+have caught up the sands of the desert and
+used them as a giant sandblast in their attempts to
+wear away the stone, earthquakes have shattered
+temples, but on the monuments the forces of Nature
+have had little effect. The hand of man has wrought
+more destruction in a few centuries than Nature
+herself wrought in two or three thousands of years.
+What man built, man has partly destroyed; yet
+man, with all his ingenuity for destruction, has done
+little but touch the outer surface of the Great
+Pyramid.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_087" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_087.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH, ONE OF THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD, WITH THE GREAT SPHINX IN THE FOREGROUND,
+LAPPED BY THE ETERNAL SANDS OF THE DESERT</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>There are nearly eighty Pyramids of different
+sizes scattered throughout the Nile valley. The
+greatest and most renowned is that of King Khufu
+or Cheops, at Gizeh, which originally measured
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span>355 feet 8 inches at the base, and 481 feet 4 inches
+in height. The base of the Great Pyramid covers
+well over 12 acres, and an idea of the size of the
+monument may be gained when it is known that
+to walk round it means trudging through the sands
+for more than half a mile.</p>
+
+<p>Over nineteen centuries ago, Julius Cæsar sent
+from Egypt one of the most famous letters ever
+written. It was short, but three words: “Veni,
+Vedi, Veci.” These three words carried a wealth
+of meaning. They told of a safe journey, of an
+emperor gazing on the land he was going to conquer,
+of a successful invasion. “I came, I saw, I conquered,”
+wrote Cæsar, who in turn was conquered
+by the beauty of Cleopatra.</p>
+
+<p>Who can say what were the thoughts of the
+Roman emperor as he stood within the shadow of
+the age-old Pyramids? He was a powerful potentate,
+but the same thoughts must have flitted
+through his mind as have surged through the brains
+of countless unknown men when they first caught
+sight of the Wonders of the Desert. He must
+have meditated on their origin, and how they
+were built.</p>
+
+<p>In modern times Napoleon, the greatest soldier
+the world has ever seen, paced in the shadow of
+these same Pyramids, and reflected on the eternal
+questions regarding them. Lord Kitchener, before
+he attained to fame, gazed on them hundreds of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span>
+times. The great ones go to their eternal rest, but
+the Pyramids remain.</p>
+
+<p>They were built to endure for all time. The
+Egyptians looked upon the tomb as their permanent
+home, which was to last for all eternity. This is
+the reason for the erection of these mountains of
+stone, for their solidity of construction, for their
+gigantic size. They have grown out of Egypt’s
+religious beliefs. They were built solid and big
+and strong, so that nothing should overturn them,
+so that they should defy the hand of Time and Man,
+and forever provide a resting-place, a home for the
+shadow-self of the King.</p>
+
+<p>Directly a Pharaoh came to the throne, he began
+preparing for his last long sleep. His lifework
+was to prepare a tomb for himself befitting his
+rank and power, and he spared no pains nor means
+to accomplish his desire. He called his chief architects
+and his high priests around him, and demanded
+that plans be made and a site selected. Then he
+saw the foundation stone laid, and year by year
+watched the pile of masonry grow.</p>
+
+<p>Judging by the number of Pyramids in existence
+and their size, it has been reckoned that the total
+man-power of Egypt was devoted for over a thousand
+years to building tombs for the rulers, that
+tomb-building, in fact, was the main industry of
+the country for centuries.</p>
+
+<p>To build another pyramid the size of the Great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span>
+Pyramid of Khufu or Cheops would be a brilliant
+engineering feat even in our time, with all the
+engineering means we have at our disposal. The
+more we consider the Great Pyramid, the more
+amazing it seems that the Egyptians should have
+succeeded in erecting such an enormous monument
+some six thousand years ago. To this day
+it is not fully understood how it was done, but
+gradually evidence is accumulating which serves
+to indicate the principal methods that were
+adopted.</p>
+
+<p>A few miles away, on the other side of the Nile,
+the limestone was quarried from the hillside at
+Turah. Thousands of men laboured at cutting
+out the mighty blocks. These were probably
+squared up roughly in the quarries, and then either
+transported to the barges on rollers made from the
+trunks of palm trees, or else mounted on wooden
+sledges that were dragged over the ground by the
+united efforts of hundreds of slaves. Great skill
+must have been required to get them safely aboard,
+and to unload them from the barges when they
+arrived on the other side of the river. There is
+little doubt that the site of the Pyramid was chosen
+close to the river and to the Turah quarries to make
+transport as simple as possible.</p>
+
+<p>The Pyramid is built in a series of steps, the
+lower courses of blocks being 4 feet 11 inches high,
+the size diminishing as the Pyramid gets higher.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span>
+Before a stone was cut or laid the Pyramid must
+have been carefully planned on papyri; for aught
+we know models may have been built to ensure its
+accuracy. It is plain that the builder must have
+calculated the sizes of all the stones course by
+course and the number required, for their regularity
+in size is not only amazing, but is also proof that
+the building of the Pyramid was most carefully
+worked out.</p>
+
+<p>So extraordinary was the degree of accuracy
+attained by the ancient architects, that it is doubtful
+if a single building in all London is so correctly
+and accurately built as was the Great Pyramid
+sixty centuries ago. The Egyptians were clever
+enough to fix their site so that the sides of the
+Pyramid faced exactly north, south, east and west,
+without any deviation whatsoever. They had
+some means of measuring whereby they were able
+to build the lengths of the sides so truly, that
+there was not half an inch of difference in any
+one of them. The builder who is able to build
+four such walls over 750 feet long, without varying
+them half an inch in all that length, is a king of
+his profession. Probably there is not a house put
+up to-day that does not vary considerably more
+in the length of its small walls. For sheer accuracy
+in its measurements, the Great Pyramid is one
+of the most marvellous structures on earth, and
+the Egyptians were apparently able to do six<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>
+thousand years ago what we find it difficult to
+accomplish to-day.</p>
+
+<p>The Great Wall of China was built at the sacrifice
+of hundreds of thousands of lives, and probably
+thousands of men perished in the building of the
+Pyramids. Accidents must have been happening all
+day long. The huge blocks were handled by men who
+dragged and pushed them to their positions. The
+labourers were kept hard at it by their taskmasters,
+whose one thought was to keep up the supply
+of stone. Mighty blocks weighing many tons
+must have often slipped and crushed the workers
+to death. Many of the labourers must have been
+maimed for life; legs were broken, arms smashed,
+heads and bodies crushed, as the blocks rolled and
+swerved in their progress.</p>
+
+<p>From inferences from papyri, the great Pyramids
+were looked upon by the Egyptians as one of their
+plagues, as a scourge to the land. Men were pressed
+into the work, were compelled to go on with it.
+What mattered it to Khufu if his subjects and
+slaves died, so long as he built a home that would
+last his shadow-self for ever? We are wont to
+marvel at the building of the Pyramids, but under
+it all there must have been great cruelty as well
+as an incredible skill. Those monuments which
+to-day are the glory of Egypt, were in the past
+one of the afflictions of the land.</p>
+
+<p>The building of the Great Pyramid entailed the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>
+creation of a mighty sloping road, which Herodotus
+says took 100,000 men ten years to construct.
+Men swarmed over the desert like ants over a
+disturbed anthill, making this enormous slope
+up which to drag and push these gigantic blocks.
+The centre of the slope was paved with polished
+stone, so that the blocks would slide easily along,
+but in spite of this attempt to ease the burden,
+the moving of the stones must have been a heart-breaking
+task. As the Pyramid rose, so the road
+grew higher.</p>
+
+<p>The blocks would be heaved out of the barges
+by dozens of men. Great wooden levers would
+be inserted under the stones to prise them up to
+allow the rollers to be slipped under; then hundreds
+of men would take hold of the long ropes, harnessing
+themselves like beasts of burden, and drag the
+stones along. Men with levers would help by
+thrusting behind; others would walk at the sides
+to attend to the rollers, and run to the front with
+new ones directly the last had passed underneath
+the stone at the back. We can imagine ropes
+breaking, and mighty stones plunging down the
+causeway, sweeping scores of poor victims to
+destruction. Blood and tears as well as labour
+went to the building of the Pyramids.</p>
+
+<p>From first to last, so far as we are able to gather,
+about 100,000 men slaved for thirty years to build
+the tomb of Khufu. The site chosen was not exactly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span>
+level. A little hillock of rock rose on one part of it,
+and this was cleverly squared off and incorporated
+into the Pyramid, saving the transport of so many
+hundreds of tons of rock.</p>
+
+<p>The great aim of Khufu, or Cheops, as that of all
+the other Pharaohs, was to protect his mummy,
+and prevent thieves getting into his burial chamber.
+To this end were devised numerous secret passages,
+all of which show an extraordinary ingenuity in
+planning, and great engineering skill in execution.
+The entrance to the Great Pyramid is about 45 feet
+up on the north face. One of the blocks of stone
+was made to swing inward on a pivot, and when
+closed it was quite impossible to locate the entrance.
+The Pyramid looked quite solid, without a single
+breach in any one of its sides. So cleverly was the
+entrance contrived that it baffled men for thousands
+of years, although countless thieves went over the
+Pyramid seeking eagerly for a way in. Only a
+lucky accident could have led the discoverer to
+touch that particular stone in the right way to make
+it swing back and disclose the opening.</p>
+
+<p>Even when he found the opening, he was not
+much nearer the burial chamber. An underground
+passage was driven for over 350 feet through the
+solid rock at an angle below the foundations of the
+Pyramid, until it opened out in a chamber immediately
+beneath the point of the Pyramid. The
+chamber is really a fine hall about 46 feet long by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span>
+27 feet wide, with a roof 11½ feet above the level
+of the floor. On the other side of the chamber the
+underground passage continues for over 50 feet, but
+we are quite at a loss to divine the reason for this
+extension. Maybe the engineers drove this gallery
+with the definite intention of misleading any one
+who should eventually break a way into this underground
+retreat. At any rate, it is, like the rest
+of the passage, driven through the solid rock, and
+finishes up against the rock wall. No other outlet
+from this passage has ever been discovered, so its
+object is a mystery. Perhaps the engineers’ plans
+were altered, or perhaps it was designed to baffle
+thieves, and compel them to waste time by searching
+for an opening where none exists.</p>
+
+<p>Khufu did not underrate the skill of the plunderers
+of the tombs. He realized to the full their patience
+and cleverness, and did all in his power to outwit
+them. The passage is lined throughout with blocks
+of stone, and we can imagine the robbers searching
+anxiously up and down the dark passage, casting
+back and fore, tapping the stones to try to find the
+outlet leading to the King’s Chamber. All the
+blocks look exactly alike, and they may have
+sought for months before they found that block in
+the roof which pivoted in a similar manner to the
+stone covering the entrance. This passage branched
+upward to the Queen’s Chamber, and opened out
+to the Grand Gallery, which is very narrow and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span>
+high, at the end of which comes another passage
+leading to the Chamber of King Khufu.</p>
+
+<p>Before the robbers were able to reach these
+chambers, they had many difficulties to surmount
+and problems to solve. At various intervals the
+passage was sealed by four mighty blocks of very
+hard granite. These blocks must have been supported
+until after the funeral ceremonies were
+completed; then the priests withdrew, the supports
+were knocked away, and the blocks crashed down
+into position in the deep grooves that were cut for
+them in the passage.</p>
+
+<p>When the intruders surmounted one block, they
+were confronted by another. Their labours on the
+second brought them to a full stop against the face
+of the third. No one knows how long it took for
+the thieves to break into the Pyramid, but it must
+have taken years from the time the first secret
+opening was discovered. So hard was the granite
+with which the passage leading to the King’s and
+Queen’s Chambers was closed, that in one case the
+thieves despaired of ever getting through it, so they
+laboriously cut a way through the roof of the
+passage and clambered over the top of the granite
+block. They must have reaped a very rich booty,
+of which every trace has long since vanished.</p>
+
+<p>All that remains to-day is the red granite sarcophagus
+in the King’s Chamber. It is an enormous
+stone coffin, so big that its removal is an impossibility.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span>
+It is too big to be taken through the passages.
+The size of it indicates that it must have been placed
+in position when the Pyramid was being built. It
+shows how carefully everything was planned.</p>
+
+<p>The King’s Chamber is 34 feet 3 inches long, by
+17 feet 1 inch wide, with a height of 19 feet 1 inch.
+It is one of the wonders of the Pyramid, lined with
+enormous slabs of highly polished granite which
+reach from floor to ceiling, slabs 19 feet 1 inch
+high. The ceiling itself is composed of the same
+granite, in giant slabs nearly 4 feet wide and 17 feet
+1 inch long. There are nine of these mighty slabs
+of polished stone, reaching from wall to wall. Their
+weight must be enormous, and the difficulty of
+getting them into position must have been prodigious.
+So skilfully and accurately fitted were
+many of the stones in the passages, that even now
+the point of a needle cannot be inserted between
+the slabs where they join.</p>
+
+<p>It seems incomprehensible at first sight why this
+King’s Chamber has not been crushed out of existence
+thousands of years ago by the weight of the
+masonry over it. It must be remembered that
+what amounts to a mountain of stone rears its
+peak 200 feet or more above. Investigation reveals
+that the builders were fully alive to this danger,
+and the steps they took to avoid it were not only
+very clever, but they have worked perfectly for
+thousands of years. Earthquakes have occurred<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>
+from time to time and displaced some of the stones,
+but the King’s Chamber is still intact and uncrushed.</p>
+
+<p>The methods adopted by these clever old builders
+to preserve the Chamber are very simple, yet anything
+more brilliantly successful it would be difficult
+to devise. Above the King’s Chamber four other
+chambers were built to take the weight off the roof,
+and over these chambers two mighty slabs of hard
+stone were placed astride, leaning together at the
+top edges, which were so accurately cut that they
+could not possibly become displaced. These two
+stones, with their tops resting against each other,
+just as children lean two cards together on a table,
+take the weight of all the masonry above them, and
+deflect the thrust of the weight outwards instead of
+downwards, so that the King’s Chamber is amply
+protected.</p>
+
+<p>The Pyramid of Khafra or Chephren, slightly
+smaller than the Great Pyramid, is still a mighty
+monument of the past, and although the Egyptians
+were free from foreign wars when it was built, they
+groaned under the necessity of doing this work for
+the king at home. The building of the Pyramids
+was one of the hardships of the Egyptian nation.</p>
+
+<p>When the Great Pyramid was finished, a pinnacle
+of hard limestone was set on the top, and all the
+steps were filled in from the peak downwards with
+the same stone, to make the surface of the Pyramid
+quite smooth from apex to foundation. But the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span>
+facing blocks of stone have now all disappeared.
+Many of them have been carried off to put into new
+buildings, others lie shattered all about the base,
+where the debris rises for 40 feet or so. The point
+of the Great Pyramid has also gone, and there is
+now a platform about 36 feet square, on which
+visitors may stand and gaze on the wonders of
+the desert.</p>
+
+<p>Only 500 yards away the head of the Great
+Sphinx emerges from the sands. Nobody knows
+what the Sphinx represents. The most learned
+investigators are uncertain of its origin and age.
+Some think it may have been carved by the sculptors
+of one of the great pyramid builders, but others
+regard it as very much older. Probably it represents
+the sun god Ra, but for centuries the Arabs
+have known it as the Father of Terrors.</p>
+
+<p>From the tip of its paws to the end of its back it
+measures 190 feet. It is 65 feet high, and its neck
+is 69 feet round, while the tallest man could roll
+in between the lips, were they open, for they are
+7 feet wide. The Sphinx is still joined to the mother
+rock which forms the floor of the desert hereabouts.
+It was carved out of the outcropping stone, which
+the sculptors chipped and fashioned with infinite
+labour into the shape of the Father of Terrors.
+The astounding thing is that in spite of the gigantic
+size of the figure, the proportions are faultless.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_102" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_102.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">THE COLOSSI OF MEMNON, SET UP BY AMENHOTEP III., IN FRONT OF HIS TEMPLE AT THEBES. THE TEMPLE HAS
+DISAPPEARED, BUT THESE GIGANTIC FIGURES, WHICH ARE ABOUT 50 FEET HIGH, ARE AMONG THE MARVELS OF
+THE NILE</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>Between its paws was a temple, that gave up a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>statue of Khafra, the builder of the Second Pyramid,
+but temple and paws are now covered with sand.
+Indeed the Sphinx has spent the greater part of its
+existence under the sands of the desert. One of the
+first things Thothmes IV did when he came to the
+throne over three thousand years ago, was to set
+men to uncover the Sphinx, and dig the sand away
+from its 140-foot-long body. From time to time
+others have removed the sand, but always the
+sand comes back and quickly steals over the body
+and covers it, leaving the head emerging like some
+monster of the desert.</p>
+
+<p>In the past the Sphinx has been badly treated
+by the ignorant Arabs, who have smashed its face
+about and given it that strange expression which is
+a half-wry smile. Probably thousands of years
+hence, when our present civilization has disappeared
+and been forgotten, the Sphinx will still be regarding
+the Nile and the world with the same half-sad,
+half-mocking expression.</p>
+
+<p>The Sphinx is as lasting as the mountains, as
+eternal as the rock out of which it is carved. The
+riddle of the origin of this masterpiece of an ancient
+civilization may yet be solved by a man digging
+with a spade in the desert sands.</p>
+
+<p>The famous Colossi of Memnon, set up by
+Amenhotep <span class="allsmcap">III</span> in front of his chapel on the bank
+of the Nile at Thebes, almost rival the Sphinx in
+their gigantic stature. The great figures, 50 feet<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span>
+high, are carved out of solid blocks of limestone,
+and there they sit on guard as they have sat for
+thousands of years. The floods of the Nile swirl
+about them, laving their injured feet, but the
+temple they guarded has long since vanished from
+the face of the earth.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">Thebes</span> at its zenith was one of the glories
+of the old world, with some of the most
+marvellous temples ever imagined by the
+mind of man or executed by human hand. The
+ancient capital of Egypt was unequalled in magnificence.
+King after king increased the wonders of
+the temple of Ammon; their sculptors carved great
+sphinxes out of stone, which were set up in an
+avenue over a mile long. Building after building
+was added to the original one. Mighty gateways,
+or pylons, 142 feet high, were built, and from these
+projected flagstaffs on which gaily coloured banners
+fluttered in the breeze.</p>
+
+<p>The great hall of Ammon was composed of pillars
+78 feet high and 33 feet round, all carved and painted
+in vivid colours. Lesser halls and temples were
+added, and here, amid a blaze of colour and sunshine,
+the festivals were held, the high priests performed
+their sacred rites, the Pharaoh drove up in
+his gorgeous chariots with the harness of his horses
+ablaze with gold, while his subjects shielded their
+faces from the monarch who shared the glory of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span>
+Ammon. At intervals the high priests brought out
+the sacred boat of the god, raised it aloft on their
+shoulders, and carried it around the temple, while
+the populace stood silent with awe. For a brief
+instant the curtains were drawn aside, and the god
+was disclosed to the multitude before returning
+to the silence and sanctity of the temple, from which
+the common people were rigidly excluded.</p>
+
+<p>About the king gathered all the wit and wisdom
+of the Egyptian empire. Magnificent banquets
+were held, at which were served to the guests fine
+dishes of venison, roast ducks and other fowl, and
+fish. Wine flowed, maidens danced. There was
+talk and laughter and love.</p>
+
+<p>To-day Thebes has vanished. The one-time
+capital of Egypt is a desert ruin. Near by are
+the villages of Karnak and Luxor, with a few natives
+living in their humble dwellings, and just a big
+hotel for the use of travellers, who come here to gaze
+on the ruins of the past.</p>
+
+<p>It is strange that thousands of years ago, when
+these islands were inhabited by a few savages who
+painted their bodies, threw a skin about them for
+warmth, and lived in the rudest of huts for shelter,
+far away to the south on the Nile a mighty civilization
+was flourishing, that would compare very
+favourably with the civilization of to-day.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_108" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_108.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">A PARTLY-HEWN OBELISK STILL ATTACHED TO THE ROCK IN ONE OF THE ANCIENT QUARRIES</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>While the barbarians of Britain were building
+their rude huts, the Egyptians were carving colossal
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>pillars for the Hall of the Temple of Ammon, pillars
+over 30 feet round, and painting them with colours
+which are still fresh after all this lapse of time.
+Even then they had been building with brick for
+thousands of years. The tomb paintings show the
+brickmakers puddling the alluvial soil with their
+feet, shaping the mud into bricks, and baking
+them hard in the fierce heat of the sun. Moreover
+these bricks endured for centuries, and still
+endure; whereas many of the red bricks made
+in England thirty or forty years ago are perishing
+fast.</p>
+
+<p>Speculation is still going on as to how the
+Egyptians used to handle the enormous stones
+found in the ruins, and how they managed to place
+in position monuments like Cleopatra’s Needle.
+There is mention of certain engines having been
+used to lift the stones of the Pyramids, but what
+these engines were, nobody to-day can say with
+certainty.</p>
+
+<p>Cleopatra’s Needle was roughly shaped on three
+sides in the quarry, before it was detached from
+the mother rock. The methods of detaching a
+monument from the rock show that the Egyptians
+were quite conversant with natural laws, that they
+possessed the ability to harness these laws in order
+to save human labour. How many modern craftsmen
+would succeed in separating one of these huge
+stones from the mountain-side, by using such simple<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span>
+things as a drill, some wooden pegs, and water?
+With these crude implements the task would be
+looked upon nowadays as impossible. Yet from
+obelisks still attached to the rock, it is obvious
+that such primitive appliances were sufficient to
+enable the Egyptians to perform their ancient
+miracles.</p>
+
+<p>On the exact line where they desired to sever the
+stone, they cut a deep groove, and at frequent
+intervals along this groove they drilled holes, into
+which they hammered wooden pegs very tightly,
+until the tops were a little below the surface of the
+stone. Then water was poured on the pegs, and as
+it soaked into the wood they swelled, until the
+expansion of them all together was so irresistible
+that the rock was split along the groove.</p>
+
+<p>Many huge pillars and statues were also sculptured
+in the living rock before being detached, for areas
+of rock have been found all marked off in squares
+with figures drawn on them ready to be carved by
+the sculptor. Like the stones of the Pyramids,
+many of these figures and monoliths were transported
+on sleds, others were dragged over rollers.
+It was a common practice to send thousands of
+men to some distant place, to cut out a giant block
+of stone, and bring it back for the use of the king.
+Ancient drawings showing gigantic statues being
+dragged along on sledges by armies of slaves, reveal
+to us how the transport was effected.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span></p>
+
+<p>But there was the difficulty of erecting an obelisk
+when it had reached the spot for which it was intended.
+A weight of 186 tons, like that of Cleopatra’s
+Needle, is a tremendous problem to handle,
+yet the Egyptian engineers accomplished it successfully.
+Such a weight was actually small compared
+with some of the weights they tackled, for they
+moved and erected single stones weighing twice and
+thrice as much, that is weights up to nearly 600
+tons.</p>
+
+<p>If our engineers to-day were given the same
+problem, they would still have to puzzle over it,
+in spite of the giant cranes that could be brought
+to the spot to help them. The mammoth lifting
+machines designed by modern engineers were unknown
+in the days of the Pharaohs, yet the ancients
+were able to do work without them which we would
+find it rather difficult to do with them.</p>
+
+<p>Ever so many theories have been propounded as
+to how they set up these huge blocks of stone. One
+suggestion is that the stones were dragged to the
+site and their bases placed in position; then in
+some way, perhaps by the use of giant beams over
+which the ropes attached to the top ends of the
+stones were passed, they were pulled upright, a
+little at a time. As they were hauled up, blocks
+of stone may have been slipped under them to carry
+the weight.</p>
+
+<p>Other theories abound, but the likeliest theory of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span>
+all is that the Egyptians built a big sloping embankment
+like that used in the construction of the
+Pyramids. Up this the obelisk was hauled, base
+first, until it reached the very top, and projected
+on to a bed of sand. Labourers shovelled the sand
+away from under the obelisk, just as ants dig the
+earth from beneath a mouse they want to bury,
+and as the sand was removed, so the base of the
+obelisk sank down, until it gradually tilted upright
+exactly in the position designed for it. No simpler,
+or more brilliant, way could be found of solving
+this difficult problem.</p>
+
+<p>One of the monoliths erected by Queen Hatshepsut,
+at Karnak, is 109 feet high, and she records
+that at her bidding this mighty stone, weighing
+hundreds of tons, was hewn out of the quarry, the
+sides were properly shaped, and the stone conveyed
+to the site, all within seven months. The Queen
+gave her orders, and the people obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>Such methods, if they were followed to-day, would
+be so expensive as to be prohibitive. In those
+days there were no unions, and no union rates of
+wages. The overseer of the works could have all
+the labour he needed. If he could not manage
+with a thousand labourers, then he could have ten
+thousand. The king was the lord and master of
+his people, as well as of his slaves. The overseer
+had only to say that he wanted more men, and the
+king would give orders for the men to be procured.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span>If they did not come willingly, they would be seized
+and pressed into the service of the king. So long
+as they were doing the king’s work they would
+be fed, but wages in the present sense were
+unknown.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_114" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_114.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">THE BEAUTIFUL TEMPLE KNOWN AS PHARAOH’S BED, CRADLED IN THE WATERS OF THE NILE, WHICH HAVE COVERED
+THE ISLAND OF PHILÆ AND PARTLY SUBMERGED THE NOBLE RUINS SINCE THE BUILDING OF THE ASSOUAN DAM</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>Those noble ruins on the island of Philæ higher
+up the Nile above Assouan may no more be seen
+in all their glory. They have been sacrificed to
+the Nile god and to modern necessities. Realizing
+that the building of the great dam at Assouan
+would raise the level of the river and submerge
+the island, the builders went to enormous trouble
+to underpin the ruins and make them secure
+against the flood. This work was carried out
+with great difficulty, and in a masterly manner.
+The completion of the Assouan dam saw the
+waters of the Nile slowly creep over the ruined
+temples, and there may now be seen peeping above
+the surface of the water the tops of a few
+columns which, owing to their peculiar resemblance
+to a fourpost bed, are generally known as
+Pharaoh’s Bed.</p>
+
+<p>A wonderful work in a land of wonders is the
+barrage of Assouan, but the benefits that would
+accrue to the land by holding up and deflecting
+the waters of the Nile were not unrealized by the
+ancients. Thousands of years ago the problems
+of controlling the Nile were studied as carefully
+as they have been studied in our own time. One<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span>
+Pharaoh, known as Amenhotep III, ordered his
+engineers to work out a scheme for controlling the
+inundation. He desired to store up some of the
+Nile water when there was an excess, and draw
+on these surplus supplies when the river was
+low.</p>
+
+<p>The work he undertook was in its way as wonderful
+as that at Assouan, but when we consider that it
+was started nearly four thousand years ago it
+appears even more marvellous. Labourers swarmed
+over the land, cutting channels in the rock, and
+driving canals connected with the great expanse
+of water near Fayoum known as Lake Moeris, a
+natural reservoir which served to store the water
+just as the barrage at Assouan stores the water
+to-day. The Pharaoh had the foresight to tap
+this huge supply of water to irrigate the surrounding
+country, and the land, no longer at the mercy of
+the Nile floods, prospered accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>Amenhotep, like all the other Pharaohs, was
+anxious to protect his treasure from thieves, and
+he commanded his cleverest architects to design
+a palace in which people who went inside without
+permission might wander for ever without finding
+their way out again. The whole of the interior
+of the palace was composed of small rooms, in
+number three thousand, leading by narrow passages
+one into the other. The way in and out was a
+strict secret, and those who broke in might wander<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span>
+round and in and out of the chambers until they
+died of starvation. This palace was the famous
+Labyrinth, a maze in stone to defeat thieves and
+robbers. No trace of it now remains.</p>
+
+<p>The kings of Egypt and the chief men were
+obsessed with the idea that their tombs would be
+plundered, and that the robbers would deprive their
+doubles of all chance of future life. It must be
+admitted that they had good cause for their
+obsession. They knew that the same subjects who
+had buried previous kings and lamented their
+deaths, had seized the first opportunity of rifling
+the tombs of their treasures, and the Pharaohs
+were well aware that their own subjects would not
+be above doing the same thing.</p>
+
+<p>To rifle a tomb was one of the greatest crimes
+that could be committed, but the thieves were
+quite prepared to sacrifice their chances in the
+next life for the prospect of gaining something
+in this.</p>
+
+<p>The tombs indicate that for thousands of years
+a continual battle of wits was being fought between
+the kings, who wished to preserve their tombs from
+desecration, and the thieves who wished to plunder
+them. The kings built temples for themselves,
+and had a strong burial chamber placed at one
+end. The thieves broke in easily and abstracted
+the treasure. Then the kings made secret burial
+chambers in their temples for the safeguarding of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span>
+their mummies, but the thieves located them, and
+robbed them just the same.</p>
+
+<p>At last a queen hit on the idea of building a
+fine temple for herself at Thebes, with a special
+sanctuary for her mummy. But not for a moment
+did she intend her mummy to rest within the
+shade of the temple. She sent her priests and tried
+servants into the desolate valley, to seek a secret
+hiding-place for her mummy high up in the cliff.
+They cut a chamber in the rock, and made the
+tomb in that valley known to-day as the Valley
+of the Tombs of the Kings.</p>
+
+<p>Other kings came to the valley. They erected
+temples, and their engineers cut into the heart of
+the mountains, to make chambers in which to hide
+their bodies. They built up the places as strongly
+as they could. They devised obstructions to stop
+any one from entering. They hid the entrances
+to the tombs so carefully, that it was impossible
+to tell whether the places had ever been disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>All their labour, all their secrecy, was in vain.
+Not a single tomb in all Egypt has yet been found
+intact. Every tomb discovered has been rifled of
+its treasure. Even the tomb of Tutankhamen is
+no exception. The actual holes which the robbers
+made to enter the tomb were discovered, and, judging
+by the wealth of the furniture and other things
+remaining, the haul of gold and silver must have
+been enormous.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span></p>
+
+<p>The high priests, horrified at the desecration of
+the tombs, feared so much for the royal mummies
+in their charge, that they went out stealthily into
+the deserted hills and sought a secret hiding-place.
+Then they brought many royal mummies to it,
+one by one, probably under cover of darkness,
+and hid them away from thievish eyes and
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>For centuries, for thousands of years, the robbers
+were defeated; the ancient kings and queens of
+Egypt slept on undisturbed in their secret sepulchre.
+Yet in the end the tomb robbers triumphed. Somehow,
+sometime, they managed to find the tomb.
+They did not blazon their discovery to the world.
+The booty was too rich for that, so they began
+systematically robbing the tomb and disposing of
+the relics to travellers who passed that way.</p>
+
+<p>The ultimate discovery of the tomb by Sir
+Gaston Maspero is one of the greatest romances
+of Egyptology. One day in 1881, a visitor showed
+Maspero some wonderfully illuminated pages of a
+royal ritual. Maspero, gazing on them in amazement,
+inquired whence they came, and learned that
+they had been bought at Thebes.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly all Maspero’s suspicions crystallized
+into action. He had long suspected that the Arabs
+had found a royal tomb, and here was definite
+evidence. Without delay he journeyed to Thebes,
+and discussed the matter with the authorities.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span>
+Secret inquiries pointed to four brothers, who lived
+in some deserted tombs, as having knowledge of
+the find. A decision to arrest one of them, in
+the hopes that he would speak, was at once carried
+into effect. The Arab was thrown into prison,
+but he said nothing, denied all knowledge of the
+matter for seven or eight weeks. Maspero could
+not wait. Offering a big reward for information
+of the discovery, he returned down the Nile, and
+ultimately his reward tempted one of the brothers
+to come forward and agree to lead the authorities
+to the tomb.</p>
+
+<p>Maspero, back in Cairo, sent an Egyptologist
+with an assistant hot-foot to Thebes. A rendezvous
+was fixed at Deir-el-Bahari. Picking their way over
+the rocks, the Arabs led the two strangers along the
+foot of the escarpment which frowned bare and
+sinister above their heads. In a short while they
+came to a boulder which had fallen from the cliffs
+above. Screened in the most remarkable manner
+by this mighty rock, the entrance had escaped
+human eyes for three thousand years. Arabs and
+strangers lit their candles, a rope was uncoiled and
+shaken down the black shaft, and one after another
+they slid down 40 feet to the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>The strangers groped their way along a tunnel,
+following the flickering candles just ahead, stooping
+to escape the rocky ceiling, at times almost having
+to go down on their hands and knees. They turned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>
+a corner, still groping and climbing along the rocky
+passage, down a flight of rock-cut stairs, deeper and
+deeper into the recesses of the mountain, kicking
+against bits of mummy cases, fragments of bandages.
+On they went, their excitement rising with every
+step.</p>
+
+<p>At last they came to a chamber in the rock. It
+was like an Aladdin’s cave. Mummy cases were
+everywhere, standing up against the wall, lying
+down and piled on top of each other. Great piles
+of boxes, alabaster vases, statuettes—it was incredible,
+absolutely amazing.</p>
+
+<p>Without giving the newcomers time to take in
+the wonderful sight, the Arabs led the way through
+this chamber down and down through another
+passage. After traversing 60 yards they came
+to a chamber that was even more amazing, more
+wonderful than the last. The strangers could
+hardly believe their eyes. All around the burial
+chamber were royal mummies, the glitter of gold
+and colour showing up under the flickering candles.
+The cases were exquisitely carved and decorated,
+so well preserved that it was as though they were
+made but yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>So intensely excited was the Egyptologist, that it
+required an effort of will to make him realize this
+was not a dream, but reality, that he was the first
+white man in the history of the world to gaze on
+such a glorious sight; to see the ancient kings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span>
+and queens as they had slumbered through the
+centuries.</p>
+
+<p>He looked around him, examined the royal
+names and titles. Here were Seti <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, Thothmes <span class="allsmcap">II</span>,
+Thothmes <span class="allsmcap">III</span>, Rameses <span class="allsmcap">II</span>. Wherever he looked the
+mummy of a king or queen greeted his astonished
+gaze. He was literally astounded, hardly able to
+take it all in. The magnitude of the find overwhelmed
+him. He counted the mummies one by
+one—eleven kings, nine queens, a prince and a
+princess! It was unbelievable.</p>
+
+<p>In a little while, when the first excitement had
+passed away, he became the man of action once
+more. Realizing to the full that only the promptest
+measures could save the tomb from being looted,
+he quickly collected three hundred Arabs, and he
+and his assistant began to remove the treasures.
+They never halted, never rested, labouring on all
+through that day and the next without a moment’s
+sleep, removing the kings and queens from their
+resting-place, sewing them up in sailcloth, and
+getting them into the open. In forty-eight hours
+they cleared the tomb of everything it contained,
+and in another three days they had conveyed
+the mummies over the plain of Thebes to the
+Nile.</p>
+
+<p>The natives were ugly, threatening, angry that
+their kings should be disturbed—still more angry
+that there was no chance for them to plunder the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span>
+tomb any more. Not for a moment dared the
+Egyptologist and his assistant leave their precious
+charge, not until the steamer arrived that was to
+take the royal mummies down to Cairo.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the discovery spread like wildfire
+through the villages, and as the steamer passed
+slowly down the Nile, the Egyptian women hailed
+the passing with the death wail, running along the
+banks, tearing their hair and uttering their awful
+cries. Men wailed and fired their guns. It was one
+of the most remarkable sights ever witnessed, the
+natives of our own time mourning the Pharaohs
+who reigned thousands of years ago.</p>
+
+<p>It was the triumph of a man whose whole life
+was wrapped up in the past life of Egypt, whose
+own life was as romantic as that of any man who
+was destined to throw a little light upon the dead
+civilizations of the Pharaohs. Maspero was but a
+boy of fourteen when he was attracted by some of
+the ancient picture-writing of the Egyptians. The
+queer little figures exercised a strange spell over
+him. He was quite fascinated by them, so much so,
+that he made up his boyish mind to learn to read
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Probably hundreds of thousands of boys have seen
+pictures of the hieroglyphics and thought them very
+funny, but who has heard of another boy who was
+so anxious to read them that he studied them at
+any and every opportunity, as Gaston Maspero did?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span>
+He who seeks knowledge will always find some way
+of acquiring it. Gaston Maspero studied the picture-writing
+to such good purpose that he learned to read
+it quite easily and translate it with considerable
+skill. He used to read the pictures to his school
+friends, and they were considerably impressed by
+this ability.</p>
+
+<p>One night in 1867, some of Maspero’s fellow-students
+were having dinner with their tutor, and
+Mariette, the famous Egyptologist, was present.
+Naturally the talk turned on Egypt, and the
+students tried to impress Mariette by mentioning
+that Maspero could read hieroglyphics, and that he
+had taught himself.</p>
+
+<p>Mariette was amused at the idea. “Ask him to
+read this for me,” he said, and gave them an inscription
+he had just discovered and which had not
+been translated.</p>
+
+<p>Maspero’s companions took the inscription, and
+Maspero sat down and translated it. When
+Mariette received the translation he was far more
+amazed at finding this young man of twenty-one in
+Paris who could read hieroglyphics, than he would
+have been at finding some new temple on the Nile.
+It seemed to him simply incredible, so he gave
+Maspero something else to translate—lines that
+were all mutilated and from which a great deal
+was missing.</p>
+
+<p>Maspero sat down to the problem, and after a few<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span>
+days managed to translate the fragments and supply
+the missing parts. Then Mariette realized that he
+had indeed found a born Egyptologist, and it is not
+surprising that the boy who was so interested that
+he taught himself to read the picture-writing should
+succeed Mariette in Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>Who knows what Mariette thought when the
+translations of Maspero were brought to him?
+Perhaps his mind flashed back over the years to the
+rather unhappy time when he, a lad of eighteen,
+was professor of French at a school in Stratford-on-Avon,
+to the days when his talent for drawing was
+confined to designing ribbons for a Coventry manufacturer.
+Maybe he remembered how happily he
+returned to France to take his degree at Douai,
+those articles he wrote to add to his income, the
+cousin who had been dealing with Champollion’s
+material, and whose death brought all the material
+of that great man under Mariette’s own fingers.</p>
+
+<p>From that period dates Mariette’s own romantic
+career. He was under thirty when he went to
+Egypt in search of manuscripts, and found instead
+the ruins of the Serapeum at Memphis. His diggers
+fought the desert, and rescued the Sphinx from the
+grasping sands, tore the drift of centuries from the
+ruins of the temples of Edfu, uncovered the glories of
+Karnak. The years brought more discoveries, his
+work was acclaimed, honours were heaped upon
+him. The call of Egypt to Mariette was irresistible,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span>
+as it had been to Champollion, as it was to Maspero.
+Fate linked these three Frenchmen together to add
+to our knowledge of the past. They loved France,
+but the deserts and the debris of Egypt became part
+of their lives.</p>
+
+<p>Often they went in the burning sun to the Valley
+of the Tombs of the Kings—one of the most desolate
+places on earth. Not a tree to be seen, not a flower,
+not even a blade of grass. Vegetation cannot live
+there. It is a veritable valley of the dead, an inferno
+of desolation. Birds avoid it, animals shun it, only
+the bats haunt the tombs. There at the base of the
+hills is the wonderful temple of Queen Hatshepsut,
+with its rows of pillars standing like sentinels before
+the blackness which is beyond. Years ago no trace
+of it could be seen, but a man with a spade came
+along and found it, and after prodigious labours it
+was dug out of the overlying rubble and rock in
+which it was buried.</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere is the eternal rubble and sand.
+Huge piles of debris mark the sites where the diggers
+have been working; broken steps leading downwards
+into the mountains indicate where tombs
+have been found.</p>
+
+<p>Rain hardly ever falls there.... If you sat and
+waited for a shower of rain, you would have to wait
+on an average for five years! Perhaps twenty times
+in a century the clouds break over the Valley of the
+Tombs of the Kings, but the ground is so parched
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span>and rocky that a deluge is almost swallowed up
+as it falls. In an hour the valley is again as dry
+as a bone.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_127" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_127.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">THE WONDERFUL TEMPLE OF QUEEN HATSHEPSUT AT THE BASE OF THE CLIFFS IN THE VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF
+THE KINGS. THE TINY FIGURE OF A MAN, NO BIGGER THAN A PIN-HEAD, ON THE CENTRAL ROAD, SERVES TO
+INDICATE THE SIZE OF THE TEMPLE</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>The valley leads nowhere, except into the desert.
+There was nothing to call the natives in that direction.
+It was like a lonely valley in another world,
+and this loneliness no doubt was one of the factors
+which decided the Pharaohs to seek their last
+resting-places here. Another factor was that the
+limestone of the hills was an excellent stone in which
+to cut the chambers which were to be the eternal
+homes of the kings.</p>
+
+<p>All their thought, all their secrecy to keep their
+tombs inviolate, was in vain. The most trusted
+men were chosen to carve out these underground
+chambers, but where many men are engaged on
+a secret mission, the secret is bound to leak
+out.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the workers may have told their wives,
+who in turn may have dropped a remark in all
+innocence which led the robbers to the exact spot.
+The workers themselves, despite the faith of their
+masters, were not always to be trusted, and there is
+little doubt that some of them led the thieves to the
+tombs and told them exactly where and how to break
+in, that in some cases the very men who had built
+the tombs came back afterwards by night and
+plundered them.</p>
+
+<p>It may easily have been the builders who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span>
+robbed the tomb of Tutankhamen, for Mr. Carter
+discovered that the thieves entered within a few
+years of the King’s burial, and that the tomb was
+then resealed by the keepers of the royal burial-places.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">The</span> romance of ancient Egypt is not nearly
+told. Hundreds of volumes have been
+written about it; hundreds more are still
+to write. Day by day something is being turned up
+under the spade to increase our knowledge of those
+far-off times, and though we know more than the
+people of a century ago, our present knowledge will
+probably prove trifling compared with the knowledge
+of a century hence.</p>
+
+<p>For years the French, favoured by important
+digging concessions, made many fine discoveries,
+among them those of Mariette who, going up to
+Thebes, saw a few columns sticking out of the sand
+at Karnak and began to excavate the site. Most
+men would have quailed before the gigantic task,
+but Mariette set his diggers to work, and slowly but
+surely rescued from the clutches of the desert all
+that remained of one of the most remarkable temples
+in the world. Mountains of sand and broken rock
+were shifted, not by mammoth machines that dug
+out a truck-load of sand at once, but by natives who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span>
+shovelled it into baskets and ran off with it, seven
+pounds at a time!</p>
+
+<p>When Mariette returned to Egypt with Louis
+Napoleon some years later, the Egyptologist was
+as keen on the work as ever. He again began to
+excavate, and among other things found a statue
+representing the god Ammon, in whose honour the
+temple at Karnak was originally built. Standing
+by the knee of the god was a headless figure, said
+to be that of Tutankhamen in his boyhood.</p>
+
+<p>Mariette, well knowing the value of the group,
+showed his regard for Prince Napoleon by making
+him a present of the statue, and the Prince, fired
+by what he saw in Egypt, and no doubt by
+Mariette’s enthusiasm, started to collect things
+Egyptian.</p>
+
+<p>The time came when Prince Napoleon made up
+his mind to sell his Egyptian treasures. He sold
+many things, but no one would look at the statue,
+so it was bought in at the sale for £20. For long it
+remained in the Prince’s château, until a dealer
+eventually acquired it for a trifling sum. Quickly
+assuring himself of the antiquity of the statue, the
+dealer went to the Louvre to offer the piece to the
+nation.</p>
+
+<p>The authorities inquired the price.</p>
+
+<p>“I have been offered 300,000 francs by an
+American, but I would rather let France have it
+for 250,000 francs,” was the reply.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was true. An American had offered £12,000
+for the despised statue, which no one would buy
+at the original sale, the same statue which the
+Louvre gladly acquired for £10,000.</p>
+
+<p>Museums will pay almost anything for fine
+specimens that throw some light on past ages.
+They will willingly fit out special expeditions to
+various parts of the world. Often museums cooperate
+in working a site, as in the case of the
+Temple of the Moon God at Ur, in Mesopotamia, which
+has been worked by the University Museum of Philadelphia
+and the British Museum. The Americans
+are indeed taking an increasing interest in digging
+up the past, and they have many fine discoveries
+to their credit, not least among them being the
+finding of the famous Nippur tablets in Mesopotamia,
+tablets which now grace the museum
+at Philadelphia. Theodore Davis, too, has done
+splendid work in the Nile Valley, and found
+several important tombs, among them that of
+Thothmes IV.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, since men began to dig in Egypt, no tomb
+has revealed so many treasures as that of Tutankhamen.
+The value of the contents of the tomb,
+with its lion-couches and chariots and alabaster
+statues and vases, is computed at £3,000,000.
+It is indeed impossible to fix the monetary worth
+of such things. All that can be said is that their
+value to science is incalculable.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p>
+
+<p>This is by no means the first big find to be made
+by Mr. Howard Carter, for years ago he revealed
+the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, whose temple is
+one of the sights of the Valley of the Kings. The
+entrance to her tomb, high up on the face of the
+rocky hillside, led to a gallery winding round and
+round like a corkscrew. The builders of the tomb
+must have had a terrible time, for they unluckily
+selected a very bad spot, where the rock was soft,
+and so they were driven to go down and down,
+until they hit on a place where the rock was hard
+enough to serve for the burial chamber. Here
+the chamber was hewn out of the rock, and
+here it was found by Mr. Howard Carter several
+thousand years later, after the usual thieves had
+plundered it. The stench and heat were almost
+overpowering.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Howard Carter is more familiar with
+Thebes than most Londoners are with London. At
+one time he was Inspector-General of Antiquities
+there, so it will be realized that his knowledge of
+the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings is quite
+exceptional, and that it was something more
+than good luck which led him to his greatest find
+of all.</p>
+
+<p>It is astonishing how trifles sometimes lead to
+big discoveries. For instance, when Professor
+Flinders Petrie was at Gizeh in the ’eighties, an
+Arab offered to sell him part of an alabaster<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span>
+statuette. Instantly Petrie recognized it as a
+very early Greek work.</p>
+
+<p>“Where did you get it?” he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The Arab told him, and at the first opportunity
+the Egyptologist took the train to the nearest
+point. For 20 miles he trudged over the country,
+often going astray, but coming in the end to
+many mounds in the desert. Countless fragments
+of early Greek pottery furnished Petrie with all
+the evidence he needed. Quickly filling his
+pockets, he started on his long walk back to the
+train.</p>
+
+<p>The following year he returned to the mounds.
+His first task was to find a shelter. He had barely
+done this when he noticed two stones lying just
+outside. He stooped and turned one over, to find
+it was a proclamation of the long-lost city of
+Naukratis carved in Greek characters, a city which
+men had eagerly sought, a city the very existence
+of which some men doubted. It was a sudden
+revelation, a mighty discovery to spring from a
+little alabaster statue, and it provides one more
+indication of the genius of its discoverer.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the weirdest experience in all Egyptology
+was Petrie’s discovery of the noble Horuta at
+Hawara down a well 40 feet deep. Here in a flooded
+chamber, amid impenetrable blackness, he and his
+labourers wrestled continually with mighty blocks,
+in order to get to the stone sarcophagus which he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span>
+suspected was there. They found it at last, with
+the lid barely peeping above the surface of the icy
+water.</p>
+
+<p>For days they strove to shift it, but it was immovable,
+so he decided to cut the sarcophagus
+in halves in order to get at the inner coffin. Weeks
+of fatiguing labour saw this gigantic task accomplished,
+and there was another desperate fight,
+with men working up to their chests in water,
+to get it out.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of the coveted head-end of the sarcophagus,
+the foot-end came to light. It was a
+terrible disappointment. The coffin still remained
+in the other half, and was apparently as far
+off as ever. The Egyptologist, groping in the
+murky water, fought with it, strove to shift
+it with his hands, with his feet. It was firmly
+fixed.</p>
+
+<p>Still he was not beaten. After a sustained effort
+lasting several days, he and his workers managed
+to raise the lid of the other half of the sarcophagus
+with wedges, until the inside of it was a few inches
+above water-level. Then he wriggled inside, and
+for hours in the darkness he sat astride the coffin
+and struggled to loosen it. The top of his head
+touched the lid of the sarcophagus, he had hardly
+room to move at all, the water came up to his mouth
+and compelled him to breathe through his nose.
+More than once in the course of his tremendous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span>
+exertions he took in a mouthful of the nauseous
+water. The sand clung to the coffin as though
+it were set in a bed of cement. He tried scraping
+away the sand with his feet, he prised at the coffin
+with crowbars. All his efforts failed to shift it a
+fraction of an inch.</p>
+
+<p>Few men would have continued under such
+hopeless conditions; most would have acknowledged
+defeat and betaken themselves to an easier task.
+But Flinders Petrie was possessed of a determination
+that would not be denied. He set to work
+drilling holes in the coffin—a most difficult feat.
+When this was done bolts were inserted, strong
+ropes were attached, and the men went along the
+passage and hauled away with all their strength.
+For a time it was like heaving at a mountain, then
+the coffin stirred slightly, moved more and more.
+Backs were bending under the strain, arms almost
+cracking as the men taking part in that fantastic
+tug-of-war with a dead man finally triumphed and
+dragged the water-blackened coffin out of the
+depths.</p>
+
+<p>Breathlessly they opened it, found the mummy of
+Horuta, “wrapped in a network of lapis lazuli,
+beryl, and silver.... Bit by bit the layers of pitch
+and cloth were loosened, and row after row of
+magnificent amulets were disclosed, just as they
+were laid on in the distant past. The gold ring on
+his finger which bore his name and titles, the exquisitely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span>
+inlaid gold birds, the chased gold figures,
+the lazuli statuettes, the polished lazuli and beryl
+and carnelian amulets finely engraved.”</p>
+
+<p>Forgotten were the herculean labours of the past
+months, forgotten the icy water that froze their
+bodies, the blackness that blinded them, swept
+away by the sight of the treasures disclosed to their
+delighted eyes, the treasures for which they had
+endured so much and fought so long. The recovery
+of the mummy of Horuta is one of the epics of the
+Nile.</p>
+
+<p>The world-famous tablets of Tell el Amarna were
+accidentally discovered by an Arab woman, who
+happened on them while searching the ruins for
+trifles to sell to tourists. The tablets were letters
+sent by the King of Babylon to the King of Egypt,
+written in the usual cuneiform characters on slabs
+of clay, and they disclose much concerning the life
+of that time. A remarkable thing is that in one of
+the letters, the King of Babylon mentions that he
+is sending a present of some couches to the King
+of Egypt, and the discovery of the tomb of
+Tutankhamen has brought to light what appear
+to be the very couches which were presented
+to the King of Egypt nearly four thousand years
+ago.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Petrie has little doubt that the strange
+lion-couches are of Babylonian origin, and that
+these are the couches referred to in the Tell el<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span>
+Amarna letters. The couches found in Tutankhamen’s
+tomb are secured with bronze clasps. The
+Babylonians secured their furniture in this way,
+but the Egyptians never did, for in the Nile
+valley the furniture was held together with wooden
+pegs; so the evidence distinctly favours the view
+that these are indeed the Babylonian couches
+mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Carnarvon, in a lecture at the Central Hall,
+Westminster, gave a vivid account of the opening
+of the tomb, telling how they cleared the passage
+leading to the first chamber, how they broke a hole
+through the sealed wall just large enough to see
+through, how Mr. Howard Carter held up his candle
+and peered into the tomb, uttering no word. All
+the time Lord Carnarvon was on tenterhooks,
+wondering what was behind the wall. A moment
+later he peered through, and saw one of the
+most wonderful sights that has ever greeted an
+excavator.</p>
+
+<p>To come on such a wealth of treasure is actually
+a grave responsibility. Before now men have seen
+statues suddenly collapse into dust before their
+amazed eyes, have watched brilliantly decorated
+mummy cases crumble without warning into heaps
+of powder.</p>
+
+<p>A most dramatic incident occurred after the
+unique discovery of all the royal mummies in 1881.
+Exercising the utmost care, Maspero slowly unwrapped<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span>
+one of the mummies in order to gaze on
+the actual features of the dead monarch. A camera
+was focused, the plate exposed, and even as the
+photograph was taken the face vanished into
+nothingness. Maspero was terribly upset at the
+loss of the mummy, so upset that he refused to allow
+the mummy of Rameses the Great to be unwrapped,
+for fear it, too, should vanish.</p>
+
+<p>For things cannot last for ever, even in the dry
+air of Egypt. They cannot spend thousands of
+years in tombs without becoming fragile. Their
+preservation is therefore imperative. Everything
+must be photographed from many angles, in order
+to provide a complete record in pictures. In the
+case of the treasures of Tutankhamen, electric
+lamps of 2000 candle-power were installed in the
+tomb, for the use of the photographer. Paraffin
+wax, dissolved celluloid, sheets of glass, various
+acids, are used to prevent decay.</p>
+
+<p>Even when all precautions are taken, things have
+to be very carefully handled. They literally need
+wrapping in cotton wool, and one of Lord Carnarvon’s
+first purchases, when he saw the extent of his
+discovery, was a mile and a half of cotton wool to
+wrap round the treasures.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_141" style="max-width: 40.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_141.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British Museum</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">THESE MARVELLOUS COFFINS, FOUND AT THEBES, ARE DECORATED WITH
+SCENES FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. THE REPRODUCTIONS GIVE
+ONLY A FAINT IDEA OF THE WONDERFUL BEAUTY OF THE ORIGINALS,
+WHICH ARE ALL PAINTED IN THE MOST GORGEOUS COLOURS AND IN SOME
+CASES HEAVILY OVERLAID WITH GOLD. THEY ARE FINE EXAMPLES OF
+THE REMARKABLE SKILL OF THE EGYPTIAN ARTISTS. THAT OF HU-EN-AMEN
+ON THE LEFT IS ABOUT 2,700 YEARS OLD, AND THE OTHER OF
+ATHA-NEB IS ABOUT 2,400 YEARS OLD</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>As far back as 1888, Flinders Petrie was confronted
+by the problem of preserving a coffin
+from which the stucco was peeling. After much
+consideration, he dropped melted paraffin wax
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span>on the weak spots, and thought he had solved
+the difficulty. To his dismay the wax made
+matters worse. The outer margins of the wax
+contracted in cooling, and formed saucer-like
+depressions which pulled the stucco away from
+the wood.</p>
+
+<p>He was so gravely concerned that for days
+he racked his brains to find a remedy. At last,
+he took a brazier full of glowing charcoal, and
+held it near the waxen saucers. To his joy
+he saw the wax melting into the cracks and
+under the stucco, cementing it firmly to the
+wood again.</p>
+
+<p>Nowhere else on this earth are the past and
+present so intermixed as at Thebes. Here extreme
+antiquity may be seen side by side with
+modern science, motor-cars passing asses, and
+electricity illuminating the ancient tombs. The
+mummy of Seti <span class="allsmcap">II</span> lies with an electric light
+above his head, so that visitors may have no
+difficulty in gazing on his features!</p>
+
+<p>The remarkable paintings in the tombs are
+executed so skilfully, the outlines are drawn and
+coloured so correctly, that the possibility of doing
+such work in the darkness of an underground
+chamber has often been questioned. More than
+once it has been said that the light of torches or
+candles would be quite inadequate, and it has
+been suggested that the Egyptians may have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span>
+anticipated modern science by using electric light
+thousands of years ago.</p>
+
+<p>That the Egyptians were clever is beyond all
+doubt, that they may have known things of which
+we to-day are ignorant is more than possible, but
+the decorations of the tombs are no evidence that
+they were conversant with the use of electricity.
+The ancient methods of lighting the tombs so that
+the artists could see to work were after all quite
+simple. The artists worked by the light of the
+sun. The sun might be perhaps a hundred feet or
+more away along a passage, yet a white garment
+would serve excellently for reflecting the light into
+the tomb.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Flinders Petrie has worked wonders
+with the lid of a biscuit box, and in bygone days a
+man might often have been seen holding a tin lid
+at the mouth of a tunnel leading into a tomb,
+deflecting the ray of light right into the tomb, to
+enable the Egyptologist to take photographs. If
+the lid of a biscuit box happened to be missing,
+then a turkish towel was made to serve the same
+purpose. The actinic qualities of the sun in the
+Nile valley are indeed remarkable.</p>
+
+<p>Many things have turned up under the spade in
+Egypt, wonderful stone vases, jars with faint
+traces of perfume still pervading them, slate palettes
+on which the people mixed the paints with which
+they touched up their eyes and faces. While the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>
+Ancient Britons were painting themselves with woad,
+the Egyptian ladies were sitting at their dressing-tables
+making up their eyes in quite the modern
+fashion, the Egyptian children were playing with
+toys such as the children play with to-day. The
+Egyptian forerunner of Pepys carved his diary on
+a piece of ebony, one page to a whole year!</p>
+
+<p>Glass was in use in Egypt thousands of years
+before it was heard of in Europe; Egypt taught
+the world the use of bronze; and the flint implements
+found on the banks of the Nile are finer
+than any others so far discovered in the world.
+Some of the knives of the best period are simply
+marvellous and disclose extraordinary skill on the
+part of the Egyptian flint workers. There are
+stone knives in the British Museum with teeth as
+regular and as fine as those of a modern, machine-cut
+fret saw, teeth so minute as to be almost invisible
+to the naked eye. One masterpiece of a
+flint knife, cleverly flaked in the most remarkable
+manner, has about fifty tiny teeth to the inch, and
+it is astounding to think that such amazing hand
+work was performed by the Egyptians of the Stone
+Age. Probably there is not a living man who could
+duplicate such work.</p>
+
+<p>Now the treasures of Tutankhamen grip the
+imagination and dazzle the eye. Tutankhamen
+made a priceless, a magnificent gift to posterity,
+yet it is to Ptolemy v. that we owe the greatest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span>
+gift of all. The gift is merely that broken stone
+in the British Museum, the stone which was dug
+out of the ruins of Fort St. Julian in 1798. In
+causing that stone to be carved, Ptolemy presented
+us with the key to the knowledge of ancient
+Egypt.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_148" style="max-width: 47.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_148.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British Museum</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">THE FAMOUS INSCRIPTION OF KING DARIUS AT BEHISTUN, IN PERSIA, FROM
+WHICH SIR HENRY RAWLINSON WRESTED THE LONG-LOST SECRET OF CUNEIFORM
+WRITING. AT THE EDGE OF THE NARROW LEDGE ON WHICH THE
+ARAB STANDS, THE ROCK DROPS SHEER FOR 300 FEET TO THE BOULDER-STREWN
+FOOT OF THE CLIFFS</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">Countless</span> caravans wended their way
+from the parched plains of Mesopotamia
+eastwards over the Persian border, past
+Kermanshah, winding along the road that skirts
+the range of hills rising to the left, and so through
+Behistun, a mere collection of huts with a name
+that is famous throughout all the seats of learning
+in the world. Here the caravans halted while
+men and beasts slaked their thirst in the pool, but
+few of the travellers troubled to look a second time
+at the great stone of Behistun rising above the
+plain. Users of the road were ever more interested
+in the spring than in the figures sculptured in the
+rock.</p>
+
+<p>The carvings were old—as old as the hills—and
+like the hills they became part of the landscape.
+They were legendary, carved, so people said, by the
+gods in the dim past. Age-old myths concerning
+them were poured into the ear of the stranger who
+passed that way, but those who used the road
+regularly, and those who dwelt in the neighbourhood,
+took no more notice of the rock carvings of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span>
+Behistun than they took of the other features of
+the scenery. The most aged man was as ignorant
+of the origin of the carvings as was the youngest
+stripling.</p>
+
+<p>There the figures stood for centuries, for thousands
+of years. The traders drove their animals along
+the road to the sound of jingling bells, quaffed the
+waters of the spring, and passed onward, much more
+concerned about their merchandise than about
+the carvings on the bluff.</p>
+
+<p>Had the figures been more accessible, they would
+have vanished long ago. Senseless wanderers
+would have taken pleasure in smashing them, and
+rain and frost and sun would have completed the
+destruction. But the figures were carved too high,
+and the rock below had been cut away by the masons
+of old, leaving a perpendicular wall which could
+only be scaled at considerable risk. Above them
+was the sheer cliff. There was no way down to
+them, no easy way up to them. The escarpment
+on which they were carved rose for 1700 feet, and
+they were graved out of the living rock 300 feet
+above the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Except for a few travellers’ tales, the carvings at
+Behistun were unknown to the teeming multitudes
+dwelling in the great cities. Few men would have
+thought of looking in this lonely spot in Persia for
+the lost key to Babylon and Assyria. Yet here
+was the key for the man who had the courage and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span>
+determination to wrest it from the mountains.
+Such a man came in the end, over two thousand four
+hundred years after the ancient sculptors had
+carved the last figure and removed the last
+scaffolding.</p>
+
+<p>The discovery of the key to Egyptian hieroglyphics,
+and the discovery of the key to cuneiform
+writing, resemble each other in more ways than
+one. It will be remembered that a soldier found
+the Rosetta Stone, and that an Englishman was
+the first man to indicate the manner of reading it.
+Rawlinson, whose genius solved the puzzle of
+Persian cuneiform, was also a soldier and an
+Englishman. It seems strange that science
+should be indebted to a doctor and a soldier
+for lifting the curtains of the past, that scholars
+who had spent their lives studying foreign
+languages should have to rely upon two men
+to whom these things were just an absorbing
+hobby.</p>
+
+<p>When Henry Rawlinson sailed for Bombay to
+enter the service of the East India Company in
+1827, he was only seventeen years old. Blessed
+with an uncanny knack for learning languages, he
+found this ability stood him in good stead upon
+his arrival in India. Where other men were beaten
+by native dialects, he took to them as a duck
+takes to water. Before he was twenty, he was one
+of the interpreters for the army of the East India<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span>
+Company, and long before he was thirty he could
+speak Persian like a native.</p>
+
+<p>His remarkable abilities stamped him as a man
+who would go far, as one destined to play many
+parts in the ever-changing East. For a time he
+concentrated his energies on reorganizing the
+Persian army; at other periods he was frequenting
+the courts of the Shah and the Amir
+of Afghanistan, filling the intervals with hard
+fighting, a good deal of administration, and the
+pleasure that lay nearest his heart—the study of
+dialects.</p>
+
+<p>The Orient cast a spell over him, and the legends
+of Persia particularly appealed to his imagination.
+He was in the land where history began. The
+past called to him. Little bits of burnt brick
+with strange marks on them intrigued him. It
+was as though a robin had hopped all over them
+while they were wet, and had left behind impressions
+something like a bird leaves in the snow.
+He knew these fragments were the old writings,
+though they were like no known writings on earth,
+and at last he made up his mind to see if he could
+find the key to the cuneiform characters.</p>
+
+<p>In 1835 Rawlinson, then a young man of twenty-five,
+took up his residence at Kermanshah, as
+commander of all the troops in the province.
+Behistun was no more than 20 miles away,
+and something must have told the soldier that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span>
+here was the key to the riddle he sought. So,
+when opportunity served, he jogged along the
+old road to the rock of Behistun, and began to
+copy the inscription. He had no rope, no ladder
+to assist him. All he had to rely upon were his
+own sure feet and strong hands. A slip meant
+certain death, yet the risk sat so lightly on his
+shoulders that he made his dangerous way up
+and down the precipice three and four times
+a day.</p>
+
+<p>There came a time when ladders were absolutely
+essential to secure the copies he needed. So narrow
+was the ledge at the foot of the sculptures that
+Rawlinson was forced to place his ladder almost
+perpendicularly against the face of the rock. For
+long periods he perched in a most precarious
+position at the top of the ladder and glued himself
+to the rock. The least little movement outwards
+on his part and the ladder would have overbalanced
+and plunged with him to destruction.
+He knew it, yet he continued his work
+as calmly as though he were at a desk instead
+of standing on a crazy ladder at the edge of a
+precipice.</p>
+
+<p>On one never-to-be-forgotten occasion he escaped
+death by a miracle. He sought with his ladder
+to bridge a chasm in order to copy other inscriptions,
+but the formation of the rock made it
+impossible to place the ladder flat. Eventually,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span>
+after some trouble, he arranged the ladder with
+one side resting firmly on each opposing rocky
+ledge, while the other side hung free immediately
+below.</p>
+
+<p>Standing on the lower side, he took hold of the
+upper side of the ladder with his hands and started
+to walk across. Suddenly, without warning, the
+lower side of the ladder with all the rungs broke
+away from the upper side and dropped into the
+dizzy chasm. Rawlinson, as he fell, clung
+desperately to the top side of the ruined ladder.
+For a brief moment he swung on the verge of
+a terrible death, then, hand over hand, he made
+his way back to safety. In the end he managed
+to copy the Persian and Median inscriptions,
+but the other inscription in Babylonian on the
+outjutting rock defeated all his efforts to
+reach it.</p>
+
+<p>For three years he studied his inscriptions, and
+began to lay their secrets bare. The first draft of
+his great work was written. Then duty called
+him elsewhere, and the Afghan War put an end
+to his studies, compelling him to lay his book
+aside.</p>
+
+<p>It was 1844 before he was able to resume the
+work he was so anxious to do. That year saw him
+appointed British Consul at Baghdad, and he took
+up his residence in the city on the Tigris and his
+studies at the same time. He was once more in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span>
+the neighbourhood of Behistun, and eventually he
+made his plans for procuring a copy of the
+Babylonian inscription which had defeated him
+years before.</p>
+
+<p>Riding along the old highway to Behistun, he
+carried with him this time much rope and many
+sheets of thick paper. He studied the well-known
+rock from below. There was the long line of
+figures carved in the limestone, to their left the
+series of inscriptions cut in column. A little above,
+on the slanting rock, was the inscription he desired.
+Through a telescope he could make out the inscriptions
+he had already copied, but he needed the
+wings of an eagle to lift him to the other rock.
+He made his way round the top of the bluff, studying
+it from all angles, and concluded that it was
+impossible for him to obtain a copy of the last
+inscription.</p>
+
+<p>He inquired among the Kurdish peasants for
+one who would climb up to the rock and make a
+copy in the way he directed. He offered a good
+reward, but the peasants shook their heads. They
+considered the feat impossible. Rawlinson, paying
+no heed, pushed his inquiries further afield, and at
+last came on a Kurdish boy who willingly undertook
+the task.</p>
+
+<p>The lad was lithe, agile, sure-footed as a chamois,
+and he climbed up to the platform in front of the
+sculptures with little trouble. Equipping himself<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span>
+with some ropes and pegs and a hammer, he
+gazed up at his objective. The rock jutted
+outwards over the sheer precipice; it seemed
+impossible for anything but a fly to crawl
+over its face. For a little while the keen eyes
+of the lad sought for handholds and footholds;
+then he squeezed himself into a crevice at the
+side of the big rock and began to worm his way
+upward.</p>
+
+<p>Rawlinson gazed on while the lad mounted a foot
+at a time. Often the climber stopped while his
+fingers sought another hold, then he progressed a
+little higher. But at last even he came to a stop;
+he was unable to go on.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching above his head, he drove one of the
+wooden pegs deep down into the soil covering the
+rock. Attaching a rope to it, he tested it, pulling
+this way and that, to make sure that the peg held
+firmly.</p>
+
+<p>The onlookers watched with bated breath as the
+lad attached himself to the end of the rope, as he
+tried to swing himself across to the other side of
+the rock, clinging with hands and feet to the rocky
+surface, with death yawning for him below. Failure
+met his gallant attempt. Once more he tried,
+swinging over the rock face, with only a rope between
+himself and Eternity. Ten, fifteen, twenty feet he
+traversed, to find that further progress was impossible.
+Quickly reaching out, he drove another<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span>
+peg deep down into the soil above his head, as
+quickly attached a rope. The fixing of a seat to
+the ends of the two ropes to form a cradle was not
+very difficult, and sitting in this cradle the lad was
+able to go all over the rock, taking impressions of
+the inscription under Rawlinson’s direction on sheets
+of damp paper. In ten days the task was finished,
+and Rawlinson possessed the first complete copy
+of the cuneiform inscriptions at Behistun ever held
+in the hands of man.</p>
+
+<p>The supreme task of deciphering these inscriptions
+occupied Rawlinson on and off for many
+years. As already mentioned, the first draft of his
+book on the inscriptions was finished before he left
+Kermanshah; and when he came to the consulate
+at Baghdad he threw himself heart and soul into
+making a complete revision of his draft to embody
+his later studies and knowledge. Often in the
+intense heat he worked in a summer-house at the
+bottom of the garden, a pet lion lying at his feet,
+and a water-wheel from the river Tigris pouring
+water over the roof of the summer-house to keep
+it cool.</p>
+
+<p>There was the Greek script to assist Young and
+Champollion to decipher the hieroglyphics of the
+Rosetta Stone, but there was no known writing at
+all in the inscriptions at Behistun. There were
+three inscriptions carved on the rock face, Persian,
+Babylonian and Median cuneiform. The clue to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span>
+them was lost. No living race wrote in such a
+manner, and not a single man knew how to
+read the curious wedge-shaped writing of the
+ancients.</p>
+
+<p>Rawlinson therefore laboured under a much
+bigger handicap than that imposed on Young and
+Champollion. But Rawlinson was one of those
+men to whom a handicap means something to be
+surmounted. The bigger the handicap, the greater
+the satisfaction in overcoming it. The inscriptions
+at Behistun seemed to challenge him, to defy him
+to read them, as from their lofty pinnacle they had
+challenged men for ages past.</p>
+
+<p>Rawlinson was the man in a million. The lure
+of the past and the fascination of the East spurred
+him on to do the impossible. His courage was
+as great as his knowledge of dialects was
+profound. It was no hope of reward, of glory,
+that urged him to wrest the secret from his
+sheets of paper impressions. It was the desire
+to pit his brain against the baffling writing, to
+master it.</p>
+
+<p>Grotefend years before had pointed the way, but
+Rawlinson was ignorant of this fact. All the
+years that Rawlinson was writing and studying at
+Baghdad, an Irish clergyman, Dr. Hincks, was
+engaged on the same mighty task in a quiet rectory
+in Ireland, solving the puzzle which Rawlinson had
+already solved. Other men were wrestling with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span>
+the same difficulties, but Rawlinson knew absolutely
+nothing of them or their endeavours. He
+worked away incessantly, relying upon himself
+alone. He studied the queer, wedge-shaped impressions
+for months, noted their resemblances,
+found the characters that were repeated, and
+little by little, a character at a time, he built
+up that dead language, succeeded in reading the
+writing of the peoples who inhabited Persia and
+the plains of Mesopotamia long before the birth
+of Christ.</p>
+
+<p>In 1846 his great book, giving his reading of the
+inscriptions at Behistun, was published in London
+by the Royal Asiatic Society. The scientific world
+was astounded. People thought such a thing
+impossible. Many imagined that Rawlinson had
+invented some sort of reading of his own for
+the cuneiform characters. They reasoned that as
+there was no guide whatsoever, no man could ever
+read them.</p>
+
+<p>They reasoned wrongly, as time was to prove.
+The unearthing in Mesopotamia of a romantic
+cylinder of clay, all covered with arrow-headed
+characters, brought the longed-for opportunity of
+testing whether Rawlinson was right or wrong,
+whether he had indeed solved the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>Copies of the cylinder were given to four men
+who had learned to read cuneiform writing, among
+them Rawlinson. Each was asked to make a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span>
+translation, and to submit it to the authorities of
+the British Museum. The four translations were
+made, and the authorities sat down and compared
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Each translation told the same story of Tiglath-pileser,
+gave the same names and dates! It
+was a wonderful triumph for Rawlinson, for it
+proved beyond all doubt that he had indeed
+solved the mystery of the dead writing of Persia
+and Babylon.</p>
+
+<p>Rawlinson himself attributed his triumph to his
+familiarity with the local Persian dialects; it was
+his intimate knowledge of the languages spoken by
+the peasants and tribes of Persia that enabled him
+to get to the root of many of the words which so
+sorely puzzled him. By the time he managed to
+obtain his copy of the Babylonian inscription
+through the aid of the little Kurdish boy, he had
+already wrested the secret from the Persian inscription,
+and his book had been published a
+year.</p>
+
+<p>He found the clue to cuneiform in the name of
+two kings, just as Young found his first clue in
+the name of Ptolemy. Before he bent his energies
+on deciphering the Behistun inscriptions, he had
+closely studied two other inscriptions which were
+identical but for two words. Rawlinson, puzzling
+over these words, at length concluded they were
+the names of two kings, that one king was the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span>father and the other the son. He reasoned correctly,
+and thus obtained a clue to the inscriptions
+at Behistun, the deciphering of which ranks
+as one of the greatest achievements of the human
+brain.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_162" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_162.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British Museum</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">A RARE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ROCK SCULPTURES AT BEHISTUN, SHOWING
+DARIUS THE GREAT RECEIVING CAPTIVES OF WAR</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>Over five hundred years before the birth of
+Christ, Darius, King of Persia, caused an account
+of his campaigns to be engraved on the rock in
+Persian, Babylonian and Median, so that all men
+who passed that way might read of the deeds of
+the great king. A full-length portrait of the
+monarch was carved in stone for posterity to gaze
+on his features, and to add to his glory he was
+shown receiving some of the prisoners captured
+in his campaigns.</p>
+
+<p>The remarkable skill shown by the Persian king
+in selecting the site is proved by the fact that the
+figures still exist, in spite of the storms beating on
+them for two thousand four hundred years. Darius
+was not ignorant of human nature. He knew full
+well the tendency of man to destroy. To defeat this
+tendency he had the rock cut away sheer to the
+foot of the cliff, while to preserve his inscription from
+the ravages of time he caused it all to be brushed
+with a sort of yellow varnish, a varnish of such
+unique quality that some of it protects the stone
+to this very day.</p>
+
+<p>We know much, can do many things. We fly
+in the air, tunnel the mountains, travel beneath<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span>
+the sea. Yet there is still a little that is hidden
+from us; and one thing of which we remain ignorant
+is the secret of that old Persian varnish, which
+will endure frost and hail and rain and shine for
+twenty-four centuries.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">To</span> within a few years of the middle of
+the nineteenth century, Babylon and
+Assyria were only names. People read
+about them in the Bible, but no visible trace
+remained. They had vanished utterly from the
+face of the earth. Some thinkers, who knew how
+stories become distorted by the passage of time,
+questioned if such places ever existed, whether
+they were not just myths, the figments of the
+imaginations of some ancient scribes.</p>
+
+<p>The rivers Tigris and Euphrates flowed through
+deserts. It seemed impossible that such lands
+could once have been flowing with milk and honey,
+that they could have supported a big population
+and a high civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Wandering Arabs roved the plains, encamping
+where they listed, warring against the Sultan and
+each other. They drove their sheep wherever the
+scanty herbage offered them fodder. The spring
+saw the desert blossom like the rose, the summer
+sun changed it of a sudden to desolation, burning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span>
+up everything, sometimes leaving the tribes
+struggling in the grip of famine.</p>
+
+<p>Great mounds of sand stood up from the deserts
+on each side of the rivers, hills on which the Arabs
+used to set their black tents of goat hair, while
+their flocks fed on the scanty grass that clothed
+the mounds in spring. No sign was apparent of a
+previous civilization; just the great mounds humping
+out of the desert and the black tents of the Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>Those who saw the mounds did not trouble their
+heads about them. They took them for natural
+hills. There was no reason for them to think
+otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>No one questioned why such hills should crop
+suddenly out of the flat desert. The Arabs who set
+up a village or two of mud huts on some of the
+mounds did not ask themselves why they should
+occasionally turn up bricks among the rubbish on
+the hills. When things have been in existence
+as long as the mounds on the Tigris, and when
+bricks have been turned up as often as the Arabs
+have unearthed them, these things are accepted
+without question as a matter of course. Neither
+Turks nor Arabs troubled about the mounds. It
+was left to foreigners to prove that these lofty
+eminences were the handiwork of man, and that
+the mounds on the banks of the Tigris and the
+Euphrates covered all that was left of Assyria and
+Babylonia.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span></p>
+
+<p>In deciphering the stone of Behistun, Rawlinson
+did wonderful work. He was but thirty-five when
+he made the announcement that astounded the
+scientific world. The credit of uncovering the
+remains of ancient Assyria rests with Austin Henry
+Layard, who started life by studying law, and
+finished by making one of the greatest discoveries
+of the nineteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>Layard’s whole life was one long romance. He
+was endowed with a vivid imagination, which probably
+came from his mixed descent, for his mother
+was a Spanish lady and his father an Englishman.
+As a young man, Layard was set to studying law,
+but instead of attaining great legal honours, he
+was made a baronet for wielding pick and spade
+to such good purpose out in Mesopotamia, that he
+dug up more knowledge of the past than any one
+man before or since.</p>
+
+<p>Layard in his teens read the <cite>Arabian Nights</cite> with
+avidity. All the colour, the romance of the East
+appealed to his mind. He dreamed dreams of
+bazaars and eastern palaces, with veiled ladies and
+their lovers. While he dreamed these dreams he
+was compelled to study musty legal documents, in
+which he took not the slightest interest. Being
+confined in an office he hated, his great desire was
+to see the scenes he had read and dreamed about.
+Yet there was no escape for him. His father had
+chosen the law for him as a profession, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span>
+he continued his studies against his own inclinations.</p>
+
+<p>Working in his uncle’s office, Layard was not much
+impressed by the imagination or the generosity of
+his relative. Often when the lawyer thought his
+nephew was studying in his room, Layard was chatting
+with refugees, listening eagerly to their tales,
+and filling his rooms with the smell of fried sprats.</p>
+
+<p>His eagerness to travel and see the world was not
+wholly unsatisfied. He visited the Continent once or
+twice with a wealthy friend and saw much. There
+came a day when he made up his mind to see the
+land of the Tsars. He counted up his money. It
+was little enough, but by exercising strict economy
+he decided he might just manage to obtain another
+glimpse of the world. So he set out practically on
+the spur of the moment, and made his first acquaintance
+with Russia and Scandinavia.</p>
+
+<p>This adventurous young fellow was born with the
+desire to wander and see new lands and peoples.
+To a youth of his temperament, an office was a
+prison. While he was poring over his law-books,
+the figures of the <cite>Arabian Nights</cite> were flitting through
+his brain. His whole life was practically influenced
+by these tales of the East. “To them,” he wrote,
+“I attribute that love of travel and adventure which
+took me to the East, and led me to the discovery of
+the ruins of Nineveh. They give the truest, most
+lively and most interesting pictures of manners and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span>
+customs which still existed amongst Turks, Persians
+and Arabs when I first mixed freely with them.”</p>
+
+<p>Despite this overwhelming desire to travel, he
+grappled with his legal studies, and managed to pass
+his final examination. At that time his uncle arrived
+home from Ceylon, and it may be imagined how
+delightedly the young man listened to accounts of
+life in that far-off island. With his usual impetuosity
+he determined to go to Ceylon, to take up
+the profession he had studied.</p>
+
+<p>“I will travel overland,” he said. De Lesseps
+had still to carve the Suez Canal out of the desert
+sands. Why should Layard coop himself up in a
+ship and make his slow way all round Africa to
+India? It was then the usual way, but the usual
+way was not Layard’s way. He studied his maps
+and traced his route. Travelling overland would
+give him a splendid opportunity of seeing the world,
+and he hugged the secret thought in his heart that
+he would be able to wander in the lands of his
+dreams, to see Constantinople and Baghdad.</p>
+
+<p>He received £600 from his mother, to set him on
+the road to fame and fortune. Half this sum was
+sent to a bank in Ceylon so that he might collect it
+on his arrival, the other half he carried with him to
+pay his expenses on the long journey half across the
+world. He was only twenty-two years old when
+he said good-bye to his mother, and set out with a
+friend in 1839 to make his way to Ceylon. By the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span>
+autumn they were adventuring in Syria. They had
+no one to guide them, no servants to wait on them.
+They tended their own horses, and for the rest relied
+on their youth and their weapons.</p>
+
+<p>Layard’s thoughts turned in the direction of
+Nineveh and Babylon, and his horse’s head was
+turned in the same direction. He realized that the
+opportunity of seeing the land might never recur.
+So in the spring of 1840 the two friends jogged along
+from Aleppo to Mosul. They were lucky to get
+through unscathed, for the Arabs were warring with
+each other on all sides. The dwellers of the deserts
+were raiding right and left, and Layard often happened
+on encampments that were picked clean by
+the marauders. Once or twice the young Englishmen
+came upon bands of the raiders, but their luck
+stood them in good stead and they passed on their
+way unmolested. The two friends made light of
+these adventures, yet there was always the chance
+that a bullet might stretch them dead on the desert
+sands and that they would for ever disappear in the
+East.</p>
+
+<p>The great mounds of Nimroud, opposite Mosul,
+wielded a potent spell over Layard. He climbed
+about them, dreamed over them, picked up bits of
+brick with arrow-headed writing on them. Often
+he asked himself what lay under his feet. He saw
+bits of alabaster sticking out of the soil where the
+rains had washed them bare. The remains of a dam
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span>peeped out of the river Tigris. He asked an Arab
+who built it.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_171-1" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_171-1.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British School at Athens</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">EXCAVATING THE THRONE ROOM AT KNOSSOS. THE STONE THRONE
+MAY BE SEEN IN THE BACKGROUND (<em>see page <a href="#Page_185">185</a></em>)</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_171-2" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_171-2.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of R. Campbell Thomson</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">THE DESOLATION OF NINEVEH. THIS HILL WAS ONCE ONE OF THE
+WALLS OF THE CAPITAL OF ASSYRIA</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>“Nimrod,” said the Arab, referring to the great
+mythical god of the past.</p>
+
+<p>The stones of the dam were locked securely together.
+The waters poured over it in a cataract.
+Layard visioned the men in past ages building that
+dam, saw the waters held back and flowing into the
+canals to make the desert into a fertile plain. He
+galloped over the desert and saw traces of the silted-up
+canals, and he knew that the fertile land of the
+past and the desolate land through which he rode
+were one and the same. The neglect of man, the
+passage of time, and the absence of water were
+responsible for the change.</p>
+
+<p>He left Mosul on a raft of goatskins, floating down
+the Tigris to Baghdad as men had floated down
+for thousands of years. As he glided by on the
+slow-moving river the hillocks on the banks were
+beckoning to him, and he vowed to lay bare the
+past with a spade at the very first opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>It was two years before that opportunity arrived.
+When he got back to Mosul he found a Frenchman,
+M. Botta, was digging. For a long time Botta found
+little to encourage him to proceed with the work.
+A few fragments of brick and other trifles were all
+that turned up under the pick.</p>
+
+<p>Then one day an Arab gazed down on the trenches
+that Botta’s workmen were digging, wondering<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span>
+what on earth his compatriots from Mosul were
+searching for, and why they were going to all the
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>“What are you looking for?” he asked at last.</p>
+
+<p>The labourer who was digging straightened his
+back, and glancing round among the rubbish he
+had turned up, picked up a piece of brick with a
+few cuneiform characters on it. “This,” he said.</p>
+
+<p>The Arab laughed. It seemed to him a huge
+joke that men should be wasting their time digging
+in the earth for bits of broken brick. “Why, where
+I live there are thousands of them,” he said. “We
+find them when we are digging the foundations of
+our houses.”</p>
+
+<p>Botta was told what the peasant had said. The
+Frenchman was very dubious. He had heard such
+things before, and the rumours always proved
+false. The diggers, however, were so insistent,
+that at last he sent one or two off to the village of
+Khorsabad, where the peasant lived, to see what
+they could find.</p>
+
+<p>It was some little time before the diggers could
+persuade the villagers to allow them to sink a
+test hole. Eventually, the inhabitants were won
+over, and the excavators sank a shaft—which
+quickly ended at the top of a mighty wall!</p>
+
+<p>Hastening at once to the spot, Botta set his
+men furiously to work. They unearthed an ancient
+Assyrian palace. Great slabs of stone were covered<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span>
+with sculptured scenes of war. Botta was astounded.
+He, nor any other modern man, had
+never seen the like.</p>
+
+<p>They proved to be the ruins of a king’s palace,
+but unfortunately as soon as they were laid bare
+the slabs began to crumble. A huge fire had
+destroyed the palace. In the heat the slabs were
+reduced to lime, and directly they were uncovered
+they fell in little pieces. Nothing could be done
+to preserve them. They had remained hidden
+for thousands of years. The kindly earth had kept
+them intact, but directly the air played about them
+they decayed.</p>
+
+<p>Layard was for long in close touch with Botta.
+More than once the Frenchman wrote to Layard
+about his non-success, and Layard displayed his
+fine character by urging the Frenchman to continue.</p>
+
+<p>The Briton had studied the spot with a view to
+working there. All thoughts of reaching Ceylon
+had passed from his mind. He wrote to friends,
+and tried to interest them in his proposed work.
+He received no encouragement. Despite all this
+disappointment, he was great enough to encourage
+his rival. It throws considerable light on the
+character of the man who eventually accomplished
+so much on the banks of the Tigris.</p>
+
+<p>If Layard did not make the first discovery there,
+he had much to do with it. But for his encouragement,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span>
+Botta might have ceased digging long before
+the peasant stood looking down into his trenches,
+to tell him that there were heaps of the funny old
+bricks in his village of Khorsabad.</p>
+
+<p>The influence of the Englishman, and the laughing
+words of a peasant, led to the Frenchman
+taking the first step back into the Assyria of the
+past.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">Layard,</span> disappointed that his own countrymen
+were so little interested in his proposals,
+was impelled by the success of
+Botta to make a strong effort to begin the work
+he was longing to do. Hastening to Constantinople,
+he saw Sir Stratford Canning, the British Ambassador,
+told him his plans, and succeeded in interesting
+him to such an extent that the Ambassador advanced
+the amount of £60.</p>
+
+<p>It was a trivial sum with which to start excavating
+the mounds of the Tigris, and not many men would
+have undertaken the work with so little money
+behind them. Layard did not hesitate for a moment.
+He left Constantinople without breathing a word
+about his intentions, and in less than a fortnight
+was back in Mosul.</p>
+
+<p>The country, through misrule, was very unsettled,
+and the authorities were so antagonistic that
+Layard dared not tell them of his project. He knew
+that if he let fall the slightest word as to what
+he was about, he would immediately be stopped.
+Keeping his plans to himself, he collected one or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span>
+two men and announced that he was going on an
+expedition to shoot wild boars.</p>
+
+<p>A raft was built, the goatskins were blown up
+to support it, and Layard made a brave show of the
+guns and spears he put aboard. The other hunting
+weapons were so strange that he thought it prudent
+to smuggle them on to the raft. They were, in fact,
+picks and shovels!</p>
+
+<p>It needed a man of resource to beat the wiles of
+the Turks. Layard was certainly resourceful, and
+anything more amusing than the way he set out
+to hunt wild boar with picks and shovels would be
+difficult to imagine. The raft was pushed out into
+the stream, and for a few hours the hunters floated
+slowly along, landing some distance from the mound
+and spending the night with a party of Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>Early next morning Layard set off with six
+Arabs for the mound, and began collecting the
+fragments of brick he saw lying about. The
+collecting of these trifles was soon discarded for a
+more important task which centred round a piece of
+alabaster sticking out of the soil. The Arabs tugged
+at it, Layard tried to drag it out, and as it remained
+immovable, he set his men to dig it up. In a few
+hours, many plain slabs of alabaster were laid
+bare, and Layard knew he was on the track of the
+lost civilization of Assyria.</p>
+
+<p>He possessed a peculiar genius for the task he
+had undertaken, while his insight in selecting spots<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span>
+for his operations was almost uncanny. Where
+Botta dug and found nothing, Layard dug later
+and laid bare the most remarkable sculptures. As
+he looked at the hills of desolation, he imagined
+the palaces as they must have been in their glory,
+and reasoned where the walls must have stood.
+Sometimes he was wrong, but more often he was
+right.</p>
+
+<p>The Governor of Mosul, thinking the Englishman
+was digging for gold and silver treasure, tried to
+stop his work. Sinister rumours spread through
+the bazaars that the stranger was interfering with
+the graves of their forefathers, and trying to release
+all the evil spirits that were chained up in the
+mounds. The temper of the population grew very
+ugly. Superstition was everywhere rife.</p>
+
+<p>Layard told the Pasha the truth, and that gentleman,
+sympathizing with him to his face, put all
+sorts of obstacles in his way behind his back. The
+worst of the matter was that Layard had no permission
+to dig. Until he obtained authority he
+knew he would meet with opposition from the
+local officials. So he sent an urgent letter to Sir
+Stratford Canning, urging the Ambassador to
+obtain an order that would smooth away the
+opposition of the people in power in Mosul. Luckily
+the Ambassador eventually succeeded in getting
+an order from the Porte, giving permission to
+excavate and to ship any sculptures discovered.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span>
+To that order, and to Layard’s own indomitable
+will, we owe our wonderful gallery of Assyrian
+sculptures now in the British Museum.</p>
+
+<p>The sullen murmurs of the mob reached Layard’s
+ears, and he rode into Mosul. “You are disturbing
+their dead,” he was told. “It will be wiser for
+you to stop before they get out of hand.”</p>
+
+<p>Crossing the rickety bridge of boats, Layard rode
+along the bank back to Nimroud. With him were
+some irregular soldiers, to see that he did not dig
+any more. He dared not deliberately run counter
+to the wishes of the Pasha, and was not anxious to
+risk an outbreak of the mob.</p>
+
+<p>He talked to the Arab in charge of the soldiers
+to such good purpose that the man’s tongue wagged
+a little more than the Pasha imagined was possible.
+It revealed an amusing conspiracy which the Pasha
+had hatched to stop further excavations. It was
+a trick worthy of the East. The Turkish soldiers
+actually dug graves in the dark, in order to point
+them out by day as having been violated. “We
+have destroyed more real tombs of true Believers
+in making sham ones, than you could have defiled
+between the Zab and Selamiyah. We have killed
+our horses and ourselves carrying those accursed
+stones,” the leader confessed to Layard.</p>
+
+<p>Layard quickly hit on a simple plan of winning
+the soldiers over. He employed a few to guard
+the sculptures he had already uncovered, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span>
+rest turned a blind eye to him if he happened to be
+digging instead of copying inscriptions, as he was
+supposed to do! The trifling sums he gave the
+soldiers for their nominal services were indeed well
+spent.</p>
+
+<p>All the time Layard was digging he ran continual
+risk of being raided by the Arabs. He was compelled
+to organize defences, and more than one
+pitched battle took place between the hostile Arabs
+and those who guarded the mound of Nimroud.
+Often the excavator had to call his diggers out of
+the trenches to beat off marauders who coveted
+the belongings of the stranger within their gates.</p>
+
+<p>It was extraordinary the way Layard followed
+the workings of the Oriental mind. In this direction
+he had a unique gift, and with such tact and
+judgment did he treat those with whom he came
+into contact, that his reputation soon spread abroad
+among the Arab tribes. Many of the chiefs held
+him in high esteem, and were dominated by his
+personality. In those days Layard exercised as
+much power among the Arabs, and went among
+them as freely, as did Colonel Lawrence during
+the Great War. He possessed a determination and
+intuition that carried him through everything.
+He lived with the Arabs, and liked them.</p>
+
+<p>At his behest great slabs all carved with sculptures
+and inscribed with cuneiform characters saw the
+light of day once more, after lying beneath the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span>
+soil for three thousand years. There were quaint
+figures, beautifully carved with the bodies of men
+and the heads of birds, while wings were attached
+to the shoulders. These were the ancient gods of
+the Assyrians. Winged lions were found partly
+destroyed by the fire which had raged over the
+palace. Great carvings of campaigns were found
+in a similar state.</p>
+
+<p>One day, as he was riding towards the mound
+on his return from Mosul, some Arabs galloped up
+to him like madmen.</p>
+
+<p>“Hasten, O Bey! hasten to the diggers, for
+they have found Nimrod himself. Wallah, it is
+wonderful, but it is true. We have seen him with
+our eyes. There is no God but God!” they cried,
+and turning their horses they pounded away to the
+black tents of their tribe.</p>
+
+<p>When Layard got to the trench he saw something
+concealed by Arab cloaks and baskets. The diggers
+tore the coverings off as he approached, and Layard
+beheld the giant head of a sculptured figure buried
+up to the neck in the soil. It was a human head,
+nearly as tall as a man, and belonging to one of
+those fine human-headed winged bulls now in the
+British Museum.</p>
+
+<p>One Arab was so terrified of the monster that he
+dropped his basket and ran madly to Mosul. He
+babbled the most alarming tales of the terror that
+the stranger was releasing from the earth, and the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span>rumours quickly spread through the bazaars.
+People for miles around rushed to the scene to
+gaze on the idol of the infidels.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_183" style="max-width: 42.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_183.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British Museum</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">ONE OF THE COLOSSAL, HUMAN-HEADED, WINGED FIGURES, TWICE
+AS TALL AS A MAN, WHICH SIR A. H. LAYARD DUG OUT OF THE
+MOUNDS ON THE TIGRIS, AND WHICH REVEAL THE HIGH CIVILIZATION
+TO WHICH THE ANCIENT ASSYRIANS ATTAINED. IT IS
+COVERED WITH AN INSCRIPTION IN CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS, AND
+A NOTABLE FEATURE IS THE FIVE LEGS</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>The diggers were delighted at the discovery, and
+under Layard’s direction they managed to uncover
+the top of another head a dozen feet away. The
+men worked in a half frenzy, digging away and
+running to and fro with the baskets of rubbish like
+mad creatures.</p>
+
+<p>To celebrate the find, Layard gave a great feast.
+Sheep were killed, musicians made music. Figures
+whirled hither and thither in the flicker of the campfires,
+dancing wildly over the desert in front of the
+goat-hair tents, shouting and leaping until far into
+the night.</p>
+
+<p>If by a miracle the clock could have been put
+back twenty-five centuries, the simple tents would
+have changed to noble palaces and the feasting
+Arabs into Assyrian courtiers, with King Sennacherib
+drinking out of a golden goblet! As it was,
+the Arabs were stamping the past under their feet.</p>
+
+<p>Wonder after wonder was laid bare by the picks
+of Layard’s diggers. He found three palaces, all
+of different ages, some of which had been built
+with slabs of alabaster taken from earlier edifices.
+It was plain that the latest had been destroyed by
+fire, the vengeful fire which led to the final obliteration
+of Assyrian civilization.</p>
+
+<p>In the days of their glory the palaces were magnificent,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span>
+standing on massive platforms about 20 feet
+high, built of sun-dried bricks, with fine wide
+terraces and sculptured halls. The Tigris flowed
+by the walls, and mighty winged lions and bulls
+guarded the entrances. The ancient sculptors
+who carved these figures were no mean artists.
+Their art was highly developed, and their skill in
+carrying out the details and ornamentation quite
+remarkable. They had arrived at a better idea of
+perspective than the Egyptians, and their figures
+were more lifelike, especially the animals, the
+muscles of which were carved very faithfully.</p>
+
+<p>The irrigation works engineered by the ancient
+Babylonians and Assyrians were more wonderful
+than those carried out in Egypt. The deserts of
+Mesopotamia were intersected with an intricate
+network of canals. The rivers Tigris and Euphrates
+were dammed at intervals, to hold back the waters
+and direct them into the canals, feeding the fertile
+lands of the country round about. The banks of
+the rivers and canals were tended with scrupulous
+care, and heavy fines were inflicted on those who
+were responsible if the banks gave way.</p>
+
+<p>Mesopotamia in those days was the finest granary
+in the world. Here was the Garden of Eden, the
+fairest, most fruitful land under the sun, where,
+according to the Bible, the story of Man began, the
+land of the rivers of which the Bible says: “And
+the fourth river is the Euphrates.” Here Adam<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span>
+and Eve wandered in the Land of Plenty, until
+they were cast out for eating of the Tree of
+Knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Now the smiling land is a waste. When Layard
+found these relics of a glorious past, the descendants
+of those who builded and carved were wanderers
+over the face of the desert, nomads, barely civilized,
+living in mud huts and tents. The difference between
+the past and present of Mesopotamia is stupendous,
+almost incredible.</p>
+
+<p>Before Layard started digging at Nimroud, relics
+of Assyria practically did not exist. All that were
+known might have been carried about comfortably
+in a kit-bag. In a short two years he crowded
+discovery on discovery. The past was revealed at
+his touch as if by magic.</p>
+
+<p>Even the Arabs realized the wonder of it. “God
+is great! God is great!” exclaimed an aged sheik
+to Layard. “Here are stones which have been
+buried ever since the time of the holy Noah—peace
+be with him. Perhaps they were underground
+before the Deluge. I have lived on these lands for
+years. My father, and the father of my father,
+pitched their tents here before me; but they never
+heard of these figures. For twelve hundred years
+have the true believers been settled in this country,
+and none of them ever heard of a palace underground.
+Neither did they who went before them.
+But lo! here comes a Frank, from many days’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span>
+journey off, and he walks up to the very place and
+he takes a stick, and makes a line here, and makes
+a line there. ‘Here,’ says he, ‘is the palace;
+there,’ says he, ‘is the gate;’ and he shows us
+what has been all our lives beneath our feet, without
+our having known anything about it. Wonderful!
+Wonderful! Is it by books? Is it by magic? Is it
+by your prophets that you have learnt these things?
+Speak, O Bey! Tell us the Secret of Wisdom.”</p>
+
+<p>The passing of the years has not diminished the
+wonder. All the time Layard carried his life in
+his hand. He took risks no native of the country
+would face. Once he was hunting a wolf, when his
+horse slipped and threw him right on top of the
+animal he was hunting. Layard picked himself
+up, by which time the startled wolf had made off.
+Often he rode boldly into the tents of unfriendly
+Arabs, and came out unharmed. With his imperious
+words he brought insolent chiefs to heel, made them
+feel the strength of his personality, and sometimes
+the strength of his arm.</p>
+
+<p>He lived a strenuous life, slaving on far into
+the dreadful heat of summer, erecting a bower of
+branches beside the river to sleep in. The ruins
+were infested with scorpions, yet he escaped their
+sting. He was not so lucky with the mosquitoes.
+Nothing alive could escape these winged pests.
+He had attack after attack of malaria. Often he
+was so stricken with fever that he found it impossible<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span>
+to work at all. In spite of all these drawbacks
+and difficulties, he triumphed.</p>
+
+<p>Once when he was investigating the ruins of
+Babylon, a Turkish governor presented him with
+an unruly lion! Another time he was travelling
+over the desert under the escort of an Arab chief,
+when a thief stole two of his horses. Taking the
+blame on himself, the chief vowed solemnly to
+recover the animals, no matter how long it took,
+even if it meant going to the ends of the earth.
+Layard parted from the chief at the end of his
+journey, and gave no further thought to the incident.
+For six weeks the chief relentlessly tracked the
+stolen horses from place to place, and one day he
+quietly rode into Layard’s encampment and left the
+two horses for their owner. Without waiting for
+thanks, he rode swiftly away.</p>
+
+<p>Extraordinary results were achieved by Layard
+with the little money at his command. Certainly
+his scale of wages would not now be considered
+very extravagant. He paid his diggers sixpence
+a day; those who filled the baskets fourpence a
+day, the labourers threepence, and the boys twopence.
+It seems little enough, but the tent-dwellers
+had no rent, rates or taxes to pay, and in
+those days they could buy 240 lb. of corn for two
+shillings. To many of them, living on the border
+line of starvation, a settled wage of two or three
+shillings a week meant affluence.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span></p>
+
+<p>Layard himself had a host of duties to perform,
+not least of which were sketching the sculptures
+as they were revealed and making immediate copies
+of all inscriptions found. Such work had to be
+done at once for fear the stone crumbled to pieces,
+for much of it only lasted a short time after being
+uncovered.</p>
+
+<p>At Kouyunjik he found the palace of Sennacherib,
+buried 30 feet deep under an accumulation of
+debris and soil, so deep, in fact, that it was quite
+impossible to open trenches from the top, owing
+to the prodigious quantities of soil to be removed.
+Layard met this difficulty by driving tunnels, and
+the whole mound was in time honeycombed with
+his gloomy passages. Occasionally a shaft was
+opened to the top to let in light, and the faint
+glimmer that filtered down lit up the most astounding
+sculptures ever seen by human eyes. Thus was
+Nineveh found lying in its grave, so overwhelmed
+that Layard had to mine a way into it.</p>
+
+<p>Once Layard gained enormous prestige among
+the Arabs, by telling them that the sun would be
+eclipsed, and the day grow dark. Sure enough
+the sun began to grow dim, and the Arabs, who
+thought that devils had caught hold of the planet,
+took up all the pots and pans they possessed, and
+nearly knocked the bottoms out of them in their
+endeavours to frighten the evil spirits away!</p>
+
+<p>The removal of the sculptures from the ruins<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span>
+and their safe transport to England, was not the
+least of the many problems that Layard had to
+solve. The river Tigris was the only highway to
+the sea, and as it was too shallow to allow steamers
+to steam up to Mosul, it was necessary to build
+rafts to float the sculptures down to Basra, where
+they could be transhipped to the vessels that were
+to take them to England. It needed a deal of
+persuasion to induce a native to build a raft big
+enough to support the weighty lion and the bull.
+The raft was eventually constructed and supported
+by six hundred sheep and goat skins, every one
+of which had to be blown up by the mouth of the
+raftsman and tied securely. It was a task which
+must have severely tested the lungs and temper of
+the blower.</p>
+
+<p>Layard made his plans carefully. As no timber
+was available, a man was sent high up the river
+to cut down mulberry trees to make a rude cart
+for transporting the bull and lion to the river edge.
+The trees were floated down the Tigris, and four
+solid wooden wheels a foot thick were cut out of
+the trunks and bound with iron. Big beams
+formed the body of the cart, and when it was
+ready half the population of Mosul crowded to see
+the buffaloes drag it over the bridge of boats
+spanning the river.</p>
+
+<p>The bull was buried 20 feet deep in the earth.
+Layard had no tackle for lifting a weight of fifty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span>
+tons, so his diggers cut a sloping road from the
+statue to the edge of the mound, paving it with
+planks of wood. The bull, which stood upright,
+was to be lowered on its side to a frame of strong
+planks. The ropes were placed round the bull,
+and over a mighty rock some distance away.
+Scores of men slowly paid out the ropes, while the
+bull canted over on its side. The statue was about
+5 feet from the ground, when all the ropes broke,
+the men fell backwards in a heap, and the bull
+descended with a crash.</p>
+
+<p>Layard rushed down from his post expecting to
+find it shattered, but it proved to be quite uninjured
+by its fall. Then the men began to haul the bull over
+rollers to the edge of the mound. The noise made
+by the onlookers was deafening. They danced and
+shouted and behaved like mad people. Gradually
+the bull was pulled up the incline until it stood
+just above the cart, which had been placed in an
+excavation to bring it on a level with the end of
+the road. The earth was dug away from under
+the bull, and it slowly settled in the cart.</p>
+
+<p>That was the beginning of a few strenuous days
+full of troubles. The buffaloes, upon being harnessed
+up, refused to pull. Cracking whips and the
+shouts of Arabs alike failed to have any effect,
+so at last they were taken out, and three hundred
+natives caught hold of the ropes and began to drag
+the cart to the river. The road had been carefully<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span>
+surveyed to make sure that there were no secret
+holes in which the villagers were wont to store their
+corn, but unluckily one was overlooked. A perverse
+fate directed the cart straight to it, and before
+any one realized what was happening a wheel
+suddenly sank into the covered hole, nearly
+capsizing the rough cart.</p>
+
+<p>Spades and timbers were brought to the spot,
+and the natives dug and hauled with all their might,
+but it was night before the cart was extricated.
+The next day saw the long lines of Arabs straining
+at the cart once more, and this time progress was
+stopped by a bed of soft sand in which the wheels
+sank. Not until the third day was the great bull
+brought down to the water’s edge.</p>
+
+<p>Here it remained until the melting snows on the
+Kurdish mountains made the river rise, and when
+there was a sufficient depth of water to float the
+bull down to Basra, the final task was undertaken.
+A slipway of poplar beams was first of all built
+from the bull to the top of the raft. This was
+thoroughly greased, just as the slipways are greased
+when a battleship is launched, and down this slipway
+Layard began to lower the bull. For a moment he
+thought all his carefully laid plans were to end in
+disaster. The natives hung on to the ropes in their
+attempt to check the descent of the bull. It was
+too much for them. Getting out of hand, the bull
+dropped with a thud on to the raft. The raft gave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span>
+a terrific lurch, but luckily it withstood the impact,
+and all was well.</p>
+
+<p>Before the bull was embarked, Layard was faced
+with the prospect of being defeated by the marauding
+Arabs. He ordered all the felts and ropes and
+other materials to be brought down to Nimroud on a
+raft, but the raft, owing to its late start from Mosul,
+was unable to reach the mound before dark, so the
+Arabs in charge tied up to the bank to pass the
+night. In the middle of the night a raiding party
+swarmed down on them and stripped the raft of
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>Layard was quickly stirred to action. Directly
+he discovered who the culprits were he galloped off
+to their camp, and in the very face of the hostile
+tribe seized the sheik and carried him off. Under
+the lash of Layard’s tongue that worthy soon
+repented, and ordered all the missing articles to
+be returned.</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion a sudden flood swept away
+many Arabs, and sent one of his rafts of sculptures
+swirling through a break in the bank into the
+swamps, from which they were rescued with the
+utmost difficulty. Even in those days lightning
+strikes were not unknown, for Layard contended
+with one on the part of his Arabs. His sculptures
+were all waiting to be placed aboard the raft, when
+the Arabs, who knew he dare not miss the spring
+floods, told him they were moving camp, thinking<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span>
+to induce him to give them more money for the
+work. Layard bade them good-bye, and galloped
+off into the desert to get helpers from another tribe.
+When the strikers came back, finding their bluff
+of no avail, they were already superseded.</p>
+
+<p>It is rather a striking commentary on the progress
+that has been made in three thousand years, to
+know that Layard’s methods in removing the bulls
+were almost identical with those of the ancient
+Assyrians who placed them in position. One of the
+sculptured slabs uncovered by Layard at Kouyunjik,
+furnished full particulars of how the ancients
+tackled the difficulty of moving such masses.</p>
+
+<p>The original huge block was brought from the
+quarry in the hills on rafts supported by skins, just
+as the bull was sent down to Basra. It was dragged
+ashore by bands of slaves, and the sculptor carved
+the block into the form of the man-headed winged
+bull, giving the statue five legs, as was the general
+practice in Assyria, so that four might be seen
+from the side and two from the front. The bull
+was then placed on a sledge, something like that
+used by the Egyptians for moving similar masses,
+and dragged and levered along, the lever used
+being a great pole to which ropes were attached
+for men to throw their weight upon. A sloping
+road was built up to the place where the bulls were
+to stand, and up this the statues were gradually
+hauled and pushed. The man directing the operations<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span>
+of the army of workmen is clearly shown,
+though whether he is signalling by blowing on a
+trumpet, or shouting through the first megaphone
+ever invented, is an open question. He appears
+to be using a trumpet, but for aught we know it
+might have been something to magnify the voice.</p>
+
+<p>There were carved ivories, Egyptian cartouches,
+sculptured sphinxes, to link Babylon and Assyria
+with ancient Egypt, to show that intercourse
+existed between the two peoples, just as the monuments
+of Egypt indicated. Three thousand years
+ago letters written in cuneiform characters on clay
+tablets were regularly passing to and fro between
+the two countries. Apparently at that time the
+cuneiform characters could be read equally well
+by Egyptians and Babylonians and Assyrians, as
+is proved by the Tell el Amarna tablets discovered
+in Egypt. Some of the clay letters of those days
+are very similar to puppy biscuits in colour, shape
+and size; others might easily be mistaken for oblong
+tablets of toilet soap.</p>
+
+<p>Whether the civilization of Egypt and that of
+Mesopotamia developed simultaneously independent
+of each other is a question that is still unsettled.
+The general opinion is that the beginnings of all
+civilization are to be found in Mesopotamia, but
+men who have spent their lives studying ancient
+Egypt give precedence to the civilization of the
+Nile. These are things which may never be solved.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_197-1" style="max-width: 36.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_197-1.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British Museum</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">THIS CLAY SPELLING BOOK OF BABYLON
+WAS THE FORERUNNER OF THE MODERN
+SPELLING BOOK</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_197-2" style="max-width: 41.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_197-2.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">IN OLDEN DAYS LEGAL DOCUMENTS
+WERE GRAVED IN STONE AND WRITTEN
+IN CLAY. THIS CLAY TABLET
+WITH ITS QUAINT CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS
+IS A DEED RECORDING THE
+SALE OF A PIECE OF LAND</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_197-3" style="max-width: 42.0625em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_197-3.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent fs90">MODERN ENVELOPES FOR LETTERS WERE
+ANTICIPATED BY THIS RARE BABYLONIAN
+ENVELOPE OF CLAY WHICH ENCLOSED THE
+DEED</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span></p>
+
+<p>The evidence seems to indicate that the original
+inhabitants of Babylonia were the Sumerians, who
+were already possessed of a fair culture. They
+were able to read and write, and their writing, in
+archaic cuneiform characters, was the writing out
+of which the Babylonian cuneiform characters in
+the course of time developed. Later variants of it
+were the Persian and the Median cuneiform, which
+were carved by order of Darius on the rock at
+Behistun.</p>
+
+<p>A peaceful, pastoral people, the Sumerians lived
+by agriculture and not by war, and they were
+swamped by invading Semites, who adopted the
+culture of the Sumerians they had conquered.
+The conquerors made Babylon the first city of
+the world. The same people left their impress on
+Egypt, and their characteristics—dark eyes, big
+lips and hook noses—are well preserved for us in
+the sculptures of Assyria.</p>
+
+<p>The power of Babylon waxed and waned. The
+Assyrians, seizing their opportunity, threw off
+their bondage, and, sweeping across country,
+conquered the walled city of mighty Babylon
+itself. Sennacherib razed the city to the ground.
+For a time Nineveh blossomed as the first city of
+the East. Then came the Babylonians with fire
+and sword, and utterly destroyed Assyria and its
+civilization.</p>
+
+<p>There are few more remarkable romances than<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span>
+that of the young lawyer, who went out to the East
+to practise law, and dug up Babylon and Assyria
+instead; or of the young English soldier, who
+wrested the secret of an unknown writing from the
+rock at Behistun.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">Since</span> Layard dug up the vanished cities of
+Nineveh and Calah on the banks of the
+Tigris three-quarters of a century ago,
+many gifted men have followed in his footsteps,
+and wielded pick and shovel among the mounds
+dotting Mesopotamia. No one coming upon the
+utter desolation of Abu Shahrein could imagine that
+this great mound of sand, with the ruined brick
+tower peeping out at the top, was some six thousand
+years ago the flourishing port of Eridu.</p>
+
+<p>Eridu to-day is a dead city, buried under a sea
+of sand, yet this desolation marks, so far as we
+know, the very beginnings of civilization in Mesopotamia.
+Here it was that the Sumerians rose out
+of the dim past, with a culture that was far higher
+than that of many nations still peopling the world.
+They wrote on clay tablets, and had their code of
+laws, and traded by ship with distant places.</p>
+
+<p>For long it was thought that Eridu in that far-off
+time must have stood upon the seashore. The
+evidence that it was a port, and that ships discharged
+their cargoes at the quays of the city, is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span>
+beyond all dispute. Yet to-day Eridu stands
+inland over a hundred miles—the seashore is a long
+journey from the one-time seaport.</p>
+
+<p>Men of science strove to solve the seeming contradiction
+of a seaport so far inland. They studied
+the question very carefully. Measurements were
+taken as to the amount of silt deposited by the
+Euphrates and the Tigris at their deltas, and it was
+proved that in the last six thousand years the area of
+land at the mouths of the rivers has been very considerably
+extended, indicating that the ancient seashore
+has receded inland. The only uncertainty was
+whether the rivers had created a new belt of land
+over 90 miles wide since the Sumerians lived their
+peaceful lives at Eridu of old. It was thought
+that the rivers must have accomplished this feat,
+and it came to be accepted as the explanation of
+why Eridu is now so far away from the coast.</p>
+
+<p>But there is another explanation, and the correct
+one. The Sumerians were the people who taught
+the Babylonians the art of making canals. In the
+days of the Sumerians a system of canals spread
+over the country to irrigate the land, and we now
+know that the Babylonians and Assyrians obtained
+their knowledge of irrigation from the Sumerians,
+for the latter were highly capable engineers.</p>
+
+<p>The site of Eridu, about 20 miles from the
+Euphrates, stands on the edge of a big depression
+in the desert. The skill of the Sumerians in building<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span>
+canals is beyond question, and herein lies the
+answer to the puzzle of an inland seaport. The
+big sandy depression sixty centuries ago was a
+lake, and the outlet from the lake was by canal to
+the Euphrates, and so to the sea. Eridu of old
+was merely the forerunner of Manchester of to-day,
+and the ancient people solved the problem of bringing
+the galleys to their very doors, in the same way
+that the people of Manchester solved the problem
+of bringing the steamers into the heart of their
+city six thousand years later. Solomon spoke
+truly when he said that under the sun there is
+nothing new.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Campbell Thomson, who has done fine work
+in Mesopotamia during the past few years on behalf
+of the British Museum, was the man who solved
+the mystery of ancient Eridu, and definitely proved
+that it never stood on the seashore. His Arabs
+were digging there, to throw some light on the
+vexed question of the past, when they came across
+quantities of shells, just as the kitchen middens of
+Denmark are marked by the shells of the fish the
+ancient peoples ate. The shells at Eridu were
+similarly the sole remains of repasts eaten seventy
+or eighty centuries ago, perhaps longer.</p>
+
+<p>The average man would shovel such debris aside,
+and take no further notice of it, but Campbell
+Thomson knew only too well the importance of
+trifles in reconstituting the past. He put specimens<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span>
+of the shells aside, and brought them to England
+with his other finds.</p>
+
+<p>These shells were submitted to an expert, who
+was asked to identify them. The expert found that
+the shells were those of fresh-water mussels.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly all the theories of those who asserted
+that the city once stood on the seashore were refuted.
+If Eridu actually stood on the seashore, the mussels
+eaten by these primitive inhabitants would have
+been salt-water fish. As the shells found were those
+of fresh-water fish, they revealed that Eridu stood
+on a lake, which the Sumerians undoubtedly connected
+up by canal with the Euphrates. In this
+way did a simple thing like a mussel shell reveal
+another long-lost secret.</p>
+
+<p>About four thousand years ago Eridu was deserted
+by man, and the encroaching sands have gradually
+silted up the canal and lake. The fact that human
+beings ceased to live there so long ago might be
+considered a disadvantage to those exploring the
+spot, but actually it has proved a tremendous
+advantage. Human beings have a habit of destroying
+the remains of those who go before them. They
+knock down former habitations and rebuild, using
+previous materials, until all traces of former peoples
+are lost.</p>
+
+<p>At Eridu, Campbell Thomson set his diggers to
+cut through the layers of the mound, until they came
+to the bottom layer of sand, which had never been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span>
+disturbed by human hands. He found that men of
+the Stone Age lived here, men who used flints to
+cultivate the soil in the days when the use of metal
+was unknown. They cut their corn with sickles
+made of clay baked hard, and they were intelligent
+and clever enough to make pottery, although the
+use of the potter’s wheel was not then known. It
+was a pottery of a fine texture, painted with taste
+in a number of designs. The hands that made it
+were skilled, and the eyes of the potters were true
+enough to guide their hands aright.</p>
+
+<p>Only a dozen miles across the desert is Ur of the
+Chaldees, where Mr. Taylor, who was British vice-consul
+at Basra in the days when Layard was making
+a stir, managed to find the remains of the temple of
+the Moon God. Seas of sand have been shifted since
+on behalf of the British Museum, and the mighty
+walls of the temple are now laid bare, while in the
+background rises the huge mound covering the city.</p>
+
+<p>The luck of digging was never better exemplified
+than at Ur. A Persian and a Babylonian pavement
+adjoined, and Mr. Woolley, who was in charge of
+the digging operations, states that he was anxious
+to know whether there were any traces of a
+Babylonian pavement below the Persian pavement.
+He describes how he set his diggers to take up
+a portion of the Persian pavement, and left them
+wielding their picks while he betook himself to
+another part of the diggings.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span></p>
+
+<p>In a little while a small Arab boy came rushing up,
+his black eyes aglow with astonishment, words
+coming breathlessly from his mouth. “Come quick,
+Sahib! Come quick and see what the diggers have
+found!” he cried.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Woolley wasted no time in returning. Directly
+he entered the ruins he saw an old cloak spread
+on the floor, and lying upon it were gold and silver
+ornaments, which had lain undiscovered under the
+pavement for twenty-five centuries or more. Giving
+a few sharp orders, he cleared the room of the
+diggers. Then he undertook further operations
+with his own hands, and brought up beads and bits
+of gold necklaces, with lapis lazuli and other semi-precious
+stones. But the gem of the find was a
+beautiful gold statuette of a woman.</p>
+
+<p>Quickly he sent out for boxes and packing
+materials, and he was placing the treasure trove
+in the boxes, when he was still further astonished.
+The Arab in charge of the diggers came up.</p>
+
+<p>“Here, Sahib!” he exclaimed, and began to take
+more jewels from his capacious pockets. “I was
+afraid to let the men see them, in case they murdered
+me for the treasure,” he added simply.</p>
+
+<p>This discovery of ancient treasure follows another
+important Mesopotamian find, by Dr. Hall, of the
+British Museum, at Tell el Obeid in 1919. Wonderful
+life-size heads of lions, most cunningly modelled
+in bitumen, were uncovered. The Sumerian artists,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span>
+striving after realism, simulated the fiery eyes and
+red tongues of the animals by imitating them in
+red jasper. Originally the heads were covered with
+fine copper masks, but the metal became corroded
+and only the grey-green fragments of the masks
+remain. The heads, now among the treasures
+of the British Museum, are undoubtedly some
+of the finest examples of early Sumerian art in
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>Richer treasures still may await the spade of the
+excavator, for the deserts of Mesopotamia hide the
+relics of many nations; traces of many a hard-fought
+battle are swallowed up in the sands. Bits
+of the mighty past peep out of Babylon, great gateways
+and walls that have been uncovered by the
+hands of strangers, men who speak in divers tongues,
+even as the slaves who toiled to build the Tower of
+Babel.</p>
+
+<p>No longer is there any uncertainty as to the site
+of the Tower of Babel. Here in Babylon itself was
+the Tower erected that was to reach to Heaven.
+The power of Babylon went to the building of the
+enormous square tower which, rising terrace on
+terrace, dominated the plains for many miles, a
+landmark for the whole country-side, and a symbol
+of the Strength of Babylon. Thousands of slaves
+toiled at making the bricks, thousands more expended
+their energies in the building of the gigantic
+square platforms which gradually rose above the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span>
+city like a series of boxes, each smaller than that
+below.</p>
+
+<p>A flick of the Finger of Time and the mighty tower
+toppled, changed into a mountain of broken brick
+and debris. Amid the debris, the lower platform of
+the tower stood firm, to prove to us that Babel
+existed in the days of old.</p>
+
+<p>Here in Babylon Nebuchadnezzar reigned, the city
+echoed to the tramp of his armies as he led them
+forth to triumph; out on the plains he caused the
+golden image to be set up for his subjects to worship;
+here followed the ordeal by fire of Shadrach, Meshach
+and Abednego, the madness which drove the
+monarch to eat grass as the beasts of the field.
+Daniel once paced the palaces that stood here in
+their glory, found favour with the king, saw the
+writing on the wall and prophesied the downfall
+of the city when Belshazzar came to the throne.
+“God has numbered thy kingdom and finished
+it. Thou art weighed in the balance and found
+wanting. Thy kingdom is divided and given to the
+Medes and Persians,” says the prophet in the Book
+of Daniel. The pages of the Bible whisper to us
+the history of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Gone is the glory. Only thousands of bricks
+stamped with the name of Nebuchadnezzar
+remain to call up visions of the pleasure-loving
+Babylonians who were swept away by fire and
+sword.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_209-1" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_209-1.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E.</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">THE REMAINS OF MIGHTY BABYLON, WHICH WERE BURIED UNDER THE
+DRIFT OF CENTURIES UNTIL OUR OWN TIME. THE ISHTAR TOWER
+SEEN TO THE LEFT WAS COMPLETELY COVERED WITH DEBRIS BEFORE
+PROFESSOR KOLDEWEY EXCAVATED IT</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_209-2" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_209-2.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E.</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">THE RUINS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PALACE IN BABYLON. THE SEEMING
+CLIFFS HERE AND IN THE TOP PHOTOGRAPH SHOW THE MODERN GROUND
+LEVEL AND INDICATE THE ENORMOUS QUANTITIES OF SOIL WHICH THE
+DIGGERS HAVE REMOVED IN ORDER TO UNCOVER THE RUINS</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span></p>
+
+<p>The clay tablets of Mesopotamia have told us
+many things since Rawlinson stripped them of
+their secret; they are pages from the Book of
+Mankind. Not the least remarkable discovery
+we owe to George Smith, who, going out to the
+East on an expedition for the <cite>Daily Telegraph</cite>,
+found among hundreds of the clay books of the
+ancients an account of the Flood. He crowded
+some fine work into his short life, before succumbing
+at Aleppo in 1876 at the age of thirty-six.</p>
+
+<p>Just across the borders in Persia the French
+have explored many an ancient site in the quest
+for knowledge. De Morgan, in the remaining years
+of last century, dug down and down at Susa for
+80 feet, until he came to the virgin soil. Throughout
+this huge deposit were scattered the relics of many
+civilizations, among them a stone which has provided
+us with a unique record of the time when
+the Sumerians held sway over the land. Inscribed
+on this stone is the code of laws made by Hammurabi,
+the Sumerian king who reigned about four thousand
+years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the ages history has been repeating
+itself. Just as we carried off the Rosetta Stone
+from Egypt as one of the spoils of war, so the
+people of Susa, setting their heel on Babylon,
+conveyed the stone of Hammurabi back in triumph
+to Susa. Then the sword of the Assyrians swept
+through Susa, and the code of Hammurabi was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span>
+engulfed in the ruins, to await the spade of de
+Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>The laws of Hammurabi set forth on his stone
+are good laws, and they indicate a people governed
+justly. The sun god himself is shown taking the
+stylus from the king in order to set down the laws,
+implying that the laws were derived from the god
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>Instinctively the mind reverts to the vision of
+Moses coming down from the mountain, with the
+Ten Commandments graven on two tablets of
+stone. It may be that some such stone as that of
+Hammurabi was itself the foundation of the Ten
+Commandments, that the very code of laws on
+which all Christian morality is based may one
+day reward some ardent excavator. It is impossible
+to say. What was unknown to us yesterday may
+be revealed to us to-day.</p>
+
+<p>England has cause to be proud of the part played
+by Britons in reading the story of mankind. Young
+in deciphering hieroglyphics, Rawlinson in reading
+cuneiform, and Professor Sayce in mastering the
+mysterious Armenian writing of Van—now known
+as Vannic—provide a glowing tribute to the intelligence
+and determination of the British race.</p>
+
+<p>Mesopotamia, despite the many things to be
+found there, has no tombs like those of Egypt to
+yield up the secrets of its lost civilizations. The
+bodies of the dead were mostly burned. Sometimes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span>
+they were buried in two huge jars placed mouth to
+mouth, at other times in a pottery coffin shaped
+something like a foot-bath, on which a stone cover
+was placed; sites of ancient cemeteries have been
+found, revealing strangely shaped pottery coffins,
+highly glazed in blue.</p>
+
+<p>These things have told the diggers much, but
+the records written on clay bricks and barrel-shaped
+cylinders found in the temples and palaces have
+yielded more information than has yet been deciphered
+or translated. The ancient peoples used
+to place baked clay records in a special niche in the
+foundations of their buildings, and these have
+proved invaluable. The same custom persists to
+this day in our own land, for it is a common practice
+to place coins and other records under the foundation
+stones of modern large buildings of public
+importance.</p>
+
+<p>It may truly be said that Layard gave the
+impetus to digging in the East, that all the men
+working in those parched lands are the disciples
+of the Englishman who gave up his best years
+to the science he loved. He suffered untold hardships,
+his life was often in dire danger, illness
+afflicted him, but through it all he went on digging.
+He was subjected to bitter attacks and intrigues,
+but he countered them to perform his lifework.
+The hardships did not weigh with him, the lack
+of money for carrying on the work was not an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span>
+insuperable handicap, but he was terribly disappointed
+at the lack of interest shown by his countrymen
+in his discoveries, and by the way his priceless
+relics were damaged during transit. Apparently
+people thought they were so much rubbish, hardly
+worth the taking away.</p>
+
+<p>He entered politics and gained honours as a
+diplomat, but his name and his fame will ever rest
+on his wonderful work in digging up ancient Assyria
+out of the deserts of Mesopotamia.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">Romantic</span> as are the Egyptian discoveries,
+amazing as the work of Layard remains,
+the discovery of Troy ranks as the most
+amazing and romantic of all. The excavation of
+Troy is, indeed, an epic, interwoven with boyish
+dreams, the pictures in a book, dire poverty, and a
+gallant struggle for fortune. While Layard’s lifework
+was largely inspired by the <cite>Tales of the Arabian
+Nights</cite>, Heinrich Schliemann, who excavated Troy,
+found his inspiration in Homer.</p>
+
+<p>When the pastor of the hamlet of Neu Buckow
+in Mecklenburg Schwerin gazed for the first time
+on his new-born son in 1822, he little knew what
+strange experiences confronted the boy. A year or
+two passed, and the boy grew to love the stories
+of the Greek heroes of old that his father used to
+pour into his eager ear. Heinrich Schliemann was
+enraptured, transported with delight. To him
+the stories were real, the deeds which Homer sang
+were true. The gift of a book showing the burning
+of Troy set all doubts at rest in the boy’s mind. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span>
+saw Troy itself being devoured by flames, the
+people fleeing for their lives.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m going to find Troy,” he said to his little
+playfellows.</p>
+
+<p>They laughed at him, and he drew aside, rather
+hurt, unable to understand why they did not share
+his enthusiasm. Then a little girl joined him,
+listened to his tales of Troy and of how he was
+going to set out one day to find it.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll help you,” she said.</p>
+
+<p>The little boy remembered. Years afterwards he
+returned to her, but she had forgotten and married
+another.</p>
+
+<p>Desolation came on the home, and the boy was
+driven to face life in a grocer’s shop. For eighteen
+hours a day he expended his boyish strength in the
+services of the grocer, sweeping out the shop,
+cleaning the windows, doing menial tasks for
+which he had not the slightest inclination. While
+customers were demanding salt herrings of him
+at the counter, he was dreaming of Helen of Troy,
+and as he patted the butter his thoughts followed
+the adventures of Ulysses, saw him sailing ’twixt
+Scylla and Charybdis, heard the sirens calling to
+his hero.</p>
+
+<p>It was a desperately hard life for the boy. His
+spirit rebelled, but he could do nothing to escape.
+He was the creature of circumstance, a grocer’s
+boy who dreamed of Homer while serving a litre<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span>
+of milk. Continual contact with customers who
+were rough, crude, uneducated, gradually drove
+from his mind the little Latin and learning of earlier
+days. Loving knowledge, he yet had no time to
+acquire it. What opportunity was there for a
+boy to learn while working eighteen hours a day?</p>
+
+<p>Schliemann was one of the shop slaves of last
+century. His life was sheer drudgery all the time,
+just drudgery and a few hours of sleep for the
+exhausted frame; no pleasure, no holidays, only
+work.</p>
+
+<p>Through all his misery sometimes flashed the
+memories of the happy days when his father used
+to delight him with the tales of Greek heroes. Somehow,
+in spite of everything, he retained a glimmer
+of hope, although he could see no way out of his
+environment. From dawn to long after dark he
+was selling food for the body and craving food for
+the mind. That childish picture of the burning of
+Troy was as a beacon to him, often nearly overwhelmed,
+but always flickering up again in his
+imagination. Buried deep down in him was still
+the determination to find Troy.</p>
+
+<p>It was growing dusk one day when a drunken
+miller lurched into the shop, and suddenly began
+to recite in Greek some passages from Homer.
+Schliemann was transfixed with amazement. The
+meaning of the words was lost to him, but the
+beauty of the lines, their music, entered his soul.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Say it again,” he said eagerly to the miller.</p>
+
+<p>The miller repeated the passages, and Schliemann,
+feeling in his pocket for coppers, bought a glass of
+spirits to reward the drunkard.</p>
+
+<p>“Again,” said Schliemann, and gave the man
+another glass of spirits to induce him to repeat the
+lines.</p>
+
+<p>Even then the grocer’s boy was not satisfied.
+He fumbled in his pocket and produced his last
+coppers, the only wealth he owned in the world,
+and with them bought a third glass of spirits so
+that he might hear the lines from Homer once more.
+Imagine the tragedy of it, a grocer’s boy giving
+everything he possessed just to hear a drunken
+miller—the son of a clergyman—recite Homer
+to him in Greek. One clergyman’s son a grocer,
+weeping because he loved Homer and could not
+speak Greek, the other clergyman’s son drinking
+to drown his misery because he knew Greek and
+Homer, and was condemned to be a miller.</p>
+
+<p>Bitter tears flowed down the boy’s face. He
+hungered for learning, but his intellect was starved.
+Every night, utterly wearied with the day’s work,
+he went down on his knees beside his bed, and
+prayed to God that he might live to learn Greek.
+To the poor grocer’s boy, life could hold no greater
+boon.</p>
+
+<p>What at the time seemed his crowning misfortune
+proved in the end to be his way of escape.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>
+Straining one day to lift a big cask, a sharp fit of
+coughing brought his exertions to a sudden end.
+There was blood on his lips and despair in his
+heart. Work in the shop was no longer possible.</p>
+
+<p>The lad knew not what to do. Ill, without money,
+he drifted to Hamburg. No one would employ
+him in his weak state, and at last in desperation
+he shipped as a cabin boy in a vessel bound for
+Venezuela. A storm brought the ship to disaster,
+and for hours the crew faced death in an open boat
+before being cast on the Dutch coast.</p>
+
+<p>The darkest days in Schliemann’s life followed,
+days when he was compelled to beg to keep body
+and soul together. A poorly paid situation in an
+office revived hope in the breast of the shipwrecked
+lad. Renting a garret at eighteenpence a week, he
+nearly starved himself in order to buy books for
+study. Less than a shilling a day sufficed to pay
+his rent and keep him alive.</p>
+
+<p>No longer could his hunger for education be
+denied. Always he had a book with him, every
+minute found him studying. If he waited in a
+shop, out would come his book from his pocket;
+had he to walk on an errand down the street, then
+he walked with an open book in his hand. In six
+months he learned English; during the next six
+months he mastered French.</p>
+
+<p>He was mad to learn. His whole soul craved for
+knowledge. All the unknown powers of his undeveloped<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span>
+brain began to awaken. He possessed
+a genius for learning languages which was almost
+unparalleled. With every language he learned,
+the next came easier. In the following six months
+he mastered Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and
+Italian. His memory, which previously was bad,
+became remarkably retentive, as is proved by this
+wonderful feat.</p>
+
+<p>He did not stop to rest. His thoughts turned
+to Russian, and his method of learning it was not
+without a touch of humour. A better-paid post
+provided money to pay a teacher, so he scoured
+the city on his quest. He hunted here, there and
+everywhere. In all Amsterdam was not a single
+teacher of Russian, not a soul who understood a
+word of the language.</p>
+
+<p>Schliemann, thrown back on himself, unearthed
+an old Russian grammar and dictionary and began
+to study the language alone. In less than a week
+he learned the alphabet, and soon he was writing
+simple exercises in Russian. Somehow his progress
+did not please him, he felt the monotony of working
+alone. To lessen this monotony he hit on the plan
+of hiring some one to listen to his Russian recitations
+for the sum of sixpence a night. Every evening he
+declaimed in Russian to the listener. The listener,
+understanding not a word, sat and was shouted at
+by Schliemann.</p>
+
+<p>As the listener was paid to listen, he could not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span>
+object. It was otherwise, however, with Schliemann’s
+landlords. They were not paid to listen,
+and they objected strongly to the noise their lodger
+made, so strongly that he was asked to find other
+lodgings because of the annoyance he created. If
+the landlords thought to stop his studies in this way,
+they were mistaken. Twice Schliemann was driven
+to new lodgings, but he calmly continued his studies,
+and in six weeks was writing letters in Russian.</p>
+
+<p>By the time he was twenty-four, this amazing
+young man was sent on business to Russia, and
+within a year he was starting in business there for
+himself, fully determined to make a fortune so
+that he could travel and realize the dreams of his
+childhood.</p>
+
+<p>The remarkable thing is that the man who
+revered Greece and everything Greek should spend
+his energies in learning so many other tongues to
+the exclusion of the language of his beloved Homer.
+The truth is that he, who had the gift of languages,
+was afraid to learn Greek. He dared not trust
+himself to begin. The desire implanted by the
+befuddled miller had grown stronger with the years,
+and Schliemann, knowing the potent spell the
+language cast over him, feared that once he began
+to study Greek, he would neglect his business
+altogether, and never make the fortune which was
+to set him free to wander in the land of Homer.</p>
+
+<p>He threw himself into his business just as he had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span>
+thrown himself into his studies, and for years all
+his energies were concentrated to one end, that of
+making money. Once, when Memel was burned
+down, he gave himself up as ruined. His fortune
+was locked up in a cargo of indigo at the docks, and
+all the dock warehouses were a smoking mass.
+Hours later he learned that as the stone warehouses
+were choked so full of goods, his indigo had been
+stored in a wooden shed some distance away, and
+the direction of the wind had saved the shed. It
+was an ill wind for Memel, but it trebled Schliemann’s
+fortune.</p>
+
+<p>In ten short years his industry and exceptional
+ability, coupled with the Crimean War, brought
+him the fortune he had planned. He, a young man
+of thirty-five, was free to order his life as he chose.
+He gave himself up wholeheartedly to learning the
+tongue of his Greek heroes, and in six weeks Greek
+was no longer an unknown language to him. Within
+three months he was reading his beloved Homer in
+the original tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Schliemann, who had the phenomenal ability to
+learn a language in six weeks, wandered far over
+the world, acquiring languages as souvenirs of the
+lands he visited, just as modern travellers pick up
+souvenirs in shops. But in the end his travels
+brought him to Greece.</p>
+
+<p>Where other people regarded the songs of Homer
+as mere legends, Schliemann never doubted their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span>
+basic truth. While many wondered whether Troy
+ever existed at all, Schliemann in his innermost
+heart knew that Troy had been a real city. The
+wonderful work of Layard fired his imagination,
+and gradually the idea formed in his mind that if
+Layard had succeeded in digging up the lost city
+of Nineveh he himself might find Troy with a
+spade.</p>
+
+<p>In 1870, filled with the knowledge of years of
+study, he came to the desolate Hill of Hissarlik
+standing on the Plain of Troy, a short distance
+from the Dardanelles. He climbed the hill, feeling
+sure that beneath his feet were buried the remains
+of the city of his heroes. Scholars laughed at his
+enthusiasm, ridiculed the idea that Hissarlik could
+possibly have been Troy. If Troy ever existed,
+the one thing certain, they averred, was that it
+could not possibly have been at Hissarlik. To
+most people Troy was merely a myth, a city of the
+gods created by Homer himself.</p>
+
+<p>Countering the ridicule with cold logic, Schliemann
+decided to set all doubts at rest by the test
+of excavation. For £300 he bought the greater
+part of the site from the Turkish owners and, after
+many vexatious delays, began digging into the side
+of the mighty hill in 1871. He was desperately
+keen to clear up the mystery of Troy. He set his
+labourers to work, cutting the secret out of the
+heart of the hill. Men, at Schliemann’s bidding,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span>
+began to run away with the hill of Hissarlik in
+wheelbarrows.</p>
+
+<p>Schliemann’s energy was remarkable, his driving
+force irresistible. From dawn till dark he was on
+the site. His wife, a Greek lady, was as enthusiastic
+as her husband, so enthusiastic, indeed, that she
+and her maid took picks and spades and dug trenches
+and made discoveries for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>So long as Schliemann was eating into the hill,
+he was happy. His greatest enemies were feast
+days and rainy days, for in wet weather it was
+impossible to work, and on feast days the Greeks
+positively refused to work—a cart-load of money
+would not win a day’s labour from them. So on
+these days Schliemann sat down and wrote up his
+discoveries.</p>
+
+<p>He laid bare great walls, and as his diggers
+burrowed into the hill they found others immediately
+below the first, the lower walls buried in soil and
+rubbish. Schliemann was amazed. The Hill of
+Hissarlik was the most wonderful hill in the world.
+All the history of thousands of years was concentrated
+on this one spot, heaped up there by the
+hands of men long dead.</p>
+
+<p>The deeper he dug, the more he marvelled.
+Here was city heaped on city, civilization on
+civilization. The city of one people had been overwhelmed
+and covered with debris, then on top of
+the buried city another people had erected their
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span>own dwellings, probably not knowing nor caring
+what lay under their feet. So it went on here for
+centuries, for thousands of years, back into the
+past to the Greeks, to the Trojans, to an earlier
+race linked with Crete.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_225" style="max-width: 60.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_225.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British School at Athens</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">A GENERAL VIEW OF THE RUINS OF TROY, SHOWING THE REMARKABLE
+EXTENT OF SCHLIEMANN’S EXCAVATIONS AND DISCOVERIES. THESE
+ANCIENT TROJAN WALLS WERE COMPLETELY COVERED UNTIL SCHLIEMANN
+DUG THEM OUT AND LAID BARE THE LONG-LOST SITE OF THE
+FAMOUS CITY.</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>The original hill increased in size with the
+centuries. As the cities were overwhelmed, so the
+hill grew until in places it was 50 feet higher than
+the virgin soil on which the first dwellings were
+founded. As the height increased, so did the
+length and breadth. Foot by foot the debris of
+vanished peoples accumulated on the hill, foot by
+foot the rubbish fell, until in one direction Schliemann
+found the hill 250 feet longer than it had
+originally been, while in another place he found
+that 150 feet had been added!</p>
+
+<p>And in all this mountain of debris Schliemann
+came across relics, hundreds of them, thousands
+of them, walls and pieces of pottery and stone
+battleaxes, with copper nails used by ladies as
+hair-pins. His industry was astounding. He
+marked the depth at which everything was found,
+paid rewards to the finders. If a piece of pottery
+with an inscription turned up, the man who turned
+it up received additional pay. The diggers, anxious
+to make all they could, were more interested in
+the money than in the work. Some tried to
+deceive him by scratching inscriptions on bits of
+pottery. A magnifying glass soon laid the frauds<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span>
+bare, and the finders, instead of getting extra pay,
+were fined for their deceit. The old diggers soon
+realized that it was useless to attempt to deceive
+Schliemann in this way, and new diggers were not
+long in learning the same lesson.</p>
+
+<p>The hill was like an anthill, men scurrying about
+with wheelbarrows, men digging away. At times
+Schliemann had one hundred and fifty labourers
+at work, with horses and carts. Once his men
+were striving to lever down a mighty wall of earth
+which long resisted their utmost efforts. No
+sooner was it down than another wall collapsed
+without warning on some of the diggers. Schliemann
+saw the catastrophe with horror. He rushed
+down and began to dig with all his strength, while
+the cries and groans of the buried men fell on his
+ears. Fortunately the timbers shoring up the work
+slipped in such a way that they kept the weight
+off the imprisoned men, who were eventually dug
+out little the worse for their premature burial.</p>
+
+<p>Not without reason did Homer call Ilium the
+“windy place,” as Schliemann realized when he
+experienced to the full the awful blasts that swept
+over the plain. Sometimes the temperature dropped
+suddenly and the wind came through their wooden
+houses and nearly froze them to death. The only
+way it was possible to keep warm on these occasions
+was to go into a sheltered trench and work at the
+face of the hill.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span></p>
+
+<p>Hundreds of thousands of tons of debris were
+shifted in driving a great road like a railway cutting
+with huge sloping embankments through the hill.
+In one trench Schliemann fought his way through
+two walls 10 feet thick, and in a little while came
+to two more walls 6 and 8 feet thick. Mighty
+blocks of stone had to be wrenched out and broken
+up before they could be carted away. The Greeks,
+coveting this stone for building purposes, quickly
+carted it away, but they were too indolent to assist
+Schliemann in breaking it up.</p>
+
+<p>Just as a lady cuts into a cake of many layers,
+so he cut into the Hill of Hissarlik, and instead of
+finding one city he found seven, built one on top
+of another, with layers of burned ashes and debris
+between to mark the calamities which had wiped
+them out. In some places the ashes were from
+5 to 10 feet thick, irrefutable proof of the way fire
+and sword had played about this desolate hill
+throughout the ages. He found his city of Troy
+at a depth of about 30 feet, the city which flourished
+three thousand years ago before the Greeks took
+it by subterfuge. He laid bare the ancient gate,
+and while cutting a trench through a wall near
+the gate, his delighted eyes caught their first
+glimpse of the great Trojan treasure, golden cups
+and jugs and silver goblets, some of the gold cups
+weighing a pound, with silver cups twice as heavy.
+Here were necklaces and other jewels all hurriedly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span>
+thrust into a hole in the town wall as if some one
+were fleeing with the treasure when he was overwhelmed.</p>
+
+<p>Quickly Schliemann sent his men to breakfast
+before they knew of the discovery, and very carefully
+he cut out the treasure from the debris with his
+knife, giving it to his wife, who, concealing it
+beneath her cloak, hurried with it to their little
+wooden house on the hill. At any moment the
+great wall above him might have collapsed and
+killed him, but he was too excited to heed the risk.</p>
+
+<p>For three years Schliemann dug into the Hill of
+Hissarlik, finding ruined temples, laying bare
+castles and towers and city walls. When he published
+his discoveries, a storm of criticism arose
+among men of science. They laughed him to scorn,
+refused to believe him, to accept his evidence.
+They considered that he was utterly wrong, that
+his enthusiasm for Homer had led him astray and
+betrayed him into error.</p>
+
+<p>The storm of controversy raged on while Schliemann
+went to Mycenæ and dug up an even more
+wonderful treasure than that of Troy, finding the
+bodies of ancient kings buried in golden masks
+and with golden armour about them. It was a
+dazzling discovery of the wealth of the Mycenæan
+age, and Schliemann proved that his interests
+were purely scientific by presenting it all to the
+museum at Athens.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_231" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_231.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British School at Athens</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">THE CIRCLE OF GRAVES AT MYCENÆ, WHERE SCHLIEMANN FOUND THE ANCIENT KINGS ALL BURIED IN GOLDEN
+ARMOUR AND MASKS. IT WAS THE MOST WONDERFUL TREASURE TROVE EVER DISCOVERED</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span></p>
+
+<p>Not until the great English statesman, William
+Ewart Gladstone, arose and championed Schliemann,
+did men of science begin to realize that they were
+wrong and Schliemann was right. Thus the poor
+German grocer boy, who had listened with tears in
+his eyes to a drunken miller reciting passages from
+Homer, lived to lay bare the city of his dreams with
+a spade. Working in direct opposition to the
+opinions of science, he dug up the city of Troy in
+the very place where he knew it must be, and where
+scientists said it could not possibly have stood.</p>
+
+<p>The discovery of Troy was the triumph of
+Schliemann’s faith and genius.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">Science,</span> which began by doubting, finished
+by honouring Schliemann for his remarkable
+discoveries. Multitudes had gazed on
+the desolate Hill of Hissarlik, the Turks had long
+quarried it for stones for new buildings, but none
+except Schliemann suspected the wonders that lay
+concealed beneath the great mound. Even he was
+puzzled at first to read all the records aright, but
+gradually the evidence was sifted out and the story
+was made plainer. In all, Schliemann recovered
+from the site a hundred thousand relics, every one
+of which was photographed, drawn and catalogued
+with the depth at which it was found.</p>
+
+<p>The peculiar thing was that Schliemann learned,
+as those who have worked in Egypt have also discovered,
+that the deeper he dug and the farther
+he went back, the more artistic did the pottery
+become; that the potter’s art decayed through the
+later ages until it was quite crude. Some of the
+wonderful golden cups he found, weighing upwards
+of a pound, were beaten into shape by the goldsmith,
+others were actually cast gold. He was pleasantly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span>
+surprised one day when, knocking down a great
+thick piece of what he imagined to be fused copper
+wire, the wire broke apart and the silver and golden
+bracelets of which it was composed fell on the floor,
+some of them melted together by the heat of a
+mighty fire.</p>
+
+<p>He found weights made of burnt clay, with seals
+of similar material, and quaint objects of pottery
+on which were inscriptions in an unknown writing.
+There were Egyptian and Assyrian relics, with relics
+of Crete, and a fine sculpture of Apollo driving the
+horses of the Sun, which pointed to the remarkable
+uprising of art in Greece, when Greek sculptors
+produced the most beautiful statues the world has
+ever seen, works which modern sculptors acknowledge
+as the masterpieces of all time. The building
+of the Parthenon at Athens in the time of Phidias,
+two thousand four hundred years ago, saw Greek
+art at the height of its glory, with artists doing finer
+work than has ever been done before or since.</p>
+
+<p>The glory of Greece faded, but the Parthenon
+still lifted its noble columns to the skies and withstood
+the ravages of time. Loving hands designed
+it, skilled fingers shaped the stones, modelled the
+exquisite statues that decorated it. That which
+man had builded so wonderfully, those who were
+blind to beauty wantonly destroyed. Time and
+weather caressed the marbles, but the hand of man
+sought their destruction.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span></p>
+
+<p>About the time that the Rosetta Stone was
+brought to light at Fort St. Julian to reveal the
+mystery of hieroglyphics, Lord Elgin, the British
+Ambassador to Constantinople, made up his mind
+to try to save a few of the priceless fragments
+scattering the Acropolis at Athens. For years the
+Turks had been using the Parthenon as a quarry,
+carting off the stones and building them into their
+houses. The vandalism of the Turks was almost
+incredible. They ripped out the stones of the most
+glorious building the world has ever seen and built
+them into their forts; they fired their guns at the
+sculptures in a fury of sheer destruction. They
+broke off arms and legs and gave them to passing
+travellers. Anything and everything they could
+do to obliterate the glory of ancient Greece was
+done.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Elgin, knowing how much had vanished
+within living memory, knew that in a few years
+little would be left, for the Turks delighted in
+destroying those things which the Christian infidels
+came so far to see. He treated with the Turkish
+authorities, he even went so far as to gain the ear
+of the Sultan’s mother, and in the end he was
+granted an order to dig and remove any stones and
+sculptures which he desired.</p>
+
+<p>A staff of artists went to Athens on behalf of Lord
+Elgin to sketch the ruins on the Acropolis. Athens,
+however, was a long way from Constantinople,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span>
+and the power of the Porte diminished as the distance
+from the capital increased. The local officials,
+reading the order in their own way, would only
+let the artists enter the Acropolis upon payment
+of £5 a day. For the greater part of a year Lord
+Elgin paid this exaction without demur. Money
+was nothing to him so long as he saved these beautiful
+relics of the past.</p>
+
+<p>Over four hundred men were employed in collecting
+what was to be saved of the fragments which,
+shattered and smashed, were still of unique beauty.
+They dug among the gigantic heaps of ruins for
+remains of marbles. Scaffolding was erected to
+take down some of the matchless figures in the
+frieze. Stones were taken out of the forts and
+replaced with less valuable stones.</p>
+
+<p>A rumour that some marbles had been built into
+a Turkish house reached Lord Elgin’s ears, and at
+once he sent to Constantinople for special permission
+to pull down the house. After much delay
+and a great deal of trouble, coupled with the expenditure
+of a considerable sum in bribes, the permission
+was granted. Lord Elgin set his men to
+work, and stone by stone the house was pulled down.
+No trace of marbles could be found.</p>
+
+<p>Not until the house was entirely destroyed did
+the one-time owner calmly stroll up to the ruins
+and announce that all the marbles had been ground
+down to make mortar for his dwelling. It seems<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span>
+incredible, yet it is literally true that the greatest
+works of art ever created by man were pulverized
+to make cement for a workman’s house. The
+incident was but one of a series of such acts of
+vandalism. On another occasion a Turk, getting at
+some of the statues, smilingly knocked the head off
+one of the figures and deliberately smashed it to
+bits because the people, whom he called Christian
+dogs, admired it.</p>
+
+<p>The fragments of sculptures that remained were
+gathered up by loving hands and packed into cases.
+But there was much delay before they reached
+England. Lord Elgin, owing to our war with
+France, became a prisoner in Paris, and the cases
+containing the sculptures lay neglected in Malta
+and other places.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the Elgin marbles which now grace the
+British Museum were for a period at the bottom of
+the sea. The <em>Mentor</em>, on which they were shipped,
+was wrecked at Cerigo in the Grecian Archipelago,
+and went down in 60 feet of water. For three
+years a fight was waged to rescue these treasures
+from the sea-bed, and only after considerable
+difficulty were all the cases eventually recovered
+by divers.</p>
+
+<p>While the art world acclaimed Lord Elgin for
+having saved some of the most beautiful statues
+in the world, the Government looked upon him
+askance. He spent a fortune of about £80,000<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span>
+in acquiring the wonderful collection, and it was
+questioned whether the sculptures were really his
+private property. Directly he gave the State the
+opportunity of acquiring them on behalf of the
+public, the Government began to haggle about the
+price as though the sculptures were an everyday
+article of commerce such as tea or sugar. A Commission
+was appointed to go into the matter and
+many people were examined, giving the impression
+that Lord Elgin, in expending his private fortune
+to rescue the priceless sculptures of Phidias from
+the destroying hands of the Turks, had committed
+some grave crime. Famous sculptors like John
+Flaxman, R.A., and Joseph Nollekins, R.A., went
+before the Commission and spoke enthusiastically
+about the beauty of the ancient marbles that had
+once graced the Parthenon; artists like Sir Thomas
+Lawrence sang their praises; the President of the
+Royal Academy said the marbles were incomparable.</p>
+
+<p>All the time the question of value kept cropping
+up. “How much do you think they are worth?”
+the artists were asked. The artists did not know.
+How could they say? It was impossible for them
+to fix a price on beautiful things they considered
+priceless.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not impossible for the Government.
+The value of the Elgin Marbles was set down at
+£35,000. The wonderful sculptures which many
+American millionaires to-day would pay anything<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span>
+to obtain were valued then at £35,000. The nation
+owes much to Lord Elgin for acquiring from the
+ruins of Athens these matchless relics of the time
+when Athens was the first city of the world and
+Greek art was blooming in all its beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Elgin rescued the glories of Greece that
+were still visible, but Schliemann nearly three
+quarters of a century later had the extraordinary
+insight and genius to delve into the dim past before
+Greece was, before Troy was a nation, back to the
+misty beginnings of that ancient race whose
+writings even now we are unable to read.</p>
+
+<p>The puzzling characters inscribed on the pottery
+dug up by Schliemann gave him the clue where to
+look for the earliest traces of that race. With rare
+judgment, amounting to genius, he pointed to
+Knossos, in Crete, as the seat from which the
+Mediterranean civilization sprang.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_242" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_242.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British School at Athens</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">THE PICTURESQUE CAMP OF A DIGGER IN THE ISLAND OF CRETE</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap no-indent"><span class="upper-case">On</span> the map of the world, Great Britain is
+small. That men should go forth from
+this little island and win their way in so
+many distant lands, that this island people should
+wield such power over the earth, that they should
+venture into the unknown places and bring vast
+areas under the dominion of England, seems incredible.
+If we were not aware that this is the
+literal truth, we should find it hard to believe, we
+might even feel inclined to doubt it. The fact
+that the mighty British Empire has all sprung from
+this little island in the North Sea is one of the most
+astounding things in the world.</p>
+
+<p>In olden times it was thought that all the world
+centred round the Mediterranean Sea, that the
+earth consisted only of those lands bordering the
+Mediterranean. In bygone days, long before the
+dawn of history, it is possible that Crete dominated
+the known world of that day just as the Island of
+Great Britain dominates the world of our own
+day.</p>
+
+<p>The British Empire is tangible proof of what<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span>
+one little island can do. There is no reason why
+Crete should not have done the same in the past,
+why that little island set in the vivid blue of the
+Mediterranean should not have influenced all the
+lands on the Mediterranean shore. We do not
+know. We cannot say. We have learned much,
+but more remains to be unravelled from the tangled
+skein that Time has woven in Crete.</p>
+
+<p>As already mentioned, Schliemann, bringing all
+the knowledge he had gained in his amazing
+excavations at Troy, at Mycenæ and other places,
+to bear on the subject of the origin of the
+Mediterranean civilization, placed his finger on
+Knossos as the centre whence it sprang. His
+uncanny instinct was once more right. He
+wandered about the lonely places of Crete, still
+with faith in the Homer who led him to discover
+Troy, feeling sure that at Knossos he would
+find the fabled palace of King Minos, but death
+prevented him from making the biggest discovery
+of all.</p>
+
+<p>The work that the German excavator left undone
+was taken up by Sir Arthur Evans. Unfolding his
+tent on the barren site of Knossos, Sir Arthur Evans
+set his diggers to work. They dug diligently, scanning
+every spadeful of earth for traces of man.
+They excavated a yard of soil, 6 feet, 10 feet,
+wielding pick and shovel, carrying the debris away
+in baskets. They found many things, broken jars,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span>decorated pottery, but most important of all
+were the clay tablets inscribed with the puzzling
+writing of the Minoans.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_245" style="max-width: 62.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_245.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British School at Athens</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">A GENERAL VIEW OF THE RUINS OF THE PALACE OE KNOSSOS IN CRETE, WHERE SIR ARTHUR EVANS HAS DISCOVERED
+A NEW AND HIGHLY DEVELOPED CIVILIZATION, WITH A WRITING WHICH CANNOT YET BE READ</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>Still they went on, getting deeper and deeper,
+until the pick of a digger struck a paving stone.
+They shovelled the rubbish away and disclosed
+another stone, then another. At last Sir Arthur
+Evans had reached the stone pavement of a
+palace.</p>
+
+<p>Excavations were continued, and gradually the
+throne-room of the Palace of Knossos was bared once
+more to human eyes, after lying under the debris
+for countless generations. Here were the stone
+seats arranged round the walls for the councillors,
+here was the throne on which sat the king who laid
+tributary on all the lands about the Mediterranean,
+a stone throne, hollowed in the seat to give comfort,
+with a stone back carved in a series of six curves
+rising to a half-circle at the top, the solid block comprising
+the seat carved at the front to indicate legs.
+Here in this ancient palace he held audiences, sent
+his messengers forth in their galleys to claim tribute
+at Athens, issued his decrees.</p>
+
+<p>“Go,” he said, and they went.</p>
+
+<p>And when after feasting he desired amusement
+and relaxation, he would beckon his henchman.
+“Fetch me maidens to dance and sing,” he would
+say, and there would be the sound of twanging strings
+and the pitter-patter of little naked feet on the stone<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span>
+floor, feet with toes pink as rosebuds, lithe limbs,
+flowing draperies.</p>
+
+<p>And the king, feasting his eyes on the beauty of
+his dancers, would dream of the youths and maidens
+even then aboard his galleys on their way from
+Athens to Crete, the youths and maidens who were
+the yearly tribute.</p>
+
+<p>The hot sun, beating down on the well-tended
+vineyards, drew the nectar of the earth to the
+grapes, brushed them with a delicate bloom ere they
+fell beneath the feet of the winepressers to yield the
+juice that made the feasters merry. The blossom
+of the olive groves was succeeded by tiny green
+olives which swelled in the heat until they were
+ready to yield their rich oil which was so welcome
+to the people of other lands. Artists worked
+happily on the plaster walls, laying on their colours
+to delight the eye, potters kneaded their clay until
+it was as butter under the ball of the thumb. The
+people spun and sewed and draped their bodies in
+comely garments. But most of all they valued
+health, realized the necessity for adequate drainage.</p>
+
+<p>Did they become too civilized, these ancient
+people? Did they grow lazy in their luxury, disinclined
+to work? Who knows! Perhaps it was
+so. At any rate, desolation swept over them and
+blotted them out, just as the cities on the site of
+Troy were blotted out again and again.</p>
+
+<p>We can imagine the galleys of the invaders<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span>
+approaching the rocky coasts, the cries of alarm running
+through the palaces and over the island, the
+invaders springing ashore, fierce, strong, hard, not
+softened by too much civilization, relying on their
+own strength and weapons for sustenance, not upon
+the tribute exacted from other lands. Muscular
+arms that had thrust the galleys through the
+Mediterranean, dropped the sweeps and caught up
+weapons as the keels grounded. The sea curled
+about the legs of the invaders as they dropped over
+the prow and swarmed ashore. Fighters, every
+one, asking no quarter, giving none, seeking plunder
+with the sword, valuing other lives not at all and
+their own but little.</p>
+
+<p>See the women shrinking into the corners of the
+palaces, eyes full of fear, sensing approaching doom;
+men shouting and gasping, the invaders sweeping
+forward and cutting them down. A semi-barbarous
+people conquering a civilized people, cold iron superseding
+bronze, uncultured men with superior
+weapons triumphing over culture with inferior
+weapons.</p>
+
+<p>Long, long ago something like this happened in
+Crete; the palaces of the ancient people were toppled
+about their ears and palaces and people vanished
+into oblivion.</p>
+
+<p>Gaze on another scene thousands of years later.
+Absolute desolation on the hill of Kephala. No
+sound of music nor pitter-patter of pink feet on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span>
+naked stones, only the song of the breeze; no sign
+of palaces, conquered and conquerors alike swept
+into the gulf of Time; only the same blue sea a mile
+or two away singing its eternal song on the same
+rocky coast.</p>
+
+<p>Men are swinging picks into the bosom of the earth,
+making great gashes and gaps in the hill, picking over
+the loosened rubbish, throwing it into baskets and
+carrying it away. An easy movement of the arm
+sends the contents of the basket sliding down the
+face of the dump, and the black-haired labourer
+turns back for another load.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a digger glimpses something amid the
+heap of rubbish loosened by the point of the pick.
+He stoops like a hawk to its prey and brushes aside
+the soil with his fingers, scrapes carefully about the
+object, and in a minute has it free.</p>
+
+<p>It is merely a piece of yellow pottery with red
+decorations. Almost before the finder has had time
+to look at the fragment, a man scrambles down to
+him and, taking the fragment, carefully removes
+all traces of soil.</p>
+
+<p>Keen eyes scrutinize the little piece of pottery,
+and thoughts go crowding through the brain.
+Visions of Egypt leap up, of a similar fragment
+found in a tomb far over the blue sea to the south,
+past the age-old Pyramids and the modern wonder
+of Assouan. Back and back thoughts fly through
+the ages, back to the earliest kings who swayed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span>the earliest communities in the Nile Valley, all
+because of a fragment of burnt earth, bits of pottery,
+links in the Eternal Chain of Time, binding together
+in some unknown way Egypt and Crete. Most of
+the links are missing, but who knows how and when
+the pick and shovel of the seeker after truth may
+come across them?</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_252" style="max-width: 43.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_252.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+<p class="no-indent fs80"><em>By courtesy of the British School at Athens</em></p>
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">ONE OF THE MAGAZINES UNCOVERED BY SIR ARTHUR EVANS AT KNOSSOS
+IN CRETE. THE MIGHTY STORE JARS, BIG ENOUGH TO CONTAIN A MAN,
+ARE SEEN IN THEIR ORIGINAL POSITIONS AND THE SIDE OF THE TRENCH
+INDICATES HOW DEBRIS COMPLETELY COVERED THEM IN THE COURSE OF
+THOUSANDS OF YEARS</p></figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>Once more let us glimpse that hill in Crete. The
+diggers are gesticulating, running about. Carefully
+they dig and loosen the soil about another object.
+A band of carved stone comes to light; it is a
+curved band, and as they work about it ever so
+carefully, they find it is part of a cylinder buried
+deep in the earth. They work excitedly, removing
+the earth, digging down until they reveal a mighty
+stone jar, a jar big enough for a man to stand
+upright in, a jar which the ancients used as a store.
+It is the giant forerunner of those tiny canisters
+to be found in the modern pantry, canisters for
+storing tea and coffee and sugar and rice.</p>
+
+<p>Deeper yet dug Sir Arthur Evans, until he had
+penetrated to nearly twice the depth of the floor
+of the Palace of Knossos, until he was nearly 40
+feet below the surface. Here were stone implements,
+the scrapers and knives of the unknown
+people who first dwelt in this island in the Mediterranean.
+And through all the different strata
+he found relics of man, relics by which it was
+possible to trace the rise of civilization in Crete,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span>
+from stone to copper, and copper to bronze and
+bronze to iron.</p>
+
+<p>But the biggest find of all are the stones and clay
+tablets and seals with their hieroglyphic and script
+writing. For years Sir Arthur Evans has puzzled
+over them, tried to solve the mystery of this strange
+writing. The finest scholars of the world have
+racked their brains for the clue to the mystery
+writing. There is the writing, but we cannot read
+it. The key is lost.</p>
+
+<p>Still the search for it goes on, and some day Sir
+Arthur Evans will surely achieve his crowning
+triumph and solve the riddle of the pictographs
+and script of Crete. What we may learn then
+about the origins of our own civilization, nobody
+can foretell. The inscribed stones and clay tablets
+of Crete have yet to yield up their secret.</p>
+
+<p>For years Sir Arthur Evans has laboured in
+Crete, finding the money to move mountains of
+soil so that light may be thrown on the past. Discoveries
+of the highest importance have followed
+his excavations, for he has proved with pick and
+spade that here in this little island flourished a
+civilization almost undreamed of till the present
+century, a civilization maybe as old as that of Egypt
+and Mesopotamia, a civilization that flourished at
+least five thousand years ago, that endured for
+ages before the Phœnicians launched their galleys
+on the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span></p>
+
+<p>Perhaps in the years to come the researches of
+those who are working in the desert places will
+make the origin of these early civilizations clearer,
+and we may be able to assign to each its proper
+place in the Story of Mankind.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center no-indent">THE END
+</p>
+<br>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
+<p class="center no-indent">New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p>
+</div>
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author	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-01-19 18:49:07 -0800
committer	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-01-19 18:49:07 -0800
commit	d36579d423d4505d3340a8e988107b494b399f38 (patch)
tree	e1b797c051980fe61d6e1498e860b4ee09f93115