WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:05.839 Chapter ten of Unknown London, written by Walter George Bell. 2 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:13.439 This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Janet. 3 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:20.399 Chapter ten The Bones of Mean cow Rah. Idly the 4 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:23.960 people go by, for the Egyptian rooms of the British 5 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:29.000 Museum are never without visitors, attracted there, in large part, 6 00:00:29.079 --> 00:00:33.240 no doubt, by that morbid curiosity and death and its 7 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:38.079 impenetrable mystery, which is an inherited sense with most of us. 8 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:40.840 Few stay to give more than a glance at these 9 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:43.920 bones lying out on a tray, toned to a bright 10 00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:46.520 yellow buff by the process by which they have been 11 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:50.719 preserved by the embalmers, Or at the broken coffin lid 12 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:58.359 with its double row of meaningless hieroglyphics. Meaningless, yes, but 13 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:01.799 not to those who know. They tell of man's fears 14 00:01:01.799 --> 00:01:06.480 and aspirations, long ages back towards the dawn. This is 15 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:09.079 almost the oldest piece of writing in the world that 16 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:13.439 has come down to us. Puzzle out the hieroglyphics with 17 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:16.840 the aid of some student in Egyptology, and you will 18 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:22.920 read this Osiris, king of the North and South, Mean 19 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:28.280 chaw Rah, living forever, born of Heaven, Conceived by nut 20 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:34.040 Thou comest of the race of the god seb thy 21 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:37.079 mother Nut. She grants that thou shalt be a god. 22 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.000 Never more shalt thou have enemies. King of the North 23 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:48.439 and South, omen Kharrah, living forever. This then was a king, 24 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:53.840 a pharaoh of the Pyramids, ruler over Egypt. Ko Foe 25 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:57.719 and Kahirah had gone before him, and had built in 26 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:03.000 stone higher and more massively. But his tomb stands beside theirs, 27 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:06.680 above the sands at Ghizi by the Nile, and is 28 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:09.919 still accounted third of the most wonderful tombs in the world. 29 00:02:11.080 --> 00:02:14.759 It will last so long as the world lasts. The 30 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:18.719 divine ruler had willed that his remains should rest amidst 31 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:22.680 that vast heap of masonry, while through the appointed cycles 32 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:27.599 of years his soul should wander in the unknown. And 33 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:31.080 here he lies in Bloomsbury, the least considered of this 34 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:34.439 company of the dead. For all around the ritual of 35 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:38.719 death is presented in its most gorgeous form, with plates 36 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:43.159 of beaten gold and bright paintings, and little Yushabti gods 37 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:46.479 of a religion which perished with these people thousands of 38 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:50.840 years ago, and mummy cases fashioned to preserve the form 39 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:54.520 and features that nature herself is so quick to destroy. 40 00:02:56.719 --> 00:02:59.680 The wayfarer who lingers here stands almost at the beginning 41 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:04.919 of things, so far as human records are concerned. Babylon 42 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:09.919 in its rise and fall, Greece Rome substantially all that 43 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:12.800 is known of the human race, save what is gleamed 44 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:16.319 from the message of Chipp's flints and scratchings by prehistoric 45 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:20.639 man on reindeer and ox bones and old human skulls 46 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:23.960 in a drift, all have had their place and time 47 00:03:24.039 --> 00:03:27.159 on the world stage, and have disappeared. Since these were 48 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:30.960 the bones of a living king, and this pathetic inscription, 49 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:35.280 with its longings for immortality, was deep cut on the 50 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:40.560 wooden lid of his coffin nearly sixty centuries ago that 51 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:44.240 modern Greek Carotidus stood at the pyramid tomb of Mean 52 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:47.759 chah Rah. Call him classic if you will, But nearly 53 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:51.479 four thousand years had then come and gone between Herododus 54 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:56.360 and this Egyptian king. The traveler learnt much, but it 55 00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:59.919 was not history. A web of tradition had grown about 56 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:04.479 the personality of this remote and shadowy ruler, that his 57 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:08.080 reign was just and beneficent, and that he was beloved 58 00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:11.120 by his people, a belief likely to have had its 59 00:04:11.159 --> 00:04:13.960 origin in the simple fact that, in the building of 60 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:18.519 his pyramid tomb, his opposition had been less burdensome than 61 00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:24.519 that of those larger builders his predecessors. Kopho, whom the 62 00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:28.839 Greeks called Chiops, erected the grandest monument that ever man 63 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:34.439 had raised. To his vanity and ambition, Kara Cephron built 64 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:40.759 but little smaller. The third pyramid of mean Kara Miseranus 65 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:43.959 is but one tenth the mass of the great Pyramid. 66 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:48.439 So vast and yet so small in the majestic conception 67 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:51.839 of these monuments that with the ground surface of little 68 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:55.040 more than two acres, it might rise and fill a 69 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:59.680 London square. The secret of the pyramids has been well kept, 70 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:04.240 no doubt. Prisoners, taking in thousands into captivity in the 71 00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:09.680 wars which Egypt interminably waged, were largely employed as slaves 72 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:13.279 in the task of building. But is there not another 73 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:17.079 and simpler explanation of all the huge public works carried 74 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:20.759 out in Egypt. It is found in the annual rise 75 00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:24.879 of the Nile. The period of the inundation stopped all labor, 76 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:29.199 throwing the entire populations along the river, and the river 77 00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:32.160 was Egypt idle and free to do what the royal 78 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:39.160 master willed. Herodotus learned more of this pharaoh, Micawa, that 79 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:42.759 he opened the temples and permitted the people worn down 80 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.920 by labor by his father Karah to the last extremity, 81 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:50.360 to return to their employments and to sacrifices, That he 82 00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:53.879 made the most just decisions of all the kings. That 83 00:05:53.959 --> 00:05:57.240 he had a daughter, an only child, concerning whom the 84 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:01.519 traveler tells two tales, one of affecting in its simplicity, 85 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:07.480 the other obscene. The pharaoh, extremely afflicted by her death 86 00:06:07.879 --> 00:06:12.240 and desiring her burial in the most sumptuous manner, caused 87 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:14.519 a hollow, wooden image of a kneeling cow to be 88 00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:19.279 made the image of the sacred goddess Hather. This he 89 00:06:19.319 --> 00:06:22.680 had covered with gold, the orb of the sun, imitated 90 00:06:22.759 --> 00:06:26.199 in gold, being set between the horns and into the 91 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:29.079 body of the cow. He placed the mummy of his daughter. 92 00:06:29.959 --> 00:06:32.720 When dying, she had entreated her father to permit her 93 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:36.839 to see the sun once every year, and once each 94 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:40.519 year at a great religious festival. The cow was brought 95 00:06:40.759 --> 00:06:45.199 from its richly furnished chamber at Sayes out into the sunshine, 96 00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:50.279 that rich Egyptian sunshine, the rays emanating from the Giver 97 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:54.120 of Life, which gleamed from every stone building, and carpeted 98 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:58.439 the city with velvet black shadows of pylons and temples. 99 00:06:59.279 --> 00:07:02.120 In an anti chamber were placed wooden statues of the 100 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:09.199 king's concubines, twenty in number, all formed naked. That was 101 00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:13.839 the story told by the priests of Seas concerning their charge. 102 00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:17.160 The other Herododus learned from the people that the girl 103 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:20.959 was betrayed and had strangled herself through grief, and that 104 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:23.480 her mother cut off the hands of the servants who 105 00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:26.879 had betrayed her, and their images were made in like 106 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:30.800 manner to show the mutilation. The cow he saw at 107 00:07:30.839 --> 00:07:34.519 face and the twenty wooden images, but his quicke eye 108 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:37.120 noticed that the hands had fallen off by agent decay, 109 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:40.639 and even then were lying at the feet, so he 110 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:46.360 made little of the tale. This too, Herododus learned from 111 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:49.560 the priests that an oracle reached the king from a 112 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:53.040 sacred city, imparting that he had no more than six 113 00:07:53.079 --> 00:07:55.800 full years to live, and he should die. In the 114 00:07:55.879 --> 00:08:02.199 seventh Miankowrah ventured a reproachful menssge to the god, complaining 115 00:08:02.199 --> 00:08:04.639 that his father and uncle, who had shut up the 116 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:08.360 temples and paid no regard to the gods, and moreover 117 00:08:08.680 --> 00:08:12.800 had oppressed their subjects, had lived long together for one 118 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:16.199 hundred and six years. Why was it that he must 119 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:20.040 die so soon, he who had worshiped the gods and 120 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:25.399 dutifully had made sacrifices to them. The oracle replied that 121 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:28.720 it was needful that Egypt should be afflicted for one 122 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:32.559 hundred and thirty years. The two who were kings before 123 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:37.720 him understood this, but he did not. When the pharaoh 124 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:42.279 thus realized that sentence was pronounced against him, he ordered 125 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:45.600 a great number of lamps to be raised, and, having 126 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:50.200 lighted them, whenever night came on, he drank and enjoyed himself, 127 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:53.600 never ceasing day or night, roving about the marshes and 128 00:08:53.720 --> 00:08:57.159 palm groves, whenever he could hear of places most suited 129 00:08:57.159 --> 00:09:01.159 for pleasure. To this artifice he restored in order that 130 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:04.360 by turning the knights into days, he might have twelve 131 00:09:04.440 --> 00:09:09.799 years of life instead of the six allotted. The coffin 132 00:09:09.879 --> 00:09:13.080 bones and huge sarcophagus of the king were found in 133 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:17.720 eighteen thirty seven by Colonel Howard Weiss, an English officer, 134 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:21.879 when exploring under a fur man granted by the Pasha. 135 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:25.120 They were in the tomb chambers, cut sixty feet deep 136 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:28.360 in a living rock from which the Third Pyramid rises. 137 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:33.519 Robbers had been there before him. Indeed, there is an 138 00:09:33.559 --> 00:09:36.720 Arab record of twelve twenty six a d. Describing how 139 00:09:36.759 --> 00:09:40.360 the pyramid had been attacked by treasure seekers who labored 140 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:45.039 at their task with axes for six months. They at 141 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:49.200 length forced an entrance, and in the sarcophagus, after they 142 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:54.240 had broken off the lid, saw the decayed, rotten remains 143 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:57.840 of a man, but no treasure by his side, except 144 00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:01.639 some golden tablets inscribed with care of a language which 145 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:07.279 no man could understand. Each robber's share of these tablets 146 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:12.080 amounted to one hundred dinars, about the value of fifty pounds. 147 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:18.840 When Colonel Howard Weiss entered the pyramid, the basalt sarcophagus 148 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:22.759 had not been displaced. The mummy had been lifted out 149 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:26.679 and taken for examination into an outer chamber still within 150 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:30.960 the tomb. There it had been rifled the rolls of 151 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:37.279 bandages yard upon yard of almost interminable length. The robbers 152 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:40.200 had unwound, in order that they might ascertain if jewels 153 00:10:40.279 --> 00:10:44.399 or gold plates were concealed among the swathings. If so, 154 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:50.679 they have disappeared. Centuries ago, fragments of the linen told 155 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:54.679 of the sacrilegious act. In the candle light, among the 156 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:59.279 debris that littered the stone floor, was found intact only 157 00:10:59.320 --> 00:11:04.440 the broken cow and the skeleton substantially complete save for 158 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:09.279 the head. To day, the visitor to the British Museum 159 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:14.559 will notice that the skull is missing. Upon this one fact, 160 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:19.240 not easily I agree to be explained, an ingenious story 161 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:22.840 has been woven. These are no bones of a king. 162 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:26.440 They tell of a grim tragedy. In the dark, dank 163 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:31.519 stone chambers and passages of the pyramid. Robbers breaking into 164 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:34.799 the tomb had quarreled over the treasure they found there. 165 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:41.240 One they had left behind, slain, in fear lest others 166 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:44.919 coming after might identify him and so bring home the 167 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.320 crime to its authors. They had carried away the head. 168 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:53.519 This theory, however, is completely disposed of by the fact 169 00:11:53.559 --> 00:11:55.759 that the bones of the legs and feet, when found, 170 00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:59.720 were partially enveloped in coarse mummy cloth of a yellow color, 171 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:04.039 to which a small quantity of resinous substance and gum 172 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:10.120 adhered even there. The misadventures that have befallen the relics 173 00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:15.000 of this Egyptian monarch did not end with infinite pains. 174 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:20.399 The heavy sarcophagus, it weighed three tons, was removed into 175 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:24.159 the outer air through passages so foul that the flame 176 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:27.480 of candles dwindled and went out, and the air was 177 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:32.960 poisonous to the workers. It was shipped from Alexandria for London. 178 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:37.440 In the autumn of the following year, a storm arose 179 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:40.159 in which the vessel was lost off the iron bound 180 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:45.000 coast near Gibraltar. The ship, her crew, and the precious 181 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:48.120 burden in their charge have never since been heard of. 182 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:52.759 Some wreckage was washed up, and only these bones in 183 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:55.639 the coffin lid survived till the sea shall give up 184 00:12:55.639 --> 00:13:01.600 the secrets it holds in its bed. The sarcophagus is lost, 185 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:06.000 but we know from the hieroglyphics so laboriously cut into 186 00:13:06.039 --> 00:13:09.600 the stone of a hundred others, from inscriptions carved in 187 00:13:09.639 --> 00:13:12.960 the passages of funeral chambers, and pen writings on the 188 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:16.600 native papyri, amid what kind of pictures and texts to 189 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:21.399 the gods. Minkawrah lay there awaiting the new life. The 190 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:25.039 ritual of the dead changing but Little was among the 191 00:13:25.080 --> 00:13:30.200 oldest of Egypt's possessions. In it we may read the aspirations, 192 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:34.840 the haunting fears, the hope of immortality, which this early 193 00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:40.039 pharaoh shared elsewhere in London, in the Sir john Sons 194 00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:44.840 Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields is the massive sarcophagus of SETI, 195 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:48.480 the first father of that pharaoh who was the oppressor 196 00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:52.480 of the Israelites. Through the texts cut in his stone chamber, 197 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:57.320 the divine ruler, struck down by death, appeals to the 198 00:13:57.360 --> 00:14:04.399 everlasting gods. Note one. The text here given is that 199 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:11.600 of doctor Wallace Budge and Footnote O Thou, Goddess, Nut, 200 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:16.600 support thou me, for I am thy son. Destroy thou 201 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:20.639 the defects of my immobility, together with those who produce them. 202 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:25.600 Raise thou me up I am thy son. Set thou 203 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:28.879 free him whose heart is at rest from that which 204 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:33.679 maketh it to be still. O Nut, lift thou me 205 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:38.240 up I am thy son. Do away from me that 206 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:43.360 which maketh me to be without motion. The Great Goddess 207 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:48.840 of Heaven, Queen of the gods answers the prayer. This 208 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:52.600 is my son, Osiris, the King, the Lord of the 209 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:56.919 North and South, the son of Ra, proceeding from his body, 210 00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:01.039 who loveth him. I am indebt him with the soul. 211 00:15:01.879 --> 00:15:04.679 I have endowed him with the spirit, and I have 212 00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:07.799 given him power. In the body of his mother teath Nut, 213 00:15:08.279 --> 00:15:12.919 I who was never born, I have come. I have 214 00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:16.360 united myself to Osiris the King, the Lord of the 215 00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:20.080 North and South, the son of Ra, the Lord of crowns, 216 00:15:20.519 --> 00:15:27.159 with life, stability and power. He shall not die. I 217 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:30.039 am Nut of the mighty Heart, and I took up 218 00:15:30.039 --> 00:15:33.080 my being in the body of my mother teth Nut. 219 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:37.440 In my name of Nut. Over my mother, none hath 220 00:15:37.519 --> 00:15:42.279 gained the mastery. I have filled every place with my beneficence, 221 00:15:42.759 --> 00:15:46.080 and I have led captive the whole earth. I have 222 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:49.159 led captive the South and the North. And I have 223 00:15:49.240 --> 00:15:52.279 gathered together the things which are into my arms to 224 00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:56.279 verify Osiris, the King, the Lord of the North and South, 225 00:15:56.960 --> 00:16:01.840 the son of Ra, proceeding from his body, who loveth Sheker, 226 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:05.519 the Lord of crowns, the governor of the joyful Heart. 227 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:13.759 His soul shall live forever. The god Seb speaks this 228 00:16:13.960 --> 00:16:16.799 is my son, who loveth me. I have given unto 229 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:22.759 him purity upon earth and glory in heaven. Him the Osiris, 230 00:16:23.080 --> 00:16:28.679 the King and the company of the gods takes up 231 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:35.759 that triumphant chant God, calling to God. Happy. I am happy. 232 00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:38.399 I have come that I may be among those who 233 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:42.799 protect THEE. I bind together for THEE thy head and 234 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:47.320 thy members, smitting down for THEE thine enemies beneath THEE, 235 00:16:47.879 --> 00:16:52.639 and I give THEE thy head Osiris, King, son of 236 00:16:52.759 --> 00:16:59.720 ra Kaebaysanouf, I am thy son. I have come that 237 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:03.320 I may be among those who protect THEE. I gather 238 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:06.960 together for THEE thy bones and thy piece, together for 239 00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:11.839 THEE thy limbs. I bring unto THEE thy heart, and 240 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:15.920 I set it upon its seat in thy body. I 241 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:20.079 make to flourish for THEE thy house after THEE. O 242 00:17:20.200 --> 00:17:27.279 Thou who livest forever, and Pua, I am Antpua, who 243 00:17:27.400 --> 00:17:31.480 dwell in the funeral chamber Mother Isis, shall come down 244 00:17:31.880 --> 00:17:36.359 and shall bring unto me swathings for the Osiris the King. 245 00:17:38.920 --> 00:17:41.759 So from the echoing chambers of death wrings down the 246 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:47.160 ages the message of man's immortality. Figures of gods and 247 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:52.519 goddesses were above and below him. Protective texts with magical 248 00:17:52.599 --> 00:17:57.119 power were about him on all sides. Thus arrayed for death, 249 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:01.200 the great King believed for a certainty in his appointed 250 00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:04.920 future that his soul would pass through the magic tunnel 251 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:09.240 opening in the lofty and unscalable mountains that compassed the 252 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:13.200 flat earth of the Egyptians, out into the other world, 253 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:17.440 wherein the souls of men were tried, and thence towd 254 00:18:17.480 --> 00:18:21.160 in its funeral boat along the Sacred River, would emerge 255 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:24.400 into the radiance beyond, where he should dwell with ra 256 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:28.799 among the blest Is this the coffin? And are these 257 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:32.319 the actual bones of the pharaoh mean Kharah, who ruled 258 00:18:32.319 --> 00:18:36.200 in Egypt so many thousands of years ago. The greatest 259 00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:39.559 of our scholars believe that they are, But on the 260 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:44.680 first point there is not universal agreement. A suggestion has 261 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:47.799 been made that the coffin lid is a pious restoration 262 00:18:47.880 --> 00:18:51.680 of the rulers of a latter dynasty, this being based 263 00:18:51.720 --> 00:18:56.279 mainly upon certain peculiarities in the hieroglyphics too technical for 264 00:18:56.359 --> 00:19:03.640 discussion here mean Kharah curious at two pyramid tombs, Urku 265 00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:06.279 has told us in an inscription that he was a 266 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:10.559 priest of mean Kharah and keeper of a place belonging 267 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:14.559 to the pyramid her identified as the third pyramid above 268 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:20.400 the sands. At Gizi. Debuhun, a high official of this king, 269 00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:25.640 records an inscription of the min Kara pyramid Nedder, a 270 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:30.319 small pyramid at Abu Rowish, showing conspicuously on the highest 271 00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:34.640 hill of the western cliffs. At Abu Rowish, the king's 272 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:40.079 funeral statue was found, but not his bones at Gizi 273 00:19:40.119 --> 00:19:44.039 bones but not his funeral statue. What does this mean? 274 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:50.279 These things are among the Egyptian mysteries, and that greater 275 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:55.000 mystery still, the mystery of life and death, that too 276 00:19:55.079 --> 00:19:59.359 is unsolved. Much we know of the curious beliefs of 277 00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:03.000 the Egyptian in the composite nature of his being, his 278 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:08.559 spiritual body, his heart, his soul, his double, his shadow, 279 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:13.640 the intangible, shining casing which encompassed him. But nowhere do 280 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:16.839 the text's tell of a belief that his corruptible body 281 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:21.400 would rise again. Yet that such a conviction was held 282 00:20:21.559 --> 00:20:24.920 we feel from the extraordinary care taken to preserve the mummy, 283 00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:28.559 and the strength with which this pharaoh built his enduring 284 00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:32.640 pyramid tomb, which still is accounted one of the world's wonders. 285 00:20:34.279 --> 00:20:38.200 The cycles of years go by, the bones do not stir. 286 00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:43.119 To day. They lie in prosaic Bloomsbury, far away from 287 00:20:43.160 --> 00:20:46.480 his own land, and a British governor stands behind his 288 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:49.720 throne by the Nile, ruler of the kingdoms of the 289 00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:55.119 North and South. But human nature does not change the 290 00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:59.240 dread of oblivion, man's helpless longing for immortality, which are 291 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:02.240 so strong with thus to day, were just the same 292 00:21:02.519 --> 00:21:06.920 sixty centuries ago when the priests of Egypt inscribed upon 293 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:12.279 this coffin lid, nevermore shalt thou have enemies? King of 294 00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:19.359 the North and South? O mean Cowrah living forever. End 295 00:21:19.640 --> 00:21:20.519 of Chapter ten.