eir value. Watch was
kept, and suspicion finally centred upon a family of brothers; these
Arabs at last confessed, and one of them led the way to a place not far
from the temple called Deir-el-Bahari, which all visitors to Thebes will
remember. Here, filled with sand, there was a shaft not unlike a well,
which the man had discovered by chance. When the sand was removed, the
opening of a lateral tunnel was visible below, and this tunnel led into
the heart of the hill, where, in a rude chamber twenty feet high, were
piled thirty or more mummy cases, most of them decorated with the royal
asp. The mummies proved to be those of Sethi the First, the conqueror
who carried his armies as far into Asia as the Orontes; and of Rameses
the Great (called Sesostris by the Greeks), the Pharaoh who oppressed
the Israelites; and of Sethi the Second, the Pharaoh of the Exodus,
together with other sovereigns and members of their families, princes,
princesses, and priests. At some unknown period these mummies had been
taken from the magnificent rock tombs in that terrible Apocalyptic
Valley of the Kings, not far distant, and hidden in this rough chamber.
No one knows why this was done; a record of it may yet be discovered.
But in time all knowledge of the hiding-place was lost, and here the
Pharaohs remained until that July day in 1881. They were all transported
across the burning plain and down the Nile to Cairo. Now at last they
repose in state in an apartment which might well be called a
throne-room. You reach this great cruciform hall by a handsome double
stairway; upon entering, you see the Pharaohs ranged in a majestic
circle, and careless though you may be, unhistorical, practical, you are
impressed. The features are distinct. Some of the dark faces have
dignity; others show marked resolution and power. Curiously enough, one
of them closely resembles Voltaire. This, however, is probably due to
the fact that Voltaire closely resembled a mummy while living. How would
it seem, the thought that beings who are to come into existence A.D.
5000 should be able, in the land which we now call the United States of
America (what will it be called then?), to gaze upon the features of
some of our Presidents--for instance, George Washington and Abraham
Lincoln? I am afraid that the fancy is not as striking as it should be,
for New World ambition grasps without difficulty all futures, even A.D.
25,000; it is only when our eyes are turned towards the p