Golden Age, September 14, 1932

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A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

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in this issue

EGYPT

THE LAND THE DEVIL

CLAIMED AS HIS OWN

DROPLETS

AN OPEN LETTER

TO COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

HAS AMERICA FALLEN?

WHOLLY OBEYING JEHOVAH

llllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

every other

WEDNESDAY

U- — - — ~ five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25

Vol. Xin - No. 339

September 14, 1932

CONTENTS

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

Wider Distribution of Wealth . . 787 Our Glorious Civilization . . . 7S8 Common Sense in This . . . 789 Conditions at Oil City . . . .791

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Droplets.........787

$75,000 a Day to Deed Suir\ iug . . 787 “No Man Was There to Lead’' . 788 Counterfeiting in Prison . . .788 Charity Racket Hits Snag . . 7^9 Value of Knowledge .... 790 Drug Trade Discovered America 790 Crippled Editor of 12 . . . .791 No Market for Mass Production . 792

MANUFACTURING AND MINING

Gold Mining in Denver City . . 788

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

Loans to Half Million Farmers . 787

Greece and Bulgaria Broke . . 789 What Can They Think? . . . 791

The Flying Boats

Lee, Higginson Saw Nothing

Wrong

America Fallen to Shameful

Depths

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

Nassau County’s Enthusiastic

Police

India’s 50,000 Political Prisoners 787

SCIENCE AND INVENTION

332 Days in an Oven . . . .787

One Antenna to 3.000 Radio Wets 189

HOME AND HEALTH

Medical Doctors Not Divinely Authorized

When Pyonhea Will Cease . . 187

Natural Appetites on Tristan da

Cunha

One in Twenty-five Unsound . . 791

Aluminum Utensils in South Africa

Cloves for the Throat .... 799

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

Egypt, The Land the Devil

Claimed as His Own . . . 771

A First Glance at Moscow . . 785

Monkeys Stripping Fruit Farms 788

Starvation and Slavery in China 789

Rumania Cannot Pay Help . . 789

Doings in Russia......790

American Jews in Palestine . . 7S0

No Unemployment in Palestine . 791

Oppression of Blacks in Africa . 792

An Open Letter to Federal

Council of Churches . . . 793

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Wholly Obeying Jehovah God, and the Outcome . . . .795

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ake Golden Age

Volume XIII Brooklyn, N. Y-, Wednesday, September 14, 1932 Number 339

Egypt, The Land the Devil Claimed as His Own

EGYPT, probably the oldest country in the world still existing, has the distinction of having been claimed by the Devil himself as his personal possession. (See Judge Rutherford's book Prophecy, pages 138-144. Also see Ezekiel 29:3.) Actually, the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, and Satan owns not a foot of it, but he has exercised a very unusual control over the affairs of Egypt from earliest times and almost to the present.

There has been a reason for this. Climatic and agricultural conditions are different from those in any other part of the world. When before the Flood some of the children of Adam fared forth from Mesopotamia toward the west, when they got to the valley of the Nile they found conditions in some respects more favorable for simple agricultural people than any they had previously encountered.

The Nile valley was then, as now, a sunken fault in the earth’s surface through which the second longest stream in the world wends its way to the sea, but it was not then, as now, a river which passes for 1600 miles through a desert without a tributary.

Before the Flood heavy mists and dews of the region caused streams to flow into the valley from either side. Erosions of those streams are plainly visible today. Of course, the very much greater erosions caused by the Flood have cut the rocks on either side of the stream still more deeply.

Before the Flood, as now, the Nile brought down from Ethiopia an annual deposit of rich yellow and black mud, which has constituted the real wealth of Egypt in all ages.

The tombs of hundreds of the earliest settlers have been found. In these graves have been found the earliest evidences of idolatry, little figures of men and women. Just what idea the Devil had in getting these early Egyptians to place these little figures of men and women in the graves is a matter of conjecture, but it is certain that they were intended to draw the minds of the mourners away from God, and they probably were used in some way to confirm the Devil’s original lie, “Ye shall not surely die.”

It has been imagined that these little figures of men and women were supposed to be servants or companions for the “spirits” of the departed.

No Deserts Before the Flood

AVe may be certain that there were no deserts upon the earth, and certainly none on either side of the Nile, prior to the Flood. From the proofs presented in Judge Rutherford’s book Creation we conclude that a canopy of waters covered the whole sky, like a vast shining, frosted globe, during the daytime, and as a dim white dome during the nights when the moon was shining upon it. The tiny ice particles were capable of transmitting the light from the sun and the moon and thus bringing heat into the atmosphere under the canopy during the day. The account in Genesis shows that there were breezes and a period on the edge of evening referred to as the cool of the day.

The tombs of those who lived in Egypt before the Flood make no mention of kings, but they do show a proficiency in the technical arts which indicates that they were a people of great intelligence and skill.

Even before the Flood some of these earliest settlers had so far forgotten God that they regarded the heavens as ‘a vast cow with its head in the west, while the belly of the animal, studded with stars, was the arch of heaven. The sun was born from the cow every morning and sailed across the sky in a celestial boat, to arrive in the west as an old man tottering to the grave’.

These early Egyptians buried their dead in gravel tombs on the tops of the plateaus or in coarse limestone graves and covered them over with a roof of baked mud. The short period of the Flood did not materially disturb these tombs. Since then the existing dryness of the climate and the salt in the soil mentioned by several writers have had a preservative effect so that without doubt the tombs found on the tops of the Nile cliffs constitute the oldest cemetery in the world.

Not of Unusual Stature

The men and women who lived before the Flood were not of unusual stature. If anything, they were rather less than the usual height. The skeletons of the men show a height of only about 5 feet 5 inches, and the women about 5 feet. In these graves were found jars of barley and wheat with the stone tools in general use in that age. Some articles of copper and fragments of linen were also found. It would be hard for a modern workman, with all tools at his command, to make as good a knife as some of the flint knives found in these tombs.

In these earliest tombs of those who lived before the Flood we see the evidences of vanity, traces of which are still present in the earth. Thus in some of them were found stone palettes for grinding paint, probably for purposes of personal adornment.

The pottery of the period before the Flood was not as beautiful as that made in other countries since the Flood, but elaborate vessels were made of alabaster, of granite, and even of diorite, the second hardest stone known, representing an amount of labor that passes belief. The beauty of these earliest vessels is not marred by pictorial decoration, showing that idolatry had not as yet degraded the people to the lowest depths. The copper utensils ranged from needles to axes, and are too numerous to mention. Objects in ivory cover a wide range of articles, including spoons, combs, and the like.

Mummification Not Yet Practiced

In these earliest tombs the skeleton was always found folded and lying on its side. Mummification was never practiced then. Portions of the skins in which tire bodies were wrapped are occasionally found, as are also necklaces and bracelets of beads and disks of semiprecious metals.

From the stomachs of some of these dried corpses of people who lived before the Flood have been taken remains of fish scales and bones, showing that these early Egyptians sometimes swallowed what they should have rejected. In the stomachs of a number of children were found the remains of the bodies of mice. These little animals had not been accidentally swallowed, but had been skinned before eating. For thousands of years the mouse was a standard remedy of Egyptian physicians and was regularly prescribed for children in extremis.

The Present Land of Egypt

Egypt at present is of about the area of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, but with a fertile territory of only about the area of Massachusetts and Connecticut. It includes the Sinaitic peninsula, as it has done since the beginning of history. Its Mediterranean and Red sea coast line extends 1300 geographic miles, and embraces the three great harbors of Alexandria, Port Said and Suez. One hundred years ago the population of Egypt was less than 2,1)00.000. Forty years ago it was 6,800,000, and in 1927 it was 14,‘186,898.

According to Mohammedan law and custom, real estate is divided equally among all of a man’s children, and, as about 95 percent of the people are Mohammedans and the Mohammedans usually have large families, the land has been very much subdivided. The holdings of any one owner are very small, and the people are all poor.

A Wonderful Winter Climate

The winters in Egypt are as gracious as at Miami Beach or San Diego. There is sunshine every day in the year. From November until March the heat is never excessive. One who wears an overcoat in spring at home may wear one with comfort in the evenings and mornings in winter in Egypt, but will not need it in the middle of the day. Rainstorms are rare and, as the houses are not built to withstand them, bring misery to the inhabitants. Dew is heavy in all places where crops grow, but gradually diminishes as one goes up the Nile toward the Sudan. Occasionally there is a heavy shower in the desert which sometimes extends to the Nile valley.

Egypt has always been recognized as being in two parts: Lower Egypt, which includes the delta of the Nile; and Upper Egypt, which includes the long ribbon of verdure of the Nile valley, flanked on either side by the desert. In climate these two regions are quite different. That in the delta has the usual amount of dampness associated with an agricultural region bordering upon the “great sea”, while Upper Egypt is the driest, sunniest region in the world, as the regions in the arctic and antarctic are the cloudiest. The average temperature of Lower Egypt ranges between 75 and 90 degrees in summer and between 40 and 60 degrees in winter. Upper Egypt is about ten degrees warmer.

When walking or riding in the sun in Egypt, at any time of the year, the nape of the neck should be covered so as to avoid the severe headaches and eye troubles liable, to be produced when the nerves in that part of the body are exposed to the powerful rays of the sun.

Digging Among the Tombs

Some people are much more interested in archaeology than others. We confess that we are not enthusiastic about what has come down to us in these Egyptian tombs; and we have a reason for it. No matter how well you fix it up, there is never anything very enticing about the appearance of a corpse, and even the best methods of embalming are none too good. When kings were embalmed, the brain and other organs were removed and the body was placed in a pan filled with a solution of natron. After some days it was taken out and the cavities were filled with spice and preservatives.

However, after a few thousand years in a dry climate the transfer of a mummy thus prepared is not effected without risk. Thus the mummy of one Queen Nephertari, left only four years in a damp atmosphere, had to be buried because it was decomposing, while the catalog at the Cairo Museum pleasantly announces that the mummy of Aahmes I has suffered a great deal from insects.

A pathological study has been made of 30,000 of these mummies. It was a job unpleasant enough, because they were found as having been afflicted with cancer, gall stones, tuberculosis, gout, abscess, bad teeth and other failings that the rest of us have.

The following is an account of Belzone of his experience among the tombs of Abd el Kurna in 1817:

A vast quantity of dust arises, so fine that it enters into the throat and nostrils, and chokes the nose and mouth to such a degree that it requires great power of lungs to resist it and the strong effluvia of the mummies. This is not all; the entry or passage where the bodies are is roughly cut in the rocks, and the falling of the sand from the upper part or ceiling of the passage causes it to be nearly filled up. In some places there is not more than a vacancy of a foot left, which you must contrive to pass through in creeping posture, like a snail, on pointed and keen stones that cut like glass. . . . though, fortunately, I am destitute of a sense of smelling, I could taste that the mummies were rather unpleasant to swallow. After the exertion of entering into such a place, through a passage of fifty, a hundred, three hundred, or perhaps six hundred yards, nearly overcome, I sought a resting place, found one, and contrived to sit; but when my weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a bandbox. I naturally had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but they found no better support; so that I sunk altogether among the broken mummies, with a crash of bones, rags and wooden cases, which raised such a dust as kept me motionless for quarter of an hour, waiting till it subsided again. I could not remove from the place, however, without increasing it, and every step I took I crushed a mummy in some part or other. Once I was conducted from such a place to another resembling it, through a passage of about twenty feet in length, and no wider than that a body could be forced through. I was choked with mummies, and I could not pass without putting my face in contact with that of some decayed Egyptian. . . . Thus I proceeded from one cave to another, all full of mummies piled up in various ways, some standing, some lying, and some on their heads.—Page 350.

An Abundance of Make-believe Wisdom

Not many of the great men of the world know as much as they pretend to know, and that is as true of the archeologists as of others. The writer of Today on the Nile, himself an archaeologist, says, “It is almost equally hopeless for the tourist, a business or professional man from America or England, to read understandingly the standard and voluminous histories. Some of them are so out of date that their own authors would not hold the same opinions now.”

He tells of seeing a party of five English ladies and gentlemen ushered into a small annex to a temple, which annex goes by the euphonious name of "birth house”, but was really a room occasionally occupied by women connected with the temple, which women or priestesses had devoted themselves to religious prostitution. In other words, the ladies were “nuns”. When they gave birth to children, as nuns sometimes do, this room was utilized as the birthplace.

Our author goes on to explain that when the Egyptian guide of the party in question announced in fairly good English that this was the ‘birt’ room of Amenhotep III, one officious member of the party explained to the rest that it was the 'burnt’ room of Amenhotep III, the room where he was burned to death. All the rest of the party were edified by his explanation and the Egyptian discreetly kept silence, meantime laughing up his sleeve.

Many people rave over the tombs of the kings because they have paid their good money to travel to Egypt and they feel that they should rave where it is proper for them to rave. As a matter of fact, the limestone rock of which the tombs are built was not difficult to excavate. There is no difficult carving or sculpture work, and much of the decoration is painting on plaster and could be rapidly done by skilled workmen.

There is a lot of chatter about dynasties, but no person knows today just when Menes, the first king of Egypt reigned. But quite certainly it was this side of the Flood, and therefore rather less than 4.400 years ago, and less than 2,500 years before Christ. Quite probably several of the dynasties supposed to follow one another were really in control of different parts of the same country at the same time. Very certainly there were no kings before the Flood.

Archaeologists themselves admit that they know very little about the 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 15th, IGth and 17th dynasties. In some instances the mummies and monuments of kings of entire dynasties remain undiscovered and possibly never existed. However, it is admitted that so far the ground has only been scratched, and further discoveries of great importance may be made at any time.

At El Amarnah, the luxury town, where it was planned that only rich folks should live in gorgeous style, in one place a potters vessel was found containing remains of preserved meat which had been canned 3,500 years ago. We hope nobody changed the labels on that pot of beef and resold it as strictly fresh, for we have no appetite for beef more than thirty-five centuries old.

A Bunch of Hard-hearted Old Snides

In America we do not have much use for kings; in the Golden Age office, none at all; and so we find it hard to rave over these old Egyptian rulers. There was Thothmes I, who married his own sister Aahmes. Another similar instance is that of Queen Hatasu, who was associated with her father as coruler and married her brother, who was seven years younger than she. We feel sorry for the boy who was taken advantage of by this old woman, but we have to admit that she did set up two great obelisks at Karnak, being imported, polished, set up and inscribed in the short space of seven months, so the inscription informs us. One of them is still standing. It could hardly be done in the United States today in the same time.

Amenemhat, another one of these old birds, is shown in one of the illustrations raising his mace to strike a kneeling captive who begs for mercy. Another picture shows one of these “great’’ kings grasping his enemies by the hair and smiting them with his club. Rameses II seems to have been fond of the ladies, or at least this conclusion might be drawn from the fact that he is down in the records as having 79 sons and 59 daughters, aside from a considerable number that died in infancy. This gent seems to have been well pleased with himself. His statue, estimated to weigh a thousand tons, is the largest statue ever set up. The ear was more than a yard in length, and the foot U/o yards in width. Even though this figure is seated, it boasted a height of 57U> feet.

Rameses IT, in one of his inscriptions, pats himself on the back, praising himself for completing the temple begun by his father. This temple was filled with references and inscriptions in praise of himself, and in some places he cut out his father’s figure and inserted his own. Under the circumstances it seems peculiarly appropriate that practically every donkey driver in Egypt calls his donkey Rameses.

Grave Robbers and Crooks

These old roosters not only had their ‘birt’ rooms for the convenience of their nuns, but they wore grave robbers of the worst type. Many of these kings turned their ancestors out of their graves so as to have a comfortable place to lie themselves. Out of the thousands of royal tombs which have been discovered in Egypt, only one, that of King Tut-ankh-amen, was found not disturbed, and that because of the ingenuity with which it was hidden. All the others had been rifled, not only of their costly trimmings and gems, but in nearly every case of their mummies as well.

Behind the temples were rows of brick vaults where these crooked old frauds stored the grain and wine that were paid as taxes.

It is a pleasure to turn from the doings of some of these rulers to think of some of the more noble ones, such as the one who raised Joseph up to power, and the daughter of Pharaoh who rescued Moses and trained him in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. No doubt there were honorable men and women among them, as there are and always have been in every country and in every walk of life.

Ameni, ruler of the Oryz nome under Userte-sen I, tells of the justness of his life and rule.

Not a daughter of a poor man did I wrong, not a widow did I oppress, not a farmer did I oppose, not a herdsman did I hinder. There was not a foreman of five from whom I took his men for the works. There was not a pauper around me, there was not a hungry man in my time. 'When there came years of famine, I arose. I ploughed all the fields of the Oryz nome, to its southern and its northern boundaries. I made its inhabitants live, making provision for them; there was not a hungry man in it, and I gave to the widow as to her that had a husband; nor did I favor the elder above the younger in all that I gave. Afterward the great rises of the Nile came, producing wheat and barley, and producing all things, and I did not exact the arrears of the farm.—Page 215.

Some Famous Monuments

In Rosetta, Egypt, officers of the French army under Napoleon found a stone inscribed in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, then underneath in ordinary Egyptian characters and finally in Greek. From this stone the first hieroglyphic dictionary was worked out.

The so-called ‘Cleopatra’s needles’, one of which is now in London and one in New York, were in no wise connected with Cleopatra, but were raised at Heliopolis, the reputed birthplace of Moses, by Thothmes III. When the time came to transport these needles, which are about eight feet square at the base by 68 feet in height, the question was up as to how to transport them safely in case a storm should arise while they were in transit. Obviously so great a weight, 168 tons, could hardly be carried safely on the deck of a vessel. The difficulty was ingeniously overcome by cutting a hole in the stern of the vessel and thus allowing the obelisk to lie just where it should, well down in the hold.

Queen Hatshepsut had somewhat the aggressive traits of the old boy friend after whom the Egyptian jackasses are named. She is frequently represented in the monuments as wearing royal male attire because she was more masculine than feminine in her manner. The royal tomb which was prepared for her was never used, but she was buried with the men in the valley of the kings. Some years ago there was found in a remote cleft of the cliffs west of Thebes a beautiful empty quartzite sarcophagus inscribed with her name.

The Great Pyramid

There was a time when we were very much interested in the great pyramid, but not so any more; and if our readers will send to The Watch Tower, Brooklyn, N. Y., and get the issues of The Watchtower for November 15 and December 1, 1928, which they can do for the small sum of ten cents, for the two issues, they can read the whole story there better than we can undertake to tel] it here. Briefly, some of the stones in the pyramid of Gizeh are 30 feet in length and weigh eighty tons. They were quarried on the east side of the Nile and dragged over to the site of the pyramid, no doubt resulting in the death of many slaves. Probably this pyramid and the sphynx were built under the direction of Satan the Devil. We quote two paragraphs from the first of the Watchtower articles mentioned.

The information which Lucifer gained at the laying of the foundation of the earth doubtless included much concerning its measurements and God’s unit of measurements; and by applying such knowledge Satan could put much in the pyramid that would harmonize with truth and which would serve to deceive men.

Based upon astronomical measurements, Professor Smyth concluded that the great pyramid was built in the year 2170 B.C. His conclusion is that at midnight of the autumnal equinox in 2170 B.C. the dragon star, which is a symbol of the Dragon or Devil, shone directly into the entrance of the pyramid of Gizeh; and upon this calculation he fixes the date of its completion. Further (as stated in Scripture Studies, Vol. 3, p. 321), using the ascending passage as though it were a telescope, it is claimed that the Pleiades was exactly in line with the ascending passage at the same time and that therefore the ascending passage pointed toward Jehovah. Admitting, for the sake of the argument, that the Pleiades represents the place of Jehovah’s throne, what would these calculations mean? From the entrance passage the dragon star could be seen, but the ascending passage ends in a dead stone and therefore a view of the Pleiades was impossible. It has always been Satan’s purpose to exalt himself and to push Jehovah out of sight. (2 Cor. 4:3,4) If the above calculations are correct, then such is further corroborative proof that the Devil himself superintended the building of the pyramid of Gizeh.

After the above-mentioned articles were published we noted in The Golden Age that the International Spiritists were holding a meeting in the king’s chamber of the great pyramid. Those who have visited this chamber say that the odor of bats, alive and dead, is prominent.

A Labor of Inconceivable Magniiu.de

According to Herodotus, every year, for the three months of the inundation of the Nile, a hundred thousand men were employed for twenty years in the building of the great pyramid. It is said that this structure contains 2,300,000 blocks of stone, each containing an average of forty cubic feet. These stones were joined together so perfectly that neither a needle nor a hair could be inserted into the joints.

Cook’s Travelers’ Handbook for 1920 says, “There is little doubt that the pyramids were erected as royal tombs and nothing else. Numerous other theories have been advanced from time to time: they are ingenious, some of them, but modern research has rejected them all. It is still widely held that they were built for purposes of astronomical observations, and that the Great Pyramid was erected to serve as a standard of measurement; but there is little doubt that they were raised wholly and solely as royal tombs.”

In the year 1196 the son of the emperor Saladin undertook to demolish the red pyramid of Menkara. A large body of engineers and miners pitched camp close by and set vigorously to work. At the end of eight months the treasury was exhausted and the work of destruction abandoned. Today, when one looks at the pyramid itself it is hard to see that it was injured in the least by the removal of the great quantity of stones.

Tut-ankh-amen’s Tomb

In the year 1922 Howard Carter, who had spent forty years in the valley of the kings in Egypt searching for tombs of royalty, and who had previously discovered the tombs of Thotlimes IV, Amenhotep 1 and the unoccupied tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, was fortunate enough to discover the one tomb of Egyptian royalty, that of Tut-ankh.-amen, which had not been previously disturbed by others. At this point we insert the story of the finding of Tut-ankh-amen’s tomb as it appears in The Golden Age for March 24, 1926.

Everybody has heard of the finding of Tut-ankh-men, the most celebrated archteological item of recent years; perImps more celebrated than really important. There is some reason to suspect that the annual publicity attending this matter for the past three years has had as its partial object the attracting of tourists to Egypt.

The Egyptians of Tut-ankh-amen's time were heathen of course, and held to the heathen belief that every man has a sumid seif, a ka, or soul, or spirit, created within him. which at his death is free to wander at will. And because a ka might continue to get hungry, and must have a place to live, the Egyptians of Tut-ankh-amen’s time embalmed some food for him and also put up some pictures of the dead at the entrance of the tomb, so that the ka would not go wandering around over the earth and not know who he was or where he belonged.

All this is very foolish, of course-, almost as foolish as some of the immortal soul and hell-fire prattle that our own ancestors of the Dark Ages and more recent times have amused themselves with; but in each case it was the best they knew. It merely illustrated the power of Satan and his friends to deceive and blind the minds of men: work in which they are adepts.

A ‘Grave' Subject

Not to speak too lightly of what is strictly a ‘grave’ subject, it is said on good authority that those who tasted some of the embalmed beef that had lain in Tut’s tomb did not find it very palatable. It was in an excellent state of preservation, but neither the embalming fluid nor age had improved its flavor; and if Tut’s ka enjoyed it he. must have had a perverted appetite.

Shortly after the discovery of Tut’s tomb, one of the discoverers. Lord Carnarvon, died from an insect’s bite; and superstition was rife for a time, even among some scientists, that Tut’s ka or ghost had gotten busy and finished him. Lord Carnarvon had been engaged in archaeological work in the Valley of the Kings for sixteen years before his death.

It took three seasons to reach the body of King Tut who, by the way, was but a child when he died; and even before the body was found a dull silk season was turned into an exceedingly profitable one, Egyptian silks suddenly becoming the rage everywhere.

When Tut’s solid gold burial case was finally reached it was found to be so heavy that it required eight men to lift it. Though uncovered months ago, it was not actually transported to the museum at Cairo until late in January of this year. It is the most elaborate burial case known to archaeology.

The wealth of bracelets, jewel-covered clothes and the contents of royal jewel chests sewed into the mummy's clothing left the excavators blase as these objects were taken out hour after hour by the handful. It is said that any one of these articles would in the past have been regarded as the gem of any national collection. The mummy wore sandals of pure gold and had golden stalls on all the finger and toe nails. Gold stars were placed to mark the heart and lungs. King Tut was a lad about fifteen years old at the time of his death.

The Ka Wes to Return

The ancient Egyptians had a very real hope of a future life, and in it we can see some principles of truth even though most of it was error. They expected that at seme future date, the ka or soul would return to the body and bring about a second life, this time everlasting. It was for this reason that they so carefully preserved the bodies of their dead, so that the ka might have a place to come. The word “mummy" is derived from a word meaning “pitch”, a substance much ust d today in the embalming of people of the middle class. In the middle ages pieces of mummy were used as medieine.

The Egyptians seemed to think either that the average ka would forget much of what he once knew, or else that a l a is not so bright as he ought to be; because it was the custom to place in the tomb with the mummy such playthings as miniature granaries, gardens, stables, breweries, slaughter houses, carpenter shops and other adjuncts of life. Perhaps this was done so that the restored man would have some patterns and tools at hand and know how to go about things when the time came to live again.

Puppets were also buried with these articles, shown in the act of performing various household arts and duties in the fields and on the water; the idea evidently being that by studying these the returned ka could get a line on what he was expected to do in order to make a living.

Moreover, a ka was supposed to need a little assistance in getting about on his spiritual journeys; hence in at least one tomb there was found a sun ship, embellished with gold and jewels, in which a certain queen was expected to make her trips through the heavens. What a shock' it will be to that lady ka when some time she comes to look for her sun ship where it was left in the Egyptian sands, and finds that some inconsiderate soul has lugged it off to a museum, where perhaps she may have to pay a quarter to get even a look at it again!

The fabrics which had lain for thousands of years in King Tut-ankh-amen’s tomb in the dry darkness are now rapidly crumbling and disappearing. Even the efforts of chemists to apply preservatives are of no avail. These things are rapidly passing from what is tangible to the domain of thought. Thus is brought home the* truth that nothing man can do is lasting. Every tomb in Egypt, except King Tut-ankh-amen’s, was rifled, and finally his was rifled, too, and the rifled articles are disappearing in plain sight of those who most wish to preserve them.

The Sphinx

The Sphinx was not built up, but was hewn from the solid rock. Pieces of stone were added to fill out the contour where necessary. The body is about 150 feet long, the paws are 50 feet long, and the head 30 feet. The face is 14 feet wide, and from the top of the head to the base of the monument is GG feet. The only thing positively known about the Sphinx is that it was repaired in the reign of Thothmes IV, supposed to have reigned 1450 B.C.

Religion, Ancient and Modern

In Egypt, as everywhere else, the Devil has done all possible to magnify his original lie, “Ye shall not surely die,” and to glorify himself and his false religion at the expense of Jehovah God and the truth. We have already given some details of their foolish ideas which he succeeded in getting the ancient Egyptians to believe. We now amplify this somewhat. He deceived the Egyptians into thinking that each person comprised four different entities, each complete in itself but in life all joined together in the body. The author of Today on the Nile says on this subject:

These elements were the body, the double or ka, the soul (Ba), and the Khu, the “Luminous" or divine spark. The Ka was a sort of spiritual body, corresponding to the real body; that is, the Ka of a man was thought of as and represented as a man, that of a woman as a woman, and that of a child as a child. In statues and sculptures it is always represented as naked and with its own peculiar sign, two uplifted arms above the head. During life it was bound to the body and never left it, and after death it remained with the mummy in the tomb. It required food and drink, which had to be provided by the living. The mummy and the Ka stayed in the tomb, while the Ba and the Khu went to the regions of the gods. They, however, were supposed to visit the mummy and Ka at frequent intervals. A man’s life on earth was comparatively short, while his existence in the tomb would be endless. So the tomb was regarded as a dwellinghouse, the “eternal home." of the soul, and it was built to meet the requirements of the deceased in his life after death. It always has three parts: the public rooms, the private apartments of the soul, and the connecting shaft or corridor. The friends and relatives assembled in the public rooms at the time of burial and on stated occasions thereafter. Here they brought their offerings of food for the Ka. These rooms were usually above ground or in the side of a cliff. They were well lighted and ornamented with scenes from the life of the departed. Thus the Ka would be continually reminded of his early existence. —Page 27.

The general plan of all the royal tombs was the same, showing that the Devil was hack of the whole thing. William Reavell, president of the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers, claims to have discovered how the talking colossus of Thebes, the grunting idol of Luxor and the shaking statue of Namur wrere manipulated by compressed air, by delicate balance wheels and shafts and by clever leverage systems. He says, “In some instances the burning Egyptian sun itself furnished the power to cause a majestic arm, weighing of itself several hundred tons, to move a perceptible distance.”

The Devil Gets Worse and Worse

At the time he invented the Egyptian system of religion the Devil had not yet become so steeped in wickedness as to teach a place of eternal torture for the wicked. He merely allowed the ancient Egyptians to believe that if a soul was condemned by the tribunal of Osiris (himself) it was immediately devoured by the waiting dog, that is, annihilated.

He kidded the rich into thinking that they would be rich hereafter and that those who had been poor here would be poor hereafter. But this would not be until the resurrection or the reunion of the ba, ka and khu and the body. He managed to make the poor things believe in 438 gods, but, of course, the name of Jehovah, the one true and only God was not in the list.

So conservative are Egyptian people that to this day houses are built over the graves just as in olden times, and on stated occasions the family and friends assemble to pray for and live with their dead. The poorer classes take a tent with them for the occasion, while the rulers have a mosque. This is almost exactly the same as was done in ancient times.

The original practice of placing in the tomb everything that the ka or soul of the dead man could possibly need was subsequently modified so that pictures of the things he would need ■were substituted for the realities. From this it will be seen that the first kas got a good deal, but the poor sinners in after centuries who wanted to get anything had to take it out in looking at a picture of it.

What the Illustrations Were For

So now we see what all the illustrations in the Egyptian tombs are about. They are intended to show these poor, benighted, wandering kas or souls how to slay animals, bake, cook, to prepare and use arms and standards, and how to use many vases, jars, bottles, elephant tusks, etc. Little cones of baked clay found in the tombs are supposed to represent loaves of bread, the sight of which would, in some magical way, furnish sustenance to a hungry ka, and as he would need spiritual guidance, copies of the book of the dead, more or less complete, were placed in the coflin. In some instances the embalmed remains of pets were also buried with the deceased. How eager the Devil has been to make fools of the human family and thus to reproach the Creator.

In some of the tombs there were portraits of the deceased. In modern Italian cemeteries, also, it is customary to place a photograph over the tomb, that relatives may still see the familiar features.

In reading about Egyptian tombs one frequently runs across the expression “the scarab”, or this or that “scarab”. It should be explained that the scarab is the image of the common black beetle. This insect lays its eggs in balls of dung and in due time they produce the young beetles, in the eyes of an unscientific observer, from nothing.

The Egyptians therefore regarded the scarab or dung beetle as typical of immortality. How like the Devil to find in such an item a means for reproaching Almighty God and glorifying the doctrine of his own invention!

The Center of Islam

The teachings and practices of the Mohammedans are not quite as crude as those of the ancient Egyptians, but they are almost as much so. As already shown, they are much alike, because the Devil was the author of both of them.

What could be more disgusting or foolish than the antics of the howling dervishes, whirling dervishes, dancing dervishes or wandering dervishes of the Mohammedan religion. How could anybody be led to suppose that Almighty God would have the least interest in anything of the kind ?

The city of Cairo contains 400 mosques, every one of which is a center of superstition. The sheik Selim was so holy that he sat naked for 53 years on the banks of the Nile at the holy city or village of Hou. Another holy Mohammedan, Ahmed, a descendant of Mohammed, wore two veils so that his glances, which were said to be death-dealing, might not injure those on whom he looked. He wore his turban and clothes until they dropped off him. How delightful the aroma of his presence must have been!

In the Moslem month of Ramadan no Mohammedan will make an important political move, because it is a ‘’holy" month; but at any other time of the year, look out. If you point a finger at him he is likely to explode.

Other Superstitions

In 191)2 a headman of a small native village near Assiut went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and brought back with him a bottle of water from the “holy’’ well Zem Zein. All the inhabitants wanted to drink some of the “holy’’ water; but, as it was impossible to divide so small a quantity among so many persons, the brilliant idea was conceived of pouring it into the village well. As the water was teeming with cholera germs and the natives drank of it liberally, the result was that 40,000 cholera victims were carried off before the plague was got under control. It seems that the water of Zem Zem was sure to take one to “Paradise-’, but in this instance it acted more quickly than usual.

Another route to “Paradise” is the vaccination route. Vaccination is compulsory for both Europeans and Egyptians and must be carried out before a child attains the age of three months. Pieces of mummy were once used as medicine. Vaccination makes a peculiar appeal to the Mohammedan mind.

The unfortunate Egyptian people, have been terribly oppressed by the drug habit. Out of a population of 15,000,000, including Europeans, it is estimated that more than 500,000 are habitual users of narcotic drugs and that $25,000,000 are spent annually on the purchase of these narcotics.

Education

There is not much to be said about education in any country that is under the control of Mohammedan priests, or any priests. In the year 1927 the proportion of illiterate in Egypt was 89.2 percent, and that speaks for itself.

Yet at Cairo is the location of El Azhar, the largest Moslem university in the world. This school, founded in A.D. 970 had 4,838 students in the winter of 1926 and 1927. No student in this university is obliged to pay for instruction, and the professors frequently teach for nothing. Many of the students are the sons of the fellahin, or poor peasants.

There is in Cairo one native paper, with a circulation of about 20,000 copies. In all towns the mosques serve the purpose of town halls and are open to political speakers of all religious faiths.

Lest we think too hastily and too lightly of Egyptian education, let us not forget that thousands of years before the Christian era there was in use in Egypt a calendar year of 365 days. At an exhibition held in the Science Museum, South Kensington, London, recently, it was shown that there is little or no difference between the scales used today and those that were used in Egypt 4,000 years ago.

The Nile—the Life of Egypt

As Herodotus puts it, Egypt is “the gift of the Nile”. If the Nile were to cease, Egypt would die surely and quickly. From its remote source near Lake Tanganyika to the sea the Nile is more than 4,000 miles long. It is thus but little shorter than the Mississippi-Missouri river, the total length of which is given as about 4,200 miles.

The most remarkable feature about the Nile is its annual regular increase arising from the rains which fall in the equatorial regions of Africa and in Abyssinia. The river begins to rise about the middle of June and continues to increase until about the end of September. It then remains stationary for a short time, gradually retreating in January, February and March, and reaching its lowest levels in April, May and early June.

One of the great reservoirs of the Nile is- the Victoria Nyanza, next to Lake Superior the greatest fresh water lake in the world. Other reservoirs are Lake Albert Nyanza and, in more recent times, the great barrages of Assuan, just below the first cataract, and Assiut, midway from there to the sea.

As rain rarely falls in Egypt, the prosperity of the country depends entirely on the overflowing of the Nile. As the water subsides the land is found covered with a brown, slimy deposit which so enriches the soil that it produces two crops a year. The overflow water is now managed artificially by reservoirs and canals so that after the river subsides it may be used as required. The seven years of famine in Joseph’s time were the result of an insufficient rise of the Nile, in other words, a lack of rain, ‘world-wide’; and rain is a gift of God.

On the headwaters of the Nile (the one that passes through Lake Victoria Nyanza) the rain falls from April to October, with a maximum in August. In Abyssinia, the headwaters of the Blue Nile, and the Atbara, the heavy rains also come in August. It takes fifty days for the flood waters of the White Nile to travel from the lakes to the sea, and twenty-five days for the Blue Nile. Therefore the full effect of the rise of all these streams reaches Egypt early in October.

The ancient Egyptians recognized fully the importance to their country of the overflow of the Nile and in very early times registered its height at Assuan, yet, so far as we know, though they performed an even greater but useless feat in the construction of the pyramids, no attempt was ever made by them to build a dam or barrage across the main stream of the Nile.

At the time it was completed, the great dam at Assuan, 1% miles long and in places 100 feet high, was the largest work of its kind in the world. It is calculated that it impounds more than a thousand million cubic meters of water. The cost was about ten million dollars. The water’ is not intended to benefit the country south of Cairo, but is wholly intended for the great delta. The water is stored at Assuan, 587 miles from Cairo, then let down to the Assiut barrage and then to the barrage below Cairo, whence it is distributed to the Delta by the lower branches of the Nile and numerous canals.

North from Victoria Nyanza

For 600 miles after it emerges from Lake Victoria Nyanza the White Nile flows through a country of such luxuriant vegetation that the channel of the river becomes periodically filled with floating vegetable matter called “sud”. This sud often and quickly grows from shore to shore so that the steamers cannot find their way through it. This constitutes one of the most peculiar obstacles to navigation encountered anywhere in the world. At present this part of the Nile journey is made by automobile.

The Nile is not devoid of natural scenery. For some distance south of Assuan its banks are mountains 3,000 feet high, while at Luxor, halfway between Assuan and Assiut, the hills fall back from the shore on both sides and the views from the deck of the steamer are especially beautiful.

Luxor is considered one of the most desirable winter resorts in the Eastern Hemisphere. The days are warm, the nights are cool, the air is dry, and the sun is always shining. It has several fine hotels and is a world-famous resort for persons suffering from tuberculosis.

In the wintertime the wind blows steadily from the north, with enough strength to propel sailboats against the stream; and while travel today is largely by rail or by steamer, yet even today one can, if he desires, make the trip from Cairo south in a dahabeah, a kind of large house boat with sails; but he had better not go by that route unless time hangs heavily on his hands.

In Egypt they are not in so much of a hurry to do things as they are in the United States. For instance, the drawbridges across the Nile are open only at certain fixed hours, and when they open they stay open for hours at a time. As a consequence, traffic on both the river and the highways crossing it is tied up for hours at a stretch. But the Egyptian does not mind. He figures that what he did not do yesterday he can do today, and what he cannot do today he can do tomorrow.

The Use of the Shadoof

Although there arc many places in northern Egypt where powerful steam pumps are in use for irrigation purposes, yet the shadoof is still in use. The shadoof consists of a leather bucket slung at one end of a pole which has a weight at the other end and sways up and down on a vertical support. By this contrivance a cultivator can scoop up the water considerably below’ his feet and raise it with comparative ease to the level of his breast. Sometimes there are several shadoofs rising one above another when it is desired to lift the water to considerable heights.

The sakiyeh is another device for hoisting water. It consists of an endless chain of earthen jars connected with a sprocket wheel, the power for which is furnished by domestic animals.

Methods of Irrigation

The invention of the basin system of irrigation is credited to King Mena, the first king of Egypt (after the Flood). This system is still used for all land between the barrages of Assuan and Assiut. The land is divided into rectangular areas about 5,000 to 50,000 acres in size. Water is admitted to these basins during the flood period in August to an average depth of three feet, and is left on the land for forty days. It is Hum run off and the seed is sown broadcast on the uncovered land.

About 1S20 Muhammed Ali abandoned the basin system of irrigation for Lower Egypt because he found that the cotton which he desired to raise would grow better if irrigated all the year around. The old basins were neglected and the embankments plowed up, and now the rich mud deposit which constituted the wealth of Lover Egypt for thousands of years can no longer be secured to renovate the land.

The farmers of Lower Egypt are already beginning to miss the wealth that was brought to them by the annual mud deposit and are finding it necessary to purchase fertilizers to prevent rapid impoverishment of the land.

The ultimate purpose is to abandon the basin system of irrigation all over Egypt, because under the perennial system two or three crops a year are grown. By the basin system only one is possible.

Muhammed Ali, who built the first barrage 15 miles north of Cairo, cast about for materials and ordered that the pyramids should be pulled down so that their stones could be used, and he abandoned the plan only when it was proved to him that it would cost far less to bring the stones from the quarries.

The life of Egypt depends upon irrigation. When the rise of the river at Assuan is only 21 feet there is a famine in parts of Upper Egypt. When there is a rise of 25 feet certain lands will be watered only with difficulty. When the rise is 26]/o feet the whole country can be watered: and with a rise of 28 feet the country is flooded and great misery and ruin follow.

As a result of building the great dams the winters are less dry and the summers less hot, yet the air is always light, fresh and invigorating, and in places away from the cultivated lands only a small amount of moisture exists in it. There is a project on foot to electrify the whole of Egypt by using the Assuan Dam water as a source of power.

Though the system of “corvee” or forced labor has been abolished, yet in flood time the inhabitants are still called out to guard or repair the Nile banks.

Progress and Conservatism in Farming

Although labor-saving machinery of the most advanced type is to be found, yet, side by side with it, there are in use agricultural implements similar to those shown in the earliest Egyptian tombs. Threshing is done precisely as it was done 4,000 years ago Some of the natives still employ shadow clocks exactly the same as were used in the days of the I'haraohs; and, because their ancestors had no wheelbarrows in which to convey their loads, several million Egyptian farmers still carry dirt and fertilizer for the crops in baskets.

Wood has always been scarce in Egypt, although there are some seventy species of date palms, and its fruit is a staple food. Oranges, lemons and pomegranates, figs, apricots, peaches and grapes are also abundant. Egypt has a law against the raising of tobacco. None is allowed to be raised in the country.

The farms are very small. Where the unit of cotton production in our southern states is twenty acres and the mule, in Egypt the unit is two acres and all the work is done by hand. The average Egyptian farm is all together, only about 3i/2 acres.

The milk supply is obtained chiefly from the ugly and awkward water buffalo. This beast requires less food and gives more milk than the Egyptian cow, and is less susceptible to diseases. Dogs are plentiful, noisy and a nuisance.

The staple crops are cotton, sugar cane, wheat and rice. Watermelons are largely grown and were popular in the days of the Pharaohs. Roses, oleanders, carnations, geraniums, and poinsettias thrive; and within recent years there have been extensive plantings of the lebbek tree, which grows to a height of eighty feet and is valuable for shade and wood.

West of the Nile are several great oases, one of them a hundred miles long. In one of these, artesian wells are numerous, and some of ancient construction have been discovered which have a depth exceeding 400 feet. For a brief season in February and early March the Libyan Desert is said to be one grand garden of wild flowers. The wilderness literally breaks forth into blossom.

Transportation Arrangements

Egypt has 2,995 miles of railroads, mostly owned and operated by the state. The line to Khartum and the Sudan was built by engineers as a military road, but has paid for itself as a commercial enterprise. The conquest of Khartum would have been impossible without this line, and it was built several hundred miles across the Libyan Desert in jig time.

Where the railway crosses the Atbara river, a great stream flowing into the Nile from northern Abyssinia, there is a magnificent iron bridge of six spans, each two hundred feet long. This bridge was built by an American company because speed in its construction was a prime necessity, as the advance of the army could only keep pace with the railway. The Americans got the contract because they could (and did) build it in a remarkably short time.

The Sudan Government Railway is considered the most comfortable in Africa. Coaches and sleepers are kept scrupulously clean. They contain every possible protection against the sun, the dust and sand storms. These de luxe trains are operated twice a week.

When the first locomotive reached Berber, two hundred miles north of Khartum, many of the natives hastened to touch its oily, dusty tender, believing it to possess magical powers. Some of these declared that the touch had cured their ailments. The fame of this locomotive, breathing fire and smoke, did as much to spread terror throughout the Sudan as Kitchener’s army itself.

Though the highways of Egypt are in wretched condition, yet the entire delta now has a network of motor-bus lines. The natives seem to be speed-mad and buses with rickety wooden tops go full speed over rutty, slippery roads, groaning, crashing, staggering along, occasionally landing some of their patrons “in the next world”, or, at least, taking them out of this one. Not long ago one of these buses skidded into a canal and only four out of thirty-two passengers escaped uninjured.

Alexandria—Port of Entry

And now there is air service and Egypt has become one of the air centers of the world. There is an air service from London to India, via Alexandria, and another one from London to Cape Town, via Alexandria. Thus Egypt and the Sudan are well supplied with air transport.

There is no workable coal in Egypt. All the supplies, even for the Sudan, are brought in from England.

Alexandria, founded in 332 B.C. by Alexander the great, was at one time the most famous city in the world. Its present population is 573,063. It was 300,000 in the year 50 B.C. Alexandria has always had its Christians, such as they were. In the reign of Theodosius I several monks became offended at Hypatia, a beautiful and learned woman, dragged her from her chariot into a ‘church’, stripped her of her clothing, scraped her flesh with metal combs, and then tore her limb from limb.

During the siege of Alexandria in 1801, the British, aware that the land around the city was below sea level, cut a channel and inundated the country with salt water. They thus destroyed 150 villages and wasted a vast quantity of fertile land, some 77 square miles of which are still covered.

Alexandria has one of the best harbors in the world. One of the first of Alexander's works was the construction of a mole, joining the island to the continent, thus providing a double harbor sufficient to shelter the navies of the world. In midsummer Alexandria is the only place in Egypt that remains cool.

The population of Cairo is 1,064,567. It is chiefly noteworthy as the center of Islamism. The merchants of Cairo are famous over the earth for the way they do business. When asked to name a price, the Cairene merchant always mentions a figure which is enormously in excess of the value of the article, knowing full well that sooner or later he will be obliged to reduce his price to a more reasonable amount. With these merchants time is no object, and their conception of business is to haggle and bargain at length with all their customers. Assiut is the largest city south of Cairo. It has a population of about 50,000, and is famous for its pottery.

The People

Ninety-two percent of the population of Egypt are descendants of the Arab tribes who settled in Egypt after the conquest of the country by the armies of the Caliph Omar, in the year 641 (A.D.). These poor creatures live in miserable dwellings consisting of four low walls made of mud brick, and roofed with a thatch of straw.

The furniture is of the simplest. Much of the food is eaten raw. The staple foods are corn and sweet potatoes. The Egyptian sweet potato is a rather tasteless, unsatisfactory product.

When dinner is ready the family and guests help themselves with their fingers out of a common bowl in the middle of the table. If a guest seems to eat too little, the host favors him by tearing off bits of meat with his own fingers and handing them over for consumption. When laboring in the field their clothing is of the scantiest, and not very elaborate at any time.

The fellahin. as these Arab natives are called, are as a whole a peaceful, amiable and industrious people. In early life they become burdened with care and poverty and are beset by many disagreeable ailments, chiefly ophthalmia, a disease of the eye.

Their women are never seen to smile or gesticulate, nor fly into a temper, but are sad-eyed, of erect bearing, and with delicately chiseled features that would mark them as distinguished anywhere. When a young Egyptian man desires to marry, some of the women in his family look out for him for a suitable partner.

The so-called “Christians” of Egypt, about three quarters of a million, are nearly all Copts. These are the real descendants of the ancient Egyptians. They are said to hate other Christians more bitterly than they hate the Mohammedans. They are said, oven by their own people, to be sullen, greedy and pursuing education merely for the love of personal gain. Nevertheless they are considered to be the ablest and most intellectual of all the natives of Egypt.

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