"NAPHURIA."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 193, 15 August 1936, Page 2

"NAPHURIA."

To read "Naphuria" (Herbert and Jenkins) from the pen of Mrs. Sydney Bristowe is tt> realise' to the fullest extent the' sympathetic way in which one of the most misunderstood of monarchs has been justified. The authoress who wrote the remarkable books "Sai'gon the Magnificent" and "The Man-Who Built the Great Pyramid" has brought into this, her latest work, a theory that, if it could be substantiated, would throw a new light on the Exodus. Previously, the, oppressor of the Israelites has been in turn identified as Menephtah, Barneses the Great. Amcnhotep 111., and even Tutankhamen, but here Thothmes 111. was the king who put the Hebrews in bondage, and his grandson Thothmes IV., the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

Much of the plot deals with the life of Akhnaton (Nanlmria) from the time of his romantic marriage to the Mittariian Princess Tadukhipa during the reign of liis father Amenhotep 111., to his death 10 years later, when the conntry, under the direction of the priests of Amen, revolted tmder him, and destroyed his beautiful city of El Amarnah. In explaining the strange manner in which Akhnaton appeared to allow his possessions in Mesopotamia to lapse, regardless of the pleadings of his governors and tributary kings, the authoress says the answer can be found by going no further than the Book of Numbers. However, although her theories are-start-ling and fill in many niches regarding the history of that time, she puts in many ideas that confound the approved Egyptian religion, as where she mentions that the priests of Amen practised human sacrifice and cannibalism, a fact that needs much proof. It is not, however, a gloomy story, for it narrates in an easy flowing manner, the joys and sorrows of two gentle loving natures who were the innocent victims of circumstances altogether beyond human control.