DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 146, 14 March 1908, Page 11

DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT.

T* \ THE "SIMPLE LIFE" 2000 YEARS ACO. TREASURES FROM A RUBBISH HEAP. Dr. B. P. Gronfell, who rccoutly returned to England, from Egypt, has given a representative of the Ovor-Seas '.'Daily Mail" do- . tails of- tho wonderful papyri, which, with Dr. Hunt, ho recently discovered in tho rubbish mounds at Oxyrhynchus. . Theso papyri form a veritable library which rudely ' snocks thoso who fondly pride themselves on tho twentieth-century advance along-tho path of progress. One of theso MisS., of which Dr. Grenfell supplies tho dato as the sccond century, runs:— / Chaeremon invites you to dine with him at the tablo of tho Lord Serapis in the Serapem to-morrow, which is tno 15th of the month, ,at nino o'clock (about three o'clock in tho afternoon). Between that aud the present-day invitation there is littlo difference, oxcept that perhaps eightoeJi hundred years ago the host used no unnecessary words. Hero is another translation of a missive which might havo been found any time these eighteen hundred years; a singularly direct invitation to a wedding:—., _■ ,• i*.'.Herais invites you to dine with her at ' the,marriage of her children in her house 10-iriorrow, which is the sth, at nino o'clock (3p/m.). , _ _ . So that the common custom in tho United States of weddings at tho residence of tho bride is discovered to be otherwiso than up-to-date, but the "wedding breakfast" in tho Nubian desert was a dinner. ' But those extraordinary finds contain no-, thing'quite so remarkable as tho irrefutable, evidence that the Simple Lifo movement, was advocated 2000 years ago, and, that to-day its disciples aro only reflecting the sentiment, of one of Pindar's odes, which, at the hands of Dxs. Grenfell and Hunt, is now laid bare.' This MS. is a poom written for' tho people of Oeos, which; was celebrated, as the homo of athletes and poets. The central , idea tho ; poem is tlio virtue ,of contentment'with'a simple life like that of theCeans in their rocky island. Tho papyrus (translated), runs:— .. v , Verily, though I live on a. rock, lam known for prowoss in Hellenic contests, and .. known for some' display, of tho Muse's -art;.verily, top, my acres bear a mcasuro of. Bacchus's life-giving euro in extremity. I havo not horses nor share in tho pasturago of kino; but neither would SJolampus leavo his fatherland to lord it in Argos. : Tho city and comrades of a man's home and : his kinsmen aro dear and bring . confcent- ,/ nlont. In happiness romoto from foolish -. men I praiso tho' wiso lord Euxantius, who ■ when his follows wore eager refused to rulo , 'or to tako tho seventh sharo of a hundred ' cities along with tho sons of Pasiphae, and /■ho s'pako to them a prophecy: "Then shall I, .in pursuit .of wealth and thrusting ■ asido.into utter neglect tho decree of tho / blessed ones of our country, havo elsewhere a:great possession? How would this bo securo to mo? Dwell not, my heart, on tho cypress grovo, dwell, not on tho pas- '. tures of Ida I -To mo littlo is given, a • moro shrub, of oak, but I have no lot in troublo or strife."