ANCIENT EGYPT

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 7, 8 July 1922, Page 18

ANCIENT EGYPT

A WOMAN'S WORK

EXPLORING IN OLD MALTA.

If you peep round the oorner of that department at London University College labelled "Egyptology" almost any day o£ tho week you will see a quiet little lady with slightly prrey hair, writes "G.C.P." in the London Chronicle. i She is seated at a desk poring- over pieces of pottery, or intently examining weird picture-writings or turning over the pages of formidable-looking: tomes, but always she is surrounded by relics of an age long past. Miss Margaret Murray, England'a foremost woman Egyptologist, has been working at her subject, both in the library and on the actual field of research, for 25 years, and no other woman in the world has such knowledge of that great civilisation that flamed in glory and burnt itself out under the sung of North Afrio_ before the birth of Christ. A LOOM OF HISTORY. To git and listen to Miss Murray in that quiet corner of hers is to com* under a spell more potent than the fairy t»les of youth to be bewitched with stories more strange than dreams, ■ for, amongst the stones and rage, and fragments of halfburnt clay, this modern enchantress weaves at her loom. o£ history rioh fabrics of fresh knowledge. It is her life work. "People say to m«," she said, "how. dry as dust my work must be. What can one find interesting in old bonca and bite of broken pottery and tomb 3? That, of course, is the person who does not know the fascination of.it all. Here one oan work year by year and unfold fresh facts and glimpse new scenes in the careers of persons who lived thousands of years before, the Christian era. "In my study one touches every branch of human knowledge. It takes about a year to learn the hieroglyphics, and a certain number of students get to this point and then give it up, not realising that the real interest of the work lice beyond." Few womon have had suoh curious experiences while engaged in research work abroad. I On one occasion, in Egypt, she was bitr ten by a dog, and, fearing the possibility ] of hydrophobia, _ she submitted to an j ancient and mystio ritual at the hands of native priests. j The. ritual is known as the "ceremony ] of Anba Tarabo." It has been practised for centuries, and contains certain features oalled "manna! rites." The objeot of the oeremany is to avoid tile ill-effects of mad-dog bite. > "First I was asked my own and my mother's Christian names," Misa Murray told me, "and afterwards in the ritual I was always referred to as 'Margaret, daughter of Margaret.' "I sat on the ground in front of a wooden stool, on which rested a basket tray, forming a kind of low table. On the tray were dates, oakes, unleavenedl barley bread, and a oof Fee dip with oil. Seven dates and seven cakes were put on the tray. Priests stood on either side of the table, facing ■ mo, and recited the service in a mixture of Arabio and Coptic. The water was blessed, and seven young boys oame forward, representing the seven dogs of Anba Tarabo. "They joined hands by interlocking fingers, palms held upright; they formed a circle round me, the priests standing outside. The lads went round oookwis., shouting what sounded like 'Bash, Bash, Stanna.'. They did this seven times and, at a signal, stopped and fell down with shrieks of laughter, pretending to bite me on tho arms and, shoulders and growling like dogs all the time. ANTI-HYDROPHOBIA RITUAL. "I waa then anointed with water and oil on the wrists. The priests nipped bits of loaves and dates, and gave instructions for them to be buried in a cloth out in the desert. Then I ate some of the dates, tho barley loaf, and drank the blessed water." Whether the ritual is efiioaoious is _ medical problem, but certain it is that Miss Murray did not develop hydrophobia. Among the interesting excavation work for which she has gained a name of repute amongst archaeologists was the study of some tombs with Professor Flinders Petrie at Saqqara and "Abydos. And she has traced the origin of one of the Holy Grail romances of Egypt;—the story of Joseph of Arimathea. The Babylon referred to in that legend is really the city of old Cairo, and by diligent research Misa Murray has traced' out with great ingenuity how the story of Arimaihean Joseph came .from the land of the Pharaohs. . v But all her work has not been confined! to Egypt. She has token part in the discovery and excavation of a Neolithio temple in Malta. "I am going to spend my holidays there this summer," she said, "and shall bo in charge of a digging party seven miles from Valotta, at a place called Borg-en-Nadur, ;near> the village of Bir Zebbugia. The translation of this place name is 'The Well of tho Olive Trees.' "Professor Zammat, the great Maltese archaeologist, lias done some work there, and four temples are known to exist, but nothing is known of their history—who or what tho builders were. We are hoping to find some skeletons of this race which existed 2000 years before Christ." Eiglitcenpcnco spent on a bottle of Nazol is an investment in good health. A few drops taken on lump sugar, or inhaled, will prevent colds, influenza, and sore- throat. Nazol is penetrating and germ-killing. Wonderfully soothing and efficacious. Most economical. Be sure to get the genuine Nazol.—Advtj, ,

A DIET OF LONGEVITY

Mr. M. E. Forbes, writing in tho Saturday Review of a system diet when people live hundreds of years without growing old, says: " I heard of it while travelling in ' Asia Minor from an Armenian woman of sixty of very youthful appearance. Traditions on diet and long life had been preserved in her family from very ancient times. Her father had lived to 150, and her grandfather and grandmother also. She attributed her youth to certain laws of diet, and to a particular sweetmeat, a kind of sweet paste, which she claimed was one. of the foods of the Patriarchs, and enabled them to live to their great age. It prolongs youth and retards old age, and is made from two of the life-preserving foods mixed with honey and other ingredients. She believed that old age and disease were due to unsuitable and wrong combinations of food, and that a longer youth can be achieved by keeping as strictly as possible to the diet of the ancient world. She divided foods into three classes—the life-giving, containing the proteids, fats, and carbohydrates; the life-preserving, only six in number—wine, olive oil, youhort (fermented milk), butter, honey, and dates; and the life-destroying, five in number, which should never be eaten, and consist of flesh of meat, tea, coffee, beer, j and spirits. Her own diet consisted of wholemeal, bread, eggs, vegetables, some of each of these life-preserving foods, and lentils, and at the midday, and evening meal some of, the sweetmeat, the latter being a very essential part of the diet. She claims that it is possible to maintain youth and vigour up to a very long time on this diet. I have tried it now for seven months, eating only very little fish and fowl. I have grown much stronger, my friends tell me I look much younger, and I have entirely got rid of a troublesome throat affection and cough which I suffered from for years, and whioh I always feared would develop into consumption."

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