Evening Post. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1929. ONE IN A THOUSAND

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1929, Page 8

Evening Post. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1929. ONE IN A THOUSAND

The "Al Mokattam" of Cairo and the "Daily Mail" are to be congratulated on "the remarkable discovery in Jerusalem" with '", which they thrilled the world a few days ago. 1 The sermon-writers who have been busy with'a; text which, was at once 'three thousand years old and completely up to.date, may also be congratulated on . having been warned to stand from under before they had committed, themselves in the pulpit. '' Hollywood and the Holy City had indeed kissed each other in the wonderful story, after a fashion which was so obviously too good to be true that, even before Jerusalem broke in with its laughler> there was surely not an editor in Fleet street so unsophisticated as to envy the "Daily Mail" its "scoop." The splendour of the discovery which had been kept.! a secret from everybody but the correspondent of an Egyptian paper, and its completeness in every detail marked it as of the kind which may be seen any night at the movies but is never to be found in the real life of an imperfect world. In the Temple Mount burial place excavation had revealed the mummy of "Moti Maris, King Solomon's favourite wife" in a tomb "stated to exceed in magnificence even Tutankhamen's" '•'• The' chamber is filled with objects of marvellous beauty and value, including a golden coffin. The body is wrapped in the richest coverings, .set with precious stones,.,the fingers bearing several rings. The head is surmounted with a crown studded with sapphires, emeralds, and pearls. This was, it must be admitted, very good for a start, but it was a trifle in comparison with what was to follow. For the crown was the one which had been presented to Solomon <on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession, and "in recognition of his deep love for, Moti and her loyally Solomon himself placed.it on her head." These interesting facts were certified by a document which was of even greater value than the .mummy, the crown, and all the accessories combined. ■ Buried beside the body was a Hebrew parchment scroll, believed to be in Solomon's writing, extolling his wifcls virtues and describing her death. The imagination boggles at the attempt to estimate the present .value of a parchment scroll in Solomon's writing, and, as there are-no gaps in the long story, evidently in perfect preservation, but in a sceptical age it is impossible to stifle the desire for the better authentication of the verifying document. It might be, a slur on the royal dignity to suggest that he ought to have verified it by affidavit or by the certificate of a notary. But even a date—a dale that we could all understand, such as B.C. 915—would have been welcome. There is, it is true, a reference to the 36th year of the King's reign, but it does not appear to fix the date of the writing. Here again we are perhaps hypercritical, and it 'may be unreasonable to ask that even a King to whom God gave wisdom, and understanding, exceeding much, and largeness of heart, oven as the sand that is on the sea shore. . • ■ should have foreseen the day when his parchment scroll might become a ■ momentous find of world-wide importance. But as a business man —and perhaps the least disputable of Solomon's titles to greatness is as a business man—he would have appreciated the fact that to Mr. Rosenbach, Mr. Gabriel Wills, and the American millionaires behind them, the difference between his authenticated and his unauthenticated parchment would probably represent the annual amount of his own fabulous revenues several times over.

In passing we may note as a singular coincidence that Prideaux's estimate of the amount bequeathed by David to Solomon for the building of the temple as £833,000,000— which, as a good deal more moderate than the words of I. Chronicles, S\XII. 14 seem to justify^ long held die field—was as near a shot at the capital amount of Britain's war debt to the United States as could reasonably be expected. In view of Mr. Squire's modest suggestion that the bones of Shakespeare, if put up to auction, might get a big enough bid from America to clear the whole debt, the coincidence reminds us to invite his attention to this Moti Maris business as much more promising. If he can establish the authenticity of the mummy and the parchment, and satisfy any scruples that the Mandatory Power or the League of Nations may have about the matter, the thing is done. Britain may keep her Shakespeare and at the same time be relieved of the obligation to continue paying tribute to Washington at the rate of £100,000 a day for the next fifty-six years. Apart, however, from its financial possibilities and its interest to dealers and collectors,, this story from Cairo is well calculated to stir the great heart of humanity. It tells a slory of love free fron? the monotony of the eternal triangle but ending as tragically as the most hardened habitue of the movie 3 could desire. •Amen.lo of Memphis, the father of

Moti, is sent by the King of Egypt ,lo kill Solomon and capture the country. "With a heart full of malice," he comes on his errand, not, however-, aL the head of an army, but laden willi presents, and he orders his daughter to poison Solomon's wine. In the . language of Solomon himself, which is certainly more up-to-dale than what the Biblical writers put into his mouth, the scroll describes the denouement as follows:— When Moti entered, bearing the cups, although I noticed that she was deadly white, I did not suspect treachery. Ainent.o did not take his cup. I-raised mine to my lips, but Moti instantly snatched the cup and drank. Her father fled from the room and Moti fell, dying in my arms. It is hardly necessary to say that the heroine of this tragic story is not otherwise known to history. Moti Maris not of Memphis, but of the movies, would be her proper caption. Solomon's principal wife was an Egyptian, and his marriage with her was of supreme national importance because, as she was the daughter of a .Pharaoh, it brought Israel and Egypt into intimate relations for the first time since the Exodus. But her name does not seem to haVe been preserved,* and it certainly was not Moti Maris, j since that lady's' father was not a! Pharaoh, but took orders from one. So many other wives had Solomon that if may even be doubted whether he knew all their .names himself. King Solomon loved many strange women, we aro told, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammoritcs, Edomites, Zedonians, and Hitlites. When Artemus-Ward look his show to Salt Lake City and called on Brigham Young, their conversation opened as follows :— "You air a-marrid man, Mister Yung, I blcevo?" sez I, prcparin' to rito him som free parsis. , "I hey eighty wives, Mister \ Wai-el. I sertinly, am marrid." "How clo you like it as far as you hev'got?" sect I. . He said "middlin'," and axed me wouldn't I like to see his.famerly. Solomon must have found life with 80 wives a good deal better than "middlin'," for he went on till the total was 700. There were also 300 other. secondary or inferior i wives whose scriptural designation was imperfectly remembered by the school-boy, who described Solomon as very fond of animals, and, being ■asked for the reason, said, "Because he had 300 porcupines." But even with a grand total of 1000 on his hands, Solomon appears to have been still able to hold'his head up, and the appalling thought occurs to us:— If he had made mummies of them all and paid them all the same posthumous honours that he paid lo Moli , Maris, how much would Mr. Rosenbach or any American competitor have bid for the complete set? Enpugh surely lo wipe out that war debt. ■■;,■■'•■'■