THE WRITING IDENTIFIED
“In November last, Professor G., one of the great archaeologists of the, world, was a passenger on the ship, and the MSS. were shown to him, without comment. “He at once pointed out excited questions. and then gave his surprising verdict. “The writing was a very good example of hieratics, which was the popular form of the hieroglyphics used by the priests. It prevailed up to about 5000 8.C., in Asia Minor. “Only a handful of people now alive can read the script, and the professor did _not think that anyone could have written the document in the short time taken by Mrs B. “The message began by thanking the writer for having got into communication and went on to describe how differently people travelled now and then, giving a quaint picture of the contrasted motions of a camel and a ship. “At the end an accurate description was given of the scene in the captain’s cabin and of the state of sky and sea. “The letter of which I spoke as being delivered to the captain at Honolulu contained a further communication in the same script, and this, too, is going to the professor for translation. “He is also, with the help of his books, accurately and in detail translating the first MS.
PROBING THE MYSTERY T have 1 soen the .second MS., and hoard (lie story, with the full names of the people concerned and give. it. for what it \s worth. Tin; evidence lias been sifted in a scientific spirit, and none of the three, in any sense of the phrase, is professionally psychic—neither the professor, who is a. man of science, nor the captain, who is a Scottish New Zealander, nor the woman writer, who is the mother of a considerable family, and deprecates anv claim to supernatural powers. She certainly has no conscious knowledge whatever of hierntics ‘‘What, does it all mean? It surpasses fiction, is more surprising and dramatic
than even Kipling’s ‘Finest Story in the World.’ Will it have as disappointing a sequel? “For myself, it is the only story of the sort that so much as inclined me to belief. In this I see no loophole for incredulity. ’ ’ j
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Bibliographic details
Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 14 October 1922, Page 8
Word Count
370THE WRITING IDENTIFIED Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 14 October 1922, Page 8
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