THE LATEST STORY FROM AMERICA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1836, 3 January 1889, Page 3

THE LATEST STORY FROM AMERICA.

ROYAL CORRESPONDENTS BEEORE THE EXODUS. A discovery, some fruits of which have been added to the treasures in the British Museum, has just enabled modern learning to rifle the escritoire of the Pharaohs before the Exodus, and to explore their correspondence. AN HISTORICAL CRUX : WHAT BROUGHT THE JEWS TO EGYPT ? The presence of large numbers of Semites iu ancient Egypt has always been a puzzle to historians, and what first led to their first migrating from Mesopotamia to the land of the Pharaohs has never hitherto been made clear. Quite recently, however, the British Museum has become possessed of a number of cuueforra tablets which throw considerable light on the subject. Early in the present year a number of these tablets were offered for sale in Cairo. They had been dug up from the grave of a royal scribe of Amenophis 111. and IT., of the eighteenth dynasty, which had given up its records, and not only records but seals and papyri of great historical and artistic value. Some went to the Boulak Museum, some to Berlin, others to private persons, and eightyone have found their way to the British Museum. These last have now been arranged by Mr Budge, the well-known Egyptologist, whose investigations have brought to light a most interesting chapter in the history of ancient Egypt. Not only do the tablets explain the historical crux mentioned above, but they introduce us to the family life of the early kings; they picture to us the splendour of the royal palaces ■ they enable us to assist at the betrothal of the kings’ daughters, and to follow the kings to their hunting-grounds. Most of the tablets are letters addressed to Amenophis 111., and some are from Tushratta, King of Mesopotamia. ANSWER: THE LOVE STORY OP TI. Amenophis; 111. was a mighty hunter, and once on a shooting trip to Mesopotamia after big game, he, like a king in a fairy tale, met and loved Ti, the daughter of Tushratta, They were married in due time, and Ti went down into Egypt with 317 of her principal ladies. This brought a host of their Semitic countrymen along, who found in Egypt a good field for their business capacities,and gradually, like the modern Jews in Russia, got possession of the lands and goods of their hosts. The influence of the Semitic Queen is attested by the very, fact that this library of cuneiform tablets was preserved. And, under the feeble sovereigns who followed, her countrymen doubtless held their own. But at last came the nineteenth dynasty, and the Pharaoh “ who knew not Joseph.” Then they were set to brick-making and pyramid-building, till the outbreak which led to the Red Sea triumph. ROYAL MATCH-MAKING FOURTEEN CENTURIES'B.O. Mr Budge, of the British Museum, has translated three of the letters. One is from Tushratta to Amenophis. After many complimentary salutations, he proposes to his son-in-law that they should continue the arrangement made by their fathers for pasturing doublehumped camels, and in this way he leads up to the main purport of his epistle. He says that Manie his great nephew, is ambitious to marry the daughter of the King of Egypt, and he pleads that Marne might be allowed to go down to Egypt to woo in person. The alliance would, he considers, be a bond of union between the two countries, and he adds, as though by an afterthought, thac the gold which Amenophis appears to have asked for should be sent at once, together with “large gold jars, large gold plates, and other articles made of gold.” After this meaning interpolation he returns to the marriage question, and proposes to act in the matter of the dowry in the same way in which his grandfather acted, presumably on a like occasion. He then enlarges on the wealth of his kingdom, where “ gold is like dust that cannot be counted,” and he adds an inventory of presents which he is sending, articles of gold, inlay, and harness and thirty eunuchs. A NOTE PROM THE KING OE THE GARDEN OF EDEN, Another letter is from the King of Karaduniyash, the traditional garden of Eden. A third is from the King of Alashiya, asking for the return of the goods of a deceased subject who died in Egypt, and sending many consolatory presents —bronze vessels, some trees, and a bull. In return he asks only for “ two kuknpa jars and a man who understands eagles”—just as a mediaeval magnate might ask for a falconer. There is a (supposed) reference to the plague.