Papers On The Great Pyramid.

PAPERS ON THE GREAT PYRAMID .

BY BRO . AVJ [ . KOAVBOTTOM . ( Continued from page 196 . )

III . —THE BUILDERS . IN the enquiry to Avhich this chapter is devoted , Ave shall find the difficulties surrounding the problem considerably lessened by having a fixed date to Avork upon , and it Avas for this reason that I gave jirecedence to the subject of enquiry dealt Avith in the last chapter .

The 2170 n . c . elate , besides being accepted by many writers having so little in common as Professor Smyth , Mr . R . A . Proctor , and Sir Edmund Beckett , receives important confirmation from the Pyramid itself . At the distance of 2170 pyramid inches from the commencement of the Grand Gallery , measuring backAvards along the floor line of the first ascending passage , and so upAvards tOAvards the entrance of the pyramid , there occur on the side Avails , ancl nearly opposite to each other , and at right

angles ivith the floor , two exquisitely true and finely chiselled lines . The question of the existence of some mark at the 2170 inch distance from the Grand Gallery ' s commencement Avas put by Mr . Charles Casey , in 1872 , to Professor Smyth as the test of the chronological and at the same time prophetic character claimed for the passages . Professor Smyth , though he had commented on the ruled lines in the granite blocks in his book , " Life and Work at the Great Pyramid , " had not taken that particular measurement , and he accordingly wrote to Mr . Waynman Dixon , C . E ., then in . Cairo , who , Avith Dr . Grant , made the necessary measurements , the results being on the east Aval ] 2170-5 , and on ihe west Avail , 2170-4 . *

Before entering into more particular characteristics of the Great Pyramid builders , let us note the folloAving generalities . First we find that , Avhoever the builders Avere , they reached the central land of Egypt from the East , and after accomplishing their work became spread abroad throughout the earth . Hence Ave find the monuments of the pyramid builders completing the circle of the earth , and appearing in conjunction ivith other evidences of a common knoAvledge among the origines ol the nations . We may thus easily accept the claims of these earliest erections to be national monuments .

Both Marictte Bey aud Hckckyan Ilcy have contended for this ; the latter holdingvery reasonably—that " these pyramids Avure national undertakings ; their plan and execution were decided after mature deliberation ; laws Avere passed , aud revenues provided , to carry out the public decision by the executive authorities . " |

Mr . BoiiAvick further quotes Mr . Wilson , a learned writer on the astronomy of the ancients , the Rev . E . 13 . Zincke , and Mr . Gliddon , as favouring the idea that the pyramid builders Avere Avhite men . } It is indeed sonieivhat remarkable that they should have applied to them the name of Yoingees , Avhich , found in the early Hindoo Puranas , has within modern times become corrupted into Yankees—Yoingees being the name given to the English on their arrival by the North American Indians . I may mention here that in a footnote in my recent publication I have ventured to

suggest that the term " lepers , " Avhich occurs in Manetho ' s account of the expulsion of the Shepherds from Egypt , and also in the Harris papyrus in the British Museum , is most probably a reference to the occupation of , and final expulsion from , Egyp t of a Avhite-skinned race .