ARCHEOLOGY AND BIBLICAL RESEARCH.

MORE PAPYRI.

WHILE a number of archæologists are busying themselves with the remote past of the land of the Pharaohs, and by their methodical excavations and scientific classification of the objects found are helping to rewrite the story of Egypt in such a way as to disclose secrets hidden for millenniums, and are thus giving a lifelike picture of the first dynasties, others, and preeminently Grenfell and Hunt, have been devoting especial attention to the Greco-Roman period. The finds of these two English scholars at Ben Hesa, the ancient Oxyrhyncus, have been fully discussed in our pages. They have already published two volumes of these papyri, and more are still to follow. As our readers are somewhat informed concerning the contents of the first volume, whose chief attraction was the Logia, or sayings of our Lord, we shall not discuss this further, but shall proceed to the second volume, lately from the press.

The number of papyri discovered at Ben Hesa was very large. Many of these had suffered greatly, and were in a very bad state of preservation-so much so that it required the most patient and skillful manipulation to get the best results. Who knows the debt of gratitude we owe to the patient reader of old documents! It goes without saying that not a fragment, however small, can be passed unnoticed, but every piece must be read with the utmost care, since no one knows what wealth some of these musty scraps may contain. In deciphering documents already on hand, no less than in excavation, the unexpected often happens, and the greatest results have appeared when and where least expected.

The first thing that impresses the thoughtful reader of these two volumes is the character and varied nature of the literature dug up from the ruins of this unimportant and out-of-the-way Egyptian town-the books which were read by the people during the first centuries of the Christian era. Though the bulk of these papyri are the records of the domestic, business, and political life of the villagers, yet there is quite a liberal representation of the Greek classic authors, as well as a few fragments of the New Testament. Of the latter we find portions of St. John's gospel, as well as the first chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans; the second of these was evidently "a schoolboy's exercise." Of the Greek authors we find fragments of Homer, Plato, Euripides, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Menander, and others less known. It seems strange that this little town on the Nile should have so many readers of the best Greek authors at so early a date. From the fragments found we have a right to conclude that Homer was a favorite of the people.

This is especially true of his Iliad, though, strange to say, the Odyssey is not represented among the fragments. Plato was likewise read, for portions of the Phaedo and Laches appear among these papyri. Demosthenes is represented by his masterpiece, The Crown. One writer has well said: "Of course the literary fragments from unknown authors, or lost works of known authors, are vastly more interesting, and of these there are a goodly series in the volume before us. We feel a pang at the heart when we learn that among them is the single title-page or label, Σώφρονος Μίμοι Γυναικείοι, show. ing how near Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt were to the recovery of that masterpiece which Plato made his study, which inspired the Adoniazusæ of Theocritus and the Mimes of Herodas. But, on the whole, we may congratulate the discoverers on their good fortune. Foremost among the novelties stands a scene from Menander's Perikeiromene, the play in which a girl's hair was cut off by her jealous lover. The cruel fate which stole from us all the manuscripts of this admirable playwright, and left us only isolated lines by way of compensation, seems now relenting, and in the remains of the 'Farmer' and of this 'Croppy Damsel' begins to allow the modern world some small insight into the workmanship of the master. The most likely of all future chances in Egypt is the finding of a roll of Menander."

Though the papyri of the second Oxyrhyncus volume disclose but little that is absolutely new, yet the incidental references and comments therein found reflect the state of culture of that day. This is especially true of the hundred lines or more of commentary or annotations upon passages in Book XXI of the Iliad. Another important fragment is a metrical treatise. The value of this is enhanced by the copious citations used by way of illustrations from authors, if not altogether unknown to us, yet from writings of annotations upon passages in Book XXI of the Iliad. Another important fragment is that which contains an imperfect list of the victors at the Olympian games, from olympiad 65-83. These papyri also reflect not only the official or political, but as well the domestic life of the people, demonstrating very clearly, were this necessary, that human nature was much the same in those early days on the banks of the Nile as at present on the Thames and the Hudson. Men and women, young and old, rich and poor, of the Greco-Roman period in Egypt met the problems of their day and the annoying questions of their localities much in the same spirit and temper as we do now at the close of our century. Then, as now, these papyri tell us, the schoolboy had his troubles; young lovers had their disappointments; husbands and wives had their domestic difficulties, yea, even divorce suits; business men had their losses and gains, and the capitalist his greed and his enemies. The details of a family quarrel and a divorce and the difficulties arising from a second union, found recorded in a portion of these old documents, would make good reading for some of our sensational papers. The science

of Greek palæography is perhaps the most benefited by the publication of these papyri. For, without doubt, when all the documents already discovered are edited and autotypes prepared, there will be very complete specimens of Greek writing from about "300 B. C. down to the discovery of printing accessible to the student."

Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt have a mania for excavations, and, far from being satisfied with their past successes, they are still as eager as ever for more brilliant victory. A recent number of the Athenæum gives a short résumé of their work during the past four years. Here we are told that they carried on work in 1896 in an old cemetery at Umm el Atl. Owing to the fact that grave robbers way back in the ages had exploited this old graveyard, nothing of value was found. In the winter of 1898-99 they were somewhat more successful, for then they discovered a very large number of papyrus mummies; many of these were so badly damaged by damp and exposure as to preclude the best results. Last winter, however, gave them a perfect harvest. Let them tell the story in their own words: "Our luck changed in a manner which surprised all our hopes, and our new collection promises to be of even greater importance for the Ptolemaic period than our Oxyrhyncus find for the Roman and Byzantine."

What makes these last discoveries of the two great Englishmen of special interest to Americans is the fact that our country is to be most benefited by them, for the excavations are made under the supervision of Grenfell and Hunt for Mrs. Hearst; and one half of all the papyri discovered are to become the property of the University of California. The site selected was Umm el Baragât, in the southern part of the Fayoum, a little south of a village called Tutûn. Work was begun here on December 3, 1899, with a large force of experienced diggers for antiquities. Success followed the enterprise from the very first day, when a large number of papyri were unearthed. Some of them were in demotic characters, but by far the greater part in Greek. It may be added that few monuments with hieroglyphs were brought to light, owing to the fact that the objects dug up were in the immediate vicinity of a temple of the crocodile god, Sebek. Strange enough, no documents were found in the temple itself, but rather in the houses adjoining, which were probably residences for the priests and attendants.

A little south of the place just mentioned was another old cemetery which was also thoroughly explored. Indeed, fully sixty days were devoted to this old burying ground. Tombs of widely separate ages were discovered here one of the twelfth dynasty, another of an age somewhat later, and two more of the new empire. As might be expected, scarabs, beads, and amulets of various kinds were found in these old sepulchers; so were also a large number of richly painted coffins, containing mummies rolled up in cloth cartonnage, which belonged most probably to about 250 B. C. There were other plain coffins in common wood, and still many mummies in papyrus

wrappings without any coffin of any kind; these according to the discoverers must have belonged to a later age even than those of 250 B. C. Though very many of these papyrus mummies were badly damaged, yet no less than fifty were in splendid condition.

Adjoining this cemetery a remarkable discovery was made. It was that of an extensive burying ground full of mummified crocodiles. Among the many thousands here interred some measured no less than thirteen feet, while others were tiny bits of baby crocodiles. They were all wrapped up in papyrus, some of them in more than one layer. Sometimes the mouth of a crocodile was stuffed with a papyrus roll. Most of the papyri were in Greek, though not a few contained demotic writing.

According to the laws governing excavations in Egypt, demotic papyri and other antiquities of whatever nature, except Greek papyri, are to be kept at Gizeh; the latter, however, may be divided equally between Egypt and other countries. Of the recent discoveries by Grenfell and Hunt, who are in the employment of Mrs. Hearst, we may say that the Greek papyri have been sent to Oxford for examination, and after these have been edited one half of them will be dispatched to the University of California. It will probably be many months before the public will be made acquainted with the contents of these documents, for those who discovered them will continue to excavate every winter, and then as time is afforded them will arrange and translate these latest papyri discovered.

AMERICAN SCHOOL OF RESEARCH IN PALESTINE.

A LITTLE Over five years ago the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis planned to establish a school somewhere in Palestine for facilitating the study of biblical archæology and research. The American Oriental Society and the Archæological Institute of America have both given the movement their approval, so that now the School of Oriental Study has become affiliated with the Archæological Institute under nearly the same regulations as the American schools at Athens and Rome, which have contributed so much to the study of classical archæology. Various universities and theological schools have evinced their confidence in the new movement by becoming responsible for at least one hundred dollars annually for the first five years. The promoters of the school have also appealed for at least one hundred thousand dollars, with which to erect suitable buildings either at Jerusalem or Beirut, or in both places, as well as to pay the salary of a trained archæologist and biblical scholar. Such a school will be a natural center for archæologists and explorers in Palestine, for no one can reasonably doubt that the land has still many a secret hidden underneath its soil whose discovery will prove of greatest benefit to the Bible student.

MISSIONARY REVIEW.

THE ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE ON FOREIGN MISSIONS.

A GENERAL summary of this recent gathering will not be amiss for future reference. The third general, or world, Conference on Foreign Missions, which convened in New York April 21 to May 1, 1900, was the first of such Conferences held on this side of the Atlantic, and was easily the greatest missionary assembly ever gathered in the history of the Church. More than that, it was the greatest manifestation of the aggressive forces of the Church in history. The programme, of which thirty thousand copies were printed, was itself an educational document, and will serve as a handbook of foreign missions in which every item of missionary intelligence is classified. The attendance was overwhelmingly great. Three months before the time set there was serious apprehension that the metropolis could not be roused to appreciative interest in the occasion. But when the time came the Protestant Christian forces of the city were a unit in their enthusiastic interest. Delegates poured in from all parts of the country sufficient to fill two thirds of the seats of the great hall, so that there was not room to accommodate more than half the people besides who desired admission. Other sessions besides those originally planned had therefore to be provided, not as overflow meetings, but as an extension of those in Carnegie Hall, projected on the same plane, with the same topics, and often with the same speakers to repeat the addresses delivered at the central meeting or to reread the papers just read. Yet even after these provisions other meetings had to be extemporized in various great churches, with equally popular and powerful speakers, taxing the utmost effort of the officers having to provide for these occasions.

This enthusiastic interest came as an overwhelming surprise to the projectors of the Conference. Evidently none had measured the depth and the reach of the hold that foreign missions have obtained on the country at large. It became evident that there is a latent interest in the churches in this direction which the most sanguine had not apprehended. The projectors of the last Conference-that at London in 1888-had a comparatively easy task in contrast with the responsibility of the managers of the New York gathering. The London projectors had thirty millions of people within easy reach of Exeter Hall, but the New York audiences represented the wide territory extending from Boston to San Francisco and New Orleans. They were also from every theological branch of the Protestant Church, and seemed as one man in their earnest purpose to learn concerning the forward movement of Christendom.