222 



DISCOVERY 



with the moral earnestness of a Moses or a Hammurabi. 

 It has many small faults of detail, and some large ones 

 of perspective ; but it is an interesting little book, 

 which most educated people could read with profit, 

 especially if they could read it critically. J. S. H. 



NOTES FROM CONTEMPORARIES 



In recent years controversies have raged as to the 

 extent of ancient Egyptian influence on the literature of 

 the Bible. The debt of the Biblical writers to Egy-pt 

 seems to be put beyond doubt in a scholarly and brilliant 

 article by Dr. A. B. Mace in vol. ix of the Annals of 

 Archaology and Anthropology, puhlished by the University 

 of Liverpool (6s.). Dr. Mace divides his evidence into 

 three parts: (i) Influences on the form of poetry; 



(2) Influences on the general character of the literature ; 



(3) Influences on religious doctrine. In the first part he 

 points out the well-known quality of Hebrew poetry 

 which " depends to a certain extent on rhythm, but 

 more particularly on a parallelism of words or thought 

 between the different parts of the verse." This is a very 

 unusual form of poetry, " yet we find it fully developed in 

 Egypt in 2000 b.c, and distinct traces of it a thousand 

 years before that." To take only one of the examples 

 quoted of this type of parallelism : 



O Lord, how manifold are Thy works ! 

 In wisdom hast Thou made them all. 



Psalm civ, 24. 

 How manifold are Thy works ! 

 They are hidden from before us. 



Hymn to Aton. 



In the second part of the evidence we are given profuse 

 examples of Egyptian influence on the subject-matter of 

 Hebrew lyrical poetry — the Psalms, the Song of Solomon, 

 etc. ; on the Didactic books — Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes ; 

 and on the Prophetic Books. The Book of Job, for 

 instance, in so far as the first portion of the tale is con- 

 cerned, has an interesting forerunner in the Dialogue of a 

 Misanthrope, written probably at least fifteen hundred 

 years earlier. " In the Misantlirope we get the picture 

 of a man once prosperous brought to ruin, deserted by 

 friends and relatives, and stricken with disease. His 

 name has become ' a stench in the nostrils ' of man. In 

 this plight he holds an argument with his soul as to 

 whether it is not better to die than to live. The con- 

 clusion he comes to is that life under present conditions 

 is impossible, that death will be a happy release, and 

 that after death there will at least be justice done, and 

 that the innocent will not suffer with the guilty." Of 

 Egypt's religious influence Dr. Mace says: " Help for 

 the poor, justice for the oppressed, belief in righteousness 

 for its own sake, personal relationship with God — all 

 these were known and practised in Egypt before they 

 were thought of in any other country." 



Many interesting photographs and details of the latest 

 and largest addition to the transatlantic liners, in fact 

 the largest vessel in the world, are given in the July 

 number of the Scientific American (New York: Munn 

 and Co., 35 cents). The Majestic has a tonnage of 



56,000, nearly 10,000 tons above that of the Olympic, 

 a length of 956 feet, a maximum speed of 24J knots 

 (oil-fired boilers have been installed), and accommodation 

 for 4,100 passengers. We often hear the term " floating 

 hotels " applied to modern liners, but the Majestic 

 would be a super-hotel, if she were run up on land. Her 

 main dining-room seats 652 persons, and her main lounge, 

 which is fitted with beautiful oak panelling and carving 

 and is not supported by any interior columns, is 76 feet 

 long and 54 feet broad. The second-class accommodation 

 is as good as the first-class on most liners, and the third- 

 class has its lounge, smoking room, and dining saloon. 

 The swimming-bath is modelled on the lines of the ancient 

 baths in Pompeii, and is finished in marble and rich 

 mosaics. The vessel has seven and a half acres of decks, 

 and a walk through all the corridors and public rooms 

 would take well over two hours ; in fact one would have 

 to cover a distance of nine miles. 



Sir J. George Scott contributes an article, full of colour, 

 on Burma to the July- August issue of The Blue Peter 

 (is.), a magazine of sea-travel to be found on most 

 of the liners going out East. The current idea about 

 Burma is that it is " a land of dismal swamps." Tliis 

 is far from the case, as even the railway traveller will 

 reaUse. " From the flat rice-fields he passes into the 

 dense teak forests of Pyinmana, goes on through the 

 undulating ' dry zone,' where prickly plants and gnarled 

 trees show how hot it can be in the dry season . . . ; 

 then on to the irrigated country close under the hills of 

 the Shan plateau. And everywhere tliere are pagodas 

 and monasteries ; the pagodas perched on heights or 

 embowered in mango and acacia trees ; some washed 

 snow-white ; some glinting bright with gold-leaf, and the 

 monasteries with multiple roofs and gables carved in 

 teak with the artistic skill for which the Burman is 

 famous." 



Those of our readers who heard the gypsy-songs of 

 M. Balieff's Chauve-Sonris Company in London last 

 year will find much to interest them in Mr. Gilliat- 

 Smith's article on " Russian Gypsy Singers " in the 

 current Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society (printed 

 privately by T. & A. Constable, Ltd.). 



Mr. Gilliat-Smith, who is something of a modern 

 George Borrow, has lately been studying the songs of 

 gypsy refugees from Russia in Sofia. " The songs of the 

 St. Petersburg gypsies," he says, " consist of Russian 

 ' Gypsy Romances,' mostly in the Russian language and 

 in the Russian style. Like all such songs they depend 

 for their effect largely on their method of delivery. The 

 gay ones are wild, furious, licentious. The sad ones, 

 which far outnumber the former, are sung with infinite 

 pathos, little half-sobs frequently catching at the voice, 

 wloich is utterly untutored, so much so that the singer 

 often uses up her store of breath on the forte portion, 

 with the result that the pianissimo parts tend to become 

 nearly an inaudible whisper. Many of these songs now 

 exist in good gramophone records, notably those of 

 Varja Panina, the famous Moscow singer, who died 

 some years ago, and though quite an old woman, went 

 on singing to the end, enjoying greater and greater popu- 



