By JOSEPH NORTH

Hungry people of history who

built pyramids 5000

I HAVE often wondered why
people with pickaxes digging

in mouldy rock and mud 10,000

miles away catch the avid imagin-
ation of millions here.

This they did that recent day -
when the young Egyptian scholar
discovered the 5,000-year old
solar ship at the base of the
Great Pyramid of Gizeh. Dr.
Kamel el-Malakh’s discovery was
front page news, and I relish that
for many reasons.

There is something profound-
ly exhilarating about learning
what Man was already able to
do when the curtain of history
went up,

What achievements, what giant
skills the lean, dark Africans
along the rich valley of the Nile
had mastered when so much of
mankind wore skins and lived
in rude shacks along the Thames
and the Seine and the Rhine—
where later generations were to
be told that the peoples of Africa
were somehow lesser than their
paler-skinned brothers and sisters
in the northern lands.

I sought out an Egyptologist
at New York’s Metropolitan Mus-
eum of Art, where the relics of
the Pharaohs are on_ exhibit.
There was no doubt that the find-
ings were authentic, he said, and
that was very agreeable to hear
from him. For some of the ex-
perts in our universities, heavy
with racism as they are, display-
ed a supercilious air when the
news broke; it was as though
‘ they were saying, “What reliance
can we have in the researches of
some dark man named el-
Malakh?”

But the evidence continued to
come in and the scoffery has
ended. Something new has been
uncovered that adds to Man’s—
stature, some further evidence of
his grandeur.

Te" A %

The interest in all this, yours
and mine and millions more? It

By RALPH PARKER _

Moskvich, Pobeda mos

Ween the Soviet electrician,

schoolteacher or miner steps
into a showroom to buy himself
a new car, he is looking for the
same qualities as the Canadian
customer. ; ;

He wants it to be roomy for his
family, cheap to run and built to
require a minimum of repairs.

The task of selecting a car to
suit his pocket and needs is easier
for the Soviet motorist than it is
for us.

The number of models manu-
factured within each class is less,
but the pooling of all inventions
ensures that he will get the latest
improvements. i
\

Most popular of all with Soviet .

drivers is the four-seater Mosk:
vich, rated at about 40 h.p. and -
oie with steering column gear-
shift. :

An interesting feature of this
and other Soviet cars is that the
number of parts used in the con-
struction is kept down as much as
possible.

Any driver who has had to
meet constant repair bills for his —
ear will immediately appreciate
the value of such a trend. Spare
parts can be expensive, but if one
can be made to do the job of two
so much the better.

is not solely because the news-
Tapers made the story, giving it
ample space and a heavy dose
of the sensational. No, it was
not solely that.

C. W. Ceram, the man who
wrote Gods, Graves and Scholars,

_and put it well:

“All of us live within our heri-
tage of 5,000 years of history.
. .. This has become the arche-
ologist’s grandiose task: to make
dried-up well-springs bubble
forth again, to make the forgot-
ten known again, the dead alive,
and to cause to flow once more
the historic stream in which w

are all encompassed.” :

Now we cannot expect Man
to o’erleap himself; he has had
to make his way up through
generations of misery.

It is clear the Cheops the Great
was a harsh taskmaster whose
name became anathema among
his people for scores of centuries.
He levied a draft that took 100,-
00 of his subject three months
each year for 20 years to work
on his pyramid, the greatest.

The  Egyptologist explained
that this powerful king, jealous
of his father’s pyramid, decided
to build one that was even great-
er.

And when it was built he had
hankerings to live in his royal
style for all eternity, to travel
forever with the moon and the
sun across the heavens. So his
skilled artisans made the 165-
foot “spirit ship” and placed it
within the sunken corridor lead-
ing to the tomb that now has
been discovered.

On its deck linen ropes were

_ coiled; oars and a rudder sweep

projected from its gunwales. The
boat is probably laden with the
fruit of Egypt’s civilization, for
the Pharoahs had a long trip to
make. They stocked up with
the goods of this world to be
certain that they would have
them in the other. Canny men
indeed. And to be doubly sure

For those who require aslarger

car the six-seater Pobeda is with-
in the purchasing power of skill-

years ago

they made magnificent artistic
representations of food and fur-
niture and retainers so that they
would be served in heaven as
well as they were on earth.

I have always had an absorb-
ing curiosity in the life of the
common man throughout history.

I remember Breasted’s “Elo-
quent Peasant,” who has gone
down through 5,000 years of his-
tory because he complained so
magnificently about taxes. His
is said to be the first recorded
dissent in history. He got all
the way to Pharaoh with his
plaint and the scribe put the
words of the rebellious peasant
down for all time. :

I asked the Egyptologist about

the ordinary men who built these

tombs, carried the enormous
stones, fashioned the cunning
ship and wove the strong linen
ropes. He had been in Egypt
a few. years ago and he replied
that the peasant of 5,000 years
ago lived much as the peasant of
today. .

There is in the fellah, driven
like a beast of burden down the
centuries, the same “heaven-
storming” mentality as Ceram
put it, that his ancestors owned
when they built the pyramids
that reached to the skies. And
yet he has gone hungry through-
out all of history.

But, you reflect, standing there
amid the sarcaphogi and the cary-
ed stone, the relics of ancient
grandeur at the museum, men
are not only wielding pickaxes
on the past. Their brothers and
sisters are building the future, on
the plains and in the river valleys
of today. :

Heaven stormers are alive ‘this
day and hour who scorn Henry
Ford’s adage that the past is a
bucket of ashes.

They know how long overdue
is the triumph of, hungry People
who could 5,000 years ago, build

solar ships and sky scraping pyra-
mids.

their first choice.

In Sweden sales of Pobeda cars
have now doubled since last year,

ed workers and is likely to be and the Pobeda is sharing show-

A

The most popular cars among Soviet buyers are the Moskvich

and the Pobeda. The Pobeda is also winning favor in Sweden,

sales doubled last year.

where

This picture shows earlier postwar models

of the Zis, with the Zim, the best known of the large Soviet cars.

ne

Treasures of a pharoah

Workmen building a road around the Great Pyramid 2
Egypt, stumbled upon one of the most important discoveries of Fe | 4
years — the 5000-year-old southern tomb of the Pharoah ¢ 4 ;
Entrance to the tomb (top) was gained by cutting through lim
blocks and digging a causeway. Among the mony objects four” i.
the tomb was a “solar boat” (bottom) so well preserved that ©
the perfume of its contents lingered in the tomb.

t popular cars with Soviet buyer |

rooms with British cars.

Recently I inspected and drove
a Pobeda through the streets of
London, much to the curiosity
of other road users, who were see-
ing a Russian car for the first
time. The smoothly-running 80

h.p. engine gives it a speed of 70
miles an hour.

Having examined ‘hundreds of
comparable British cars straight

off the. assembly line, I can affirm

the design and workmanship of
the Pobeda to be excellent. In
body construction and interior de-

' Sign it is equal to the best.

An effective heater is fitted to-
gether with an air conditioner in
a tidy position under the dash-
board. Ashtrays are conveniently
Placed within easy reach of driver
and Passengers and there is a
built-in cigarette lighter. The
front seat is of the bench type.

I was particularly pleased to ;

see a large size clock incorporat-
ed in the instrument panel.

In the top range of Soviet auto-
mobile production is the seven:
Seater Zim whose powerful six,
cylinder engine will pull from 10
to 80 miles an hour in top gear.

The luxurious springing and
elegant ‘appearance of the Zim,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE’ — JUNE 25, 1954 — °

‘parts of. . standard prod ‘asf

between the factories it tom |

¢ Gish q
cheoP*

nit |
a

and the even better Zis, . i {
travelling by road betwee?
an agreeable journey.

ya’

As in Britain and Canad@ |
ing car and “hot rod” oy so
build their own cars. from o

models. Motor cycle engine pe
supercharged and mount sue |
rear of a light chassis 10 ott 1,
speeds up to 130 miles oad eG
Several smaller class W0.  voss
cords are held by Soviet © ig

The auto works at Mose 5 7
Gorky pour out a COBMC gel |
stream of cars to carry the "aaj! |
people to and from the 2 pot
pleasures and tasks. Mam) ies.
are ‘producéd at other fae”

are |

There is complete coop’ tbo!
oy
oney -

esi |

2 Mi

and design to give the
the best value his ™
buy.

The builders, be they 4
o1 trimmers, polishers 9 ie
bestow upon their partich jog ca t
all the skill the finest tr" |

. produce. . ok 7

hig. or 7

No worker’s suggestion eat!

fort is ignored in the Span :

to make each car better ‘ or
one before. After all,

ers will be the drivers. g!