Like other ancient Egyptians, Cheops believed that the soul of the ship carved into the desert bedrock could rise in ghostly form to carry his soul in the company of the immortals believed to journey with the sun-god Ra. Egyptian religion taught that the souls of the dead followed the sun through the heavens. While the pharaohs made elaborate preparations for this voyage, lesser Egyptians had to content themselves with clay models of spirit boats.
The solar boats of the day were for traveling with the sun-god Ra from the gates of dawn where he was reborn each day to the gates of night, or the underworld, where he died and where the traveler transferred to a solar boat of night. The boats had to pass 12 gates or hours on each half of the journey and the traveler could obtain permission to pass them only by speaking the secret name of the god who guarded each. The secret names were imparted after death only to good souls. The most dangerous interrogation was believed to take place at the sixth gate of night, or midnight.
Dr. Herbert Ricke, a German Egyptologist who has been excavating and doing research in Egypt since 1926, believes that the solar boat found by El Malakh was not built by Cheops. He says that a hieroglyphic cartouche partly visible on the wall of the boat chamber indicates the boat was the work of Cheops’ son and successor, Khefren, builder of the second Giza pyramid. Dr. Ricke examined the cartouche on June 30 when El Malakh removed the gypsum cement seal over the hole to permit a group of Egyptologists to view the chamber.
The hieroglyphs in the cartouche consist of a dotted circle, representing “Ra,” a sun for “Kha,” and a horned snake representing the letter “F.” Dr. Ricke says the cartouche ending with the symbol for “F” cannot represent the name of Cheops or Khufu whose cartouche contains a shaded circle for “Kh.” a young chicken for “W,” a horned snake for “F,” and another young chicken for “W.” The exact transliteration is given as Khwfw. Cheops did not have the dotted circle for “Ra” in his cartouche, Dr. Ricke said, as this symbol first appeared in cartouches of his successors. Dr. Ricke explains that Khefren’s name is a corruption of the hieroglyphic transliteration of “Kha-F-Ra” which had been written “Ra-Kha-F.”
Furthermore, Dr. Ricke says, the cult of the sun-god Ra did not become important until immediately after the’ reign of Cheops. He adds that solar boats came into use after Cheops when, along with the worship of Ra, the belief rose that kings traveled through the heavens in boats with Ra.
According to Dr. Ricke the remains of the boat east of the Great Pyramid, which is believed to be for Cheop’s pilgrimage to Abydos where Osiris worshipped, would be an anachronism in Cheops’ time as the Osiris cult did not become important until 1,600 years after Cheops, when Pharaoh Seti built the famous temple of Osiris at Abydos.
Dr. Ricke points out, however, that the importance of El Malakh’s find is not lessened whether the ships were built by Cheops or Khefren. Linking the boats with Khefren, he says, actually would make them more important as dramatic evidence dating the emergence of the Ra cult.
In discussing Dr. Ricke’s theory El Malakh maintains that the placing of the boats on either side of the exact north-south axis of the Great Pyramid indicates they are an integral part of Cheops’ over all design. Regarding the cartouche questioned by Dr. Ricke, he says it has not yet been studied sufficiently to identify it with Khefren. If it should be identified with him, it may indicate that Khefren sealed the boats built by his father with blocks previously cut.
The blocks themselves, El Malakh adds, are larger than those cut during Khefren’s time. The stonecutting also is superior, indicating it had been done by Cheops’ workmen.
He says the Great Pyramid itself is a symbol of sun worship. Its ancient name, “Akhet,” referred to the light of the sun on the white limestone which once faced it.
The answers to all the various questions being raised over the find will come soon. El Malakh currently is planning to enter the boat chamber—and to experience the thrill of being the first man in 5,000 years to touch its treasures.
Editor’s Note: At press time new discoveries had been made in a chamber 100 feel below the surface. There was an alabaster coffin and numerous gold objects. Because of the dangers of working so far underground, workmen must proceed carefully. Reports of the findings will appear in FATE as they are made.
Bewitched Apartment in Cincinnati
Until the lamp jumped off its stand, ushering in five days of excitement, Saturday, November 7, 1953, began like every other Saturday for Mrs. Dorothy Regner.
Along toward five o’clock she started preparing supper for herself and her eight-year-old great-granddaughter, Ilean Sanders. Although she is 75 years old she moved spryly about the kitchen of her three-room, front apartment at 1020 West Eighth St., in Cincinnati, O.
As Mrs. Regner set the dishes out on the table a lamp fell from its stand in a corner. It seemed to her that the lamp jumped off onto the floor. I lean was not nearby at the moment.
The falling of the lamp struck Mrs. Regner as strange but she was busy with supper. She picked up the lamp, saw with relief that it was not broken and set it back on the stand.
She resumed her preparations for supper but the lamp kept interrupting her. Two more times it seemed to jump to the floor but somehow remained intact. Mrs. Regner is a practical woman and she decided the vibrations of passing cars and trucks on Eighth Street caused the lamp to fall although it had not happened before. She took the precaution of placing the lamp on the larger kitchen table.
A few minutes later she heard a loud crash in the hallway. She jumped, for by this time she admits she was edgy. Investigating the cause of the noise, she found that several garbage cans and a wash ringer somehow had fallen downstairs from the third to the second floor. They ended up against the doorway of Mrs. Bertha Jackson who, startled, opened her door and then quickly closed it. According to Mrs. Jackson, the fallen objects tried to “walk” into her apartment.
Mrs. Regner returned to her apartment but now she found it impossible to concentrate on supper. She discovered that the telephone was on the floor. This led her to examine the apartment—her worst fears were borne out.
In both of her two bedrooms she found the bed clothes mussed up. The queerly active lamp, which she had placed carefully in the middle of the kitchen table, again jumped to the floor. This time it broke.
Mrs. Regner was worried and disturbed but she was determined to continue with supper. She filled a kettle with water. A moment later, she said, the kettle “upset by itself.” Then some medicine bottles, which up to this time had stood quietly on a shelf in the kitchen, “blew off to the floor.”
Deciding abruptly that she had had enough, Mrs. Regner called the police. They arrived shortly and Mrs. Regner explained the weird events. “I try to be a good Christian,” she said’, “but it looks like something’s working on me.”
The police investigated the apartment but found no clue to the cause of the disturbances. Neither did they offer any theories, but one of the officers performed an eloquent action. He took a box of salt from the kitchen and sprinkled Mrs. Regner’s threshold. Salt, according to tradition, has the power to ward off jinxes.
Mrs. Regner decided not to depend on salt. She and Ilean spent the night at the home of Mrs. Savannah Love, who operates a grocery store on the first floor of the building.
On Sunday morning Mrs. Regner returned to her apartment with Ilean and Mrs. Love. Things looked quite normal to Mrs. Love as she investigated one of the bedrooms. She was decidedly skeptical until a little doll of Ilean’s “jumped over my shoulder and landed in a corner.”
Ilean said that the doll had been among toys in the other bedroom. Mrs. Love admits she was frightened. She was still feeling chills from her experience with the doll when, she said, “a bread basket blew in from the kitchen and hit me on the shoulder.” It swung and hit Ilean also but she was amused by the manifestations and laughed.
Objects in the apartment continued strangely active. A small stove standing against the wall in one
of the two bedrooms moved into the center of the room. Mrs. Regner pushed it back but a short time later found it had moved again. Each time she pushed it back it moved once more to the center of the room. Then the kitchen table moved out of its customary position. A jug jumped off the stove and broke on the floor.
The only noise associated with these happenings was when something fell to the floor and broke. There was no sudden mysterious wind, no knocks or ghostly footsteps. The objects in the apartment, Mrs. Regner said, “simply jump and move.”
She was deeply worried for she liked the apartment and had lived in it without incident for 14 years. She paid only $18 a month rent and at 75 this means a great deal.
By Tuesday, November 10, the disturbances in Mrs. Regner’s apartment were front-page news. Croups of friends and neighbors already had trooped through the apartment to witness the weird antics of the furnishings. Now crowds of curious persons, attracted by the newspaper stories, began pushing into the building to visit the apartment. Mrs. Regner had not slept in it since Saturday, though she visited it during the day in the forlorn hope that the manifestations would cease.
By Wednesday the crowds were so great that the street and sidewalks in front of the building were jammed. An estimated 200 persons jostled and shoved outside and on the stairs leading to the Regner apartment. Police drove them away, but they drifted back and that night an excited mob of 500 was present.
Mrs. Regner’s sister, Mrs. Ora Lopez, and her two daughters, Mrs. Ida Miller and Mrs. Lucille Bell, arrived from Chicago to comfort her. Mrs. Lopez said she had come fearing that Mrs. Regner might not be well. But after hearing the full story she concluded that her sister was not ill or suffering from hallucinations.
Since the previous Saturday there had been a total of 24 incidents of mysteriously moving household objects. Five persons had witnessed the manifestations and three had been struck by flying articles. Now the phenomena ceased as abruptly as they began.
By Thursday the crowds were gone and the street in front of the house was quiet. Mrs. Regner said she had come through her ordeal “feeling chipper, in spite of a heart condition.” She was determined not to be frightened away if the phenomena resumed.
Various persons theorized that a poltergeist had been active in the Regner apartment. They noted that poltergeist phenomena usually center about a young girl and llean was present during the manifestations.
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