D'Athanasi, Giovanni; Salt, Henry [Editor]: A brief account of the researches and discoveries in Upper Egypt: To which is added a detailed catalogue of Mr. Salts collection of Egyptian antiquities (London, 1836)

i

58 FIVE CLASSES OF MUMMIES DESCRIBED.

one of the many mysteries of their ancestors. In
1817, three Arabs came to seek employment in
our excavations, but owing to their advanced age
their services were not accepted. On being thus
repulsed, they decided to go elsewhere and work
on their own account, and on the same day found
two idols, which, however, being black and of
ordinary execution they took no heed of. To-
wards evening, vexed at having found nothing
of value, they left off working, complaining of
their bad luck, which left them, as they said, with-
out having earned as much as would buy them a
morsel of bread for the day. One of them, how-
ever, as if by inspiration, leaped from the seat on
which he was, took up the two black idols, and
proceeded towards the river, where were then
Lord Belmore, Mr. Salt, and M. Drouetti. The
Arab no sooner saw them than he addressed him-
self to the last-mentioned, who offered him fifty
paras for them both; the Arab demanded twenty
more, making in all a piastre and a half of the
country, a sum sufficient, as he said, to buy food
for himself and his two companions; but as M.
Drouetti would give no more than he at first of-
fered, the man furiously threw one of the idols on
the ground, when, to the astonishment of all pre-
sent, a large papyrus rolled out of it. M, Drouetti,

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