DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0455
ABTDUS AND CAIRO. 437
away in convulsions, who looked as if they would never
walk again.*
It is difficult to say but a few inadequate words of a place
about which an instructive volume might be written; yet
to pass the Boulak Museum in silence is impossible. This
famous collection is due, in the first instance, to the liber-
ality of the late khedi ve and the labors of Mariette. With the
exception of Mehemet Ali, who excavated the Temple of
Denderah, no previous viceroy of Egypt had ever interested
himself in the archreology of the country. Those who
cared for such rubbish as encumbered the soil or lay hidden
beneath the sands of the desert, were free to take it; and
no favor was more frequently asked or more readily granted
than permission to dig for '•'anteekahs." Hence the
Egyptian wealth of our museums. Hence the numerous
private collections dispersed throughout Europe. Ismail
Pasha, however, put an end to that wholesale pillage; and
for the first time since ever " mummy was sold for bal-
sam," or for bric-a-brac, it became illegal to transport an-
tiquities. Thus, for the first time, Egypt began to possess
a national collection.
Youngest of great museums, the Boulak collection is
the wealthiest in the world in portrait-statues of private
individuals, in funerary tablets, in amulets and in personal
relics of the ancient inhabitants of the Nile valley. It is
necessarily less rich in such colossal statues as fill the great
galleries of the British Museum, the Turin Museum and
the Louvre. These, being above ground and comparatively
few in number, were for the most part seized upon long
since and transported to Europe. The Boulak statues are
the product of the tombs. The famous wooden "sheik,"
about which so much has been written,\ the magnificent
curtain words (that is, repeat prayers and invocations) on the day
preceding this performance, to enable them to endure without injury
the tread of the horse; and that some not thus prepared, having ven-
tured to lie down to be ridden over, have, on more than one occa-
sion, been either killed or severely injured. The performance is
considered as a miracle vouchsafed through supernatural power,
and which has been granted to every successive sheik of the SaiL-
diyeh." See Lane's "Modern Egyptians," chap, xxiv, p. A't'i.
Lond, 1800.
* This barbarous rite has been abolished by the present khedive.
[Note to second edition.]
\ See " Egypt of the Pharaohs and the Khedive," J. B. Zincke,
away in convulsions, who looked as if they would never
walk again.*
It is difficult to say but a few inadequate words of a place
about which an instructive volume might be written; yet
to pass the Boulak Museum in silence is impossible. This
famous collection is due, in the first instance, to the liber-
ality of the late khedi ve and the labors of Mariette. With the
exception of Mehemet Ali, who excavated the Temple of
Denderah, no previous viceroy of Egypt had ever interested
himself in the archreology of the country. Those who
cared for such rubbish as encumbered the soil or lay hidden
beneath the sands of the desert, were free to take it; and
no favor was more frequently asked or more readily granted
than permission to dig for '•'anteekahs." Hence the
Egyptian wealth of our museums. Hence the numerous
private collections dispersed throughout Europe. Ismail
Pasha, however, put an end to that wholesale pillage; and
for the first time since ever " mummy was sold for bal-
sam," or for bric-a-brac, it became illegal to transport an-
tiquities. Thus, for the first time, Egypt began to possess
a national collection.
Youngest of great museums, the Boulak collection is
the wealthiest in the world in portrait-statues of private
individuals, in funerary tablets, in amulets and in personal
relics of the ancient inhabitants of the Nile valley. It is
necessarily less rich in such colossal statues as fill the great
galleries of the British Museum, the Turin Museum and
the Louvre. These, being above ground and comparatively
few in number, were for the most part seized upon long
since and transported to Europe. The Boulak statues are
the product of the tombs. The famous wooden "sheik,"
about which so much has been written,\ the magnificent
curtain words (that is, repeat prayers and invocations) on the day
preceding this performance, to enable them to endure without injury
the tread of the horse; and that some not thus prepared, having ven-
tured to lie down to be ridden over, have, on more than one occa-
sion, been either killed or severely injured. The performance is
considered as a miracle vouchsafed through supernatural power,
and which has been granted to every successive sheik of the SaiL-
diyeh." See Lane's "Modern Egyptians," chap, xxiv, p. A't'i.
Lond, 1800.
* This barbarous rite has been abolished by the present khedive.
[Note to second edition.]
\ See " Egypt of the Pharaohs and the Khedive," J. B. Zincke,