DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0194
156
APPENDIX.
17th of that month. I joined hind on the 21st, and, having
agreed upon the works to be carried on, I left the Pyramids for
Upper Egypt on the 24th of the same month, and returned to
them on the 24th January, 1837, full of expectation in conse-
quence of the forwardness at which M. Caviglia, in two letters
(dated the 22d of December, and the 17th of January), men-
tioned the works at the Pyramids to have arrived. I could not,
therefore, but express my disappointment at finding, on my re-
turn, that little or no prospect of any discovery existed in the
First and Third Pyramids, and that not a man was at work at
the Second, but that the bulk of the people were employed in
searching for mummies,—-an operation mentioned in his letters
as merely a secondary object. His excuses, in answer to my
observations on this subject, were the scarcity of men, the neces-
sity of occupying the ground from a fear of interruption from a
French faction, &c.
Notwithstanding all this, however, matters went on, as detailed
in my Journal, till the 10th of February, when, in M. Caviglia's
absence, I had an offer of two hundred or three hundred additional
men,6 which I gladly accepted, being extremely desirous, after all
the expense incurred, and inconvenience experienced, to endea-
vour at least to make some discoveries in the Pyramids before I
returned to England, which I wished to do without further delay.
I accordingly mentioned the circumstance to M. Caviglia on his
return from Cairo (as stated in my Journal), who, to my surprise,
made one objection after another, and, on the following morning,
came to me when I was at breakfast in the tent, and, without the
smallest provocation, behaved in so extraordinary and offensive a
manner, that the least I could do was instantly to order off the
people, whom 1 had brought from Cairo to work with the boring-
rods, &c. and to break off all communication with him. This
" amiable and enthusiastic devotee," who complains that I was
allowed " to trample under foot those courtesies of society which
are reciprocally due from one individual to another," was so good
as to tell me (in the presence of Mr. Perring), respecting the
additional men whom I intended to employ, that he was master,
and that no person dared to work there without his orders, with
many other complimentary expressions;7 and, upon my desiring
6 The Sliieks of the villages were anxious to prevent the employment of their
people at a neighbouring canal.
' As far as I recollect, the words he used were, " Je suis maitre, et personpe que
moi n'ose travailler ici; si vous avez 1'aigcn!, mot j'ai la lute," &c.
APPENDIX.
17th of that month. I joined hind on the 21st, and, having
agreed upon the works to be carried on, I left the Pyramids for
Upper Egypt on the 24th of the same month, and returned to
them on the 24th January, 1837, full of expectation in conse-
quence of the forwardness at which M. Caviglia, in two letters
(dated the 22d of December, and the 17th of January), men-
tioned the works at the Pyramids to have arrived. I could not,
therefore, but express my disappointment at finding, on my re-
turn, that little or no prospect of any discovery existed in the
First and Third Pyramids, and that not a man was at work at
the Second, but that the bulk of the people were employed in
searching for mummies,—-an operation mentioned in his letters
as merely a secondary object. His excuses, in answer to my
observations on this subject, were the scarcity of men, the neces-
sity of occupying the ground from a fear of interruption from a
French faction, &c.
Notwithstanding all this, however, matters went on, as detailed
in my Journal, till the 10th of February, when, in M. Caviglia's
absence, I had an offer of two hundred or three hundred additional
men,6 which I gladly accepted, being extremely desirous, after all
the expense incurred, and inconvenience experienced, to endea-
vour at least to make some discoveries in the Pyramids before I
returned to England, which I wished to do without further delay.
I accordingly mentioned the circumstance to M. Caviglia on his
return from Cairo (as stated in my Journal), who, to my surprise,
made one objection after another, and, on the following morning,
came to me when I was at breakfast in the tent, and, without the
smallest provocation, behaved in so extraordinary and offensive a
manner, that the least I could do was instantly to order off the
people, whom 1 had brought from Cairo to work with the boring-
rods, &c. and to break off all communication with him. This
" amiable and enthusiastic devotee," who complains that I was
allowed " to trample under foot those courtesies of society which
are reciprocally due from one individual to another," was so good
as to tell me (in the presence of Mr. Perring), respecting the
additional men whom I intended to employ, that he was master,
and that no person dared to work there without his orders, with
many other complimentary expressions;7 and, upon my desiring
6 The Sliieks of the villages were anxious to prevent the employment of their
people at a neighbouring canal.
' As far as I recollect, the words he used were, " Je suis maitre, et personpe que
moi n'ose travailler ici; si vous avez 1'aigcn!, mot j'ai la lute," &c.