DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0369
330
APPENDIX.
it was impossible. He .answered, that he was determined at least
to open it; and accordingly made the chasm, (which was in
the author's time visible), by means of fire and of vinegar, and
of iron instruments, and of battering engines. He was at a great
expense: and, having penetrated twenty cubits, he found a vessel
filled with a thousand coins of the finest gold, each of which
was a dinar in weight. When Haroun Al Raschid saw the gold,
he ordered that the expenses, he had incurred, should be calcu-
lated, and the amount was found exactly equal to the treasure,
which was discovered. lie was at a loss to imagine how the
cost of his operations could have been foretold, and how tlie
money could have been placed exactly at the end of his excavation.
PAPYRUS FOUND IN THE MONASTERY OF ABOU
HORMEIS.
translated into arabic, 225 a.ii.
It is said, that in a tomb at the monastery of Abou Ilormeis, a
body was found wrapped round with a cloth, and bearing upon
the breast a papyrus, inscribed with antient Coptic characters,
which could not be deciphered until, a monk, from the monastery
of Al Kalmun in the Faiouin, explained it as follows:0 " In
the first year of King Diocletian, an account was taken from
a book, copied in the first year of King Philippus7 — from an
G The story is related by Masoudi, but ibis relation of it by Al Kodhai is given,
because he was a cadi in Egypt; and mentions the persons by whom the tradition
had been handed down from former times.— Dr. Sjircngcr.
1 Moses, of Chorene, seems to allude to this account when he mentions that Va-
larsaces sent to his brother Arsaces (the governor of Armenia), a learned man called
Mariba to inquire into the antient history of Armenia. This person is supposed to
have found, amongst the archives of Nineveh, a book, translated from Chaldaic into
Greek by order of Alexander the Great, which contained historical records of the
most remote antiquity. Valarsaces ordered them to be inscribed upon a column ;
and the author derived from this monument a considerable part of his history.
Cedrenus also says, upon the authority of an apocryphal work ascribed by the
Egyptians to Hermes, that Enoch, foreseeing the destruction of the earth, had
inscribed the science of astronomy upon two pillars; the one composed of stone
to resist the operation of water, and the other of brick to withstand that of fire.
Cedrenus was a monk, and lived about 1050.—Dr. Spretiger.
APPENDIX.
it was impossible. He .answered, that he was determined at least
to open it; and accordingly made the chasm, (which was in
the author's time visible), by means of fire and of vinegar, and
of iron instruments, and of battering engines. He was at a great
expense: and, having penetrated twenty cubits, he found a vessel
filled with a thousand coins of the finest gold, each of which
was a dinar in weight. When Haroun Al Raschid saw the gold,
he ordered that the expenses, he had incurred, should be calcu-
lated, and the amount was found exactly equal to the treasure,
which was discovered. lie was at a loss to imagine how the
cost of his operations could have been foretold, and how tlie
money could have been placed exactly at the end of his excavation.
PAPYRUS FOUND IN THE MONASTERY OF ABOU
HORMEIS.
translated into arabic, 225 a.ii.
It is said, that in a tomb at the monastery of Abou Ilormeis, a
body was found wrapped round with a cloth, and bearing upon
the breast a papyrus, inscribed with antient Coptic characters,
which could not be deciphered until, a monk, from the monastery
of Al Kalmun in the Faiouin, explained it as follows:0 " In
the first year of King Diocletian, an account was taken from
a book, copied in the first year of King Philippus7 — from an
G The story is related by Masoudi, but ibis relation of it by Al Kodhai is given,
because he was a cadi in Egypt; and mentions the persons by whom the tradition
had been handed down from former times.— Dr. Sjircngcr.
1 Moses, of Chorene, seems to allude to this account when he mentions that Va-
larsaces sent to his brother Arsaces (the governor of Armenia), a learned man called
Mariba to inquire into the antient history of Armenia. This person is supposed to
have found, amongst the archives of Nineveh, a book, translated from Chaldaic into
Greek by order of Alexander the Great, which contained historical records of the
most remote antiquity. Valarsaces ordered them to be inscribed upon a column ;
and the author derived from this monument a considerable part of his history.
Cedrenus also says, upon the authority of an apocryphal work ascribed by the
Egyptians to Hermes, that Enoch, foreseeing the destruction of the earth, had
inscribed the science of astronomy upon two pillars; the one composed of stone
to resist the operation of water, and the other of brick to withstand that of fire.
Cedrenus was a monk, and lived about 1050.—Dr. Spretiger.