DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0082
36 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
between them and the pasiengers that are natives os the country, would be*
capable os frightening you, is you had not some one, who could tell you what
is the matter.
I n case that you sind at Alexandria an opportunity os travelling in company,
either with miffionaries, or with merchants of any European nation, you
ought not to mifs the occasion; for befides the advantage of the language, that
we commonly sind by that means, you may always rely more on the report of
thofe honeft people, than on that of a rafcal of a valet, Jew or Greek, who
often has the impudence to make you believe fome danger, in order to render
himfelfmore neceflary.
Before I leave this fubjecT:, I mall add one rule, which you ought to sol-
low, even at Alexandria, and which muft be exadly obferved throughout all Egypt.
It is never to dig at the soot of any piece of antiquity, nor to break any ftone
of any monument whatfoever. You muft be content with feeing what is ex-
, posed to the sight, and thofe places, where you can clamber up, or to which
you can get by creeping. Whatever pleafure there might be in viewing an
antique monument throughout the whole, it is neceflary to debar yourself os it.
The consequences would be too dangerous. A conful os France attempted to
dig near the obelifk of Cleopatra at Alexandria, in order to have thejust di-
mensions of it. He had taken care to afk a permiffion for doing it, which he
did not obtain but with a great deal of dissiculty. Notwithstanding that, it
was not pofTible for him to get to the end os his design; in proportion as he
caused it to be dug in the day, they filled up, at night, the hole that he had
got to be made. This obftinate opposition arises from hence, that the people,
as well great as small, are persuaded, that all the antique monuments contain
some hidden treasure. They cannot imagine, that mere curiosity mould engage
the Europeans to go into Egypt, only to dig the ground there : on the contrary,
they are so persuaded of our avarice, that they do not permit us to rake into
any place. Is you take it into your head to do it in fecret, and they come to
sind it out, they confider you as robbers. They maintain, that you have
seized the treafure, which they supposed to be in that place ; and, in order to
have the better hold upon those that have raked the ground, they make this
pretended treafure amount to an exceflive price.
One would think, that the grandees of the country, infatuated with this
opinion, fhould never ceafe to rake into the earth, and to deftroy all the re-
mains os antiquity. It is, in effecl:, what several of them have applied them-
selves to; and divers precious remains os antique monuments have perifhed by
that means. But as they have not sound any thing, they were at length tired
of the expence. Yet they have not, for all that, got rid of their foolish imagi-
nation ; on the contrary, they have joined to it another notion, ftill more filly,
in suppofing that all thefe treafures are inchanted; that in proportion as they
are approached, they fink deeper and deeper in the ground; and that there are
none
between them and the pasiengers that are natives os the country, would be*
capable os frightening you, is you had not some one, who could tell you what
is the matter.
I n case that you sind at Alexandria an opportunity os travelling in company,
either with miffionaries, or with merchants of any European nation, you
ought not to mifs the occasion; for befides the advantage of the language, that
we commonly sind by that means, you may always rely more on the report of
thofe honeft people, than on that of a rafcal of a valet, Jew or Greek, who
often has the impudence to make you believe fome danger, in order to render
himfelfmore neceflary.
Before I leave this fubjecT:, I mall add one rule, which you ought to sol-
low, even at Alexandria, and which muft be exadly obferved throughout all Egypt.
It is never to dig at the soot of any piece of antiquity, nor to break any ftone
of any monument whatfoever. You muft be content with feeing what is ex-
, posed to the sight, and thofe places, where you can clamber up, or to which
you can get by creeping. Whatever pleafure there might be in viewing an
antique monument throughout the whole, it is neceflary to debar yourself os it.
The consequences would be too dangerous. A conful os France attempted to
dig near the obelifk of Cleopatra at Alexandria, in order to have thejust di-
mensions of it. He had taken care to afk a permiffion for doing it, which he
did not obtain but with a great deal of dissiculty. Notwithstanding that, it
was not pofTible for him to get to the end os his design; in proportion as he
caused it to be dug in the day, they filled up, at night, the hole that he had
got to be made. This obftinate opposition arises from hence, that the people,
as well great as small, are persuaded, that all the antique monuments contain
some hidden treasure. They cannot imagine, that mere curiosity mould engage
the Europeans to go into Egypt, only to dig the ground there : on the contrary,
they are so persuaded of our avarice, that they do not permit us to rake into
any place. Is you take it into your head to do it in fecret, and they come to
sind it out, they confider you as robbers. They maintain, that you have
seized the treafure, which they supposed to be in that place ; and, in order to
have the better hold upon those that have raked the ground, they make this
pretended treafure amount to an exceflive price.
One would think, that the grandees of the country, infatuated with this
opinion, fhould never ceafe to rake into the earth, and to deftroy all the re-
mains os antiquity. It is, in effecl:, what several of them have applied them-
selves to; and divers precious remains os antique monuments have perifhed by
that means. But as they have not sound any thing, they were at length tired
of the expence. Yet they have not, for all that, got rid of their foolish imagi-
nation ; on the contrary, they have joined to it another notion, ftill more filly,
in suppofing that all thefe treafures are inchanted; that in proportion as they
are approached, they fink deeper and deeper in the ground; and that there are
none