DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0386
AND LOWER EGYPT. 353
folio of a traveller. I can answer for the fidelity
of all my drawings ; my draughtsman was accus-
tomed to the most scrupulous exactness, and they
were all taken under my ow n eye.
A-propos of this Frenchman : the Jew told us
that when he came to Aboukir, he omitted to take
with him, in the researches which he made in the
environs, a man of the country appointed by the
governor, and that this latter, piqued at it, exacted
under form of avanie a chequin from the traveller.
Of consequence, he took care that we should be
accompanied by the governor's son himself, and
engaged that I should give him as a recompense,
a pataca or six francs (five shillings), and this
was to avoid a demand of seven livres six sous
(6s. iod.), the value of a chequin in Egypt. This
combination appeared extremely diverting to us.
By the side of this statue is a very large sphynx
partly broken, the supporter of which has a fillet of
hieroglyphics almost entirely effaced. (See Plate
VII. fig. i.) These are the remains of a celebrated
city, founded by the Greeks, and embellished with
all the most superb and most graceful inventions
of art. A magnificent temple, of which these
wonderful pillars of granite, at present broken
down, formed to all appearance a part, was con-
secrated to Serapis. Strangers arrived there in
vol. i. a a crowds,
folio of a traveller. I can answer for the fidelity
of all my drawings ; my draughtsman was accus-
tomed to the most scrupulous exactness, and they
were all taken under my ow n eye.
A-propos of this Frenchman : the Jew told us
that when he came to Aboukir, he omitted to take
with him, in the researches which he made in the
environs, a man of the country appointed by the
governor, and that this latter, piqued at it, exacted
under form of avanie a chequin from the traveller.
Of consequence, he took care that we should be
accompanied by the governor's son himself, and
engaged that I should give him as a recompense,
a pataca or six francs (five shillings), and this
was to avoid a demand of seven livres six sous
(6s. iod.), the value of a chequin in Egypt. This
combination appeared extremely diverting to us.
By the side of this statue is a very large sphynx
partly broken, the supporter of which has a fillet of
hieroglyphics almost entirely effaced. (See Plate
VII. fig. i.) These are the remains of a celebrated
city, founded by the Greeks, and embellished with
all the most superb and most graceful inventions
of art. A magnificent temple, of which these
wonderful pillars of granite, at present broken
down, formed to all appearance a part, was con-
secrated to Serapis. Strangers arrived there in
vol. i. a a crowds,