e business they have lately had the misfortune to be recognised
as thieves and robbers by the Government, and it is one of my duties to
point this out to them. As a matter of fact they are no more thieves
than you or I. It is as natural for them to scratch in the sand for
antiquities as it is for us to pick flowers by the roadside:
antiquities, like flowers, are the product of the soil, and it is
largely because the one is more rare than the other that its
promiscuous appropriation has been constituted an offence. The native
who is sometimes child enough to put his eyes out rather than serve in
the army, who will often suffer all manner of wrongs rather than carry
his case to the local courts, and who will hide his money under his bed
rather than trust it to the safest bank, is not likely to be intelligent
enough to realise that, on scientific grounds, he is committing a crime
in digging for scarabs. He is beginning to understand that in the eyes
of the law he is a criminal, but he has not yet learnt so to regard
himself. I here name him thief, for officially that is his designation;
but there is no sting in the word, nor is any insult intended. By all
cultured persons the robbery of antiquities must be regarded as a grave
offence, and one which has to be checked. But the point is ethical; and
what has the Theban to do with ethics? The robbery of antiquities is
carried out in many different ways and from many different motives.
Sometimes it is romantic treasure hunting that the official has to deal
with; sometimes it is adventurous robbery with violence; sometimes it is
the taking advantage of chance discoveries; sometimes it is the
pilfering of objects found in authorised excavations; and sometimes it
is the stealing of fragments smashed from the walls of the ancient
monuments. All these forms of robbery, except the last, may call for the
sympathy of every reader of these lines who happens not to have
cultivated that vaguely defined "archaeological sense" which is,
practically, the product of this present generation alone; and in the
instances which are here to be given the point of view of the "Theban
thief" will be readily appreciated.

[Illustration: PL. XXIII. A modern Theban Fellah-woman and her child.]

[_Photo by E. Bird._

Treasure hunting is a relic of childhood that remains, like all other
forms of romance and adventure, a permanently youthful feature in our
worn old hearts. It