ere given
to museums without any payment being made to the finder.

The stealing of fragments broken out of the walls of "show" monuments is
almost the only form of robbery which will receive general condemnation.
That this vandalism is also distasteful to the natives themselves is
shown by the fact that several better-class Egyptians living in the
neighbourhood of Thebes subscribed, at my invitation, the sum of L50 for
the protection of certain beautiful tombs. When they were shown the
works undertaken with their money, they expressed themselves as being
"pleased with the delicate inscriptions in the tombs, but very awfully
angry at the damage which the devils of ignorant people had made." A
native of moderate intelligence can quite appreciate the argument that
whereas the continuous warfare between the agents of the Department of
Antiquities and the illegal excavators of small graves is what might be
called an honourable game, the smashing of public monuments cannot be
called fair-play from whatever point of view the matter is approached.
Often revenge or spite is the cause of this damage. It is sometimes
necessary to act with severity to the peasants who infringe the rules of
the Department, but a serious danger lies in such action, for it is the
nature of the Thebans to revenge themselves not on the official directly
but on the monuments which he is known to love. Two years ago a native
illegally built himself a house on Government ground, and I was obliged
to go through the formality of pulling it down, which I did by obliging
him to remove a few layers of brickwork around the walls. A short time
afterwards a famous tomb was broken into and a part of the paintings
destroyed; and there was enough evidence to show that the owner of
this house was the culprit, though unfortunately he could not be
convicted. One man actually had the audacity to warn me that any
severity on my part would be met by destruction of monuments. Under
these circumstances an official finds himself in a dilemma. If he
maintains the dignity and prestige of his Department by punishing any
offences against it, he endangers the very objects for the care of which
he is responsible; and it is hard to say whether under a lax or a severe
administration the more damage would be done.

[Illustration: PL. XXIV. A modern Gournawi beggar.]

[_Photo by E. Bird._

The produce of these various forms of robbery is easily disposed