check pilfering in a certain excavation in which I was
assisting we made a rule that the selected workmen should not be allowed
to put unselected substitutes in their place. One day I came upon a man
whose appearance did not seem familiar, although his back was turned to
me. I asked him who he was, whereupon he turned upon me a countenance
which might have served for the model of a painting of St John, and in a
low, sweet-voice he told me of the illness of the real workman, and of
how he had taken over the work in order to obtain money for the purchase
of medicine for him, they being friends from their youth up. I sent him
away and told him to call for any medicine he might want that evening.
I did not see him again until about a week later, when I happened to
meet him in the village with a policeman on either side of him, from one
of whom I learned that he was a well-known thief. Thus is one deceived
even in the case of real criminals: how then can one expect to get at
the truth when the crime committed is so light an affair as the stealing
of an antiquity?

The following is a letter received from one of the greatest thieves in
Thebes, who is now serving a term of imprisonment in the provincial
gaol:--

"SIR GENERAL INSPECTOR,--I offer this application stating
that I am from the natives of Gurneh, saying the
following:--

'On Saturday last I came to your office and have been
told that my family using the sate to strengthen against
the Department. The result of this talking that all these
things which somebody pretends are not the fact. In fact
I am taking great care of the antiquities for the purpose
of my living matter. Accordingly, I wish to be appointed
in the vacant of watching to the antiquities in my
village and promise myself that if anything happens I do
hold myself resposible.'"

I have no idea what "using the sate to strengthen" means.

It is sometimes said that European excavators are committing an offence
against the sensibilities of the peasants by digging up the bodies of
their ancestors. Nobody will repeat this remark who has walked over a
cemetery plundered by the natives themselves. Here bodies may be seen
lying in all directions, torn limb from limb by the gold-seekers; here
beautiful vases may be seen smashed to atoms in order to make more rare
the specimens preserved. The peasant has no regard whatsoever for the
sanctity of the ancie