M. Menu de Minutolis Letter from Egypt. 



512 



crime, tried by a court-martial, and 

 there shot. It was on a Sunday when 

 he was sentenced to be executed, and 

 fJeneral Church sent to ask the priests, 

 if it was according to their religion to 

 shoot a man on that day. They an- 

 swered, " the better the day the better 

 the deed." Annichiarico died like a 

 madmiin. From eight to ten thousand 

 persons were assembled to see him shot, 

 and to tlie last moment they treated 

 with perfect scorn and indignation the 

 notion that bullets would pierce such a 

 man.' 



The twenty-third chapter on the 

 Carbonari and other secret societies in 

 Italy, has engaged the public interest, 

 from the connection of these associa- 

 tions with the late revolution in Naples. 

 The most curious fact relative to them 

 is, that this organization, by which the 

 government in that kingdom has been 

 shaken, was originally contrived by its 

 friends in the French times, as an en- 

 gine of expelling the foreign rulers, 

 and restoring king Ferdinand. 



LETTER/row M. MEWU DE MINUTOLI, 



dated from Alexandria in Esmt, Sep. 

 19, 1820. , . ^i//- ' /' 



After a passage of 21 days, we ar- 

 rived here safe on the 7th of September ; 

 my iutention is to wait till the 1st of 

 October, for the professor and archi- 

 tect Limaine, from Leghorn, who will 

 accompany me. ' 



My first excursion will be to the 

 Cyrenaic Pentapolis, in which I shall 

 be assisted by the learned Philologist 

 Dr. Scholz. About Cyrene, according to 

 report, (here are a number of tombs 

 with Punic and Greek inscriptions, 

 also various ruins of remarkable edi- 

 fices, highways, cameos, &c. I shall 

 attempt some novel observations on the 

 jerboa, and the Cyrenaic silphium, a 

 vegetable frequently seen on medals. 

 I expect to return to Cairo, by Augila 

 or by the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon, 

 and the lake of Natron. I shall have a 

 Arab Sheik to attend me, by order of 

 the Pasha. Our caravan will consist 

 of thirty persons, and from forty to 

 fifty camels. In the interval the two 

 naturalists may be usefully occupied. 

 Pompey's pillar (or Dioclesian's) 

 Cleopatra's obelisks, the catacombs of 

 Necropolis, the ruin;, of a bath curi- 

 ously constructed with brickwork, the 

 substructions of the palaces of the Pto- 

 lemies, 01) the sea shore, the excava- 

 tions near Cleopatra's obelisks, which 

 seem to be (he ruins of her palace. 



[July 1, 



with other curiosities* buried iu the 

 sand, will furnish us with intermediate 

 employment. 



During my residence here, I have 

 met with many curious articles in pri- 

 vate collections. M. Drouetti, my host, 

 is in possession of many rare antiquities, 

 such as figures and relievos in wood 

 and stone ; paintings of the freshest 

 colour on the same materials ; bronzes 

 of all sorts ; amulets and scarabees 

 without number ; a bronze sacrificing 

 knife, as sharp edged as our best surgical 

 instruments ; bobbins with thread still 

 iu them ; painters' pallets, with their 

 colours ; coins extremely rare ; and 

 above all, 150 rolls of papyrus, full of 

 hieroglyphical writings, Greek and 

 Hieraiic. 



My attention was very much rivelted 

 to several specimens of glass mosaic, 

 as it is called, such as ornaments, 

 pearls, vases, cups, tables, partly ana- 

 lagous to my own collection, and partly 

 formed by other designs. The most 

 remarkable piece that I have seen is a 

 head of Tryphon, cliequered or varie- 

 gated ; all these patterns, as well as a 

 piece for which I am indebted to the 

 Swedish consul, including another that 

 Mr. Salt has promised to give me, 

 were found in Upper Egypt. My 

 opinion is that these glass mosaics are 

 of the most remote antiquity, and that 

 they are of the ..vme sort of coloured 

 glass of Diospolis or Luxor, as is no- 

 ticed by Ammianus, in his Periplus of 

 the Red Sea, and which Denon treats 

 of in the explication of the engravings 

 of his travels. 



Among the scientific artists that are 

 to share the labours of M. Menu is Dr. 

 Scholz, who has learned the oriental 

 languages in Paris, under the direction 

 of M. le Baron Sylvestre de Sacy. M. 

 Menu meeting with him at Rome, ad- 

 mitted him as an associate by (he re- 

 commendation of the Pi'ussian minister 

 at the Court of Rome. 



Dr, Heraprich, of Silesia, accom- 

 panies the expedition, as zoologist, 

 with Dr. Ehrenberg. This last stu- 

 died]medicine at Breslaw and at Berlin, 

 where he became attached to the Zoo- 

 logical Museum, and taught natural 

 history to the College of Cadets in Ber- 

 lin. He has published an excellent 

 abridgement of Natural History, for 

 the use of young collegians, and was . 

 preparing at the instant of his depar- 

 ture a considerable work on amphi- 

 bious animals. 



His friend Dr. Ehrenberg is a na- 

 tive 



