126 TRAVELS IN UrPEl? 



play still the rcmainsof hieroglypbirs and ofpaint-» 

 ings. 



The cure of the Catholic Cophts had the com^ 

 plaisance to point out to mc the curiosities of 

 Echmhmn and its environs. On our return from 

 one of these excursions, this good man conducted 

 me to his habitation. His apartment was very 

 small, simple but neat ; he had collected there 

 several morsels of antiquity, which he regretted 

 he had it not in his power to offer me, having 

 promised a Venetian merchant, of Cairo, to send 

 them him. In truth, he possessed nothing of 

 very great value. A large number of fragments 

 of emeralds, pierced into amulets, some idols of 

 porcelain, another of alabaster, but completely 

 worn away, and a figure of wood, of two feet 

 high, composed the whole collection of this re- 

 spectable Copht, who, while I was in his habita- 

 tion, loaded me with civilities, 



Plate XXIX. represents the figure in wood, in 

 the highest preservation, among all those which 

 the Copht had collected. On some places of this 

 figure there were still to be seen the remains of 

 the painting with which it had been covered. It 

 is a player on an instrument, a trumpeter ; but 

 the figure is not Egyptian, it has a relation to 

 the Greek or Roman customs ; and there is 



every 



