A GREEK DECEIVER. 



347 



vain that I endeavored to ascertain any thing about the 

 American traveler. He was unable to tell me any thing, 

 and I doubt whether he knew of such a place as America. 

 I asked him to go into the convent and bring me any 

 books that they had. He produced some old manuscript 

 Prayer-books, but nothing of value, and I gave it up in 

 disgust. I asked him if there were not any of the other 

 priests that could possibly give me some information. He 

 said ' No; there was no one that knew any thing about it. r 

 ' No old men ?' ' None.' I knew he lied, but what could 

 I do ? We wanted to find the way to the Coptic church, 

 which we knew to be near by, and within the same walls. 

 The one we particularly wished to find is the oldest, and 

 is said to cover a grotto in which Mary and Joseph, with 

 the infant Savior, rested and lived while in Egypt. We 

 asked him to direct us. Here stupidity vanished, and de- 

 ceit and lying took its place. Be it known that he and his 

 sect deny the authenticity of this Coptic grotto. Hence 

 his unwillingness to direct us to it. He said he had never 

 heard of such a place. 'But it is near here?' 'No, it is 

 not. There is no such place. Joseph and Mary never 

 were in Cairo.' 'But there is such a place, and it is close 

 to this spot.' He did not know of any Joseph that was 

 ever in Cairo but Joseph Saladin, and perhaps it was 

 Joseph's Well we were looking for. That was at the cit- 

 adel in Cairo. By this time we saw the fellow's drift, and 

 we gave him a chance to practice lying. We cross-ex- 

 amined him, and he added denial to denial, and we left 

 him. 



" Not a hundred yards from him, in the same village, we 

 found the church, the little girl leading us. The old and 

 dirty Arab who opened it for us to enter was the poorest 

 specimen of a sexton I had ever seen. He had not 



