THE PYRAMIDS. 



369 



of the pyramids to your liking, which, whatever humble opinion you 

 may have of it yourself, will certainly add a value to my work. 



In Abdallatif 's account of the pyramids, there are two circumstances, 

 which I know not how to defend ; the first is, that he says he saw 

 a prodigious number of hieroglyphical inscriptions on the two great 

 pyramids, as many, as if copied would fill perhaps 10,000 volumes. 

 The second curious circumstance is, that he asserts the lesser of the 

 three great pyramids was on one side considerably defaced by Al-Aziz 

 about the year 1196. 



Now I cannot find by other travellers, that either of these facts 

 has been observed, and at the same time Abdallatif is in general so 

 accurate, that I hardly think he was mistaken. I beg the honour of 

 a line on the subject, and am, &c. 



I beg your permission to print in my edition of Abdallatif that 

 part of the letter you have honoured me with, which relates to the 

 entresol you discovered. 



ANSWER TO PROFESSOR WHITE FROM MR. DAVISON. 



Sir, Lisbon, 10th October, 1779- 



I lament exceedingly that I should have been so unfortunate, as to 

 miss you when you took the trouble of calling twice at my lodgings 

 in London ; but as I neither found your name nor heard of it from 

 the people of the house, it is likely, I think, that I was on a visit to 

 my friends in Northumberland at the time. I was so much hurried 

 before my departure from England as not to be able to thank you as 

 I ought and intended, for your very polite letter of the 15th August. 

 It was still less in my power to draw up any account of the pyramids, 

 for which indeed I had not sufficient materials with me. You are 

 welcome to make use of what I communicated to you on the subject 

 of the entresol I discovered in the large pyramid of Giza. The 



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