MERGE TO GYRENE. 
461 
life, and consequently very heavy, it would not, under these 
circumstances, have been worth our while to remove it from the 
place where it was ; and we accordingly gave the Arabs a bakhshees 
for their trouble, and told them that we did not think it good 
enough to remove ; but that if we should ultimately take it away we 
would give them the reward before specified. With this arrange- 
ment, however, (though a perfectly just one,) they proved to be so 
little satisfied, that on the following morning in passing by the place, 
we found that the statue had been placed upright, and pelted with 
stones for their own or their children’s amusement. The lips were 
knocked off, and the face and body otherwise mutilated ; though not 
to the degree which we expected when we first observed the figure 
placed up as a mark for every idle passenger to amuse himself with 
throwing at. We were not a little concerned to see the mischief which 
w e ourselves (however innocently) had in fact been the cause of, and 
gave out that we intended to write to Mahommed Eey that he might 
discover and punish the delinquents ! adding, that if any similar out- 
rage should be practised in future, the severest retaliation might be 
expected. 
After this we w^ere careful, when we discovered a good statue, to 
bury it an inch or two in the soil which surrounded it, effacing at 
the same time all traces of our work; and never indulged ourselves 
in looking at any object of importance when we thought ourselves 
observed by the Arabs. F or such is the inconsistency of Arab cha- 
racter, that the very same statue which they would walk over con- 
tinually without ever honouring it with more than a glance en pas- 
