T K E B E S. 85, 
are not likelv to use extraordinarv exertions chap. 
"... / III. 
upon any occasion ot this nature. The probable 
conclusion therefore must be, that within the 
mosques, baths, and dwellings of its present 
inhabitants, and, above all, beneath the soil now 
occupied by the town and by the suburbs, many 
of its antiquities lie concealed from observation. 
Our success at Skojnata in collecting medals i\itd.iib 
made us more than usually diligent in our 
inquiries among the silversmiths at Thebes. 
Upon our return from the morning's excursion, 
we paid a visit to all the persons we could find 
of this description, and vv^e collected several 
valuable relics. Among these were, a marble 
bust of Venus, of very diminutive size ; and one 
of a Vestal, exquisitely modelled in terra cotta^. 
These antiquities had been evidently votive 
offerings ; for they had no marks of fracture as if 
broken from small statues, but v*^ere so shaped 
as to admit of their standing upright, either 
upon the altars, or within some of the numerous 
Hiera of the anticnt city. We also collected many 
silver and bronze medals of th.Q Macedonianlim^^ 
and cities of Greece. Some of the silver medals 
had the rude globular form which characterizes 
(?) See tlie Plate iu the Fourth T'olume of tUe Quarto Edition of these 
Travels, j). 70. 
