The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-08-10
Land OF RACkSHEESH
BABY MUMMIES AT $12
Can be Had in Egypt and
Mummy Scraps in
Proportion.

Five hundred miles UP the Nile, at
Luxor, the thing which most impresses
the average tourist is that there, hun
dreds of miles from the modern world,
with the desert on one side and the
mysterious river on the other, there Is
d veritable Palm Beach Of hotels,
marking the foreign invasion Of the
last few years.
All Egypt seems toshe imbued with
the spirit of digging. Everywhere one
will see men and women and even
children, poking about In the sand and
among the rocks In search sof secreted
tombs. In Luxor the diggers are fire.
qrently rewarded with finds Of beads,
coins and even mummles
Along the bank on the Luxor side of
the river, in the shop of Ahmed Abdel-
Rahin, there is an astounding bargain
in mummifed babies, and one in par
ticular, which he pretends is 5000 years
old, is offered for the trihing sum of
$l2. The circumstance is not without
its pathetic side; nevertheless, the first
impulse of the average man is to laugh
when the honorable Ahmed comes forth
with the gay little case covered with
hieroglyphIcs and tells you 1t Is baby
and urges that it be taken to America.
The curious part of 1t is that many
tourists do buy these tiny mummies,
which to all appearances are genuine
as to age. Tourists buy also the mum
nv cloths, tattered and torn and stain
cd, although wonderful in color and
design, that have been wrapped around
the dead bodies Of the ancient Egyp-
tians. Also the vendors of separate
hands and feet seem to enjoy good
income during the season.
It is in Luxor especially that NUM-
mics are sold. and tourists are fire.
ouently seen dickering with boy ven
ders on the street for their store Of
detached hands, feet or fingers. Sell
ins dead things seems to be a mania
in Luxor.
While our party was returning from
2, visit TO the tombs of the kings, a
yelled woman riding a donkey offered
for sale beautiful green beetle which
she had found on palm tree and
had impaled. A little further on a small
girl carried a dead sparrow, which
from pure instinct she held out for
sale.
Dealers in scarabs are in evidence
everywhere on the streets, and the
traveller can buy these quaint orna-
ments by the hundred, by the dozen
or by the piece and at all prices. 1t
e seldom that the street dealers have
anything genuine in the way Of an
tioues aside from pieces of mummies,
for when they do find them they sell
them at good prices to shopkeepers,
who know where to dispose of them
in turn.
Tiny clay or mud statues of the
great Raneses II are for sale at any
price 1t would no doubt please the
great King, who so desired to be re-
membered that he erected dozens Of
temples to his glorifcation, to know
that a Rameses bar in Luxor dispenses
whiskey and soda to weary travellers,
and there is a Rameses antique shop
and any number of donkeys are nam
ed after the ancient ruler,
Donkey riding in Luxor is one of the
Joys of the tourists, for the best ami
mails in all Egypt are to be found here,
and a visit to the native shops and
later a gallop along the banks of the
Nile by twilight is a unique pleasure
which remains long in the memory
Donkeys are hired by the day being
only two shillings, with small back
sheesh for the donkey boy who runs
constantly behind.
These donkey boys are marvels in
the matter of endurance 1t is fully
70 miles to the Tombs of the Kings
and return. yet the donkey boys keep
close behind all the way. whether one
GALLONS or trots, and in addition they
carry Iunch baskets, cameras or any
other paraphernalia that the tourist
NAV wish to have along.
The dragomans of Luxor are also
excellent, and far better than those
found in Cairo, Upon the arrival of