Doctor Bronson said that possibly the silence of the natives was due to the fact that nearly all their antiquities were false, and they wanted the articles to do as much of the lying as they could. "There are," he remarked, "very few chances of getting anything genuine at Luxor; at present no excavations are in progress, and even if there were any, everything they bring to light should go to the government. They do a large business here in antiquities, and there certainly is no way of supplying the demand except by manufacture. It is currently reported that many of these things are made in England and France, and sent out here for sale; and it is also believed that there are factories here where false scarabæi are manufactured. Let me tell you something that happened when I was here some years ago:
"A man offered some scarabæi for sale, and declared they were genuine; to satisfy any doubts on that point, he offered to bring the certificate of the English consul, or we might go with him to the Consulate and hear for ourselves. But it was whispered that the consul and the native were in partnership, and when we became satisfied that such was the case we suspended negotiations.
"Next it was whispered that the native had a factory where he manufactured the articles he offered for sale; we had a curiosity to see the inside of a factory of antiquities, and, on the theory that backsheesh will do anything in this country, we offered the man five francs to show it to us.
"He denied having any factory, and we increased our offer; he still denied, and we increased again till we reached twenty francs, where we stopped.
"He again denied having a factory, and we made him a last offer of twenty-five francs, and then walked away.
"He became indignant, and as we retreated he said to us, with great emphasis, 'Not for ten napoleons will I let you see it.'
"He thus virtually admitted the existence of the factory, but of course it was not policy for him to allow foreigners to enter it. The story would be sure to leak out and ruin his business.
"The fabrications are very cleverly executed, and sometimes the experts are deceived by them. The consuls are safer to deal with than the ordinary peddlers, but even they are frequently as bad as the rest. The best rule is to buy nothing, except at a very low price, or wait till your return to Cairo, where you can purchase in the shops, and have the opinion of the experts."
The Doctor called on the American vice-consul, as he had been told that that worthy had some superior donkeys which he kept for hire; the rumor proved correct, and for a price a little above that demanded by the owners of ordinary beasts, the Doctor and his young companions were provided with "consular donkeys" during their stay at Luxor.
An hour or two were devoted to an inspection of Luxor and its temple, and then the party set out for Karnak. The Temple of Luxor is greatly dilapidated; much of the building is in ruins, and portions of it are covered with the wretched huts of the Arabs. The English Consulate is built in one part of it, and the rubbish and sand around the rest are greatly to its detriment. At the side of the principal entrance there are two statues of enormous size, but only a small part of them can be seen, as the most of the figures are buried in the sand.