ities which the action of fire
or of earth, impregnated with saltpetre, have slightly damaged. The
feigned hieroglyphs therein are mistaken for those as to which the
work has been neglected. Their statuettes recall the figurines of poor
ware, which the Ancient Egyptians placed in so great a number in their
tombs. In spite of their imperfections, the fellahs have been
perfectly successful in deceiving most of the travelers, generally
grossly ignorant of antiquities. Hard stones, such as basalt, green
jasper, burnt serpentine, green feldspar, chalcedony, cornelian, etc.,
upon which the rude tools of the fellahs would not have worked, would
have become, for the amateurs in antiquities, the only pieces of
authentic origin; but the Jews of Cairo, also as rapacious and more
able than the Arabs, have engraved with the wheel, scarabs and amulets
denuded of legends; and finally have entirely counterfeited them, so
that all these little objects are now very much suspected, and their
appreciation to-day, demands understanding of the text much more than
knowledge of Egyptian art.

Not only the tourists, the people of leisure from Europe, who bring
back from all the classic lands some antiquities, in place of
observation and study, which are not sold; purchase these falsified
antiquities, but also people who pride themselves upon having a
knowledge of archaeology, often buy them. Most of the collections of
the Museums of Europe contain, more or less, objects fabricated in our
day in Egypt. 'Luxor' says M. Mariette, 'is a centre for fabrications
in which scarabs, statuettes and even steles, are imitated with an
address which often leads astray the most instructed antiquary.'"

Mr. Henry A. Rhind[111] writing in 1862 says: "There is now at Thebes
an arch-forger of scarabaei--a certain Ali Gamooni, whose endeavors,
in the manufacture of these much sought after relics, have been
crowned with the greatest success. * * Scarabaei of elegant and well
finished descriptions, are not beyond the range of this curious
counterfeiter. These he makes of the same material as the ancients
used--a close-grained, easily cut limestone--which, after it is cut
into shape and lettered, receives a greenish glaze by being baked on a
shovel with brass filings. Ali not content with closely imitating, has
even aspired to the creative; so antiquarians must be on their guard
lest they waste their time and learning, on antiquities of a very
modern date."[112]