re preserves in the jars. On the floor I found a fine Coptic and
Arabic dictionary. I was aware of the existence of this volume, with
which they refused to part. I placed it in one of the niches in the
wall; and some years afterwards it was purchased for me by a friend, who
sent it to England after it had been copied at Cairo. They sold me two
imperfect dictionaries, which I discovered loaded with dust upon the
ground. Besides these, I did not see any other books but those of the
liturgies for various holy days. These were large folios on cotton
paper, most of them of considerable antiquity, and well begrimed with
dirt.

The old blind abbot had solemnly declared that there were no other books
in the monastery besides those which I had seen; but I had been told, by
a French gentleman at Cairo, that there were many ancient manuscripts in
the monks' oil cellar; and it was in pursuit of these and the Coptic
dictionary that I had undertaken the journey to the Natron lakes. The
abbot positively denied the existence of these books, and we retired
from the library to my room with the Coptic manuscripts which they had
ceded to me without difficulty; and which, according to the dates
contained in them, and from their general appearance, may claim to be
considered among the oldest manuscripts in existence, more ancient
certainly than many of the Syriac MSS. which I am about to describe.

The abbot, his companion, and myself sat down together. I produced a
bottle of rosoglio from my stores, to which I knew that all Oriental
monks were partial; for though they do not, I believe, drink wine
because an excess in its indulgence is forbidden by Scripture, yet
ardent spirits not having been invented in those times, there is nothing
said about them in the Bible; and at Mount Sinai and all the other spots
of sacred pilgrimage the monks comfort themselves with a little glass
or rather a small coffee cup of arrack or raw spirits when nothing
better of its kind is to be procured. Next to the golden key, which
masters so many locks, there is no better opener of the heart than a
sufficiency of strong drink,--not too much, but exactly the proper
quantity judiciously exhibited (to use a chemical term in the land of Al
Cheme, where alchemy and chemistry first had their origin). I have
always found it to be invincible; and now we sat sipping our cups of the
sweet pink rosoglio, and firing little compliments at each other, and
talking pleasantly ov