*Second Edition.*
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,
PATERNOSTER‐ROW.
1827.
The Publishers beg to inform the Composers of Music, and Music Sellers,
that MR. JAMES POWER, of the Strand, Music Seller, is the only person
authorized by them to publish the SONGS or VERSES in this Work connected
with Music.
TO
LORD JOHN RUSSELL
_THIS VOLUME_
IS INSCRIBED
BY ONE WHO ADMIRES HIS CHARACTER
AND TALENTS,
AND IS PROUD OF HIS FRIENDSHIP.
A
LETTER TO THE TRANSLATOR,
FROM
——, ESQ.
_Cairo, June 19. 1800._
My dear Sir,
In a visit I lately paid to the monastery of St. Macarius,—which is
situated, as you know, in the Valley of the Lakes of Natron,—I was lucky
enough to obtain possession of a curious Greek manuscript, which, in the
hope that you may be induced to translate it, I herewith send you.
Observing one of the monks very busily occupied in tearing up, into a
variety of fantastic shapes, some papers which had the appearance of being
the leaves of old books, I enquired of him the meaning of his task, and
received the following explanation:—
The Arabs, it seems, who are as fond of pigeons as the ancient Egyptians,
have a superstitious notion that, if they place in their pigeon‐houses
small scraps of paper, written over with learned characters, the birds are
always sure to thrive the better for the charm; and the monks, who are
never slow in profiting by superstition, have, at all times, a supply of
such amulets for purchasers.
In general, the holy fathers have been in the habit of scribbling these
mystic fragments, themselves; but a discovery, which they have lately
made, saves them this trouble. Having dug up (as my informant stated) a
chest of old manuscripts, which, being chiefly on the subject of alchemy,
must have been buried in the time of Dioclesian, “we thought we could
not,” added the monk, “employ such rubbish more properly, than in tearing
it up, as you see, for the pigeon‐houses of the Arabs.”
On my expressing a wish to rescue some part of these treasures from the
fate to which his indolent fraternity had consigned them, he produced the
manuscript which I have now the pleasure of sending you,—the only one, he
said, remaining entire,—and I very readily paid him the price he demanded
for it.
You will find the story, I think, not altogether uninteresting; and the
coincidence, in many respects, of the curious details in Chap. VI. with
the description of the same ceremonies in the Romance of _Sethos_(1),
will, I have no doubt, strike you. Hoping that you may be tempted to give
a translation of this Tale to the world,
I am, my dear Sir,
Very truly yours,
——