MERGE TO GYRENE. 461 life, and consequently very heavy, it would not, under these circumstances, have been worth our while to remove it from the place where it was ; and we accordingly gave the Arabs a bakhshees for their trouble, and told them that we did not think it good enough to remove ; but that if we should ultimately take it away we would give them the reward before specified. With this arrangement, however, (though a perfectly just one,) they proved to be so little satisfied, that on the following morning in passing by the place, we found that the statue had been placed upright, and pelted with stones for their own or their children’s amusement. The lips were knocked off, and the face and body otherwise mutilated ; though not to the degree which we expected when we first observed the figure placed up as a mark for every idle passenger to amuse himself with throwing at. We were not a little concerned to see the mischief which w e ourselves (however innocently) had in fact been the cause of, and gave out that we intended to write to Mahommed Eey that he might discover and punish the delinquents ! adding, that if any similar outrage should be practised in future, the severest retaliation might be expected.

After this we were careful, when we discovered a good statue, to bury it an inch or two in the soil which surrounded it, effacing at the same time all traces of our work; and never indulged ourselves in looking at any object of importance when we thought ourselves observed by the Arabs. F or such is the inconsistency of Arab character, that the very same statue which they would walk over continually without ever honouring it with more than a glance en pas-