The Romance of a Mummy and Egypt
Theophile Gautier
9781465548221
pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
I have a presentiment that we shall find in the valley of Biban el Molûk a tomb intact, said to a high-bred-looking young Englishman a much more humble personage who was wiping, with a big, blue-checked handkerchief, his bald head, on which stood drops of perspiration, just as if it had been made of porous clay and filled with water like a Theban water-jar. May Osiris hear you! replied the English nobleman to the German scholar. One may be allowed such an invocation in the presence of the ancient Diospolis Magna. But we have been so often deceived hitherto; treasure-seekers have always forestalled us. A tomb which neither the Shepherd Kings nor the Medes of Cambyses nor the Greeks nor the Romans nor the Arabs have explored, and which will give up to us its riches intact, continued the perspiring scholar, with an enthusiasm which made his eyes gleam behind the lenses of his blue glasses. And on which you will print a most learned dissertation which will give you a place by the side of Champollion, Rosellini, Wilkinson, Lepsius, and Belzoni, said the young nobleman
