volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Greek Papyri. 343
" der vorliegenden nur annahernd vergleichbare Ab-
" geschlossenheit an Datum, Herkunft und sprach-
' lichem Charakter, sowie an Zahl aufweist ; eine
" moglichst vollstandige Ausgabe diirfte daher ebenso
" vom philologischen, wie vom kultur-und rechtshistor-
" ischen Standpunkte aus willkommen sein."
Having secured a few important Egyptian antiquities/
I returned to Mallawi, and despatched to Cairo the
cases that awaited me, and continued my journey northwards
by the east bank of the Nile. A few miles down
the river I found several small Greek papyri in the hands
of a native, a stranger to me, and he pressed me to take
them to London for examination. When I remarked
on their small size he said, " True, but had you come
last year I would have given you larger." As I was
leaving the house with these fragments I asked one of
the natives who had come with me from Cairo what had
become of the large papyri of which the man had spoken.
In reply he said that he and another dealer came to the
village the previous winter, and found there in the man's
hands ten good-sized rolls of papyrus written in
" Yawnani," i.e., Greek, and they began to bargain
with him for them. The bargaining, as usual, occupied
several hours, for the would-be seller and buyers sipped
endless cups of coffee and smoked many cigarettes.
Little by little the owner lowered his price and Httle
by little the dealers increased their offer, imtil at length
the latter made what they declared to be their last offer,
which was refused by the seller in a half-hearted manner.
With the view of impressing the owner of the papyri
with the greatness of the sum which they were offering,
and of making him come to a decision and accept their
offer, the dealers produced a bag containing two hundred
* E.g., the Cone of Sebek-hetep, made in the reign of Sebekemsaf,
2000 B.C. (see Guide to the Egyptian Galleries (Sculpture), No. 280 ; the
shrine of Pasutensa, 2300 B.C. {ihid., No. 174) ;
the stele of Antef, who
flourished under three kings of the Xlth dynasty {ibid., No. 99) ; and
the statue of Isis with Horus, dedicated by Shashanq, an official of
the high-priestess of Amen-Ra at Thebes under the XXIInd dynasty
{iUd., No. 964).