A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 105
sessed by Doctor Abbott which excited my
especial admiration, not only from their high
antiquity but the extraordinary preservation in
which they remain, are the gold ring of Cheops
(the founder of the great Pyramid), which is
universally allowed to be the oldest monument
in the world, consequently that ring may lay
claim to being the oldest bijou extant—and the
ring of the Pharaoh of the Exodus, in the form
of a scaraba^us. Both contain hieroglyphic sig-
nets of the sovereigns to whom they belonged,
so sharply and delicately engraven that one
might suppose them the work of yesterday;
and Doctor A. has kindly promised me an im-
pression in wax of each when I return to Cairo.
Cheops' ring has excited the covetousness of
more than one amateur, and large sums (three
and four hundred pounds) have been offered to
the Doctor for it, but in vain— he does not
like to break his collection by parting with
its greatest gem, and he is in the right; for
thousands instead of hundreds could not repay
him for such an infraction of its completeness
Another interesting relic is the helmet and part
of the breast-plate of Shishak, the Pharaoh who
sacked Jerusalem in the time of Rehoboam,
within fifty years of the reign of Solomon, and
!