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20 January 1912 — Luxor | |
Saturday. 20th [January 1912]. Today we had been invited by Mr Theodore Davis to go to lunch with him in the desert. We were down at the landing place at 10.30 & one of the Misses Buttles was there to meet us with the Davis’ boat. Met there Countess Contadone who has just arrived here in a dahabeeyah with her friend Mrs Lascelles. We agreed to meet again as we had to go off to the other side of the river. We found Mrs Andrews ready to accompany us on our expedition. Her nieces were not invited. Eda rode a donkey & I went in Mrs Andrews sand cart with 2 good horses & was very comfortable. It took us more than an hour to get to Mr Davis’ house which is built in a small valley leading out of the valley of the Kings—desolate place– On the way we saw an animal wandering over the hills & débris which the arabs who were with us said was a wolf. He took no notice of us but trotted quietly on his way. On our arrival at our destination Mr Davis met us & welcomed us. There was a kind of entrance room where we were to lunch. There was a long passage with 4 little bedrooms & at the end a largish sitting room. Mr Davis was in a state of excitement over a letter he had received from M. Maspero saying he was arriving at 1 o’cl with a party of 12 people & asking for a room for them to lunch in. We proceeded to lunch at 12 in order to make room for the party. Mr Crane (son of Walter E. the artist) & Mr Burton came in to lunch. They are helping Mr Davis to excavate—very pleasant young men– After lunch we retired to the sitting room & sat & talked & our host held forth on the joys of the desert life—the stillness & peace of it & he even repeated this theme several times. He also showed us some pottery jars he had dug up & opening one showed us that they contained yards of cloth & small bags of meal & were tied down with strips of linen & sealed. These jars contained the provisions buried with the mummies it being supposed that they wd require them in their 2nd life. Eda carried off specimens of these things to her great delight. Mr Masper’s party after having eaten the lunch they had brought with them joined us in the sitting room & we found amongst them M. & Mme Lafrance the French Agent at Cairo who we had met at dinner at Lord Kitcheners. I made the acquaintance of Maspero an ugly common looking red faced little man but who said pleasant things to me about my name & Henry’s work. We sat on with Mr Davis a little while after they left & he showed us some of his books wh are finely illustrated. The young men went off to their digging but they seemed depressed as they had found so little. A skeleton of Roman period & a crocodiles head & teeth was not any joy to have found this morning. It had been a cloudy morning when we left Luxor but the sky was brilliantly blue in the desert & the sun shone gloriously. When we got back to the Nile we found the same cloudy sky & heard that there had been little or no sunshine all day. Mrs Andrews took us on board the dahabeeyah & gave us refreshing tea & then sent us over to Luxor in the boat. | |
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