Item 06: Letters sent by Robert Christian Wilson to his family, 1918-April 1919 - Page 387
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[Page 387]
just had a quick look round, and then came back to the hotel for lunch.
In the afternoon we bought some photographs and had a general look round. Everywhere you go there you are pestered with "genuine antique" sellers. They have scarabs and amulets made out of limestone or Nile mud and some time times gruesome looking mummies hands and bits of old coffins.
The prices they ask for them are tremendous, but they are always willing to deal, things they asked 2/- for we got for 1 Pt.
One day we met a man who had two heads carved out of black granite. He wanted £6 for one and £4 for the other, but after running beside our donkeys for nearly five miles, and arguing for half a day, he accepted 25 Pts from one of the chaps for the two. They were not bad looking heads either and the guides reckoned they would easily have got £2 for them from the tourists before the war.
Next morning we left for Assuan, [Aswan] but before finishing this history of Luxor I must give our hotel waters waiters a mention in it.