2-888-703 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. Albert Smith's Entertainment - "The Overland Mail", at Willis's Rooms, [London], 1850. Author, entertainer, and mountaineer Albert Richard Smith giving an illustrated talk about tourism at the Great Pyramids in Egypt: '...the humorous scene between the Arabs and the Traveller on the summit of the Great Pyramid, with the accompanying dialogue...No sooner does the traveller arrive there, than he is immediately hustled by a crowd of noisy attendants...'Here! I say, Master; look here - antique - very good. Shilling for him...(The "antique" is a little green crockery mummy, thousands of which are sold to travellers. They are popularly supposed to be found in the tombs; unbelieving spirits affirm they are made in Staffordshire.)...it is a very humiliating fact, that the most important gods of ancient Egypt may be bought at a shilling a dozen.' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.