This year, for the first time, I have seen copies of the long beads for which Egypt is so famous. These are probably made in Venice. The colour is beautiful, and mixed with the imitations are a few really old beads. The material used is glass, and can be easily broken between the fingers. The mode of selling these spurious beads is to have them made up in a pattern, and to have genuine beads made up with them. They are manufactured in various colours, but ladies especially admire the blue beads, and the men sell six of the blue colour to one of the other. I bought three lots, made up as seen in the illustration, Plate XV, No. 2. Two were genuine, but the blue one was false. The price I paid was 3_s._ 6_d._ each, and the seller looked at me ruefully, and said, “You have got three pounds’ worth of beads there.” In the case of the forged blue beads the colour is equal all the way round. The old beads are made of a kind of composition; they are thicker, less regular, and there is usually one part upon which the colour has failed to be equal—that is the side upon which the beads were laid when fired. No. 1 shows some glass beads supposed to be Roman, but they were made recently in Venice. No. 4 is a string of imitation sacred cats with genuine old beads, used as a necklace. * * * * * There is a beautiful story, the humour of which would be spoilt by too searching an inquiry into its authenticity, about what is jokingly called “the predynastic mummy.” The tale opens about the time when the predynastic graves were found in Nubia. There was a great rush on the part of museums all over the world to acquire specimens. It will probably be remembered that the bodies were placed in the graves lying upon one side, the legs drawn up, and one hand placed before the face. They were unembalmed, but the dryness of the climate had given the skin the appearance of light-coloured leather. Around the body were placed a number of jars and rough vessels. As the demand increased, prices rapidly rose. The Arabs vied with a Coptic antiquity dealer in finding and selling the graves, which were then taken whole to the museums. After a time the supply ran short, and the demand became urgent. The natives were hard put to it, but with their customary adaptability, they rose to the occasion; and it is said that they killed their business opponent, the Coptic dealer, and buried his body in the approved position. Under the peculiar climatic conditions obtaining in Nubia, a body often dries before decomposition can take place, so, some time later on, when a special request came from an important museum for a specimen of the predynastic burials, they “discovered” the grave in which they had buried their opponent, and sold the whole thing, pots and all, to the museum. But they could not keep their good fortune to themselves, and later on were heard in the village to boast that they had sold old Aboutig for £450.