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T. E. Lawrence to his family
Baron's Hotel, Aleppo
2nd October, 1912
Am in
Aleppo - come in to see Woolley, - and the day after tomorrow we go to
Jerablus. These three days have been frenzied rushes and bargains for
antiquities (we have spent nearly two hundred pounds) from breakfast
till after dinner in the evening. One gets so tired of talking bad
French and worse Arabic!
As for our finds - firstly there is a polished steatite statuette
of a woman tiring her hair: and it is perhaps lovelier than any small
Greek statuette known: I have never seen its peer in any museum; a very simple
draped figure, well-preserved, Hellenistic in style, we paid £50 for it, and you
could probably add a couple of noughts to find its true value. Then we bought a
hexagonal Arab coffee-table (of the mother of pearl and wood type) in early
faience of Rakka for £10, which is worth about £150: and are in treaty for two
others: also many bronzes, some Hittite pottery, and good seals. I picked up two
little Bokhara rugs for a trifle: they are valuable though only about £30 worth:
but very pretty. Aleppo is very full of things:- and we are the first buyers for
nearly six months. Woolley has brought out a deal of money to speculate in
antiquities: and he is in fair way of making about 300%. I am more modest,
because I have still scruples about engaging in trade! Also I have little money
to spend: somehow, the temptation to make money is so very nauseous! Perhaps at
Xmas I'll buy you some trifle, and you shall only keep those you really want.
I got a letter from Llandrindrod Wells from Mother: one from
Will. There seems to be suppression in your mind that I am "suffering" from
malaria: nothing further from the truth. I don't suffer at all, and have not had
fever for a long time. I got the cheques: many thanks: they came in time to pay
bills that I had in Aleppo: and now I am making 15/- a day: a very curious
feeling: I don't like that also, but I felt incapable of refusing what will make
me semi-independent.
As for Jebail I had a pleasant month of book-reading. Of course
it was very hot, but the sea was pleasant: and Carchemish was unpleasant from
Haj Wahid's drinking. He was of course not my servant, but the Museum's
site-guard, and I was only lodging with him: it was exceedingly expensive. Next
summer I will put up two or three rooms in the lower village (cost under a pound
a room) and live there. Anthropoid means "shaped" human: the sarcophagus is like
the sort of mummy-coffin that has a face carved on it. None of our things, casts
of pottery have yet reached England, so the B.M. is still without a Hittite
collection. They have promised us a special room - which will be full in
six-months time. Mrs. Wahid is better - only for nervous troubles: she howls at
the top of her voice if anything displeases her - and all the babies do the
same: we are going to build them a house far away from ours this month.
Today I saw the loveliest painted lacquered and gilt ceiling that
I ever dreamed of: it is really indescribably lovely, and the owner only asks
£400 for it: it is such a thing as has never been seen or heard of outside
Aleppo: and 154 years old: glorious. I wish Will could have seen it: we hope to
get it to South Kensington or to some place like Lord Carnavon's.
It is nearly midnight: so pity me and go to bed:
N.
I should also say I have bought (with the Hoja and Dahoum) all
our stores for next season here in Aleppo these three days also! A month's
work....
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