However, Barung, an excellent fellow in his way, assured me that there was no road out of the matter without giving grave offence to the priests, who are very powerful among the Fung, and bringing a fearful curse on the nation.
"Meanwhile, he made me as comfortable as he could.

For instance, I was allowed to walk upon the back of the idol, to associate with the priests, a suspicious and most exclusive set, and to study their entire religious system, from which I have no doubt that of Egypt was derived.
Indeed, I have made a great discovery which, if ever we get out of this, will carry my name down to all generations.

The forefathers of these Fung were undoubtedly also the forefathers of the pre-dynastic Egyptians, as is shown by the similarity of their customs and spiritual theories.

Further, intercourse was kept up between the Fung, who then had their headquarters here in Mur, and the Egyptians in the time of the ancient empire, till the Twentieth Dynasty, indeed, if not later.
My friends, in the dungeons in which I was confined there is an inscription, or, rather, a _graffite_, made by a prisoner extradited to Mur by Rameses II., after twenty years' residence in Egypt, which was written by him on the night before he was thrown to the sacred lions, that even in those days were an established institution.

And I have got a copy of that inscription in my pocket-book.