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Budapest, February 81
VII., Erzsébet-körút 54
Dear Professor,
Here is the archaeological postscript to my last letter.
The excavator was here and brought a few rather nice clay pots, a spearhead,
a string of glass beads, and a bronze bowl, all of which I bought from him for twenty crowns and am sending you herewith.
He supposedly unearthed these things two weeks ago. He hopes to accomplish more in better weather. He showed me a lot of very nice silver coins; he also has a number of the familiar little lamps in different shapes. Do you want some of them?
The man is very poor. He made the suggestion that I give him an advance of fifty or sixty gulden within two to three weeks (about ten florins a week), with which he wants to pay the day's wages. They will certainly find things—so he says. (There is a Roman cemetery there.) What they find is then appraised cheaply, and he demands half of what remains after subtracting expenses.
He lives in Duna Pentele,2 all the farmers bring him what they find. Unfortunately, Duna Pentele is very hard to reach; four hours on the Vicinal Railway from Budapest! Under those circumstances and with the impossibility of any supervision (he can pocket the nicest things!), I can't advise you to take him up on his suggestion to buy half of a supposedly certain discovery site, 1,000 square fathoms, for 600 gulden. He is supposedly a respectable man (although he has already been tried and acquitted for a criminal act committed in the heat of the moment).
The best thing would be to give him very small advances (twenty to thirty crowns) and to buy from him cheaply—what he brings. All other approaches are, in my opinion, impracticable, in view of the impossibility of supervision.
Kind regards,