81 - LOTI (Julien Viaud, known as Pierre). Signed autograph letter [to the Orientalist writer JUDITH GAUTIER]. Minieh [Al-Minya, a city on the Nile about 250 km south of Cairo], “March 15 (or 18)” [1907]. 2 pp. 1/2 in-12.

LOTI (Julien Viaud, known as Pierre). Signed autograph letter [to the Orientalist writer JUDITH GAUTIER]. Minieh [Al-Minya, a city on the Nile about 250 km south of Cairo], “March 15 (or 18)” [1907]. 2 pp. 1/2 in-12. “My goodness, you sure keep me busy, my dear colleague... Here is the autograph, here is the little Easter memento: and it simply has to be for you! How tired I am of writing... As for your question, it’s equivalent to that other famous one: what color was Henry IV’s white horse? What does Easter represent from a Christian perspective? Well, it represents Easter; no explanation could say more. Best regards. P. Loti I bought you a little crocodile; too bad if you’re not happy with it. You won’t understand a thing about this Easter memory, being an atheist and soulless as I know you to be.” Loti visited Egypt three times: in 1870 (he saw only Port Said), in 1894 (he visited Alexandria, Cairo, and Memphis), and most notably in 1907, thanks to his meeting with the leading champion of anti-British Egyptian nationalism, Mustafa Kamel. During his 1907 stay in Egypt, Loti published “Letters from Egypt” in *Le Figaro* from March 8, 1907, to December 9, 1908, which he compiled into a volume released in bookstores in December 1908 under the title *The Death of Philae*.