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Western Mail, Thursday 9 February 1933, page 2
GENUINE ANTIQUE!
While we were at Heliopolis George Paul came into camp one night boasting of his knowledge of Gyppo antiquities and informing us that he had purchased a very fine Gyppo scarab, a carved beetle in stone at least 4,000 years old. Seeing that the mob doubted the age of his purchase George determined to prove it by cleaning the scarab in a basin of water and thus boping to find fresh evidence.
Placing the scarab in the basin George proceeded to apply the cleaning process and was amazed to discover that his treasure was slowly dissolving. Soon their was no scarab. He had struck one of those scarabs "four thousand years old, jenuwin. Mister Soldier," made recently. It had been fashioned out of Nile mud.
It was never safe to mention scarabs to Pauly after that.
"Mac" (Fremantle).
Those in the story:
George Paul = 3664 Corporal George Paul had his baptism registered on 15 February 1848 at the parish of Dornoch, Sutherland so we can assume he was born somewhere around that time. His father was James Paul [b. 1832] and mother known as Kate. We know from NSW Certificate No. 15984 that George Paul died at Quirindi in 1937, making him 89 at the time.
Narrator "Mac" = Unidentified.