diff options
Diffstat (limited to '17816-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/17816-h.htm | 13902 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill101b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 528621 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill101s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 28055 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill174b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 116534 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill174s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 17474 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill1b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 293604 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill1s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 18705 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill231b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 306148 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill231s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 37739 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill328b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 175190 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill328s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 15707 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill4b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 259399 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/ill4s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 21750 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/p0b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 31285 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/p0s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 10032 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/p1b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 23967 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17816-h/images/p1s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 5172 bytes |
17 files changed, 13902 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/17816-h/17816-h.htm b/17816-h/17816-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b89b696 --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/17816-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13902 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Letters from Egypt, by Lucie Duff Gordon</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 30%; } + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Letters from Egypt, by Lucie Duff Gordon, +Edited by Janet Ross + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Letters from Egypt + + +Author: Lucie Duff Gordon + +Editor: Janet Ross + +Release Date: January 22, 2010 [eBook #17816] + +First Posted: February 21, 2006 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM EGYPT*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1902 R. Brimley Johnson edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>Lady Duff Gordon’s<br /> +Letters from Egypt</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">revised +edition</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">with memoir by her</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">daughter janet ross</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">new introduction by</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">george meredith</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap"><i>second +impression</i></span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p0b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative symbol" +title= +"Decorative symbol" +src="images/p0s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON: R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON<br /> +1902</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill1b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Photograph of Lady Duff Gordon from sketch by G. F. Watts, R.A., +about 1848" +title= +"Photograph of Lady Duff Gordon from sketch by G. F. Watts, R.A., +about 1848" +src="images/ill1s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> +<p>The letters of Lady Duff Gordon are an introduction to her in +person. She wrote as she talked, and that is not always the +note of private correspondence, the pen being such an official +instrument. Readers growing familiar with her voice will +soon have assurance that, addressing the public, she would not +have blotted a passage or affected a tone for the applause of all +Europe. Yet she could own to a liking for flattery, and say +of the consequent vanity, that an insensibility to it is +inhuman. Her humour was a mouthpiece of nature. She +inherited from her father the judicial mind, and her fine +conscience brought it to bear on herself as well as on the world, +so that she would ask, ‘Are we so much better?’ when +someone supremely erratic was dangled before the popular +eye. She had not studied her Goethe to no purpose. +Nor did the very ridiculous creature who is commonly the outcast +of all compassion miss having the tolerant word from her, however +much she might be of necessity in the laugh, for Molière +also was of her repertory. Hers was the charity which is +perceptive and embracing: we may feel certain that she was never +a dupe of the poor souls, Christian and Muslim, whose tales of +simple misery or injustice moved her to friendly service. +Egyptians, <i>consule Junio</i>, would have met the human +interpreter in her, for a picture to set beside that of the vexed +Satirist. She saw clearly into the later Nile products, +though her view of them was affectionate; but had they been +exponents of original sin, her charitableness would have found +the philosophical word on their behalf, for the reason that they +were not in the place of vantage. The service she did to +them was a greater service done to her country, by giving these +quivering creatures of the baked land proof that a Christian +Englishwoman could be companionable, tender, beneficently +motherly with them, despite the reputed insurmountable barriers +of alien race and religion. Sympathy was quick in her +breast for all the diverse victims of mischance; a shade of it, +that was not indulgence, but knowledge of the roots of evil, for +malefactors and for the fool. Against the cruelty of +despotic rulers and the harshness of society she was openly at +war, at a time when championship of the lowly or the fallen was +not common. Still, in this, as in everything controversial, +it was the μηδὲν ἄyαν with +her. That singular union of the balanced intellect with the +lively heart arrested even in advocacy the floods pressing for +pathos. Her aim was at practical measures of help; she +doubted the uses of sentimentality in moving tyrants or +multitudes to do the thing needed. Moreover, she distrusted +eloquence, Parliamentary, forensic, literary; thinking that the +plain facts are the persuasive speakers in a good cause, and that +rhetoric is to be suspected as the flourish over a weak +one. Does it soften the obdurate, kindle the tardily +inflammable? Only for a day, and only in cases of extreme +urgency, is an appeal to emotion of value for the gain of a +day. Thus it was that she never forced her voice, though +her feelings might be at heat and she possessed the literary +art.</p> +<p>She writes from her home on the Upper Nile: ‘In this +country one gets to see how much more beautiful a perfectly +natural expression is than any degree of the mystical expression +of the best painters.’ It is by her banishing of +literary colouring matter that she brings the Arab and Copt home +to us as none other has done, by her unlaboured pleading that she +touches to the heart. She was not one to ‘spread +gold-leaf over her acquaintances and make them shine,’ as +Horace Walpole says of Madame de Sévigné; they +would have been set shining from within, perhaps with a mild +lustre; sensibly to the observant, more credibly of the golden +sort. Her dislike of superlatives, when the marked effect +had to be produced, and it was not the literary performance she +could relish as well as any of us, renders hard the task of +portraying a woman whose character calls them forth. To him +knowing her, they would not fit; her individuality passes between +epithets. The reading of a sentence of panegyric (commonly +a thing of extension) deadened her countenance, if it failed to +quicken the corners of her lips; the distended truth in it +exhibited the comic shadow on the wall behind. That +haunting demon of human eulogy is quashed by the manner she +adopted, from instinct and training. Of her it was known to +all intimate with her that she could not speak falsely in praise, +nor unkindly in depreciation, however much the constant play of +her humour might tempt her to exalt or diminish beyond the +bounds. But when, for the dispersion of nonsense about men +or things, and daintiness held up the veil against rational +eyesight, the <i>gros mot</i> was demanded, she could utter it, +as from the Bench, with a like authority and composure.</p> +<p>In her youth she was radiantly beautiful, with dark brows on a +brilliant complexion, the head of a Roman man, and features of +Grecian line, save for the classic Greek wall of the nose off the +forehead. Women, not enthusiasts, inclined rather to +criticize, and to criticize so independent a member of their sex +particularly, have said that her entry into a ballroom took the +breath. Poetical comparisons run under heavy weights in +prose; but it would seem in truth, from the reports of her, that +wherever she appeared she could be likened to a Selene breaking +through cloud; and, further, the splendid vessel was richly +freighted. Trained by a scholar, much in the society of +scholarly men, having an innate bent to exactitude, and with a +ready tongue docile to the curb, she stepped into the world armed +to be a match for it. She cut her way through the +accustomed troops of adorers, like what you will that is buoyant +and swims gallantly. Her quality of the philosophical +humour carried her easily over the shoals or the deeps in the way +of a woman claiming her right to an independent judgement upon +the minor rules of conduct, as well as upon matters of the +mind. An illustrious foreigner, <i>en +tête-à-tête</i> with her over some abstract +theme, drops abruptly on a knee to protest, overpowered; and in +that posture he is patted on the head, while the subject of +conversation is continued by the benevolent lady, until the form +of ointment she administers for his beseeching expression and his +pain compels him to rise and resume his allotted part with a +mouth of acknowledging laughter. Humour, as a beautiful +woman’s defensive weapon, is probably the best that can be +called in aid for the bringing of suppliant men to their +senses. And so manageable are they when the idea of comedy +and the chord of chivalry are made to vibrate, that they +(supposing them of the impressionable race which is overpowered +by Aphrodite’s favourites) will be withdrawn from their +great aims, and transformed into happy crust-munching +devotees—in other words, fast friends. Lady Duff +Gordon had many, and the truest, and of all lands. She had, +on the other hand, her number of detractors, whom she +excused. What woman is without them, if she offends the +conventions, is a step in advance of her day, and, in this +instance, never hesitates upon the needed occasion to dub things +with their right names? She could appreciate their +disapproval of her in giving herself the airs of a man, +pronouncing verdicts on affairs in the style of a man, preferring +association with men. So it was; and, besides, she +smoked. Her physician had hinted at the soothing for an +irritated throat that might come of some whiffs of tobacco. +She tried a cigar, and liked it, and smoked from that day, in her +library chair and on horseback. Where she saw no harm in an +act, opinion had no greater effect on her than summer flies to +one with a fan. The country people, sorely tried by the +spectacle at first, remembered the gentle deeds and homely chat +of an eccentric lady, and pardoned her, who was often to be seen +discoursing familiarly with the tramp on the road, incapable of +denying her house-door to the lost dog attached by some instinct +to her heels. In the circles named ‘upper’ +there was mention of women unsexing themselves. She +preferred the society of men, on the plain ground that they +discuss matters of weight, and are—the pick of +them—of open speech, more liberal, more genial, better +comrades. Was it wonderful to hear them, knowing her as +they did, unite in calling her <i>cœur +d’or</i>? And women could say it of her, for the +reasons known to women. Her intimate friendships were with +women as with men. The closest friend of this most +manfully-minded of women was one of her sex, little resembling +her, except in downright truthfulness, lovingness, and heroic +fortitude.</p> +<p>The hospitable house at Esher gave its welcome not merely to +men and women of distinction; the humble undistinguished were +made joyous guests there, whether commonplace or counting among +the hopeful. Their hostess knew how to shelter the +sensitively silent at table, if they were unable to take +encouragement and join the flow. Their faces at least +responded to her bright look on one or the other of them when +something worthy of memory sparkled flying. She had the +laugh that rocks the frame, but it was usually with a triumphant +smile that she greeted things good to the ear; and her own manner +of telling was concise, on the lines of the running subject, to +carry it along, not to produce an effect—which is like the +horrid gap in air after a blast of powder. Quotation came +when it sprang to the lips and was native. She was shrewd +and cogent, invariably calm in argument, sitting over it, not +making it a duel, as the argumentative are prone to do; and a +strong point scored against her received the honours due to a +noble enemy. No pose as mistress of a salon shuffling the +guests marked her treatment of them; she was their comrade, one +of the pack. This can be the case only when a governing +lady is at all points their equal, more than a player of trump +cards. In England, in her day, while health was with her, +there was one house where men and women conversed. When +that house perforce was closed, a light had gone out in our +country.</p> +<p>The fatal brilliancy of skin indicated the fell disease which +ultimately drove her into exile, to die in exile. Lucie +Duff Gordon was of the order of women of whom a man of many years +may say that their like is to be met but once or twice in a +lifetime.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"> +<a href="images/p1b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"George Meredith’s signature" +title= +"George Meredith’s signature" +src="images/p1s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2>MEMOIR</h2> +<p>Lucie Duff Gordon, born on June 24, 1821, was the only child +of John and Sarah Austin and inherited the beauty and the +intellect of her parents. The wisdom, learning, and +vehement eloquence of John Austin, author of the ‘Province +of Jurisprudence Determined,’ were celebrated, and Lord +Brougham used to say: ‘If John Austin had had health, +neither Lyndhurst nor I should have been Chancellor.’ +He entered the army, and was in Sicily under Lord William +Bentinck; but soon quitted an uncongenial service, and was called +to the Bar. In 1819 he married Sarah, the youngest daughter +of John Taylor of Norwich, <a name="citation1"></a><a +href="#footnote1" class="citation">[1]</a> when they took a house +in Queen Square, Westminster, close to James Mill, the historian +of British India, and next door to Jeremy Bentham, whose pupil +Mr. Austin was. Here, it may be said, the Utilitarian +philosophy of the nineteenth century was born. Jeremy +Bentham’s garden became the playground of the young Mills +and of Lucie Austin; his coach-house was converted into a +gymnasium, and his flower-beds were intersected by tapes and +threads to represent the passages of a panopticon prison. +The girl grew in vigour and in sense, with a strong tinge of +originality and independence and an extreme love of +animals. About 1826 the Austins went to Germany, Mr. Austin +having been nominated Professor of Civil Law in the new London +University, and wishing to study Roman Law under Niebuhr and +Schlegel at Bonn. ‘Our dear child,’ writes Mrs. +Austin to Mrs. Grote, ‘is a great joy to us. She +grows wonderfully, and is the happiest thing in the world. +Her German is very pretty; she interprets for her father with +great joy and naïveté. God forbid that I should +bring up a daughter here! But at her present age I am most +glad to have her here, and to send her to a school where she +learns—<i>well</i>, writing, arithmetic, geography, and, as +a matter of course, German.’ Lucie returned to +England transformed into a little German maiden, with long braids +of hair down her back, speaking German like her own language, and +well grounded in Latin. Her mother, writing to Mrs. Reeve, +her sister, says: ‘John Mill is ever my dearest child and +friend, and he really dotes on Lucie, and can do anything with +her. She is too wild, undisciplined, and independent, and +though she knows a great deal, it is in a strange, wild +way. She reads everything, composes German verses, has +imagined and put together a fairy world, dress, language, music, +everything, and talks to them in the garden; but she is sadly +negligent of her own appearance, and is, as Sterling calls her, +Miss Orson. . . . Lucie now goes to a Dr. Biber, who has five +other pupils (boys) and his own little child. She seems to +take to Greek, with which her father is very anxious to have her +thoroughly imbued. As this scheme, even if we stay in +England, cannot last many years, I am quite willing to forego all +the feminine parts of her education for the present. The +main thing is to secure her independence, both with relation to +her own mind and outward circumstances. She is handsome, +striking, and full of vigour and animation.’</p> +<p>From the very first Lucie Austin possessed a correct and +vigorous style, and a nice sense of language, which were +hereditary rather than implanted, and to these qualities was +added a delightful strain of humour, shedding a current of +original thought all through her writings. That her unusual +gifts should have been so early developed is hardly surprising +with one of her sympathetic temperament when we remember the +throng of remarkable men and women who frequented the +Austins’ house. The Mills, the Grotes, the Bullers, +the Carlyles, the Sterlings, Sydney Smith, Luttrell, Rogers, +Jeremy Bentham, and Lord Jeffrey, were among the most intimate +friends of her parents, and ‘Toodie,’ as they called +her, was a universal favourite with them. Once, staying at +a friend’s house, and hearing their little girl rebuked for +asking questions, she said: ‘<i>My</i> mamma never says +“I don’t know” or “Don’t ask +questions.”’</p> +<p>In 1834 Mr. Austin’s health, always delicate, broke +down, and with his wife and daughter he went to Boulogne. +Mrs. Austin made many friends among the fishermen and their +wives, but ‘la belle Anglaise,’ as they called her, +became quite a heroine on the occasion of the wreck of the +<i>Amphitrite</i>, a ship carrying female convicts to Botany +Bay. She stood the whole night on the beach in the howling +storm, saved the lives of three sailors who were washed up by the +breakers, and dashed into the sea and pulled one woman to +shore. Lucie was with her mother, and showed the same cool +courage that distinguished her in after life. It was during +their stay at Boulogne that she first met Heinrich Heine; he sat +next her at the <i>table d’hôte</i>, and, soon +finding out that she spoke German perfectly, told her when she +returned to England she could tell her friends she had met +Heinrich Heine. He was much amused when she said: +‘And who is Heinrich Heine?’ The poet and the +child used to lounge on the pier together; she sang him old +English ballads, and he told her stories in which fish, mermaids, +water-sprites, and a very funny old French fiddler with a poodle, +who was diligently taking three sea-baths a day, were mixed up in +a fanciful manner, sometimes humorous, often very pathetic, +especially when the water-sprites brought him greetings from the +North Sea. He afterwards told her that one of his most +charming poems,</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Wenn ich am deinem Hause<br /> +Des Morgens vorüber geh’,<br /> +So freut’s mich, du liebe Kleine,<br /> +Wenn ich dich am Fenster seh’,’ etc.,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>was meant for her whose magnificent eyes he never forgot.</p> +<p>Two years later Mr. Austin was appointed Royal Commissioner to +inquire into the grievances of the Maltese. His wife +accompanied him, but so hot a climate was not considered good for +a young girl, and Lucie was sent to a school at Bromley. +She must have been as great a novelty to the school as the +school-life was to her, for with a great deal of desultory +knowledge she was singularly deficient in many rudiments of +ordinary knowledge. She wrote well already at fifteen, and +corresponded often with Mrs. Grote and other friends of her +parents. <a name="citation4"></a><a href="#footnote4" +class="citation">[4]</a> At sixteen she determined to be +baptized and confirmed as a member of the Church of England (her +parents and relations were Unitarians). Lord Monteagle was +her sponsor and it was chiefly owing, I believe, to the influence +of himself and his family, with whom she was very intimate in +spite of her Radical ideas, that she took this step.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill4b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Lucie Austin, aged fifteen, from a sketch by a school friend" +title= +"Lucie Austin, aged fifteen, from a sketch by a school friend" +src="images/ill4s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>When the Austins returned from Malta in 1838, Lucie began to +appear in the world; all the old friends flocked round them, and +many new friends were made, among them Sir Alexander Duff Gordon +whom she first met at Lansdowne House. Left much alone, as +her mother was always hard at work translating, writing for +various periodicals and nursing her husband, the two young people +were thrown much together, and often walked out alone. One +day Sir Alexander said to her: ‘Miss Austin, do you know +people say we are going to be married?’ Annoyed at +being talked of, and hurt at his brusque way of mentioning it, +she was just going to give a sharp answer, when he added: +‘Shall we make it true?’ With characteristic +straightforwardness she replied by the monosyllable, +‘Yes,’ and so they were engaged. Before her +marriage she translated Niebuhr’s ‘Greek +Legends,’ which were published under her mother’s +name.</p> +<p>On the 16th May, 1840, Lucie Austin and Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon were married in Kensington Old Church, and the few +eye-witnesses left still speak with enthusiasm of the beauty of +bridegroom and bride. They took a house in Queen Square, +Westminster, (No 8, with a statue of Queen Anne at one corner), +and the talent, beauty, and originality, joined with a complete +absence of affectation of Lady Duff Gordon, soon attracted a +remarkable circle of friends. Lord Lansdowne, Lord +Monteagle, Mrs. Norton, Thackeray, Dickens, Elliot Warburton, +Tennyson, Tom Taylor, Kinglake, Henry Taylor, and many more, were +habitués, and every foreigner of distinction sought an +introduction to the Duff Gordons. I remember as a little +child seeing Leopold Ranke walking up and down the drawing-room, +and talking vehemently in an <i>olla-podrida</i> of English, +French, German, Italian, and Spanish, with now and then a Latin +quotation in between; I thought he was a madman. When M. +Guizot escaped from France on the outbreak of the Revolution, his +first welcome and dinner was in Queen Square.</p> +<p>The first child was born in 1842, and soon afterwards Lady +Duff Gordon began her translation of ‘The Amber +Witch’; the ‘French in Algiers’ by Lamping, and +Feuerbach’s ‘Remarkable Criminal Trials,’ +followed in quick succession; and together my father and mother +translated Ranke’s ‘Memoirs of the House of +Brandenburg’ and ‘Sketches of German +Life.’ A remarkable novel by Léon de Wailly, +‘Stella and Vanessa,’ had remained absolutely +unnoticed in France until my mother’s English version +appeared, when it suddenly had a great success which he always +declared he owed entirely to Lady Duff Gordon.</p> +<p>In a letter written to Mrs. Austin from Lord Lansdowne’s +beautiful villa at Richmond, which he lent to the Duff Gordons +after a severe illness of my father’s, my mother mentions +Hassan el Bakkeet (a black boy): ‘He is an inch taller for +our grandeur; <i>peu s’en faut</i>, he thinks me a great +lady and himself a great butler.’ Hassan was a +personage in the establishment. One night, on returning +from a theatrical party at Dickens’, my mother found the +little boy crouching on the doorstep. His master had turned +him out of doors because he was threatened with blindness, and +having come now and then with messages to Queen Square, he found +his way, as he explained, ‘to die on the threshold of the +beautiful pale lady.’ His eyes were cured, and he +became my mother’s devoted slave and my playmate, to the +horror of Mr. Hilliard, the American author. I perfectly +recollect how angry I was when he asked how Lady Duff Gordon +could let a negro touch her child, whereupon she called us to +her, and kissed me first and Hassan afterwards. Some years +ago I asked our dear friend Kinglake about my mother and Hassan, +and received the following letter: ‘Can I, my dear Janet, +how can I trust myself to speak of your dear mother’s +beauty in the phase it had reached when first I saw her? +The classic form of her features, the noble poise of her head and +neck, her stately height, her uncoloured yet pure complexion, +caused some of the beholders at first to call her beauty +statuesque, and others to call it majestic, some pronouncing it +to be even imperious; but she was so intellectual, so keen, so +autocratic, sometimes even so impassioned in speech, that nobody +feeling her powers could go on feebly comparing her to a statue +or a mere Queen or Empress. All this touches only the +beauteous surface; the stories (which were told me by your dear +mother herself) are incidentally illustrative of her kindness to +fellow-creatures in trouble or suffering. Hassan, it is +supposed, was a Nubian, and originally, as his name implies, a +Mahometan, he came into the possession of English missionaries +(who had probably delivered him from slavery), and it resulted +that he not only spoke English well and without foreign accent, +but was always ready with phrases in use amongst pious +Christians, and liked, when he could, to apply them as means of +giving honour and glory to his beloved master and mistress; so +that if, for example, it happened that, when they were not at +home, a visitor called on a Sunday, he was sure to be told by +Hassan that Sir Alexander and Lady Duff Gordon were at church, or +even—for his diction was equal to this—that they were +“attending Divine service.” Your mother had +valour enough to practise true Christian kindness under +conditions from which the bulk of “good people” might +too often shrink; when on hearing that a “Mary” once +known to the household had brought herself into trouble by +omitting the precaution of marriage, my lady determined to secure +the girl a good refuge by taking her as a servant. Before +taking this step, however, she assembled the household, declared +her resolve to the servants, and ordered that, on pain of instant +dismissal, no one of them should ever dare say a single unkind +word to Mary. Poor Hassan, small, black as jet, but +possessed with an idea of the dignity of his sex, conceived it +his duty to become the spokesman of the household, and +accordingly, advancing a little in front of the neat-aproned, +tall, wholesome maid-servants, he promised in his and their name +a full and careful obedience to the mistress’s order, but +then, wringing his hands and raising them over his head, he added +these words: “What a lesson to us all, my +lady.”’ On the birth of a little son Hassan +triumphantly announced to all callers: ‘We have got a +boy.’ Another of his delightful speeches was made one +evening when Prince Louis Napoleon (the late Emperor of the +French) dropt in unexpectedly to dinner. ‘Please, my +lady,’ said he, on announcing that dinner was ready, +‘I ran out and bought two pen’orth of sprats for the +honour of the house.’</p> +<p>Though I was only six I distinctly remember the Chartist riots +in 1848. William Bridges Adams, the engineer, an old friend +of my great-uncle, Philip Taylor, had a workshop at Bow, and my +mother helped to start a library for the men, and sometimes +attended meetings and discussed politics with them. They +adored her, and when people talked of possible danger she would +smile and say: ‘My men will look after me.’ On +the evening of April 9 a large party of stalwart men in fustian +jackets arrived at our house and had supper; Tom Taylor made +speeches and proposed toasts which were cheered to the echo, and +at last my mother made a speech too, and wound up by calling the +men her ‘Gordon volunteers.’ The ‘Hip, +hip, hurrah!’ with which it was greeted startled the +neighbours, who for a moment thought the Chartists had invaded +the quiet precincts of the square.</p> +<p>To Mrs. Austin, who was then in Paris, her daughter wrote, on +April 10:</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>‘I had only time to write once yesterday, as all hands +were full of bustle in entertaining our guests. I never +wish to see forty better gentlemen than we had here last +night. As all was quiet, we had supper—cold beef, +bread and beer—with songs, sentiments and toasts, such as +“Success to the roof we are under,” “Liberty, +brotherhood and order.” Then they bivouacked in the +different houses till five this morning, when they started +home. Among the party was a stray policeman, who looked +rather wonder-struck. Tom Taylor was capital, made short +speeches, told stories, and kept all in high good-humour; and +Alick came home from patrolling as a special constable, and was +received with great glee and affection. All agreed that the +fright, to us at least, was well made up by the kindly and +pleasant evening. As no one would take a penny, we shall +send books to the library, or a contribution to the school, all +our neighbours being quite anxious to pay, though not willing to +fraternise. I shall send cravats as a badge to the +“Gordon volunteers.”</p> +<p>‘I enclose a letter from Eothen [Kinglake] about Paris, +which will interest you. My friends of yesterday +unanimously decided that Louis Blanc would “just suit the +‘lazy set.’”</p> +<p>‘We had one row, which, however, ceased on the +appearance of our stalwart troop; indeed, I think one Birmingham +smith, a handsome fellow six feet high, whose vehement +disinterestedness would neither allow to eat, drink, or sleep in +the house, would have scattered them.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Austin established themselves at Weybridge in a +low, rambling cottage, and we spent some summers with them. +The house was cold and damp, and our dear Hassan died in 1850 +from congestion of the lungs. I always attributed my +mother’s bad health to the incessant colds she caught +there. I can see before me now her beautiful pale face +bending over poor Hassan as she applied leeches to his chest, +which a new maid refused to do, saying, with a toss of her head, +‘Lor! my lady, I couldn’t touch either of +’em!’ The flash of scorn with which she +regarded the girl softened into deep affection and pity when she +looked down on her faithful Nubian servant.</p> +<p>In 1851 my father took a house at Esher, which was known as +‘The Gordon Arms,’ and much frequented by our +friends. In a letter, written about that time to C. J. +Bayley, then secretary to the Governor of the Mauritius, Lady +Duff Gordon gives the first note of alarm as to her health: +‘I fear you would think me very much altered since my +illness; I look thin, ill, and old, and my hair is growing +gray. This I consider hard upon a woman just over her +thirtieth birthday. I continue to like Esher very much; I +don’t think we could have placed ourselves better. +Kinglake has given Alick a great handsome chestnut mare, so he is +well mounted, and we ride merrily. I expressed such +exultation at the idea of your return that my friends, all but +Alick, refused to sympathize. Philips, Millais, and Dicky +Doyle talked of jealousy, and Tom Taylor muttered something about +a “hated rival.” Meanwhile, all send friendly +greetings to you.’</p> +<p>One summer Macaulay was often at Esher, his brother-in-law +having taken a house near ours. He shared my mother’s +admiration for Miss Austen’s novels, and they used to talk +of her personages as though they were living friends. If, +perchance, my grandfather Austin was there, the talk grew indeed +fast and furious, as all three were vehement, eloquent, and +enthusiastic talkers.</p> +<p>When my mother went to Paris in the summer of 1857 she saw +Heine again. As she entered the room he exclaimed +‘Oh! Lucie has still the great brown +eyes!’ He remembered every little incident and all +the people who had been in the inn at Boulogne. ‘I, +for my part, could hardly speak to him,’ my mother wrote to +Lord Houghton, who asked her to give him some recollections of +the poet for his ‘Monographs,’ ‘so shocked was +I by his appearance. He lay on a pile of mattresses, his +body wasted so that it seemed no bigger than a child’s +under the sheet that covered him, the eyes closed and the face +altogether like the most painful and wasted <i>Ecce Homo</i> ever +painted by some old German painter. His voice was very +weak, and I was astonished at the animation with which he talked; +evidently his mind had wholly survived his body.’ He +wished to give my mother the copyright of all his works, made out +lists how to arrange them, and gave her <i>carte-blanche</i> to +cut out what she pleased, and was especially eager that she +should do a prose translation of his songs against her opinion of +its practicability. To please him she translated +‘Almanzor’ and several short poems into +verse—the best translations I know.</p> +<p>After trying Ventnor for two winters, my mother went out to +the Cape of Good Hope in a sailing vessel, but on her return was +unfortunately persuaded to go to Eaux Bonnes in the autumn of +1862, which did her great harm. Thence she went to Egypt, +where the dry hot climate seemed to arrest the malady for a short +time. The following memoir written by Mrs. Norton in the +<i>Times</i> gives a better picture of her than could any words +of mine, the two talented and beautiful women were intimate +friends, and few mourned more deeply for Lucie Duff Gordon than +Caroline Norton:</p> +<p>‘“In Memoriam.” The brief phrase whose +solemnity prefaced millions of common place epitaphs before +Tennyson taught grief to speak, lamenting his dead friend in +every phase and variety of regret. With such gradation and +difference of sorrow will the recent death of a very remarkable +woman, Lucie, Lady Duff Gordon, be mourned for by all who knew +her, and with such a sense of blank loss will they long continue +to lament one whose public success as an author was only +commensurate with the charm of her private companionship. +Inheriting from both parents the intellectual faculties which she +so nobly exercised, her work has been ended in the very noontide +of life by premature failure of health; and the long exile she +endured for the sake of a better climate has failed to arrest, +though it delayed, the doom foretold by her physicians. To +that exile we owe the most popular, perhaps, of her contributions +to the literature of her country, “Letters from the +Cape,” and “Letters from Egypt,” the latter +more especially interesting from the vivid, life-like +descriptions of the people among whom she dwelt, her aspirations +for their better destiny, and the complete amalgamation of her +own pursuits and interests with theirs. She was a settler, +not a traveller among them. Unlike Lady Hester Stanhope, +whose fantastic and half-insane notions of rulership and +superiority have been so often recorded for our amazement, Lady +Duff Gordon kept the simple frankness of heart and desire to be +of service to her fellow-creatures without a thought of self or a +taint of vanity in her intercourse with them. Not for lack +of flattery or of real enthusiastic gratitude on their +part. It is known that when at Thebes, on more than one of +her journeys, the women raised the “cry of joy” as +she passed along, and the people flung branches and raiment on +her path, as in the old Biblical descriptions of Eastern +life. The source of her popularity was in the liberal +kindliness of spirit with which she acted on all occasions, more +especially towards those she considered the victims of bad +government and oppressive laws. She says of herself: +“one’s pity becomes a perfect passion when one sits +among the people as I do, and sees all they endure. Least +of all can I forgive those among Europeans and Christians who can +help to break these bruised reeds.” And again: +“Would that I could excite the interest of my country in +their suffering! Some conception of the value of public +opinion in England has penetrated even here.” +Sympathizing, helping, doctoring their sick, teaching their +children, learning the language, Lady Duff Gordon lived in Egypt, +and in Egypt she has died, leaving a memory of her greatness and +goodness such as no other European woman ever acquired in that +country. It is touching to trace her lingering hopes of +life and amended health in her letters to her husband and her +mother, and to see how, as they faded out, there rose over those +hopes the grander light of fortitude and submission to the will +of God.</p> +<p>‘Gradually—how gradually the limits of this notice +forbid us to follow—hope departs, and she begins bravely to +face the inevitable destiny. And then comes the end of all, +the strong yet tender announcement of her own conviction that +there would be no more meetings, but a grave opened to receive +her in a foreign land.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘“<span class="smcap">Dearest +Alick</span>,</p> +<p>‘“Do not think of coming here, as you dread the +climate. Indeed, it would be almost too painful to me to +part from you again; and as it is, I can wait patiently for the +end, among people who are kind and loving enough to be +comfortable without too much feeling of the pain of +parting. The leaving Luxor was rather a distressing scene, +as they did not think to see me again. The kindness of all +the people was really touching, from the Cadi, who made ready my +tomb among his own family, to the poorest fellaheen.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘Such are the tranquil and kindly words with which she +prefaces her death. Those who remember her in her youth and +beauty, before disease rather than time had altered the pale +heroic face, and bowed the slight, stately figure, may well +perceive some strange analogy between soul and body in the +Spartan firmness which enabled her to pen that last farewell so +quietly.</p> +<p>‘But to the last her thought was for others, and for the +services she could render. In this very letter, written, as +it were, on the verge of the tomb, she speaks with gratitude and +gladness of the advancement of her favourite attendant, +Omar. This Omar had been recommended to her by the +janissary of the American Consul-General, and so far back as +1862, when in Alexandria, she mentions having engaged him, and +his hopeful prophecy of the good her Nile life is to do +her. “My cough is bad; but Omar says I shall lose it +and ‘eat plenty’ as soon as I see a +crocodile.”</p> +<p>‘Omar “could not leave her,” and he had his +reward. One of the last events in the life of this gifted +and liberal-minded Englishwoman was the visit to her dahabeeyeh, +or Nile boat, of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Then +poor Omar’s simple and faithful service to his dying +mistress was rewarded in a way he could scarcely have dreamt; and +Lady Duff Gordon thus relates the incident: “Omar sends you +his heartfelt thanks, and begs the boat may remain registered at +the Consulate in your name, as a protection, for his use and +benefit. The Prince has appointed him his dragoman, but he +is sad enough, poor fellow! all his prosperity does not console +him for the loss of “the mother he found in the +world.” Mahomed at Luxor wept bitterly, and said: +“Poor I—poor my children—poor all the +people!” and kissed my hand passionately; and the people at +Esneh asked leave to touch me “for a blessing,” and +everyone sent delicate bread and their best butter and vegetables +and lambs. They are kinder than ever now that I can no +longer be of any use to them. If I live till September I +will go up to Esneh, where the air is softest and I cough less; I +would rather die among my own people on the Saeed than +here. Can you thank the Prince for Omar, or shall I +write? He was most pleasant and kind, and the Princess too; +she is the most perfectly simple-mannered girl I ever saw; she +does not even try to be civil like other great people, but asks +blunt questions and looks at one so heartily with her clear, +honest eyes, that she must win all hearts. They were more +considerate than any people I have seen, and the Prince, instead +of being gracious, was, if I may say so, quite respectful in +manner: he is very well bred and pleasant, and has, too, the +honest eyes that make one sure he has a kind heart. My +sailors were so proud at having the honour of rowing him in +<i>our own boat</i> and of singing to him. I had a very +good singer in the boat.”</p> +<p>‘Long will her presence be remembered and wept for among +the half-civilized friends of her exile, the poor, the sick, the +needy and the oppressed. She makes the gentle, half-playful +boast in one of her letters from the Nile that she is “very +popular,” and has made many cures as a Hakeem, or doctor, +and that a Circassian had sat up with a dying Englishman because +she had nursed his wife.</p> +<p>‘The picture of the Circassian sitting up with the dying +Englishman because an English lady had nursed his wife is +infinitely touching, and had its parallel in the speech of an old +Scottish landlady known to the writer of this notice, whose son +had died in the West Indies among strangers. “And +they were so good to him,” said she, “that I vowed if +ever I had a lodger sick I would do my best for that stranger in +remembrance.” In remembrance! Who shall say +what seeds of kindly intercommunion that dying Englishwoman of +whom and of whose works we have been speaking may have planted in +the arid Eastern soil? Or what “bread she may have +cast” on those Nile waters, “which shall be found +again after many days”? “Out of evil cometh +good,” and certainly out of her sickness and suffering good +came to all within her influence.</p> +<p>‘Lady Duff Gordon’s printed works were many. +She was an excellent German scholar, and had the advantage in her +translations from that difficult language of her labours being +shared by her husband. Ranke, Niebuhr, Feuerbach, Moltke, +and others, owe their introduction to our English-reading public +to the industry and talent of her pen. She was also a +classic scholar of no mean pretensions. Perhaps no woman of +our own time, except Mrs. Somerville and Mrs. Browning in their +very different styles, combined so much erudition with so much +natural ability. She was the daughter of Mr. Austin, the +well-known professor of jurisprudence, and his gifted wife, Sarah +Austin, whose name is familiar to thousands of readers, and whose +social brilliancy is yet remembered with extreme admiration and +regret by the generation immediately preceding our own.</p> +<p>‘That Lucie, Lady Duff Gordon, inherited the best of the +intellect and qualities of both these parents will, we think, +hardly be disputed, and she had besides, of her own, a certain +generosity of spirit, a widespread sympathy for humanity in +general, without narrowness or sectarianism, which might well +prove her faith modelled on the sentence which appeals too often +in vain from the last page of the printed Bible to resenting and +dissenting religionists, “Multæ terricolis +linguæ, cœlestibus una.”’</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p>The last two years of my mother’s life were one long +struggle against deadly disease. The last winter was +cheered by the presence of my brother, but at her express desire +he came home in early summer to continue his studies, and my +father and I were going out to see her, when the news came of her +death at Cairo on July 14, 1869. Her desire had been to be +among her ‘own people’ at Thebes, but when she felt +she would never see Luxor again, she gave orders to be buried as +quietly as possible in the cemetery at Cairo. The memory of +her talent, simplicity, stately beauty, and extraordinary +eloquence, and her almost passionate pity for any oppressed +creature, will not easily fade. She bore great pain, and +what was almost a greater trial, absence from her husband, her +little daughter Urania, and her many friends, uncomplainingly, +gleaning what consolation she could by helping her poor Arab +neighbours, who adored her, and have not, I am told, forgotten +the ‘Great Lady’ who was so good to them.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p>The first volume of Lady Duff Gordon’s ‘Letters +from Egypt’ was published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. in +May, 1865, with a preface by her mother, Mrs. Austin, who edited +them, and was obliged to omit much that might have given offence +and made my mother’s life uncomfortable—to say the +least—in Egypt. Before the end of the year the book +went through three editions.</p> +<p>In 1875 a volume containing the ‘Last Letters from +Egypt,’ to which were added ‘Letters from the +Cape,’ reprinted from ‘Vacation Tourists’ +(1864), with a Memoir of my mother by myself, was published by +Messrs. Macmillan and Co. A second edition appeared in +1876.</p> +<p>I have now copied my mother’s letters as they were +written, omitting only the purely family matter which is of no +interest to the public. Edward Lear’s drawing of +Luxor was printed in ‘Three Generations of +Englishwomen,’ edited by Mrs. Ross, but the other +illustrations are now reproduced for the first time.</p> +<p>The names of villages alluded to in the ‘Letters’ +have been spelt as in the Atlas published by the Egyptian +Exploration Fund.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">janet +ross</span>.</p> +<h2>LETTERS FROM EGYPT</h2> +<h3>November 11, 1862: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Grand +Cairo</span>,<br /> +<i>Tuesday</i>, <i>November</i> 11, 1862.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I write to you out of the real Arabian Nights. Well may +the Prophet (whose name be exalted) smile when he looks on +Cairo. It is a golden existence, all sunshine and poetry, +and, <i>I</i> must add, kindness and civility. I came up +last Thursday by railway with the American Consul-General, a +charming person, and had to stay at this horrid Shepheard’s +Hotel. But I do little but sleep here. Hekekian Bey, +a learned old Armenian, takes care of me every day, and the +Amerian Vice-Consul is my sacrifice. I went on Sunday to +his child’s christening, and heard Sakna, the +‘Restorer of Hearts.’ She is wonderfully like +Rachel, and her singing is <i>hinreisend</i> from expression and +passion. Mr. Wilkinson (the Consul) is a Levantine, and his +wife Armenian, so they had a grand fantasia; people feasted all +over the house and in the street. Arab music +<i>schmetterte</i>, women yelled the <i>zaghareet</i>, black +servants served sweetmeats, pipes, and coffee, and behaved as if +they belonged to the company, and I was strongly under the +impression that I was at Nurreddin’s wedding with the +Vizier’s daughter. Yesterday I went to Heliopolis +with Hekekian Bey and his wife, and visited an Armenian country +lady close by.</p> +<p>My servant Omar turns out a jewel. He has +<i>déterré</i> an excellent boat for the Nile +voyage, and I am to be mistress of a captain, a mate, eight men +and a cabin boy for £25 a month. I went to Boulak, +the port of Cairo, and saw various boats, and admired the way in +which the English travellers pay for their insolence and +caprices. Similar boats cost people with dragomans +£50 to £65. But, then, ‘I shall lick the +fellows,’ etc., is what I hear all round. The +dragoman, I conclude, pockets the difference. The owner of +the boat, Sid Achmet el-Berberi, asked £30, whereupon I +touched my breast, mouth and eyes, and stated through Omar that I +was not, like other Ingeleez, made of money, but would give +£20. He then showed another boat at £20, very +much worse, and I departed (with fresh civilities) and looked at +others, and saw two more for £20; but neither was clean, +and neither had a little boat for landing. Meanwhile Sid +Achmet came after me and explained that, if I was not like other +Ingeleez in money, I likewise differed in politeness, and had +refrained from abuse, etc., etc., and I should have the boat for +£25. It was so very excellent in all fittings, and so +much larger, that I thought it would make a great difference in +health, so I said if he would go before the American Vice-Consul +(who is looked on as a sharp hand) and would promise all he said +to me before him, it should be well.</p> +<p>Mr. Thayer, the American Consul-General, gives me letters to +every consular agent depending on him; and two Coptic merchants +whom I met at the fantasia have already begged me to +‘honour their houses.’ I rather think the poor +agents, who are all Armenians and Copts, will think I am the +republic in person. The weather has been all this time like +a splendid English August, and I hope I shall get rid of my cough +in time, but it has been very bad. There is no cold at +night here as at the Cape, but it is nothing like so clear and +bright.</p> +<p>Omar took Sally sightseeing all day while I was away, into +several mosques; in one he begged her to wait a minute while he +said a prayer. They compare notes about their respective +countries and are great friends; but he is put out at my not +having provided her with a husband long ago, as is one’s +duty towards a ‘female servant,’ which almost always +here means a slave.</p> +<p>Of all the falsehoods I have heard about the East, that about +women being old hags at thirty is the biggest. Among the +poor fellah women it may be true enough, but not nearly as much +as in Germany; and I have now seen a considerable number of +Levantine ladies looking very handsome, or at least comely, till +fifty. Sakna, the Arab Grisi, is fifty-five—an ugly +face, I am told (she was veiled and one only saw the eyes and +glimpses of her mouth when she drank water), but the figure of a +leopard, all grace and beauty, and a splendid voice of its kind, +harsh but thrilling like Malibran’s. I guessed her +about thirty, or perhaps thirty-five. When she improvised, +the finesse and grace of her whole <i>Wesen</i> were +ravishing. I was on the point of shouting out +‘Wallah!’ as heartily as the natives. The eight +younger Halmeh (<i>i.e.</i>, learned women, which the English +call Almeh and think is an improper word) were ugly and +screeched. Sakna was treated with great consideration and +quite as a friend by the Armenian ladies with whom she talked +between her songs. She is a Muslimeh and very rich and +charitable; she gets £50 for a night’s singing at +least.</p> +<p>It would be very easy to learn colloquial Arabic, as they all +speak with such perfect distinctness that one can follow the +sentences and catch the words one knows as they are +repeated. I think I know forty or fifty words already, +besides my ‘salaam aleikum’ and +‘backsheesh.’</p> +<p>The reverse of the brilliant side of the medal is sad enough: +deserted palaces, and crowded hovels scarce good enough for +pigstyes. ‘One day man see his dinner, and one other +day none at all,’ as Omar observes; and the children are +shocking from bad food, dirt and overwork, but the little +pot-bellied, blear-eyed wretches grow up into noble young men and +women under all their difficulties. The faces are all sad +and rather what the Scotch call ‘dour,’ not +<i>méchant</i> at all, but harsh, like their voices. +All the melody is in walk and gesture; they are as graceful as +cats, and the women have exactly the ‘breasts like +pomegranates’ of their poetry. A tall Bedaween woman +came up to us in the field yesterday to shake hands and look at +us. She wore a white sackcloth shift and veil, <i>und +weiter nichts</i>, and asked Mrs. Hekekian a good many questions +about me, looked at my face and hands, but took no notice of my +rather smart gown which the village women admired so much, shook +hands again with the air of a princess, wished me health and +happiness, and strode off across the graveyard like a stately +ghost. She was on a journey all alone, and somehow it +looked very solemn and affecting to see her walking away towards +the desert in the setting sun like Hagar. All is so +Scriptural in the country here. Sally called out in the +railroad, ‘There is Boaz, sitting in the cornfield’; +and so it was, and there he has sat for how many thousand +years,—and Sakna sang just like Miriam in one war-song.</p> +<p><i>Wednesday</i>.—My contract was drawn up and signed by +the American Vice-Consul to-day, and my Reis kissed my hand in +due form, after which I went to the bazaar to buy the needful +pots and pans. The transaction lasted an hour. The +copper is so much per oka, the workmanship so much; every article +is weighed by a sworn weigher and a ticket sent with it. +More Arabian Nights. The shopkeeper compares notes with me +about numerals, and is as much amused as I. He treats me to +coffee and a pipe from a neighbouring shop while Omar eloquently +depreciates the goods and offers half the value. A +water-seller offers a brass cup of water; I drink, and give the +huge sum of twopence, and he distributes the contents of his skin +to the crowd (there always is a crowd) in my honour. It +seems I have done a pious action. Finally a boy is called +to carry the <i>batterie de cuisine</i>, while Omar brandishes a +gigantic kettle which he has picked up a little bruised for four +shillings. The boy has a donkey which I mount astride +<i>à l’Arabe</i>, while the boy carries all the +copper things on his head. We are rather a grand +procession, and quite enjoy the fury of the dragomans and other +leeches who hang on the English at such independent proceedings, +and Omar gets reviled for spoiling the trade by being cook, +dragoman, and all in one.</p> +<p>I went this morning with Hekekian Bey to the two earliest +mosques. The Touloun is exquisite—noble, simple, and +what ornament there is is the most delicate lacework and +embossing in stone and wood. This Arab architecture is even +more lovely than our Gothic. The Touloun is now a vast +poorhouse, a nest of paupers. I went into three of their +lodgings. Several Turkish families were in a large square +room neatly divided into little partitions with old mats hung on +ropes. In each were as many bits of carpet, mat and +patchwork as the poor owner could collect, and a small chest and +a little brick cooking-place in one corner of the room with three +earthern pipkins for I don’t know how many +people;—that was all—they possess no sort of +furniture, but all was scrupulously clean and no bad smell +whatever. A little boy seized my hand and showed where he +slept, ate and cooked with the most expressive pantomime. +As there were women, Hekekian could not come in, but when I came +out an old man told us they received three loaves (cakes as big +as a sailor’s biscuit), four piastres a +month—<i>i.e.</i>, eightpence per adult—a suit of +clothes a year, and on festive occasions lentil soup. Such +is the almshouse here. A little crowd belonging to the +house had collected, and I gave sixpence to an old man, who +transferred it to the first old man to be <i>divided</i> among +them all, ten or twelve people at least, mostly blind or +lame. The poverty wrings my heart. We took leave with +salaams and politeness like the best society, and then turned +into an Arab hut stuck against the lovely arches. I stooped +low under the door, and several women crowded in. This was +still poorer, for there were no mats or rags of carpet, a still +worse cooking-place, a sort of dog-kennel piled up of loose +stones to sleep in, which contained a small chest and the print +of human forms on the stone floor. It was, however, quite +free from dust, and perfectly sweet. I gave the young woman +who had led me in sixpence, and here the difference between Turk +and Arab appeared. The division of this created a perfect +storm of noise, and we left the five or six Arab women +out-shrieking a whole rookery. I ought to say that no one +begged at all.</p> +<p><i>Friday</i>.—I went to-day on a donkey to a mosque in +the bazaar, of what we call Arabesque style, like the Alhambra, +very handsome. The Kibleh was very beautiful, and as I was +admiring it Omar pulled a lemon out of his breast and smeared it +on the porphyry pillar on one side of the arch, and then +entreated me to lick it. It cures all diseases. The +old man who showed the mosque pulled eagerly at my arm to make me +perform this absurd ceremony, and I thought I should have been +forced to do it. The base of the pillar was clogged with +lemon-juice. I then went to the tombs of the +Khalìfah; one of the great ones had such arches and such +wondrous cupolas but all in ruins. There are scores of +these noble buildings, any one of which is a treasure, falling to +decay. The next, strange to say, was in perfect +repair. I got off the donkey, and Omar fidgeted and +hesitated a little and consulted with a woman who had the +key. As there were no overshoes I pulled my boots off, and +was rewarded by seeing the footprints of Mohammed on two black +stones, and a lovely little mosque, a sort of <i>Sainte +Chapelle</i>. Omar prayed with ardent fervour and went out +backwards, saluting the Prophet aloud. To my surprise the +woman was highly pleased with sixpence, and did not ask for +more. When I remarked this, Omar said that no Frank had +ever been inside to his knowledge. A mosque-keeper of the +sterner sex would not have let me in. I returned home +through endless streets and squares of Moslem tombs, those of the +Memlooks among them. It was very striking; and it was +getting so dark that I thought of Nurreddin Bey, and wondered if +a Jinn would take me anywhere if I took up my night’s +lodging in one of the comfortable little cupola-covered +buildings.</p> +<p>My Coptic friend has just called in to say that his brother +expects me at Kenneh. I find nothing but civility and a +desire to please. My boat is the <i>Zint el Bachreyn</i>, +and I carry the English flag and a small American distinguishing +pennant as a signal to my consular agents. We sail next +Wednesday. Good-bye for the present, dearest Mutter.</p> +<h3>November 21, 1862: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Boat off +Embabeh</span>,<br /> +<i>November</i> 21, 1862.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>We embarked yesterday, and after the fashion of Eastern +caravans are abiding to-day at a village opposite Cairo; it is +Friday, and therefore would be improper and unlucky to set out on +our journey. The scenes on the river are wonderfully +diverting and curious, so much life and movement. But the +boatmen are sophisticated; my crew have all sported new white +drawers in honour of the Sitti Ingleezee’s supposed +modesty—of course compensation will be expected. Poor +fellows! they are very well mannered and quiet in their rags and +misery, and their queer little humming song is rather pretty, +‘Eyah Mohammad, eyah Mohammad,’ <i>ad infinitum</i>, +except when an energetic man cries +‘Yallah!’—<i>i.e.</i>, ‘O +God!’—which means ‘go it’ in everyday +life. Omar is gone to fetch one or two more +‘unconsidered trifles,’ and I have been explaining +the defects to be remedied in the cabin door, broken window, +etc., to my Reis with the help of six words of Arabic and dumb +show, which they understand and answer with wonderful +quickness.</p> +<p>The air on the river is certainly quite +celestial—totally unlike the damp, chilly feeling of the +hotel and Frank quarter of Cairo. The Isbekeeyeh, or public +garden, where all the Franks live, was a lake, I believe, and is +still very damp.</p> +<p>I shall go up to the second Cataract as fast as possible, and +return back at leisure. Hekekian Bey came to take leave +yesterday, and lent me several books; pray tell Senior what a +kindness his introduction was. It would have been rather +dismal in Cairo—if one could be dismal there—without +a soul to speak to. I was sorry to know no Turks or Arabs, +and have no opportunity of seeing any but the tradesman of whom I +bought my stores but that was very amusing. The young man +of whom I bought my <i>finjaans</i> was so handsome, elegant and +melancholy that I know he was the lover of the Sultan’s +favourite slave. How I wish you were here to enjoy all +this, so new, so beautiful, and yet so familiar, life—and +you would like the people, poor things! they are complete +children, but amiable children.</p> +<p>I went into the village here, where I was a curiosity, and +some women took me into their houses and showed me their +sleeping-place, cookery, poultry, etc.; and a man followed me to +keep off the children, but no backsheesh was asked for, which +showed that Europeans were rare there. The utter +destitution is terrible to see, though in this climate of course +it matters less, but the much-talked-of dirt is simply utter +poverty. The poor souls are as clean as Nile mud and water +will make their bodies, and they have not a second shirt, or any +bed but dried mud.</p> +<p>Give my love to my darlings, and don’t be uneasy if you +don’t get letters. My cough has been better now for +five days without a bad return of it, so I hope it is really +better; it is the first reprieve for so long. The sun is so +hot, a regular broil, November 21, and all doors and windows open +in the cabin—a delicious breeze.</p> +<h3>November 30, 1862: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Feshn</span>,<br +/> +<i>Monday</i>, <i>November</i> 30, 1862.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I have now been enjoying this most delightful way of life for +ten days, and am certainly much better. I begin to eat and +sleep again, and cough less. My crew are a great amusement +to me. They are mostly men from near the first Cataract +above Assouan, sleek-skinned, gentle, patient, merry black +fellows. The little black Reis is the very picture of +good-nature and full of fun, ‘chaffing’ the girls as +we pass the villages, and always smiling. The steersman is +of lighter complexion, also very cheery, but decidedly +pious. He prays five times a day and utters ejaculations to +the apostle Rusool continually. He hurt his ankle on one +leg and his instep on the other with a rusty nail, and they +festered. I dressed them with poultices, and then with lint +and strapping, with perfect success, to the great admiration of +all hands, and he announced how much better he felt, +‘Alhamdulillah, kieth-el-hairack khateer ya Sitti’ +(Praise be to God and thanks without end O Lady), and everyone +echoed, ‘kieth-el-hairack khateer.’ The most +important person is the +‘weled’—boy—Achmet. The most merry, +clever, omnipresent little rascal, with an ugly little pug face, +a shape like an antique Cupid, liberally displayed, and a skin of +dark brown velvet. His voice, shrill and clear, is always +heard foremost; he cooks for the crew, he jumps overboard with +the rope and gives advice on all occasions, grinds the coffee +with the end of a stick in a mortar, which he holds between his +feet, and uses the same large stick to walk proudly before me, +brandishing it if I go ashore for a minute, and ordering +everybody out of the way. ‘Ya Achmet!’ resounds +all day whenever anybody wants anything, and the +‘weled’ is always ready and able. My favourite +is Osman, a tall, long-limbed black who seems to have stepped out +of a hieroglyphical drawing, shirt, skull-cap and all. He +has only those two garments, and how anyone contrives to look so +inconceivably ‘neat and respectable’ (as Sally truly +remarked) in that costume is a mystery. He is always at +work, always cheerful, but rather silent—in short, the able +seaman and steady, respectable ‘hand’ <i>par +excellence</i>. Then we have El Zankalonee from near Cairo, +an old fellow of white complexion and a valuable person, an +inexhaustible teller of stories at night and always <i>en +train</i>, full of jokes and remarkable for a dry humour much +relished by the crew. I wish I understood the stories, +which sound delightful, all about Sultans and Efreets, with +effective ‘points,’ at which all hands exclaim +‘Mashallah!’ or ‘Ah!’ (as long as you can +drawl it). The jokes, perhaps, I may as well be ignorant +of. There is a certain Shereef who does nothing but laugh +and work and be obliging; helps Omar with one hand and Sally with +the other, and looks like a great innocent black child. The +rest of the dozen are of various colours, sizes and ages, some +quite old, but all very quiet and well-behaved.</p> +<p>We have had either dead calm or contrary wind all the time and +the men have worked very hard at the tow-rope. On Friday I +proclaimed a halt in the afternoon at a village at prayer-time +for the pious Muslims to go to the mosque; this gave great +satisfaction, though only five went, Reis, steersman, Zankalonee +and two old men. The up-river men never pray at all, and +Osman occupied himself by buying salt out of another boat and +stowing it away to take up to his family, as it is terribly dear +high up the river. At Benisouef we halted to buy meat and +bread, it is <i>comme qui dirait</i> an assize town, there is one +butcher who kills one sheep a day. I walked about the +streets escorted by Omar in front and two sailors with huge +staves behind, and created a sensation accordingly. It is a +dull little country town with a wretched palace of Said +Pasha. On Sunday we halted at Bibbeh, where I caught sight +of a large Coptic church and sallied forth to see whether they +would let me in. The road lay past the house of the headman +of the village, and there ‘in the gate’ sat a +patriarch, surrounded by his servants and his cattle. Over +the gateway were crosses and queer constellations of dots, more +like Mithraic symbols than anything Christian, but Girgis was a +Copt, though the chosen head of the Muslim village. He rose +as I came up, stepped out and salaamed, then took my hand and +said I must go into his house before I saw the church and enter +the hareem. His old mother, who looked a hundred, and his +pretty wife, were very friendly; but, as I had to leave Omar at +the door, our talk soon came to an end, and Girgis took me out +into the divan, without the sacred precincts of the hareem. +Of course we had pipes and coffee, and he pressed me to stay some +days, to eat with him every day and to accept all his house +contained. I took the milk he offered, and asked him to +visit me in the boat, saying I must return before sunset when it +gets cold, as I was ill. The house was a curious specimen +of a wealthy man’s house—I could not describe it if I +tried, but I felt I was acting a passage of the Old +Testament. We went to the church, which outside looked like +nine beehives in a box. Inside, the nine domes resting on +square pillars were very handsome. Girgis was putting it +into thorough repair at his own expense, and it will cost a good +deal, I think, to repair and renew the fine old wood panelling of +such minute and intricate workmanship. The church is +divided by three screens; one in front of the eastern three domes +is impervious and conceals the holy of holies. He opened +the horseshoe door for me to look in, but explained that no +Hareem might cross the threshold. All was in confusion +owing to the repairs which were actively going on without the +slightest regard to Sunday; but he took up a large bundle, kissed +it, and showed it me. What it contained I cannot guess, and +I scrupled to inquire through a Muslim interpreter. To the +right of this sanctum is the tomb of a Muslim saint! enclosed +under the adjoining dome. Here we went in and Girgis kissed +the tomb on one side while Omar salaamed it on the other—a +pleasant sight. They were much more particular about our +shoes than in the mosques. Omar wanted to tie handkerchiefs +over my boots like at Cairo, but the priest objected and made me +take them off and march about in the brick and mortar rubbish in +my stockings. I wished to hear the service, but it was not +till sunset, and, as far as I could make out, not different on +Sunday to other days. The Hareems are behind the screen +furthest removed from the holy screen, behind a third screen +where also was the font, locked up and shaped like a Muslim tomb +in little. (Hareem is used here just like the German +<i>Frauenzimmer</i>, to mean a respectable woman. Girgis +spoke of me to Omar as ‘Hareem.’) The Copts +have but one wife, but they shut her up much closer than the +Arabs. The children were sweetly pretty, so unlike the Arab +brats, and the men very good-looking. They did not seem to +acknowledge me at all as a <i>co-religionnaire</i>, and asked +whether we of the English religion did not marry our brothers and +sisters.</p> +<p>The priest then asked me to drink coffee at his house close +by, and there I ‘sat in the gate’—<i>i.e.</i>, +in a large sort of den raised 2 feet from the ground and matted, +to the left of the gate. A crowd of Copts collected and +squatted about, and we were joined by the mason who was repairing +the church, a fine, burly, rough-bearded old Mussulman, who told +how the Sheykh buried in the church of Bibbeh had appeared to him +three nights running at Cairo and ordered him to leave his work +and go to Bibbeh and mend his church, and how he came and offered +to do so without pay if the Copts would find the materials. +He spoke with evident pride, as one who had received a Divine +command, and the Copts all confirmed the story and everyone was +highly gratified by the miracle. I asked Omar if he thought +it was all true, and he had no doubt of it. The mason he +knew to be a respectable man in full work, and Girgis added that +he had tried to get a man to come for years for the purpose +without success. It is not often that a dead saint +contrives to be equally agreeable to Christians and Mussulmans, +and here was the staunch old ‘true believer’ working +away in the sanctuary which they would not allow an English +fellow-Christian to enter.</p> +<p>Whilst we sat hearing all these wonders, the sheep and cattle +pushed in between us, coming home at eve. The venerable old +priest looked so like Father Abraham, and the whole scene was +<i>so</i> pastoral and Biblical that I felt quite as if my wish +was fulfilled to live a little a few thousands of years +ago. They wanted me to stay many days, and then Girgis said +I must stop at Feshn where he had a fine house and garden, and he +would go on horseback and meet me there, and would give me a +whole troop of Fellaheen to pull the boat up quick. +Omar’s eyes twinkled with fun as he translated this, and +said he knew the Sitt would cry out, as she always did about the +Fellaheen, as if she were hurt herself. He told Girgis that +the English customs did not allow people to work without pay, +which evidently seemed very absurd to the whole party.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Gebel Sheyk +Embarak</span>,<br /> +<i>Thursday</i>.</p> +<p>I stopped last night at Feshn, but finding this morning that +my Coptic friends were not expected till the afternoon, I would +not spend the whole day, and came on still against wind and +stream. If I could speak Arabic I should have enjoyed a few +days with Girgis and his family immensely, to learn their +<i>Ansichten</i> a little; but Omar’s English is too +imperfect to get beyond elementary subjects. The thing that +strikes me most is the tolerant spirit that I see +everywhere. They say ‘Ah! it is your custom,’ +and express no sort of condemnation, and Muslims and Christians +appear perfectly good friends, as my story of Bibbeh goes to +prove. I have yet to see the much-talked-of fanaticism, at +present I have not met with a symptom of it. There were +thirteen Copt families at Bibbeh and a considerable Muslim +population, who had elected Girgis their headman and kissed his +hand very heartily as our procession moved through the +streets. Omar said he was a very good man and much +liked.</p> +<p>The villages look like slight elevations in the mud banks cut +into square shapes. The best houses have neither paint, +whitewash, plaster, bricks nor windows, nor any visible +roofs. They don’t give one the notion of human +dwellings at all at first, but soon the eye gets used to the +absence of all that constitutes a house in Europe, the impression +of wretchedness wears off, and one sees how picturesque they are, +with palm-trees and tall pigeon-houses, and here and there the +dome over a saint’s tomb. The men at work on the +river-banks are exactly the same colour as the Nile mud, with +just the warmer hue of the blood circulating beneath the +skin. Prometheus has just formed them out of the universal +material at hand, and the sun breathed life into them. Poor +fellows—even the boatmen, ragged crew as they are—say +‘Ah, Fellaheen!’ with a contemptuous pity when they +see me watch the villagers at work.</p> +<p>The other day four huge barges passed us towed by a steamer +and crammed with hundreds of the poor souls torn from their homes +to work at the Isthmus of Suez, or some palace of the +Pasha’s, for a nominal piastre a day, and find their own +bread and water and cloak. One of my crew, Andrasool, a +black savage whose function is always to jump overboard whenever +the rope gets entangled or anything is wanted, recognised some +relations of his from a village close to Assouan. There was +much shouting and poor Andrasool looked very mournful all +day. It may be his turn next. Some of the crew +disloyally remarked that they were sure the men there wished they +were working for a Sitti Ingleez, as Andrasool told them he +was. Think too what splendid pay it must be that the +boat-owner can give out of £25 a month to twelve men, after +taking his own profits, the interest of money being enormous.</p> +<p>When I call my crew black, don’t think of negroes. +They are elegantly-shaped Arabs and all gentlemen in manners, and +the black is transparent, with amber <i>reflets</i> under it in +the sunshine; a negro looks <i>blue</i> beside them. I have +learned a great deal that is curious from Omar’s +confidences, who tells me his family affairs and talks about the +women of his family, which he would not to a man. He +refused to speak to his brother, a very grand dragoman, who was +with the Prince of Wales, and who came up to us in the hotel at +Cairo and addressed Omar, who turned his back on him. I +asked the reason, and Omar told me how his brother had a wife, +‘An old wife, been with him long time, very good +wife.’ She had had three children—all +dead. All at once the dragoman, who is much older than +Omar, declared he would divorce her and marry a young +woman. Omar said, ‘No, don’t do that; keep her +in your house as head of your home, and take one of your two +black slave girls as your Hareem.’ But the other +insisted, and married a young Turkish wife; whereupon Omar took +his poor old sister-in-law to live with him and his own young +wife, and cut his grand brother dead. See how +characteristic!—the urging his brother to take the young +slave girl ‘as his Hareem,’ like a respectable +man—that would have been all right; but what he did was +‘not good.’ I’ll trouble you (as Mrs. +Grote used to say) to settle these questions to everyone’s +satisfaction. I own Omar seemed to me to take a view +against which I had nothing to say. His account of his +other brother, a confectioner’s household with two wives, +was very curious. He and they, with his wife and +sister-in-law, all live together, and one of the brother’s +wives has six children—three sleep with their own mother +and three with their <i>other</i> mother—and all is quite +harmonious.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Siout</span>,<br +/> +<i>December</i> 10.</p> +<p>I could not send a letter from Minieh, where we stopped, and I +visited a sugar manufactory and a gentlemanly Turk, who +superintended the district, the Moudir. I heard a boy +singing a <i>Zikr</i> (the ninety-nine attributes of God) to a +set of dervishes in a mosque, and I think I never heard anything +more beautiful and affecting. Ordinary Arab singing is +harsh and nasal, but it can be wonderfully moving. Since we +left Minieh we have suffered dreadfully from the cold; the +chickens died of it, and the Arabs look blue and pinched. +Of course it is <i>my weather</i> and there never was such cold +and such incessant contrary winds known. To-day was better, +and Wassef, a Copt here, lent me his superb donkey to go up to +the tomb in the mountain. The tomb is a mere cavern, so +defaced, but the view of beautiful Siout standing in the midst of +a loop of the Nile was ravishing. A green deeper and +brighter than England, graceful minarets in crowds, a picturesque +bridge, gardens, palm-trees, then the river beyond it, the barren +yellow cliffs as a frame all around that. At our feet a +woman was being carried to the grave, and the boys’ voices +rang out the Koran full and clear as the long +procession—first white turbans and then black veils and +robes—wound along. It is all a dream to me. You +can’t think what an odd effect it is to take up an English +book and read it and then look up and hear the men cry, +‘Yah Mohammad.’ ‘Bless thee, Bottom, how +art thou translated;’ it is the reverse of all one’s +former life when one sat in England and read of the East. +‘<i>Und nun sitz ich mitten drein</i>’ in the real, +true Arabian Nights, and don’t know whether ‘I be I +as I suppose I be’ or not.</p> +<p>Tell Alick the news, for I have not written to any but +you. I do so long for my Rainie. The little Copt +girls are like her, only pale; but they don’t let you +admire them for fear of the evil-eye.</p> +<h3>December 20, 1862: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Thebes</span>,<br /> +<i>December</i> 20, 1862.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have had a long, dawdling voyage up here, but enjoyed it +much, and have seen and heard many curious things. I only +stop here for letters and shall go on at once to Wady Halfeh, as +the weather is very cold still, and I shall be better able to +enjoy the ruins when I return about a month hence, and shall +certainly prefer the tropics now. I can’t describe +the kindness of the Copts. The men I met at a party in +Cairo wrote to all their friends and relations to be civil to +me. Wassef’s attentions consisted first in lending me +his superb donkey and accompanying me about all day. Next +morning arrived a procession headed by his clerk, a gentlemanly +young Copt, and consisting of five black memlooks carrying a live +sheep, a huge basket of the most delicious bread, a pile of +cricket-balls of creamy butter, a large copper caldron of milk +and a cage of poultry. I was confounded, and tried to give +a good baksheesh to the clerk, but he utterly declined. At +Girgeh one Mishrehgi was waiting for me, and was in despair +because he had only time to get a few hundred eggs, two turkeys, +a heap of butter and a can of milk. At Keneh one Issa +(Jesus) also lent a donkey, and sent me three boxes of delicious +Mecca dates, which Omar thought stingy. Such attentions are +agreeable here where good food is not to be had except as a +gift. They all made me promise to see them again on my +return and dine at their houses, and Wassef wanted to make a +fantasia and have dancing girls. How you would love the +Arab women in the country villages. I wandered off the +other day alone, while the men were mending the rudder, and fell +in with a troop of them carrying water-jars—such sweet, +graceful beings, all smiles and grace. One beautiful woman +pointed to the village and made signs of eating and took my hand +to lead me. I went with her, admiring them as they +walked. Omar came running after and wondered I was not +afraid. I laughed, and said they were much too pretty and +kindly-looking to frighten anyone, which amused them immensely +when he told them so. They all wanted me to go and eat in +their houses, and I had a great mind to it, but the wind was fair +and the boat waiting, so I bid my beautiful friends +farewell. They asked if we wanted anything—milk or +eggs—for they would give it with pleasure, it was not their +custom to sell things, they said, I offered a bit of money to a +little naked child, but his mother would not let him take +it. I shall never forget the sweet, engaging creatures at +that little village, or the dignified politeness of an old weaver +whose loom I walked in to look at, and who also wished to +‘set a piece of bread before me.’ It is the +true poetical pastoral life of the Bible in the villages where +the English have not been, and happily they don’t land at +the little places. Thebes has become an English +watering-place. There are now nine boats lying here, and +the great object is to <i>do the Nile</i> as fast as +possible. It is a race up to Wady Halfeh or Assouan. +I have gained so much during this month that I hope the remaining +three will do real good, as the weather will improve with the new +year they tell me. All the English stay here and +‘make Christmas,’ as Omar calls it, but I shall go on +and do my devotions with the Copts at Esneh or Edfou. I +found that their seeming disinclination to let one attend their +service arose from an idea that we English would not recognise +them as Christians. I wrote a curious story of a miracle to +my mother, I find that I was wrong about the saint being a +Mussulman (and so is Murray); he is no less than Mar Girghis, our +own St. George himself. Why he selected a Mussulman mason I +suppose he best knows.</p> +<p>In a week I shall be in Nubia. Some year we must all +make this voyage; you would revel in it. Kiss my darlings +for me.</p> +<h3>February 11, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Thebes</span>,<br /> +<i>February</i> 11, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>On arriving here last night I found one letter from you, dated +December 10, and have received nothing else. Pray write +again forthwith to Cairo where I hope to stay some weeks. A +clever old dragoman I met at Philæ offers to lend me +furniture for a lodging or a tent for the desert, and when I +hesitated he said he was very well off and it was not his +business to sell things, but only to be paid for his services by +rich people, and that if I did not accept it as he meant it he +should be quite hurt. This is what I have met with from +everything Arab—nothing but kindness and politeness. +I shall say farewell to Egypt with real feeling; among other +things, it will be quite a pang to part with Omar who has been my +shadow all this time and for whom I have quite an affection, he +is so thoroughly good and amiable.</p> +<p>I am really much better I hope and believe, though only within +the last week or two. We have had the coldest winter ever +known in Nubia, such bitter north-east winds, but when the wind +by great favour did not blow, the weather was heavenly. If +the millennium really does come I shall take a good bit of mine +on the Nile. At Assouan I had been strolling about in that +most poetically melancholy spot, the granite quarry of old Egypt +and burial-place of Muslim martyrs, and as I came homewards along +the bank a party of slave merchants, who had just loaded their +goods for Senaar from the boat on the camels, asked me to dinner, +and, oh! how delicious it felt to sit on a mat among the camels +and strange bales of goods and eat the hot tough bread, sour milk +and dates, offered with such stately courtesy. We got quite +intimate over our leather cup of sherbet (brown sugar and water), +and the handsome jet-black men, with features as beautiful as +those of the young Bacchus, described the distant lands in a way +which would have charmed Herodotus. They proposed to me to +join them, ‘they had food enough,’ and Omar and I +were equally inclined to go. It is of no use to talk of the +ruins; everybody has said, I suppose, all that can be said, but +Philæ surpassed my expectations. No wonder the Arab +legends of Ans el Wogood are so romantic, and Abou Simbel and +many more. The scribbling of names is quite infamous, +beautiful paintings are defaced by Tomkins and Hobson, but worst +of all Prince Pückler Muskau has engraved his and his +<i>Ordenskreuz</i> in huge letters on the naked breast of that +august and pathetic giant who sits at Abou Simbel. I wish +someone would kick him for his profanity.</p> +<p>I have eaten many odd things with odd people in queer places, +dined in a respectable Nubian family (the castor-oil was trying), +been to a Nubian wedding—such a dance I saw. Made +friends with a man much looked up to in his place +(Kalabshee—notorious for cutting throats), inasmuch as he +had killed several intrusive tax-gatherers and recruiting +officers. He was very gentlemanly and kind and carried me +up a place so steep I could not have reached it. Just below +the cataract—by-the-by going up is nothing but noise and +shouting, but coming down is fine fun—<i>Fantasia +khateer</i> as my excellent little Nubian pilot said. My +sailors all prayed away manfully and were horribly +frightened. I confess my pulse quickened, but I don’t +think it was fear. Well, below the cataract I stopped for a +religious fête, and went to a holy tomb with the darweesh, +so extraordinarily handsome and graceful—the true +<i>feingemacht</i> noble Bedaween type. He took care of me +through the crowd, who never had seen a Frank woman before and +crowded fearfully, and pushed the true believers unmercifully to +make way for me. He was particularly pleased at my not +being afraid of Arabs; I laughed, and asked if he was afraid of +us. ‘Oh no! he would like to come to England; when +there he would work to eat and drink, and then sit and sleep in +the church.’ I was positively ashamed to tell my +religious friend that with us the ‘house of God’ is +not the house of the poor stranger. I asked him to eat with +me but he was holding a preliminary Ramadan (it begins next +week), and could not; but he brought his handsome sister, who was +richly dressed, and begged me to visit him and eat of his bread, +cheese and milk. Such is the treatment one finds if one +leaves the highroad and the backsheesh-hunting parasites. +There are plenty of ‘gentlemen’ barefooted and clad +in a shirt and cloak ready to pay attentions which you may return +with a civil look and greeting, and if you offer a cup of coffee +and a seat on the floor you give great pleasure, still more if +you eat the dourah and dates, or bread and sour milk with an +appetite.</p> +<p>At Koom Ombo we met a Rifaee darweesh with his basket of tame +snakes. After a little talk he proposed to initiate me, and +so we sat down and held hands like people marrying. Omar +sat behind me and repeated the words as my ‘Wakeel,’ +then the Rifaee twisted a cobra round our joined hands and +requested me to spit on it, he did the same and I was pronounced +safe and enveloped in snakes. My sailors groaned and Omar +shuddered as the snakes put out their tongues—the darweesh +and I smiled at each other like Roman augurs. I need not +say the creatures were toothless.</p> +<p>It is worth going to Nubia to see the girls. Up to +twelve or thirteen they are neatly dressed in a bead necklace and +a leather fringe 4 inches wide round the loins, and anything so +absolutely perfect as their shapes or so sweetly innocent as +their look can’t be conceived. My pilot’s +little girl came in the dress mentioned before carrying a present +of cooked fish on her head and some fresh eggs; she was four +years old and so <i>klug</i>. I gave her a captain’s +biscuit and some figs, and the little pet sat with her little +legs tucked under her, and ate it so <i>manierlich</i> and was so +long over it, and wrapped up some more white biscuit to take home +in a little rag of a veil so carefully. I longed to steal +her, she was such a darling. Two beautiful young Nubian +women visited me in my boat, with hair in little plaits finished +off with lumps of yellow clay burnished like golden tags, soft, +deep bronze skins, and lips and eyes fit for Isis and +Hathor. Their very dress and ornaments were the same as +those represented in the tombs, and I felt inclined to ask them +how many thousand years old they were. In their house I sat +on an ancient Egyptian couch with the semicircular head-rest, and +drank out of crockery which looked antique, and they brought a +present of dates in a basket such as you may see in the British +Museum. They are dressed in drapery like Greek statues, and +are as perfect, but have hard, bold faces, and, though far +handsomer, lack the charm of the Arab women; and the men, except +at Kalabshee and those from far up the country, are not such +gentlemen as the Arabs.</p> +<p>Everyone is cursing the French here. Forty thousand men +always at work at the Suez Canal at starvation-point, does not +endear them to the Arabs. There is great excitement as to +what the new Pasha will do. If he ceases to give forced +labour, the Canal, I suppose, must be given up. Well, I +must leave off and send my letter to Mustapha Aga to +forward. I shall stay here ten days or so, and then return +slowly to Cairo on March 10, the last day of Ramadan. I +will stay a short time at Cairo, and then take a small boat and +drop down to Alexandria and see Janet. How I did wish for +my darling Rainie to play with Achmet in the boat and see the +pretty Nubian boys and girls. I have seen and heard so +much, that like M. de Conti <i>je voudrais être levé +pour l’aller dire</i>. I long to bore you with +traveller’s tales. Pray write soon.</p> +<p>Omar wanted to hear all that ‘the gentleman’ said +about ‘weled and bint’ (boy and girl), and was quite +delighted to hear of Maurice’s good report at school, he +thinks that the ‘Abou el welàd’ (father of the +children—you, to wit) will send a sheep to the +‘fikee’ who teaches him. I have learned a new +code of propriety altogether—<i>célà a du bon +et du mauvais</i>, like ours. When I said ‘my +husband’ Omar blushed and gently corrected me; when my +donkey fell in the streets he cried with vexation, and on my +mentioning the fall to Hekekian Bey he was quite indignant. +‘Why you say it, ma’am? that shame’—a +<i>faux pas</i> in fact. On the other hand they mention all +that belongs to the production of children with perfect +satisfaction and pleasure. A very pleasing, modest and +handsome Nubian young woman, wishing to give me the best present +she could think of, brought me a mat of her own making, and which +had been her marriage-bed. It was a gift both friendly and +honourable, and I treasure it accordingly. Omar gave me a +description of his own marriage, appealing to my sympathy about +the distress of absence from his wife. I intimated that +English people were not accustomed to some words and might be +shocked, on which he said, ‘Of course I not speak of my +Hareem to English gentleman, but to good Lady can speak +it.’</p> +<p>Good-bye, dear Alick, no, that is improper: I must say +‘O my Lord’ or ‘Abou Maurice.’</p> +<h3>March 7, 1863: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">A few miles +below Girgeh</span>,<br /> +<i>March</i> 7, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I was so glad to find from your letter (which Janet sent me to +Thebes by a steamer) that mine from Siout had reached you +safely. First and foremost I am wonderfully better. +In Cairo the winter has been terribly cold and damp, as the +Coptic priest told me yesterday at Girgeh. So I don’t +repent the expense of the boat for <i>j’en ai pour mon +argent</i>—I am <i>all</i> the money better and really +think of getting well. Now that I know the ways of this +country a little, which Herodotus truly says is like no other, I +see that I might have gone and lived at Thebes or at Keneh or +Assouan on next to nothing, but then how could I know it? +The English have raised a mirage of false wants and extravagance +which the servants of the country of course, some from interest +and others from mere ignorance, do their best to keep up. +As soon as I had succeeded in really persuading Omar that I was +not as rich as a Pasha and had no wish to be thought so, he +immediately turned over a new leaf as to what must be had and +said ‘Oh, if I could have thought an English lady would +have eaten and lived and done the least like Arab people, I might +have hired a house at Keneh for you, and we might have gone up in +a clean passenger boat, but I thought no English could bear +it.’ At Cairo, where we shall be, Inshallaha, on the +19th, Omar will get a lodging and borrow a few mattresses and a +table and chair and, as he says, ‘keep the money in our +pockets instead of giving it to the hotel.’ I hope +Alick got my letter from Thebes, and that he told you that I had +dined with ‘the blameless Ethiopians.’ I have +seen all the temples in Nubia and down as far as I have come, and +nine of the tombs at Thebes. Some are wonderfully +beautiful—Abou Simbel, Kalabshee, Room Ombo—a little +temple at El Kab, lovely—three tombs at Thebes and most of +all Abydos; Edfou and Dendera are the most perfect, Edfou quite +perfect, but far less beautiful. But the most lovely object +my eyes ever saw is the island of Philæ. It gives one +quite the supernatural feeling of Claude’s best landscapes, +only not the least like them—<i>ganz anders</i>. The +Arabs say that Ans el Wogood, the most beautiful of men, built it +for his most beautiful beloved, and there they lived in perfect +beauty and happiness all alone. If the weather had not been +so cold while I was there I should have lived in the temple, in a +chamber sculptured with the mystery of Osiris’ burial and +resurrection. Omar cleaned it out and meant to move my +things there for a few days, but it was too cold to sleep in a +room without a door. The winds have been extraordinarily +cold this year, and are so still. We have had very little +of the fine warm weather, and really been pinched with cold most +of the time. On the shore away from the river would be much +better for invalids.</p> +<p>Mustapha Aga, the consular agent at Thebes, has offered me a +house of his, up among the tombs in the finest air, if ever I +want it. He was very kind and hospitable indeed to all the +English there. I went into his hareem, and liked his +wife’s manners very much. It was charming to see that +she henpecked her handsome old husband completely. They had +fine children and his boy, about thirteen or so, rode and played +Jereed one day when Abdallah Pasha had ordered the people of the +neighbourhood to do it for General Parker. I never saw so +beautiful a performance. The old General and I were quite +excited, and he tried it to the great amusement of the Sheykh el +Beled. Some young Englishmen were rather grand about it, +but declined mounting the horses and trying a throw. The +Sheykh and young Hassan and then old Mustapha wheeled round and +round like beautiful hawks, and caught the palm-sticks thrown at +them as they dashed round. It was superb, and the horses +were good, though the saddles and bridles were rags and ends of +rope, and the men mere tatterdemalions. A little below +Thebes I stopped, and walked inland to Koos to see a noble old +mosque falling to ruin. No English had ever been there and +we were surrounded by a crowd in the bazaar. Instantly five +or six tall fellows with long sticks improvised themselves our +body-guard and kept the people off, who <i>du reste</i> were +perfectly civil and only curious to see such strange +‘Hareem,’ and after seeing us well out of the town +evaporated as quietly as they came without a word. I gave +about ten-pence to buy oil, as it is Ramadan and the mosque ought +to be lighted, and the old servant of the mosque kindly promised +me full justice at the Day of Judgment, as I was one of those +Nasranee of whom the Lord Mohammed said that they are not proud +and wish well to the Muslimeen. The Pasha had confiscated +all the lands belonging to the mosque, and allowed 300 +piastres—not £2 a month—for all expenses; of +course the noble old building with its beautiful carving and +arabesque mouldings must fall down. There was a smaller one +beside it, where he declared that anciently forty girls lived +unmarried and recited the Koran—Muslim nuns, in fact. +I intend to ask the Alim, for whom I have a letter from Mustapha, +about such an anomaly.</p> +<p>Some way above Bellianeh Omar asked eagerly leave to stop the +boat as a great Sheyk had called to us, and we should inevitably +have some disaster if we disobeyed. So we stopped and Omar +said, ‘come and see the Sheyk, ma’am.’ I +walked off and presently found about thirty people, including all +my own men, sitting on the ground round St. Simon +Stylites—without the column. A hideous old man like +Polyphemus, utterly naked, with the skin of a rhinoceros all +cracked with the weather, sat there, and had sat day and night, +summer and winter, motionless for twenty years. He never +prays, he never washes, he does not keep Ramadan, and yet he is a +saint. Of course I expected a good hearty curse from such a +man, but he was delighted with my visit, asked me to sit down, +ordered his servant to bring me sugar-cane, asked my name and +tried to repeat it over and over again, and was quite talkative +and full of jokes and compliments, and took no notice of anyone +else. Omar and my crew smiled and nodded, and all +congratulated me heartily. Such a distinction proves my own +excellence (as the Sheyk knows all people’s thoughts), and +is sure to be followed by good fortune. Finally Omar +proposed to say the Fathah in which all joined except the Sheykh, +who looked rather bored by the interruption, and desired us not +to go so soon, unless I were in a hurry. A party of +Bedaween came up on camels with presents for the holy man, but he +took no notice of them, and went on questioning Omar about me, +and answering my questions. What struck me was the total +absence of any sanctimonious air about the old fellow, he was +quite worldly and jocose; I suppose he knew that his position was +secure, and thought his dirt and nakedness proved his holiness +enough. Omar then recited the Fathah again, and we rose and +gave the servants a few foddahs—the saint takes no notice +of this part of the proceeding—but he asked me to send him +twice my hand full of rice for his dinner, an honour so great +that there was a murmur of congratulation through the whole +assembly. I asked Omar how a man could be a saint who +neglected all the duties of a Muslim, and I found that he fully +believed that Sheykh Seleem could be in two places at once, that +while he sits there on the shore he is also at Mecca, performing +every sacred function and dressed all in green. ‘Many +people have seen him there, ma’am, quite true.’</p> +<p>From Bellianeh we rode on pack-donkeys without bridles to +Abydos, six miles through the most beautiful crops ever +seen. The absence of weeds and blight is wonderful, and the +green of Egypt, where it is green, would make English green look +black. Beautiful cattle, sheep and camels were eating the +delicious clover, while their owners camped there in reed huts +during the time the crops are growing. Such a lovely scene, +all sweetness and plenty. We ate our bread and dates in +Osiris’ temple, and a woman offered us buffalo milk on our +way home, which we drank warm out of the huge earthen pan it had +been milked in. At Girgeh I found my former friend Mishregi +absent, but his servants told some of his friends of my arrival, +and about seven or eight big black turbans soon gathered in the +boat. A darling little Coptic boy came with his father and +wanted a ‘<i>kitaab</i>’ (book) to write in, so I +made one with paper and the cover of my old pocket-book, and gave +him a pencil. I also bethought me of showing him +‘pickys’ in a book, which was so glorious a novelty +that he wanted to go with me to my town, ‘Beled +Ingleez,’ where more such books were to be found.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Siout</span>,<br +/> +<i>March</i> 9.</p> +<p>I found here letters from Alick, telling me of dear Lord +Lansdowne’s death. Of course I know that his time was +come, but the thought that I shall never see his face again, that +all that kindness and affection is gone out of my life, is a +great blow. No friend could leave such a blank to me as +that old and faithful one, though the death of younger ones might +be more tragic; but so many things seem gone with him into the +grave. Many indeed will mourn that kind, wise, steadfast +man—<i>Antiqua fides</i>. No one nowadays will be so +noble with such unconsciousness and simplicity. I have +bought two Coptic turbans to make a black dress out of. I +thought I should like to wear it for him—here, where +‘compliment’ is out of the question.</p> +<p>I also found a letter from Janet, who has been very ill; the +account was so bad that I have telegraphed to hear how she is, +and shall go at once to Alexandria if she is not better. If +she is I shall hold to my plan and see Beni Hassan and the +Pyramids on my way to Cairo. I found my kind friend the +Copt Wassef kinder than ever. He went off to telegraph to +Alexandria for me, and showed so much feeling and real kindness +that I was quite touched.</p> +<p>I was grieved to hear that you had been ill again, dearest +Mutter. The best is that I feel so much better that I think +I may come home again without fear; I still have an irritable +cough, but it has begun to have lucid intervals, and is far less +frequent. I can walk four or five miles and my appetite is +good. All this in spite of really cold weather in a boat +where nothing shuts within two fingers’ breadths. I +long to be again with my own people.</p> +<p>Please send this to Alick, to whom I will write again from +Cairo.</p> +<h3>March 10, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>March</i> 10, 1863.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘If in the street I led thee, dearest,<br /> +Though the veil hid thy face divine,<br /> +They who beheld thy graceful motion<br /> +Would stagger as though drunk with wine.</p> +<p>Nay, e’en the holy Sheykh, while praying<br /> +For guidance in the narrow way,<br /> +Must needs leave off, and on the traces<br /> +Of thine enchanting footsteps stray.</p> +<p>O ye who go down in the boats to Dumyat,<br /> +Cross, I beseech ye, the stream to Budallah;<br /> +Seek my beloved, and beg that she will not<br /> +Forget me, I pray and implore her by Allah.</p> +<p>‘Fair as two moons is the face of my sweetheart,<br /> +And as to her neck and her bosom—Mashallah.<br /> +And unless to my love I am soon reunited<br /> +Death is my portion—I swear it by Allah.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Thus sings Ali Asleemee, the most <i>debraillé</i> of +my crew, a <i>hashshásh</i>, <a name="citation48"></a><a +href="#footnote48" class="citation">[48]</a> but a singer and a +good fellow. The translation is not free, though the +sentiments are. I merely rhymed Omar’s literal +word-for-word interpretation. The songs are all in a +similar strain, except one funny one abusing the ‘Sheykh +el-Beled, may the fleas bite him.’ Horrid +imprecation! as I know to my cost, for after visiting the Coptic +monks at Girgeh I came home to the boat with myriads. Sally +said she felt like Rameses the Great, so tremendous was the +slaughter of the active enemy.</p> +<p>I had written the first page just as I got to Siout and was +stopped by bad news of Janet; but now all is right again, and I +am to meet her in Cairo, and she proposes a jaunt to Suez and to +Damietta. I have got a superb illumination to-night, +improvised by Omar in honour of the Prince of Wales’s +marriage, and consequently am writing with flaring candles, my +lantern being on duty at the masthead, and the men are singing an +epithalamium and beating the tarabookeh as loud as they can.</p> +<p>You will have seen my letter to my mother, and heard how much +better I am for the glorious air of Nubia and the high +up-country. Already we are returning into misty +weather. I dined and spent the day with Wassef and his +Hareem, such an amiable, kindly household. I was charmed +with their manner to each other, to the slaves and family. +The slaves (all Muslims) told Omar what an excellent master they +had. He had meant to make a dance-fantasia, but as I had +not good news it was countermanded. Poor Wassef ate his +boiled beans rather ruefully, while his wife and I had an +excellent dinner, she being excused fasting on account of a +coming baby. The Copt fast is no joke, neither butter, +milk, eggs nor fish being allowed for fifty-five days. They +made Sally dine with us, and Omar was admitted to wait and +interpret. Wassef’s younger brother waited on him as +in the Bible, and his clerk, a nice young fellow, assisted. +Black slaves brought the dishes in, and capital the food +was. There was plenty of joking between the lady and Omar +about Ramadan, which he had broken, and the Nasranee fast, and +also about the number of wives allowed, the young clerk +intimating that he rather liked that point in Islam. I have +promised to spend ten or twelve days at their house if ever I go +up the Nile again. I have also promised to send Wassef all +particulars as to the expense, etc. of educating his boy in +England, and to look after him and have him to our house in the +holidays. I can’t describe how anxiously kind these +people were to me. One gets such a wonderful amount of +sympathy and real hearty kindness here. A curious instance +of the affinity of the British mind for prejudice is the way in +which every Englishman I have seen scorns the Eastern Christians, +and droll enough that sinners like Kinglake and I should be the +only people to feel the tie of the ‘common faith’ +(<i>vide</i> ‘Eothen’). A very pious Scotch +gentleman wondered that I could think of entering a Copt’s +house, adding that they were the publicans (tax-gatherers) of +this country, which is partly true. I felt inclined to +mention that better company than he or I had dined with +publicans, and even sinners.</p> +<p>The Copts are evidently the ancient Egyptians. The +slightly aquiline nose and long eye are the very same as the +profiles of the tombs and temples, and also like the very +earliest Byzantine pictures; <i>du reste</i>, the face is +handsome, but generally sallow and rather inclined to puffiness, +and the figure wants the grace of the Arabs. Nor has any +Copt the thoroughbred, <i>distingué</i> look of the +meanest man or woman of good Arab blood. Their feet are the +long-toed, flattish foot of the Egyptian statue, while the Arab +foot is classically perfect and you could put your hand under the +instep. The beauty of the Ababdeh, black, naked, and +shaggy-haired, is quite marvellous. I never saw such +delicate limbs and features, or such eyes and teeth.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>March</i> 19.</p> +<p>After leaving Siout I caught cold. The worst of going up +the Nile is that one must come down again and find horrid fogs, +and cold nights with sultry days. So I did not attempt +Sakhara and the Pyramids, but came a day before my appointed time +to Cairo. Up here in the town it is much warmer and dryer, +and my cough is better already. I found all your letters in +many volumes, and was so excited over reading them that I could +not sleep one moment last night, so excuse dulness, but I thought +you’d like to know I was safe in Briggs’ bank, and +expecting Janet and Ross to-night.</p> +<h3>April 9, 1863: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 9, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I write to you because I know Janet is sure to write to +Alick. I have had a very severe attack of bronchitis. +As I seemed to be getting worse after Janet and Ross left for +Alexandria, Omar very wisely sent for Hekekian Bey, who came at +once bringing De Leo Bey, the surgeon-in-chief of the +Pasha’s troops, and also the doctor to the hareem. He +has been most kind, coming two and three times a day at +first. He won’t take any fee, <i>sous +prétexte</i> that he is <i>officier du Pasha</i>; I must +send him a present from England. As to Hekekian Bey, he is +absolutely the Good Samaritan, and these Orientals do their +kindnesses with such an air of enjoyment to themselves that it +seems quite a favour to let them wait upon one. Hekekian +comes in every day with his handsome old face and a budget of +news, all the gossip of the Sultan and his doings. I shall +always fancy the Good Samaritan in a tarboosh with a white beard +and very long eyes. I am out of bed to-day for the second +time, and waiting for a warm day to go out. Sally saw the +illuminations last night; the Turkish bazaar she says was +gorgeous. The Sultan and all his suite have not eaten bread +here, all their food comes from Constantinople. To-morrow +the Mahmaal goes—think of my missing that sight! +<i>C’est désclant</i>.</p> +<p>I have a black slave—a real one. I looked at her +little ears wondering they had not been bored for rings. +She fancied I wished them bored (she was sitting on the floor +close at my side), and in a minute she stood up and showed me her +ear with a great pin through it: ‘Is that well, +lady?’ the creature is eight years old. The shock +nearly made me faint. What extremities of terror had +reduced that little mind to such a state. She is very good +and gentle, and sews quite nicely already. When she first +came, she tells me, she thought I should eat her; now her one +dread is that I should leave her behind. She sings a wild +song of joy to Maurice’s picture and about the little +Sitt. She was sent from Khartoum as a present to Mr. +Thayer, who has no woman-servant at all. He fetched me to +look at her, and when I saw the terror-stricken creature being +coarsely pulled about by his cook and groom, I said I would take +her for the present. Sally teaches her, and she is very +good; but now she has set her whole little black soul upon +me. De Leo can give no opinion as to what I ought to do, as +he knows little but Egypt, and thinks England rather like Norway, +I fancy. Only don’t let me be put in a dreadful +mountain valley; I hear the drip, drip, drip of Eaux Bonnes in +bad dreams still, when I am chilly and oppressed in my +sleep. I’ll write again soon, send this to Alick, +please.</p> +<h3>April 13, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 13, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>You will have heard from my mother of my ill luck, falling +sick again. The fact is that the spring in Egypt is very +trying, and I came down the river a full month too soon. +People do tell such lies about the heat. To-day is the +first warm day we have had; till now I have been shivering, and +Sally too. I have been out twice, and saw the holy Mahmaal +rest for its first station outside the town, it is a deeply +affecting sight—all those men prepared to endure such +hardship. They halt among the tombs of the Khalìfah, +such a spot. Omar’s eyes were full of tears and his +voice shaking with emotion, as he talked about it and pointed out +the Mahmaal and the Sheykh al-Gemel, who leads the sacred camel, +naked to the waist with flowing hair. Muslim piety is so +unlike what Europeans think it is, so full of tender emotions, so +much more sentimental than we imagine—and it is wonderfully +strong. I used to hear Omar praying outside my door while I +was so ill, ‘O God, make her better. O my God, let +her sleep,’ as naturally as we should say, ‘I hope +she’ll have a good night.’</p> +<p>The Sultan’s coming is a kind of riddle. No one +knows what he wants. The Pasha has ordered all the women of +the lower classes to keep indoors while he is here. Arab +women are outspoken, and might shout out their grievances to the +great Sultan.</p> +<p><i>April</i> 15.—I continue to get better slowly, and in +a few days will go down to Alexandria. Omar is gone to +Boulak to inquire the cost of a boat, as I am not fond of the +railroad, and have a good deal of heavy baggage, cooking +utensils, etc., which the railway charges enormously for. +The black slave girl, sent as a present to the American +Consul-General, is as happy as possible, and sings quaint, soft +little Kordofan songs all day. I hope you won’t +object to my bringing her home. She wails so terribly when +Omar tells her she is not my slave, for fear I should leave her, +and insists on being my slave. She wants to be a present to +Rainie, the little Sitt, and laughs out so heartily at the +thought of her. She is very quiet and gentle, poor little +savage, and the utter slavishness of the poor little soul quite +upsets me; she has no will of her own. Now she has taken to +talking, and tells all her woes and how <i>batal</i> (bad) +everyone was at Khartoum; and then she rubs her little black nose +on my hand, and laughs so merrily, and says all is <i>quyis +keteer</i> (very good) here, and she hugs herself with +delight. I think Rainie will like her very much.</p> +<p>I am going to visit an old Muslim French painter’s +family. He has an Arab wife and grown-up daughters, and is +a very agreeable old man with a store of Arab legends; I am going +to persuade him to write them and let me translate them into +English. The Sultan goes away to-day. Even water to +drink has been brought from Constantinople; I heard that from +Hekekian Bey, who formerly owned the eunuch who is now Kislar +Aghasy to the Sultan himself. Hekekian had the honour of +kissing his old slave’s hand. If anyone tries to make +you believe any bosh about civilization in Egypt, laugh at +it. The real life and the real people are exactly as +described in the most veracious of books, the ‘Thousand and +One Nights’; the tyranny is the same, the people are not +altered—and very charming people they are. If I could +but speak the language I could get into Arab society here through +two or three different people, and see more than many Europeans +who have lived here all their lives. The Arabs are keenly +alive to the least prejudice against them, but when they feel +quite safe on that point they rather like the amusement of a +stranger.</p> +<p>Omar devised a glorious scheme, if I were only well and +strong, of putting me in a takterrawan and taking me to Mecca in +the character of his mother, supposed to be a Turk. To a +European man, of course, it would be impossible, but an +enterprising woman might do it easily with a Muslim +confederate. Fancy seeing the pilgrimage! In a few +days I shall go down to Alexandria, if it makes me ill again I +must return to Europe or go to Beyrout. I can’t get a +boat under £12; thus do the Arabs understand competition; +the owner of boats said so few were wanted, times were bad on +account of the railway, etc., he must have double what he used to +charge. In vain Omar argued that that was not the way to +get employment. ‘Maleesh!’ (Never mind!), and +so I must go by rail. Is not that Eastern? Up the +river, where there is no railroad, I might have had it at half +that rate. All you have ever told me as most Spanish in +Spain is in full vigour here, and also I am reminded of Ireland +at every turn; the same causes produce the same effects.</p> +<p>To-day the Khamseen is blowing and it is decidedly hot, quite +unlike the heat at the Cape; this is close and gloomy, no +sunshine. Altogether the climate is far less bright than I +expected, very, very inferior to the Cape. Nevertheless, I +heartily agree to the Arab saying: ‘He who has drunk Nile +water will ever long to drink it again’; and when a +graceful woman in a blue shirt and veil lifts a huge jar from her +shoulder and holds it to your lips with a hearty smile and +welcome, it tastes doubly sweet. +<i>Alhamdulillah</i>! Sally says all other water is like +bad small-beer compared to sweet ale after the Nile water. +When the Khamseen is over, Omar insists on my going to see the +tree and the well where Sittina Mariam rested with Seyidna Issa +<a name="citation55"></a><a href="#footnote55" +class="citation">[55]</a> in her arms during the flight into +Egypt. It is venerated by Christian and Muslim alike, and +is a great place for feasting and holiday-making out of doors, +which the Arabs so dearly love. Do write and tell me what +you wish me to do. If it were not that I cannot endure not +to see you and the children, I would stay here and take a house +at the Abbassieh in the desert; but I could not endure it. +Nor can I endure this wandering life much longer. I must +come home and die in peace if I don’t get really +better. Write to Alexandria next.</p> +<h3>April 18, 1863: Mr. Tom Taylor</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mr. Tom Taylor</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 18, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Tom</span>,</p> +<p>Your letter and Laura’s were a great pleasure to me in +this distant land. I could not answer before, as I have +been very ill. But Samaritans came with oil and wine and +comforted me. It had an odd, dreary effect to hear my +friend Hekekian Bey, a learned old Armenian, and De Leo Bey, my +doctor, discoursing Turkish at my bedside, while my faithful Omar +cried and prayed <i>Yah Robbeena</i>! <i>Yah Saatir</i>! (O +Lord! O Preserver!) ‘don’t let her +die.’</p> +<p>Alick is quite right that I am in love with the Arabs’ +ways, and I have contrived to see and know more of family life +than many Europeans who have lived here for years. When the +Arabs feel that one really cares for them, they heartily return +it. If I could only speak the language I could see +anything. Cairo <i>is</i> the Arabian Nights; there is a +little Frankish varnish here and there, but the government, the +people—all is unchanged since that most veracious book was +written. No words can describe the departure of the holy +Mahmal and the pilgrims for Mecca. I spent half the day +loitering about in the Bedaween tents admiring the glorious, free +people. To see a Bedaween and his wife walk through the +streets of Cairo is superb. Her hand resting on his +shoulder, and scarcely deigning to cover her haughty face, she +looks down on the Egyptian veiled woman who carries the heavy +burden and walks behind her lord and master.</p> +<p>By no deed of my own have I become a slave-owner. The +American Consul-General turned over to me a black girl of eight +or nine, and in consequence of her reports the poor little black +boy who is the slave and marmiton of the cook here has been +entreating Omar to beg me to buy him and take him with me. +It is touching to see the two poor little black things recounting +their woes and comparing notes. I went yesterday to deposit +my cooking things and boat furniture at my washerwoman’s +house. Seeing me arrive on my donkey, followed by a cargo +of household goods, about eight or ten Arab women thronged round +delighted at the idea that I was coming to live in their quarter, +and offering me neighbourly services. Of course all rushed +upstairs, and my old washerwoman was put to great expense in +pipes and coffee. I think, as you, that I must have the +‘black drop,’ and that the Arabs see it, for I am +always told that I am like them, with praises of my former good +looks. ‘You were beautiful Hareem once.’ +Nothing is more striking to me than the way in which one is +constantly reminded of Herodotus. The Christianity and the +Islam of this country are full of the ancient worship, and the +sacred animals have all taken service with Muslim saints. +At Minieh one reigns over crocodiles; higher up I saw the hole of +Æsculapius’ serpent at Gebel Sheykh Hereedee, and I +fed the birds—as did Herodotus—who used to tear the +cordage of boats which refused to feed them, and who are now the +servants of Sheykh Naooneh, and still come on board by scores for +the bread which no Reis dares refuse them. Bubastis’ +cats are still fed in the Cadi’s court at public expense in +Cairo, and behave with singular decorum when ‘the servant +of the cats’ serves them their dinner. Among gods, +Amun Ra, the sun-god and serpent-killer, calls himself Mar Girgis +(St. George), and is worshipped by Christians and Muslims in the +same churches, and Osiris holds his festivals as riotously as +ever at Tanta in the Delta, under the name of Seyd el +Bedawee. The <i>fellah</i> women offer sacrifices to the +Nile, and walk round ancient statues in order to have +children. The ceremonies at births and burials are not +Muslim, but ancient Egyptian.</p> +<p>The Copts are far more close and reserved and backward than +the Arabs, and they have been so repudiated by Europeans that +they are doubly shy of us. The Europeans resent being +called ‘Nazranee’ as a genteel Hebrew gentleman may +shrink from ‘Jew.’ But I said boldly, +‘<i>Ana Nazraneeh</i>. <i>Alhamdulillah</i>!’ +(I am a Nazranee. Praise be to God), and found that it was +much approved by the Muslims as well as the Copts. Curious +things are to be seen here in religion—Muslims praying at +the tomb of Mar Girgis (St. George) and the resting-places of +Sittina Mariam and Seyidna Issa, and miracles, brand-new, of an +equally mixed description.</p> +<p>If you have any power over any artists, send them to paint +here. No words can describe either the picturesque beauty +of Cairo or the splendid forms of the people in Upper Egypt, and +above all in Nubia. I was in raptures at seeing how superb +an animal man (and woman) really is. My donkey-girl at +Thebes, dressed like a Greek statue—Ward es-Sham (the Rose +of Syria)—was a feast to the eyes; and here, too, what +grace and sweetness, and how good is a drink of Nile water out of +an amphora held to your lips by a woman as graceful as she is +kindly. ‘May it benefit thee,’ she says, +smiling with all her beautiful teeth and eyes. +‘<i>Alhamdulillah</i>,’ you reply; and it is worth +thanking God for. The days of the beauty of Cairo are +numbered. The mosques are falling to decay, the exquisite +lattice windows rotting away and replaced by European glass and +jalousies. Only the people and the Government remain +unchanged. Read all the pretty paragraphs about +civilisation here, and then say, Bosh!</p> +<p>If you know anyone coming here and wanting a good servant and +dragoman, recommend my dear Omar Abou el-Haláweh of +Alexandria. He has been my friend and companion, as well as +my cook and general servant, now for six months, and we are very +sad at our approaching separation. I am to spend a day in +his house with his young wife at Alexandria, and to eat his +bread. He sadly wants to go with me to Europe and to see my +children. Sally, I think, is almost as fond of the Arabs as +I am, and very popular. My poor ragged crew were for ever +calling out ‘Yah Sara’ for some assistance or other, +hurt fingers or such calamities; and the quantity of doctoring I +did was fearful. Sally was constantly wishing for you to +see all manner of things and to sketch. What a yarn I have +made!</p> +<h3>May 12, 1863: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Alexandria</span>,<br /> +<i>May</i> 12, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I have been here a fortnight, but the climate disagrees so +much with me that I am going back to Cairo at once by the advice +of the doctor of the Suez Canal. I cannot shake off my +cough here. Mr. Thayer kindly lends me his nice little +bachelor house, and I take Omar back again for the job. It +is very hot here, but with a sea-breeze which strikes me like +ice; strong people enjoy it, but it gives even Janet cold in the +head. She is very well, I think, and seems very +happy. She is <i>Times</i> correspondent and does it very +well.</p> +<p>I am terribly disappointed at not being as materially better +as I had hoped I should be while in Upper Egypt. I cannot +express the longing I have for home and my children, and how much +I feel the sort of suspense it all causes to you and to Alick, +and my desire to be with you.</p> +<p>One must come to the East to understand absolute +equality. As there is no education and no reason why the +donkey-boy who runs behind me may not become a great man, and as +all Muslims are <i>ipso facto</i> equal; money and rank are +looked on as mere accidents, and my <i>savoir vivre</i> was +highly thought of because I sat down with Fellaheen and treated +everyone as they treat each other. In Alexandria all that +is changed. The European ideas and customs have +extinguished the Arab altogether, and those who remain are not +improved by the contact. Only the <i>Bedaween</i> preserve +their haughty <i>nonchalance</i>. I found the Mograbee +bazaar full of them when I went to buy a white cloak, and was +amused at the way in which one splendid bronze figure, who lay on +the shop-front, moved one leg to let me sit down. They got +interested in my purchase, and assisted in making the bargain and +wrapping the cloak round me Bedawee fashion, and they too +complimented me on having ‘the face of the Arab,’ +which means Bedaween. I wanted a little Arab dress for +Rainie, but could not find one, as at her age none are worn in +the desert.</p> +<p>I dined one day with Omar, or rather I ate at his house, for +he would not eat with me. His sister-in-law cooked a most +admirable dinner, and everyone was delighted. It was an +interesting family circle. A very respectable elder brother +a confectioner, whose elder wife was a black woman, a really +remarkable person, who speaks Italian perfectly, and gave me a +great deal of information and asked such intelligent +questions. She ruled the house but had no children, so he +had married a fair, gentle-looking Arab woman who had six +children, and all lived in perfect harmony. Omar’s +wife is a tall, handsome girl of his own age, with very good +manners. She had been outside the door of the close little +court which constituted the house <i>once</i> since her +marriage. I now begin to understand all about the +<i>wesen</i> with the women. There is a good deal of +chivalry in some respects, and in the respectable lower and +middle classes the result is not so bad. I suspect that +among the rich few are very happy. But I don’t know +them, or anything of the Turkish ways. I will go and see +the black woman again and hear more, her conversation was really +interesting.</p> +<h3>May 12, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Alexandria</span>,<br /> +<i>May</i> 12, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I only got your letter an hour ago, and the mail goes out at +four. I enclose to you the letter I had written to my +mother, so I need not repeat about my plans. Continue to +write here, a letter comes as soon and safer. My general +health is so much stronger and better—especially before I +had this last severe attack—that I still hope, though it is +a severe trial of patience not to throw it up and come home for +good. It would be delightful to have you at Cairo now I +have pots and pans and all needful for a house, but a carpet and +a few mattresses, if you could camp with me <i>à +l’Arabe</i>.</p> +<p>How you would revel in old Masr el-Kahira, peep up at lattice +windows, gape like a <i>gasheem</i> (green one) in the bazaar, go +wild over the mosques, laugh at portly Turks and dignified +Sheykhs on their white donkeys, drink sherbet in the streets, +ride wildly about on a donkey, peer under black veils at +beautiful eyes and feel generally intoxicated! I am quite a +good cicerone now of the glorious old city. Omar is in +raptures at the idea that the Sidi el Kebir (the Great Master) +might come, and still more if he brought the ‘little +master.’ He plans meeting you on the steamboat and +bringing you to me, that I may kiss your hand first of all. +Mashallah! How our hearts would be dilated!</p> +<h3>May 21, 1863: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Masr +el-Kahira</span>, <span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br /> +<i>May</i> 21, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I came here on Saturday night. To-day is Wednesday, and +I am already much better. I have attached an excellent +donkey and his master, a delightful youth called Hassan, to my +household for fifteen piastres (under two shillings) a day. +They live at the door, and Hassan cleans the stairs and goes +errands during the heat of the day, and I ride out very early, at +six or seven, and again at five. The air is delicious +now. It is very hot for a few hours, but not stifling, and +the breeze does not chill one as it does at Alexandria. I +live all day and all night with open windows, and plenty of fresh +warm air is the best of remedies. I can do no better than +stay here till the heat becomes too great. I left little +Zeyneb at Alexandria with Janet’s maid Ellen who quite +loves her, and begged to keep her ‘for company,’ and +also to help in their removal to the new house. She clung +about me and made me promise to come back to her, but was content +to stop with Ellen, whose affection she of course returns. +It was pleasant to see her so happy, and how she relished being +‘put to bed’ with a kiss by Ellen or Sally. Her +Turkish master, whom she pronounces to have been <i>batal</i> +(bad), called her Salaam es-Sidi (the Peace of her Master); but +she said that in her own village she used to be Zeyneb, and so we +call her. She has grown fatter and, if possible, +blacker. Mahbrooka (Good Fortune), the elder wife of Hegab, +the confectioner, was much interested in her, as her fate had +been the same. She was bought by an Italian who lived with +her till his death, when she married Hegab. She is a pious +Muslimeh, and invoked the intercession of Seyidna Mohammad for me +when I told her I had no intention of baptizing Zeyneb by force, +as had been done to her.</p> +<p>The fault of my lodging here is the noise. We are on the +road from the railway and there is no quiet except in the few hot +hours, when nothing is heard but the cool tinkle of the +Sakka’s brass cup as he sells water in the street, or +perchance <i>erksoos</i> (liquorice-water), or caroub or raisin +sherbet. The <i>erksoos</i> is rather bitter and very +good. I drink it a good deal, for drink one must; a gulleh +of water is soon gone. A gulleh is a wide-mouthed porous +jar, and Nile water drunk out of it without the intervention of a +glass is delicious. Omar goes to market every morning with +a donkey—I went too, and was much amused—and cooks, +and in the evening goes out with me if I want him. I told +him I had recommended him highly, and hoped he would get good +employment; but he declares that he will go with no one else so +long as I come to Egypt, whatever the difference of wages may +be. ‘The bread I eat with you is sweet’—a +pretty little unconscious antithesis to Dante. I have been +advising his brother Hajjee Ali to start a hotel at Thebes for +invalids, and he has already set about getting a house there; +there is <i>one</i>. Next winter there will be steamers +twice a week—to Assouan! Juvenal’s distant +Syene, where he died in banishment. My old washerwoman sent +me a fervent entreaty through Omar that I would dine with her one +day, since I had made Cairo delightful with my presence. If +one will only devour these people’s food, they are +enchanted; they like that much better than a present. So I +will honour her house some day. Good old Hannah, she is +divorced for being too fat and old, and replaced by a young Turk +whose family sponge on Hajjee Ali and are condescending. If +I could afford it, I would have a sketch of a beloved old mosque +of mine, falling to decay, and with three palm-trees growing in +the middle of it. Indeed, I would have a book full, for all +is exquisite, and alas, all is going. The old Copt quarter +is <i>entamé</i>, and hideous, shabby French houses, like +the one I live in, are being run up; and in this weather how much +better would be the Arab courtyard, with its mastabah and +fountain!</p> +<p>There is a quarrel now in the street; how they talk and +gesticulate, and everybody puts in a word; a boy has upset a +cake-seller’s tray, ‘<i>Naal Abu’k</i>!’ +(Curses on your father) he claims six piastres damages, and +everyone gives an opinion <i>pour ou contre</i>. We all +look out of the window; my opposite neighbour, the pretty +Armenian woman, leans out, and her diamond head-ornaments and +earrings glitter as she laughs like a child. The Christian +dyer is also very active in the row, which, like all Arab rows, +ends in nothing; it evaporates in fine theatrical gestures and +lots of talk. Curious! In the street they are so +noisy, but get the same men in a coffee-shop or anywhere, and +they are the quietest of mankind. Only one man speaks at a +time, the rest listen, and never interrupt; twenty men +don’t make the noise of three Europeans.</p> +<p>Hekekian Bey is my near neighbour, and he comes in and we +<i>fronder</i> the Government. His heart is sore with +disinterested grief for the sufferings of the people. +‘Don’t they deserve to be decently governed, to be +allowed a little happiness and prosperity? They are so +docile, so contented; are they not a good people?’ +Those were his words as he was recounting some new +iniquity. Of course half these acts are done under pretext +of improving and civilizing, and the Europeans applaud and say, +‘Oh, but nothing could be done without forced +labour,’ and the poor Fellaheen are marched off in gangs +like convicts, and their families starve, and (who’d have +thought it) the population keeps diminishing. No wonder the +cry is, ‘Let the English Queen come and take +us.’ You see, I don’t see things quite as Ross +does, but mine is another <i>standpunkt</i>, and my heart is with +the Arabs. I care less about opening up the trade with the +Soudan and all the new railways, and I should like to see person +and property safe, which no one’s is here (Europeans, of +course, excepted). Ismail Pasha got the Sultan to allow him +to take 90,000 feddans of uncultivated land for himself as +private property, very well, but the late Viceroy Said granted +eight years ago certain uncultivated lands to a good many Turks, +his <i>employés</i>, in hopes of founding a landed +aristocracy and inducing them to spend their capital in +cultivation. They did so, and now Ismail Pasha takes their +improved land and gives them feddan for feddan of his new land, +which will take five years to bring into cultivation, +instead. He forces them to sign a <i>voluntary</i> deed of +exchange, or they go off to Fazogloo, a hot Siberia whence none +return. The Sultan also left a large sum of money for +religious institutions and charities—Muslim, Jew, and +Christian. None have received a foddah. It is true +the Sultan and his suite plundered the Pasha and the people here; +but from all I hear the Sultan really wishes to do good. +What is wanted here is hands to till the ground, and wages are +very high; food, of course, gets dearer, and the forced labour +inflicts more suffering than before, and the population will +decrease yet faster. This appears to me to be a state of +things in which it is no use to say that public works must be +made at any cost. The wealth will perhaps be increased, if +meanwhile the people are not exterminated. Then, every new +Pasha builds a huge new palace while those of his predecessors +fall to ruin. Mehemet Ali’s sons even cut down the +trees of his beautiful botanical garden and planted beans there; +so money is constantly wasted more than if it were thrown into +the Nile, for then the Fellaheen would not have to spend their +time, so much wanted for agriculture, in building hideous +barrack-like so-called palaces. What chokes me is to hear +English people talk of the stick being ‘the only way to +manage Arabs’ as if anyone could doubt that it is the +easiest way to manage any people where it can be used with +impunity.</p> +<p><i>Sunday</i>.—I went to a large unfinished new Coptic +church this morning. Omar went with me up to the +women’s gallery, and was discreetly going back when he saw +me in the right place, but the Coptic women began to talk to him +and asked questions about me all the time I was looking down on +the strange scene below. I believe they celebrate the +ancient mysteries still. The clashing of cymbals, the +chanting, a humming unlike any sound I ever heard, the strange +yellow copes covered with stranger devices—it was +<i>wunderlich</i>. At the end everyone went away, and I +went down and took off my shoes to go and look at the +church. While I was doing so a side-door opened and a +procession entered. A priest dressed in the usual black +robe and turban of all Copts carrying a trident-shaped sort of +candlestick, another with cymbals, a lot of little boys, and two +young ecclesiastics of some sort in the yellow satin copes +(contrasting queerly with the familiar tarboosh of common life on +their heads), these carried little babies and huge wax tapers, +each a baby and a taper. They marched round and round three +times, the cymbals going furiously, and chanting a jig +tune. The dear little tiny boys marched just in front of +the priest with such a pretty little solemn, consequential +air. Then they all stopped in front of the sanctuary, and +the priest untied a sort of broad-coloured tape which was round +each of the babies, reciting something in Coptic all the time, +and finally touched their foreheads and hands with water. +This is a ceremony subsequent to baptism after I don’t know +how many days, but the priest ties and then unties the +bands. Of what is this symbolical? <i>Je m’y +perds</i>. Then an old man gave a little round cake of +bread, with a cabalistic-looking pattern on it, both to Omar and +to me, which was certainly baked for Isis. A lot of +closely-veiled women stood on one side in the aisle, and among +them the mothers of the babies who received them from the men in +yellow copes at the end of the ceremony. One of these young +men was very handsome, and as he stood looking down and smiling +on the baby he held, with the light of the torch sharpening the +lines of his features, would have made a lovely picture. +The expression was sweeter than St. Vincent de Paul, because his +smile told that he could have played with the baby as well as +have prayed for it. In this country one gets to see how +much more beautiful a perfectly natural expression is than any +degree of the mystical expression of the best painters, and it is +so refreshing that no one tries to look pious. The Muslim +looks serious, and often warlike, as he stands at prayer. +The Christian just keeps his everyday face. When the Muslim +gets into a state of devotional frenzy he does not think of +making a face, and it is quite tremendous. I don’t +think the Copt has any such ardours, but the scene this morning +was all the more touching that no one was ‘behaving him or +herself’ at all. A little acolyte peeped into the +sacramental cup and swigged off the drops left in it with the +most innocent air, and no one rebuked him, and the quite little +children ran about in the sanctuary—up to seven they are +privileged—and only they and the priests enter it. It +is a pretty commentary on the words ‘Suffer the little +children,’ etc.</p> +<p>I am more and more annoyed at not being able to ask questions +for myself, as I don’t like to ask through a Muslim and no +Copts speak any foreign language, or very very few. Omar +and Hassan had been at five this morning to the tomb of Sittina +Zeyneb, one of the daughters of the Prophet, to ‘see +her’ (Sunday is her day of reception), and say the Fathah +at her tomb. Next Friday the great Bairam begins and every +Muslim eats a bit of meat at his richer neighbour’s +expense. It is the day on which the pilgrims go up the +sacred mount near Mecca, to hear the sermon which terminates the +Haj. Yesterday I went to call on pretty Mrs. Wilkinson, she +is an Armenian of the Greek faith, and was gone to pray at the +convent of Mar Girgis (St. George) to cure the pains a bad +rheumatic fever has left in her hands. Evidently Mar Girgis +is simply Ammon Ra, the God of the Sun and great serpent-slayer, +who is still revered in Egypt by all sects, and Seyd el-Bedawee +is as certainly one form of Osiris. His festivals, held +twice a year at Tanta, still display the symbol of the Creator of +all things. All is thus here—the women wail the dead, +as on the old sculptures, all the ceremonies are pagan, and would +shock an Indian Mussulman as much as his objection to eat with a +Christian shocks an Arab. This country is a palimpsest, in +which the Bible is written over Herodotus, and the Koran over +that. In the towns the Koran is most visible, in the +country Herodotus. I fancy it is most marked and most +curious among the Copts, whose churches are shaped like the +ancient temples, but they are so much less accessible than the +Arabs that I know less of their customs.</p> +<p>Now I have filled such a long letter I hardly know if it is +worth sending, and whether you will be amused by my commonplaces +of Eastern life. I kill a sheep next Friday, and Omar will +cook a stupendous dish for the poor Fellaheen who are lying about +the railway-station, waiting to be taken to work somewhere. +That is to be my Bairam, and Omar hopes for great benefit for me +from the process.</p> +<h3>May 25, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>May</i> 25, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have spun such a yarn to my mother that I shall make it +serve for both. It may amuse you to see what impression +Cairo makes. I ride along on my valiant donkey led by the +stalwart Hassan and attended by Omar, and constantly say, +‘Oh, if our master were here, how pleased he would +be’—husband is not a correct word.</p> +<p>I went out to the tombs yesterday. Fancy that Omar +witnessed the destruction of some sixty-eight or so of the most +exquisite buildings—the tombs and mosques of the Arab +Khaleefehs, which Said Pasha used to divert himself with +bombarding for practice for his artillery. Omar was then in +the boy corps of camel artillery, now disbanded. Thus the +Pasha added the piquancy of sacrilege to barbarity.</p> +<p>The street and the neighbours would divert you. Opposite +lives a Christian dyer who must be a seventh brother of the +admirable barber. The same impertinence, loquacity, and +love of meddling in everybody’s business. I long to +see him thrashed, though he is a constant comedy. My +delightful servant, Omar Abou-el-Halláweh (the father of +sweets)—his family are pastrycooks—is the type of all +the amiable <i>jeune premiers</i> of the stories. I am +privately of opinion that he is Bedr-ed-Deen Hassan, the more +that he can make cream tarts and there is no pepper in +them. Cream tarts are not very good, but lamb stuffed with +pistachio nuts fulfils all one’s dreams of +excellence. The Arabs next door and the Levantines opposite +are quiet enough, but how <i>do</i> they eat all the cucumbers +they buy of the man who cries them every morning as ‘fruit +gathered by sweet girls in the garden with the early +dew.’</p> +<p>The more I see of the back-slums of Cairo, the more in love I +am with it. The oldest European towns are tame and regular +in comparison, and the people are so pleasant. If you smile +at anything that amuses you, you get the kindest, brightest +smiles in return; they give hospitality with their faces, and if +one brings out a few words, ‘Mashallah! what Arabic the +Sitt Ingleez speaks.’ The Arabs are clever enough to +understand the amusement of a stranger and to enter into it, and +are amused in turn, and they are wonderfully unprejudiced. +When Omar explains to me their views on various matters, he adds: +‘The Arab people think so—I know not if right;’ +and the way in which the Arab merchants worked the electric +telegraph, and the eagerness of the Fellaheen for steam-ploughs, +are quite extraordinary. They are extremely clever and nice +children, easily amused, easily roused into a fury which lasts +five minutes and leaves no malice, and half the lying and +cheating of which they are accused comes from misunderstanding +and ignorance. When I first took Omar he was by way of +‘ten pounds, twenty pounds,’ being nothing for my +dignity. But as soon as I told him that ‘my master +was a Bey who got £100 a month and no backsheesh,’ he +was as careful as if for himself. They see us come here and +do what only their greatest Pashas do, hire a boat to ourselves, +and, of course, think our wealth is boundless. The lying is +mostly from fright. They dare not suggest a difference of +opinion to a European, and lie to get out of scrapes which blind +obedience has often got them into. As to the charges of +shopkeepers, that is the custom, and the haggling a ceremony you +must submit to. It is for the purchaser or employer to +offer a price and fix wages—the reverse of Europe—and +if you ask the price they ask something fabulous at random.</p> +<p>I hope to go home next month, as soon as it gets too hot here +and is likely to be warm enough in England. I do so long to +see the children again.</p> +<h3>October 19, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Alexandria</span>,<br /> +<i>October</i> 19, 1863.</p> +<p>We had a wretched voyage, good weather, but such a +<i>pétaudière</i> of a ship. I am competent +to describe the horrors of the middle passage—hunger, +suffocation, dirt, and such <i>canaille</i>, high and low, on +board. The only gentleman was a poor Moor going to Mecca +(who stowed his wife and family in a spare boiler on deck). +I saw him washing his children in the morning! +‘<i>Que c’est degoutant</i>!’ was the cry of +the French spectators. If an Arab washes he is a <i>sale +cochon</i>—no wonder! A delicious man who sat near me +on deck, when the sun came round to our side, growled between his +clenched teeth: ‘<i>Voilà un tas d’intrigants +a l’ombre tandis que le soleil me grille, moi</i>,’ a +good resume of French politics, methinks. Well, on arriving +at noon of Friday, I was consoled for all by seeing Janet in a +boat looking as fresh and bright and merry as ever she could +look. The heat has evidently not hurt her at all. +Omar’s joy was intense. He has had an offer of a +place as messenger with the mails to Suez and back, £60 a +year; and also his brother wanted him for Lady Herbert of Lea, +who has engaged Hajjee Ali, and Ali promised high pay, but Omar +said that he could not leave me. ‘I think my God give +her to me to take care of her, how then I leave her if she not +well and not very rich? I can’t speak to my God if I +do bad things like that.’ I am going to his house +to-day to see the baby and Hajjee Hannah, who is just come down +from Cairo. Omar is gone to try to get a dahabieh to go up +the river, as I hear that the half-railway, half-steamer journey +is dreadfully inconvenient and fatiguing, and the sight of the +overflowing Nile is said to be magnificent, it is all over the +land and eight miles of the railway gone. Omar kisses your +hand and is charmed with the knife, but far more that my family +should know his name and be satisfied with my servant.</p> +<p>I cannot live in Thayer’s house because the march of +civilization has led a party of French and Wallachian women into +the ground-floor thereof to instruct the ignorant Arabs in +drinking, card-playing, and other vices. So I will consult +Hajjee Hannah to-day; she may know of an empty house and would +make divan cushions for me. Zeyneb is much grown and very +active and intelligent, but a little louder and bolder than she +was owing to the maids here wanting to christianize her, and +taking her out unveiled, and letting her be among the men. +However, she is as affectionate as ever, and delighted at the +prospect of going with me. I have replaced the veil, and +Sally has checked her tongue and scolded her sister Ellen for +want of decorum, to the amazement of the latter. Janet has +a darling Nubian boy. Oh dear! what an elegant person Omar +seemed after the French ‘gentleman,’ and how noble +was old Hamees’s (Janet’s doorkeeper) paternal but +reverential blessing! It is a real comfort to live in a +nation of truly well-bred people and to encounter kindness after +the savage incivility of France.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Tuesday</i>, <i>October</i> +20.</p> +<p>Omar has got a boat for £13, which is not more than the +railway would cost now that half must be done by steamer and a +bit on donkeys or on foot. Poor Hajjee Hannah was quite +knocked up by the journey down; I shall take her up in my +boat. Two and a half hours to sit grilling at noonday on +the banks, and two miles to walk carrying one’s own baggage +is hard lines for a fat old woman. Everything is almost +double in price owing to the cattle murrain and the high +Nile. Such an inundation as this year was never known +before. Does the blue God resent Speke’s intrusion on +his privacy? It will be a glorious sight, but the damage to +crops, and even to the last year’s stacks of grain and +beans, is frightful. One sails among the palm-trees and +over the submerged cotton-fields. Ismail Pasha has been +very active, but, alas! his ‘eye is bad,’ and there +have been as many calamities as under Pharaoh in his short +reign. The cattle murrain is fearful, and is now beginning +in Cairo and Upper Egypt. Ross reckons the loss at twelve +millions sterling in cattle. The gazelles in the desert +have it too, but not horses, asses or goats.</p> +<h3>October 26, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Alexandria</span>,<br /> +<i>October</i> 26, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I went to two hareems the other day with a little boy of +Mustapha Aga’s, and was much pleased. A very pleasant +Turkish lady put out all her splendid bedding and dresses for me, +and was most amiable. At another a superb Arab with most +<i>grande dame</i> manners, dressed in white cotton and with +unpainted face, received me statelily. Her house would +drive you wild, such antique enamelled tiles covering the panels +of the walls, all divided by carved woods, and such carved +screens and galleries, all very old and rather dilapidated, but +superb, and the lady worthy of the house. A bold-eyed slave +girl with a baby put herself forward for admiration, and was +ordered to bring coffee with such cool though polite +imperiousness. One of our great ladies can’t half +crush a rival in comparison, she does it too coarsely. The +quiet scorn of the pale-faced, black-haired Arab was beyond any +English powers. Then it was fun to open the lattice and +make me look out on the square, and to wonder what the neighbours +would say at the sight of my face and European hat. She +asked about my children and blessed them repeatedly, and took my +hand very kindly in doing so, for fear I should think her envious +and fear her eye—she had none.</p> +<p><i>Tuesday</i>.—The post goes out to-morrow, and I have +such a cold I must stay in bed and cannot write much. I go +on Thursday and shall go to Briggs’ house. Pray write +to me at Cairo. Sally and I are both unwell and anxious to +get up the river. I can’t write more.</p> +<h3>October 31, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kafr +Zeyat</span>,<br /> +<i>October</i> 31, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>We left Alexandria on Thursday about noon, and sailed with a +fair wind along the Mahmoudieh Canal. My little boat flies +like a bird, and my men are a capital set of fellows, bold and +careful sailors. I have only seven in all, but they work +well, and at a pinch Omar leaves the pots and pans and handles a +rope or a pole manfully. We sailed all night and passed the +locks at Atleh at four o’clock yesterday, and were greeted +by old Nile tearing down like a torrent. The river is +magnificent, ‘seven men’s height,’ my Reis +says, above its usual pitch; it has gone down five or six feet +and left a sad scene of havoc on either side. However what +the Nile takes he repays with threefold interest, they say. +The women are at work rebuilding their mud huts, and the men +repairing the dykes. A Frenchman told me he was on board a +Pasha’s steamer under M. de Lesseps’ command, and +they passed a flooded village where two hundred or so people +stood on their roofs crying for help. Would you, could you, +believe it that they passed on and left them to drown? None +but an eyewitness could have made me believe such villainy.</p> +<p>All to-day we sailed in such heavenly weather—a sky like +nothing but its most beautiful self. At the bend of the +river just now we had a grand struggle to get round, and got +entangled with a big timber boat. My crew got so vehement +that I had to come out with an imperious request to everyone to +bless the Prophet. Then the boat nearly pulled the men into +the stream, and they pulled and hauled and struggled up to their +waists in mud and water, and Omar brandished his pole and shouted +‘Islam el Islam!’ which gave a fresh spirit to the +poor fellows, and round we came with a dash and caught the breeze +again. Now we have put up for the night, and shall pass the +railway-bridge to-morrow. The railway is all under water +from here up to Tantah—eight miles—and in many places +higher up.</p> +<h3>November 14, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>November</i> 14, 1863.</p> +<p>Here I am at last in my old quarters at Thayer’s house, +after a tiresome negotiation with the Vice-Consul, who had taken +possession and invented the story of women on the +ground-floor. I was a week in Briggs’ damp house, and +too ill to write. The morning I arrived at Cairo I was +seized with hæmorrhage, and had two days of it; however, +since then I am better. I was very foolish to stay a +fortnight in Alexandria.</p> +<p>The passage under the railway-bridge at Tantah (which is only +opened once in two days) was most exciting and pretty. Such +a scramble and dash of boats—two or three hundred at +least. Old Zedan, the steersman, slid under the noses of +the big boats with my little <i>Cangia</i> and through the gates +before they were well open, and we saw the rush and confusion +behind us at our ease, and headed the whole fleet for a few +miles. Then we stuck, and Zedan raged; but we got off in an +hour and again overtook and passed all. And then we saw the +spectacle of devastation—whole villages gone, submerged and +melted, mud to mud, and the people with their animals encamped on +spits of sand or on the dykes in long rows of ragged makeshift +tents, while we sailed over where they had lived. Cotton +rotting in all directions and the dry tops crackling under the +bows of the boat. When we stopped to buy milk, the poor +woman exclaimed: ‘Milk! from where? Do you want it +out of my breasts?’ However, she took our saucepan +and went to get some from another family. No one refuses it +if they have a drop left, for they all believe the murrain to be +a punishment for churlishness to strangers—by whom +committed no one can say. Nor would they fix a price, or +take more than the old rate. But here everything has +doubled in price.</p> +<p>Never did a present give such pleasure as Mme. De Leo’s +bracelet. De Leo came quite overflowing with gratitude at +my having remembered such a trifle as his attending me and coming +three times a day! He thinks me looking better, and advises +me to stay on here till I feel it cold. Mr. Thayer’s +underling has been doing Levantine rogueries, selling the +American protégé’s claims to the Egyptian +Government, and I witnessed a curious phase of Eastern +life. Omar, when he found him in <i>my</i> house, went and +ordered him out. I was ill in bed, and knew nothing till it +was done, and when I asked Omar how he came to do it, he told me +to be civil to him if I saw him as it was not for me to know what +he was; that was his (Omar’s) business. At the same +time Mr. Thayer’s servant sent him a telegram so insolent +that it amounted to a kicking. Such is the Nemesis for +being a rogue here. The servants know you, and let you feel +it. I was quite ‘flabbergasted’ at Omar, who is +so reverential to me and to the Rosses, and who I fancied +trembled before every European, taking such a tone to a man in +the position of a ‘gentleman.’ It is a fresh +proof of the feeling of actual equality among men that lies at +the bottom of such great inequality of position. Hekekian +Bey has seen a Turkish Pasha’s shins kicked by his own +servants, who were cognizant of his misdeeds. Finally, on +Thursday we got the keys of the house, and Omar came with two +<i>ferashes</i> and shovelled out the Levantine dirt, and scoured +and scrubbed; and on Friday afternoon (yesterday) we came +in. Zeyneb has been very good ever since she has been with +us, she will soon be a complete ‘dragowoman,’ for she +is learning Arabic from Omar and English from us fast. In +Janet’s house she only heard a sort of ‘lingua +franca’ of Greek, Italian, Nubian and English. She +asked me ‘How piccolo bint?’ (How’s the +little girl?) a fine specimen of Alexandrian. Ross is here, +and will dine with me to-night before starting by an express +train which Ismail Pasha gives him.</p> +<p>On Thursday evening I rode to the Abbassieh, and met all the +schoolboys going home for their Friday. Such a pretty +sight! The little Turks on grand horses with velvet +trappings and two or three sais running before them, and the Arab +boys fetched—some by proud fathers on handsome donkeys, +some by trusty servants on foot, some by poor mothers astride on +shabby donkeys and taking up their darlings before them, some two +and three on one donkey, and crowds on foot. Such a number +of lovely faces—all dressed in white European-cut clothes +and red tarbooshes.</p> +<p>Last night we had a wedding opposite. A pretty boy, +about Maurice’s size, or rather less, with a friend of his +own size, dressed like him in a scarlet robe and turban, on each +side, and surrounded by men carrying tapers and singing songs, +and preceded by cressets flaring. He stepped along like +Agag, very slowly and mincingly, and looked very shy and +pretty. My poor Hassan (donkey-driver) is ill—I fear +very ill. His father came with the donkey for me, and kept +drawing his sleeve over his eyes and sighing so heavily. +‘<i>Yah Hassan meskeen</i>! <i>yah Hassan ibn</i>!’ +(Oh poor Hassan! oh Hassan my son!); and then, in a resigned +tone, ‘<i>Allah kereem</i>’ (God is merciful). +I will go and see him this morning, and have a doctor to him +‘by force,’ as Omar says, if he is very bad. +There is something heart-rending in the patient, helpless +suffering of these people.</p> +<p><i>Sunday</i>.—Abu Hassan reported his son so much +better that I did not go after him, having several things to do, +and Omar being deep in cooking a <i>festin de Balthazar</i> +because Ross was to dine with me. The weather is +delicious—much what we had at Bournemouth in +summer—but there is a great deal of sickness, and I fear +there will be more, from people burying dead cattle on their +premises inside the town. It costs 100 <i>gersh</i> to bury +one outside the town. All labour is rendered scarce, too, +as well as food dear, and the streets are not cleaned and water +hard to get. My <i>sakka</i> comes very irregularly, and +makes quite a favour of supplying us with water. All this +must tell heavily on the poor. Hekekian’s wife had +seventy head of cattle on her farm—one wretched bullock is +left; and, of seven to water the house in Cairo, also one left, +and that expected to die. I wonder what ill-conditioned +fellow of a Moses is at the bottom of it. Hajjee Ali has +just been here, and offers me his tents if I like to go up to +Thebes and not live in a boat, so that I may not be dependent on +getting a house there. He is engaged by Lady Herbert of +Lea, so will not go to Syria this year and has all his tents to +spare. I fancy I might be very comfortable among the tombs +of the Kings or in the valley of Assaseef with good tents. +It is never cold at all among the hills at Thebes—<i>au +contraire</i>. On the sunny side of the valley you are +broiled and stunned with heat in January, and in the shade it is +heavenly. How I do wish you could come too, how you would +enjoy it! I shall rather like the change from a boat life +to a Bedawee one, with my own sheep and chickens and horse about +the tent, and a small following of ragged retainers; moreover, it +will be considerably cheaper, I think.</p> +<h3>November 21, 1863: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>November</i> 21, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I shall stay on here till it gets colder, and then go up the +Nile either in a steamer or a boat. The old father of my +donkey-boy, Hassan, gave me a fine illustration of Arab feeling +towards women to-day. I asked if Abd el-Kader was coming +here, as I had heard; he did not know, and asked me if he were +not <i>Achul en-Benàt</i>, a brother of girls. I +prosaically said I did not know if he had sisters. +‘The Arabs, O lady, call that man a “brother of +girls” to whom God has given a clean heart to love all +women as his sisters, and strength and courage to fight for their +protection.’ Omar suggested a ‘thorough +gentleman’ as the equivalent of Abou Hassan’s +title. Our European <i>galimatias</i> about the +‘smiles of the fair,’ etc., look very mean beside +‘Achul en Benàt,’ methinks. Moreover, +they carry it into common life. Omar was telling me of some +little family tribulations, showing that he is not a little +henpecked. His wife wanted all his money. I asked how +much she had of her own, as I knew she had property. +‘Oh, ma’am! I can’t speak of that, shame +for me if I ask what money she got.’ A man married at +Alexandria, and took home the daily provisions for the first +week; after that he neglected it for two days, and came home with +a lemon in his hand. He asked for some dinner, and his wife +placed the stool and the tray and the washing basin and napkin, +and in the tray the lemon cut in quarters. ‘Well, and +the dinner?’ ‘Dinner! you want dinner? +Where from? What man are you to want women when you +don’t keep them? I am going to the Cadi to be +divorced from you;’ and she did. The man must provide +all necessaries for his Hareem, and if she has money or earns any +she spends it in dress; if she makes him a skullcap or a +handkerchief he must pay her for her work. <i>Tout +n’est pas roses</i> for these Eastern tyrants, not to speak +of the unbridled license of tongue allowed to women and +children. Zeyneb hectors Omar and I cannot persuade him to +check her. ‘How I say anything to it, that one +child?’ Of course, the children are insupportable, +and, I fancy, the women little better.</p> +<p>A poor neighbour of mine lost his little boy yesterday, and +came out in the streets, as usual, for sympathy. He stood +under my window leaning his head against the wall, and sobbing +and crying till, literally, his tears wetted the dust. He +was too grieved to tear off his turban or to lament in form, but +clasped his hands and cried, ‘Yah weled, yah weled, yah +weled’ (O my boy, my boy). The bean-seller opposite +shut his shop, the dyer took no notice but smoked his pipe. +Some people passed on, but many stopped and stood round the poor +man, saying nothing, but looking concerned. Two were +well-dressed Copts on handsome donkeys, who dismounted, and all +waited till he went home, when about twenty men accompanied him +with a respectful air. How strange it seems to us to go out +into the street and call on the passers-by to grieve with +one! I was at the house of Hekekian Bey the other day when +he received a parcel from his former slave, now the +Sultan’s chief eunuch. It contained a very fine +photograph of the eunuch—whose face, though negro, is very +intelligent and of charming expression—a present of +illustrated English books, and some printed music composed by the +Sultan, Abd el Aziz, himself. <i>O tempera</i>! <i>O +mores</i>! one was a waltz. The very ugliest and scrubbiest +of street dogs has adopted me—like the Irishman who wrote +to Lord Lansdowne that he had selected him as his +patron—and he guards the house and follows me in the +street. He is rewarded with scraps, and Sally cost me a new +tin mug by letting the dog drink out of the old one, which was +used to scoop the water from the jars, forgetting that Omar and +Zeyneb could not drink after the poor beast.</p> +<p><i>Monday</i>.—I went yesterday to the port of Cairo, +Boulak, to see Hassaneyn Effendi about boats. He was gone +up the Nile, and I sat with his wife—a very nice Turkish +woman who speaks English to perfection—and heard all sorts +of curious things. I heard the whole story of an unhappy +marriage made by Leyla, my hostess’s sister, and much Cairo +gossip. Like all Eastern ladies that I have seen she +complains of indigestion, and said she knew she ought to go out +more and to walk, but custom <i>e contra il nostro +decoro</i>.</p> +<p>Mr. Thayer will be back in Egypt on December 15, so I shall +embark about that time, as he may want his house here. It +is now a little fresh in the early morning, but like fine English +summer weather.</p> +<p><i>Tuesday</i>.—Since I have been here my cough is +nearly gone, and I am better for having good food again. +Omar manages to get good mutton, and I have discovered that some +of the Nile fish is excellent. The <i>abyad</i>, six or +eight feet long and very fat, is delicious, and I am told there +are still better; the eels are delicate and good too. +Maurice might hook an <i>abyad</i>, but how would he land +him? The worst is that everything is just double the price +of last year, as, of course, no beef can be eaten at all, and the +draught oxen being dead makes labour dear as well. The high +Nile was a small misfortune compared to the murrain. There +is a legend about it, of course. A certain Sheykh el-Beled +(burgomaster) of some place—not mentioned—lost his +cattle, and being rich defied God, said he did not care, and +bought as many more; they died too, and he continued impenitent +and defiant, and bought on till he was ruined, and now he is +sinking into the earth bodily, though his friends dig and dig +without ceasing night and day. It is curious how like the +German legends the Arab ones are. All those about wasting +bread wantonly are almost identical. If a bit is dirty, +Omar carefully gives it to the dog; if clean, he keeps it in a +drawer for making breadcrumbs for cutlets; not a bit must fall on +the floor. In other things they are careless enough, but +<i>das liebe Brod</i> is sacred—<i>vide</i> Grimm’s +<i>Deutsche Sagen</i>. I am constantly struck with +resemblances to German customs. A Fellah wedding is very +like the German <i>Bauern hochzeit</i> firing of guns and display +of household goods, only on a camel instead of a cart. I +have been trying to get a teacher of Arabic, but it is very hard +to find one who knows any European language, and the consular +dragoman asks four dollars a lesson. I must wait till I get +to Thebes, where I think a certain young Said can teach me. +Meanwhile I am beginning to understand rather more and to speak a +very little. Please direct to me to Briggs and Co. at +Cairo; if I am gone, the letters will follow up the river.</p> +<h3>December 1, 1863: Mrs. Ross</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Ross</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>December</i> 1, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Janet</span>,</p> +<p>I should much like to go with Thayer if his times and seasons +will suit mine; but I cannot wait indefinitely, still less come +down the river before the end of April. But most likely the +Pasha will give him a boat. It is getting cold here and I +feel my throat sore to-day. I went to see Hassan yesterday, +he is much better, but very weak and pale. It is such a +nice family—old father, mother, and sister, all well-bred +and pleasing like Hassan himself. He almost shrieked at +hearing of your fall, and is most anxious to see you when you +come here. Zeyneb, after behaving very well for three +weeks, has turned quietly sullen and displays great religious +intolerance. It would seem that the Berberi men have put it +into her head that we are inferior beings, and she pretends not +to be able to eat because she thinks everything is pig. +Omar’s eating the food does not convince her. As she +evidently does not like us I will offer her to Mrs. Hekekian Bey, +and if she does not do there, in a household of black Mussulman +slaves, they must pass her on to a Turkish house. She is +very clever and I am sorry, but to keep a sullen face about me is +more than I can endure, as I have shown her every possible +kindness. I think she despises Omar for his affection +towards me. How much easier it is to instil the bad part of +religion than the good; it is really a curious phenomenon in so +young a child. She waits capitally at table, and can do +most things, but she won’t move if the fancy takes her +except when ordered, and spends her time on the terrace. +One thing is that the life is dull for a child, and I think she +will be happier in a larger, more bustling house. I +don’t know whether, after the fearful example of Mrs. B., I +can venture to travel up the Nile with such a +<i>séducteur</i> as our dear Mr. Thayer. What do you +think? Will gray hairs on my side and <i>mutual</i> bad +lungs guarantee our international virtue; or will someone ask the +Pater when he means to divorce me? Would it be considered +that Yankeedoodle had ‘stuck a feather in his cap’ by +leading a British matron and grandmother astray?</p> +<h3>December 2, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>December</i> 2, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>It is beginning to be cold here, and I only await the results +of my inquiries about possible houses at Thebes to hire a boat +and depart. Yesterday I saw a camel go through the eye of a +needle—<i>i.e.</i>, the low arched door of an enclosure; he +must kneel and bow his head to creep through—and thus the +rich man must humble himself. See how a false translation +spoils a good metaphor, and turns a familiar simile into a +ferociously communist sentiment. I expect Henry and Janet +here in four or five days when her ancle allows her to +travel. If I get a house at Thebes, I will only hire a boat +up and dismiss it, and trust to Allah for my return. There +are rumours of troubles at Jeddah, and a sort of expectation of +fighting somewhere next spring; even here people are buying arms +to a great extent, I think the gunsmiths’ bazaar looks +unusually lively. I do look forward to next November and +your coming here; I know you would donkey-ride all day in a state +of ecstasy. I never saw so good a servant as Omar and such +a nice creature, so pleasant and good. When I hear and see +what other people spend here in travelling and in living, and +what bother they have, I say: ‘May God favour Omar and his +descendants.’</p> +<p>I stayed in bed yesterday for a cold, and my next-door +neighbour, a Coptic merchant, kept me awake all night by auditing +his accounts with his clerk. How would you like to chant +your rows of figures? He had just bought lots of cotton, +and I had to get into my door on Monday over a camel’s +back, the street being filled with bales.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p>[The house at Thebes of which my mother speaks in the +following letter was built about 1815, over the ancient temple of +Khem, by Mr. Salt, English Consul-General in Egypt. He was +an archæologist and a student of hieroglyphics, and when +Belzoni landed at Alexandria was struck by his ability, and sent +him up to Thebes to superintend the removal of the great bust of +Memnon, now in the British Museum. Belzoni, I believe, +lived for some time in Mr. Salt’s house, which afterwards +became the property of the French Government, and was known as +the <i>Maison de France</i>; it was pulled down in 1884 when the +great temple of Luxor was excavated by M. Maspero. My late +friend Miss A. B. Edwards wrote a description of his work in the +<i>Illustrated London News</i>, from which I give a few +extracts:</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Squatters settled upon the temple like a +swarm of mason bees; and the extent of the mischief they +perpetrated in the course of centuries may be gathered from the +fact that they raised the level of the surrounding soil to such a +height that the obelisks, the colossi, and the entrance pylon +were buried to a depth of 40 feet, while inside the building the +level of the native village was 50 feet above the original +pavement. Seven months ago the first court contained not +only the local mosque, but a labyrinthine maze of mud structures, +numbering some thirty dwellings, and eighty strawsheds, besides +yards, stables, and pigeon-towers, the whole being intersected by +innumerable lanes and passages. Two large +mansions—real mansions, spacious and, in Arab fashion, +luxurious,—blocked the great Colonnade of Horembebi; while +the second court, and all the open spaces and ruined parts of the +upper end of the Temple, were encumbered by sheepfolds, +goat-yards, poultry-yards, donkey-sheds, clusters of mud huts, +refuse-heaps, and piles of broken pottery. Upon the roof of +the portico there stood a large, rambling, ruinous old house, the +property of the French Government, and known as the “Maison +de France” . . . Within its walls the illustrious +Champollion and his ally Rosellini lived and worked together in +1829, during part of their long sojourn at Thebes. Here the +naval officers sent out by the French in 1831 to remove the +obelisk which now stands in the Place de la Concorde took up +their temporary quarters. And here, most interesting to +English readers, Lady Duff Gordon lingered through some of her +last winters, and wrote most of her delightful “Letters +from Egypt.” A little balcony with a broken veranda +and a bit of lattice-work parapet, juts out above some mud walls +at the end of the building. Upon that balcony she was wont +to sit in the cool of the evening, watching the boats upon the +river and the magical effect of the after-glow upon the Libyan +mountains opposite. All these buildings—“Maison +de France,” stores, yards, etc. . . . are all swept +away.’]</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>December 17, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>December</i> 17, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>At last I hope I shall get off in a few days. I have had +one delay and bother after another, chiefly caused by relying on +the fine speeches of Mr. D. On applying straight to the +French Consulate at Alexandria, Janet got me the loan of the +<i>Maison de France</i> at Thebes at once. M. Mounier, the +agent to Halim Pasha, is going up to Esneh, and will let me +travel in the steamer which is to tow his dahabieh. It will +be dirty, but will cost little and take me out of this dreadful +cold weather in five or six days.</p> +<p><i>December</i> 22.—I wrote the above five days ago, +since when I have had to turn out of Thayer’s house, as his +new Vice-Consul wanted it, and am back at Briggs’. M. +Mounier is waiting in frantic impatience to set off, and I ditto; +but Ismail Pasha keeps him from day to day. The worry of +depending on anyone in the East is beyond belief. Tell your +mother that Lady Herbert is gone up the river; her son was much +the better for Cairo. I saw Pietro, her courier, who is +stupendously grand, he offered Omar £8 a month to go with +them; you may imagine how Pietro despised his heathenish +ignorance in preferring to stay with me for £3. It +quite confirmed him in his contempt for the Arabs.</p> +<p>You would have laughed to hear me buying a carpet. I saw +an old broker with one on his shoulder in the bazaar, and asked +the price, ‘eight napoleons’—then it was +unfolded and spread in the street, to the great inconvenience of +passers-by, just in front of a coffee-shop. I look at it +superciliously, and say, ‘Three hundred piastres, O +uncle,’ the poor old broker cries out in despair to the men +sitting outside the coffee-shop: ‘O Muslims, hear that and +look at this excellent carpet. Three hundred +piastres! By the faith, it is worth two +thousand!’ But the men take my part and one mildly +says: ‘I wonder that an old man as thou art should tell us +that this lady, who is a traveller and a person of experience, +values it at three hundred—thinkest thou we will give thee +more?’ Then another suggests that if the lady will +consent to give four napoleons, he had better take them, and that +settles it. Everybody gives an opinion here, and the price +is fixed by a sort of improvised jury.</p> +<p><i>Christmas Day</i>.—At last my departure is +fixed. I embark to-morrow afternoon at Boulak, and we +sail—or steam, rather—on Sunday morning early, and +expect to reach Thebes in eight days. I heard a curious +illustration of Arab manners to-day. I met Hassan, the +janissary of the American Consulate, a very respectable, good +man. He told me he had married another wife since last +year—I asked what for. It was the widow of his +brother who had always lived with him in the same house, and who +died leaving two boys. She is neither young nor handsome, +but he considered it his duty to provide for her and the +children, and not to let her marry a stranger. So you see +that polygamy is not always sensual indulgence, and a man may +practise greater self-sacrifice so than by talking sentiment +about deceased wives’ sisters. Hassan has £3 a +month, and two wives come expensive. I said, laughing, to +Omar as we left him, that I did not think the two wives sounded +very comfortable. ‘Oh no! not comfortable at all for +the man, but he take care of the women, that’s what is +proper—that is the good Mussulman.’</p> +<p>I shall have the company of a Turkish Effendi on my +voyage—a Commissioner of Inland Revenue, in fact, going to +look after the tax-gatherers in the Saeed. I wonder whether +he will be civil. Sally is gone with some English servants +out to the Virgin’s tree, the great picnic frolic of +Cairene Christians, and, indeed, of Muslimeen also at some +seasons. Omar is gone to a <i>Khatmeh</i>—a reading +of the Koran—at Hassan the donkey-boy’s house. +I was asked, but am afraid of the night air. A good deal of +religious celebration goes on now, the middle of the month of +Regeb, six weeks before Ramadan. I rather dread Ramadan as +Omar is sure to be faint and ill, and everybody else cross during +the first five days or so; then their stomachs get into +training. The new passenger-steamers have been promised +ever since the 6th, and will not now go till after the +races—6th or 7th of next month. Fancy the Cairo +races! It is growing dreadfully Cockney here, I must go to +Timbuctoo: and we are to have a railway to Mecca, and take return +tickets for the <i>Haj</i> from all parts of the world.</p> +<h3>December 27, 1863: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Boulak, on board +a river steam-boat</span>,<br /> +<i>December</i> 27, 1863.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>After infinite delays and worries, we are at last on board, +and shall sail to-morrow morning. After all was comfortably +settled, Ismail Pasha sent for <i>all</i> the steamers up to +Rhoda, near Minieh, and at the same time ordered a Turkish +General to come up instantly somehow. So Latif Pasha, the +head of the steamers, had to turn me out of the best cabin, and +if I had not come myself, and taken rather forcible possession of +the forecastle cabin, the servants of the Turkish General would +not have allowed Omar to embark the baggage. He had been +waiting all the morning in despair on the bank; but at four I +arrived, and ordered the <i>hammals</i> to carry the goods into +the forecabin, and walked on board myself, where the Arab captain +pantomimically placed me in his right eye and on the top of his +head. Once installed, this has become a hareem, and I may +defy the Turkish Effendi with success. I have got a +good-sized cabin with good, clean divans round three sides for +Sally and myself. Omar will sleep on deck and cook where he +can. A poor Turkish lady is to inhabit a sort of dusthole +by the side of my cabin; if she seems decent, I will entertain +her hospitably. There is no furniture of any sort but the +divan, and we cook our own food, bring our own candles, jugs, +basins, beds and everything. If Sally and I were not such +complete Arabs we should think it very miserable; but as things +stand this year we say, <i>Alhamdulillah</i> it is no +worse! Luckily it is a very warm night, so we can make our +arrangements unchilled. There is no door to the cabin, so +we nail up an old plaid, and, as no one ever looks into a hareem, +it is quite enough. All on board are Arabs—captain, +engineer, and men. An English Sitt is a novelty, and the +captain is unhappy that things are not <i>alla Franca</i> for +me. We are to tow three dahabiehs—M. Mounier’s, +one belonging to the envoy from the Sultan of Darfour, and +another. Three steamers were to have done it, but the Pasha +had a fancy for all the boats, and so our poor little craft must +do her best. Only fancy the Queen ordering all the river +steamers up to Windsor!</p> +<p>At Minieh the Turkish General leaves us, and we shall have the +boat to ourselves, so the captain has just been down to tell +me. I should like to go with the gentlemen from Darfor, as +you may suppose. See what strange combinations of people +float on old Nile. Two Englishwomen, one French (Mme. +Mounier), one Frenchman, Turks, Arabs, Negroes, Circassians, and +men from Darfor, all in one party; perhaps the third boat +contains some other strange element. The Turks are from +Constantinople and can’t speak Arabic, and make faces at +the muddy river water, which, indeed, I would rather have +filtered.</p> +<p>I hope to have letters from home to-morrow morning. +Hassan, my faithful donkey-boy, will go to the post as soon as it +is open and bring them down to Boulak. Darling Rainie sent +me a card with a cock robin for Christmas; how terribly I miss +her dear little face and talk! I am pretty well now; I only +feel rather weaker than before and more easily tired. I +send you a kind letter of Mme. Tastu’s, who got her son to +lend me the house at Thebes.</p> +<h3>January 3, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">On board the +steamer, near Siout</span>,<br /> +<i>Sunday</i>, <i>January</i> 3, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>We left Cairo last Sunday morning, and a wonderfully queer +company we were. I had been promised all the steamer to +myself, but owing to Ismail Pasha’s caprices our little +steamer had to do the work of three—<i>i.e.</i>, to carry +passengers, to tow M. Mounier’s dahabieh, and to tow the +oldest, dirtiest, queerest Nubian boat, in which the young son of +the Sultan of Darfoor and the Sultan’s envoy, a handsome +black of Dongola (not a negro), had visited Ismail Pasha. +The best cabin was taken by a sulky old one-eyed Turkish Pasha, +so I had the fore-cabin, luckily a large one, where I slept with +Sally on one divan and I on the other, and Omar at my feet. +He tried sleeping on deck, but the Pasha’s Arnouts were too +bad company, and the captain begged me to ‘cover my +face’ and let my servant sleep at my feet. Besides, +there was a poor old asthmatic Turkish Effendi going to collect +the taxes, and a lot of women in the engine-room, and children +also. It would have been insupportable but for the hearty +politeness of the Arab captain, a regular ‘old salt,’ +and owing to his attention and care it was only very amusing.</p> +<p>At Benisouef, the first town above Cairo (seventy miles), we +found no coals: the Pasha had been up and taken them all. +So we kicked our heels on the bank all day, with the prospect of +doing so for a week. The captain brought H.R.H. of Darfoor +to visit me, and to beg me to make him hear reason about the +delay, as I, being English, must know that a steamer could not go +without coals. H.R.H. was a pretty imperious little nigger +about eleven or twelve, dressed in a yellow silk kuftan and a +scarlet burnous, who cut the good old captain short by saying, +‘Why, she is a woman; she can’t talk to +me.’ ‘Wallah! wallah! what a way to talk to +English Hareem!’ shrieked the captain, who was about to +lose his temper; but I had a happy idea and produced a box of +French sweetmeats, which altered the young Prince’s views +at once. I asked if he had brothers. ‘Who can +count them? they are like mice.’ He said that the +Pasha had given him only a few presents, and was evidently not +pleased. Some of his suite are the most formidable-looking +wild beasts in human shape I ever beheld—bulldogs and +wild-boars black as ink, red-eyed, and, ye gods! such jowls and +throats and teeth!—others like monkeys, with arms down to +their knees.</p> +<p>The Illyrian Arnouts on board our boat are revoltingly +white—like fish or drowned people, no pink in the tallowy +skin at all. There were Greeks also who left us at Minieh +(second large town), and the old Pasha left this morning at +Rodah. The captain at once ordered all my goods into the +cabin he had left and turned out the Turkish Effendi, who wanted +to stay and sleep with us. No impropriety! he said he was +an old man and sick, and my company would be agreeable to him; +then he said he was ashamed before the people to be turned out by +an English woman. So I was civil and begged him to pass the +day and to dine with me, and that set all right, and now after +dinner he has gone off quite pleasantly to the fore-cabin and +left me here. I have a stern-cabin, a saloon and an +anteroom here, so we are comfortable enough—only the +fleas! Never till now did I know what fleas could be; even +Omar groaned and tossed in his sleep, and Sally and I woke every +ten minutes. Perhaps this cabin may be better, some fleas +may have landed in the beds of the Turks. I send a dish +from my table every day henceforth to the captain; as I take the +place of a Pasha it is part of my dignity to do so; and as I +occupy the kitchen and burn the ship’s coals, I may as well +let the captain dine a little at my expense. In the day I +go up and sit in his cabin on deck, and we talk as well as we can +without an interpreter. The old fellow is sixty-seven, but +does not look more than forty-five. He has just the air and +manner of a seafaring-man with us, and has been wrecked four +times—the last in the Black Sea during the Crimean War, +when he was taken prisoner by the Russians and sent to Moscow for +three years, until the peace. He has a charming boy of +eleven with him, and he tells me he has twelve children in all, +but only one wife, and is as strict a monogamist as Dr. Primrose, +for he told me he should not marry again if she died, nor he +believed would she. He is surprised at my gray hair.</p> +<p>There are a good many Copts on board too, of a rather low +class and not pleasant. The Christian gentlemen are very +pleasant, but the low are <i>low</i> indeed compared to the +Muslimeen, and one gets a feeling of dirtiness about them to see +them eat all among the coals, and then squat there and pull out +their beads to pray without washing their hands even. It +does look nasty when compared to the Muslim coming up clean +washed, and standing erect and manly—looking to his +prayers; besides they are coarse in their manners and +conversation and have not the Arab respect for women. I +only speak of the common people—not of educated +Copts. The best fun was to hear the Greeks (one of whom +spoke English) abusing the Copts—rogues, heretics, +schismatics from the Greek Church, ignorant, rapacious, cunning, +impudent, etc., etc. In short, they narrated the whole +fable about their own sweet selves. I am quite surprised to +see how well these men manage their work. The boat is quite +as clean as an English boat as crowded could be kept, and the +engine in beautiful order. The head-engineer, Achmet +Effendi, and indeed all the crew and captain too, wear English +clothes and use the universal ‘All right, stop +her—fooreh (full) speed, half speed—turn her +head,’ etc. I was delighted to hear ‘All +right—go ahead—<i>el-Fathah</i>’ in one +breath. Here we always say the <i>Fathah</i> (first chapter +of the Koran, nearly identical with the Lord’s Prayer) when +starting on a journey, concluding a bargain, etc. The +combination was very quaint. There are rats and fleas on +board, but neither bugs nor cockroaches. Already the +climate has changed, the air is sensibly drier and clearer and +the weather much warmer, and we are not yet at Siout. I +remarked last year that the climate changed most at Keneh, forty +miles below Thebes. The banks are terribly broken and +washed away by the inundation, and the Nile far higher even now +than it was six weeks earlier last year.</p> +<p>At Benisouef, which used to be the great cattle place, not a +buffalo was left, and we could not get a drop of milk. But +since we left Minieh we see them again, and I hear the disease is +not spreading up the river. Omar told me that the poor +people at Benisouef were complaining of the drought and prospect +of scarcity, as they could no longer water the land for want of +oxen. I paid ten napoleons passage-money, and shall give +four or five more as backsheesh, as I have given a good deal of +trouble with all my luggage, beddings, furniture, provisions for +four months, etc., and the boat’s people have been more +than civil, really kind and attentive to us; but a bad dahabieh +would have cost forty, so I am greatly the gainer. Nothing +can exceed the muddle, uncertainty and carelessness of the +‘administration’ at Cairo: no coals at the depots, +boats announced to sail and dawdling on three weeks, no order and +no care for anybody’s convenience but the Pasha’s +own. But the subordinates on board the boats do their work +perfectly well. We go only half as quickly as we ought +because we have two very heavy dahabiehs in tow instead of one; +but no time is lost, as long as the light lasts we go, and start +again as soon as the moon rises. The people on board have +promoted me in rank—and call me ‘el-Ameereh,’ +an obsolete Arab title which the engineer thinks is the +equivalent of ‘Ladysheep,’ as he calls it. +‘Sitti,’ he said, was the same as +‘Meessees.’ I don’t know how he acquired +his ideas on the subject of English precedence.</p> +<p>Omar has just come in with coffee, and begs me to give his +best salaam to his big master and his little master and lady, and +not to forget to tell them he is their servant and my memlook +(slave) ‘from one hand to the other’ (the whole +body). If we stay at all at Siout, I will ride a donkey up +to Wassef’s house, and leave this letter for him to send +down with his next opportunity to Cairo. At Keneh we must +try to find time to buy two filters and some gullehs +(water-coolers); they are made there. At Thebes nothing can +be got.</p> +<p>How I do wish you were here to enjoy all the new and strange +sights! I am sure it would amuse you, and as the fleas +don’t bite you there would be no drawback. Janet sent +me a photo of dear little Rainie; it is ugly, but very like the +‘zuweyeh’ (little one). Give her no end of +kisses, and thank her for the cock robin, which pleased me quite +as much as she thought it would.</p> +<h3>January 5, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Tuesday</i>, <i>January</i> 5, +1864.</p> +<p>We left Siout this afternoon. The captain had announced +that we should start at ten o’clock, so I did not go into +the town, but sent Omar to buy food and give my letter and best +salaam to Wassef. But the men of Darfoor all went off +declaring that they would stop, promising to cut off the +captain’s head if he went without them. Hassan +Effendi, the Turk, was furious, and threatened to telegraph his +complaints to Cairo if we did not go directly, and the poor +captain was in a sad quandary. He appealed to me, peaceably +sitting on the trunk of a palm-tree with some poor +<i>fellaheen</i> (of whom more anon). I uttered the longest +sentence I could compose in Arabic, to the effect that he was +captain, and that while on the boat we were all bound to obey +him. ‘<i>Mashallah</i>! one English Hareem is worth +more than ten men for sense; these Ingeleez have only one word +both for themselves and for other people: +<i>doghree</i>—<i>doghree</i> (right is right); this +Ameereh is ready to obey like a memlook, and when she has to +command—whew!’—with a most expressive toss back +of the head. The bank was crowded with poor +<i>fellaheen</i> who had been taken for soldiers and sent to +await the Pasha’s arrival at Girgeh; three weeks they lay +there, and were then sent down to Soohaj (the Pasha wanted to see +them himself and pick out the men he liked); eight days more at +Soohaj, then to Siout eight days more, and meanwhile Ismail Pasha +has gone back to Cairo and the poor souls may wait indefinitely, +for no one will venture to remind the Pasha of their trifling +existence. <i>Wallah</i>, <i>wallah</i>!</p> +<p>While I was walking on the bank with M. and Mme. Mounier, a +person came up and saluted them whose appearance puzzled +me. Don’t call me a Persian when I tell you it was an +eccentric Bedawee young lady. She was eighteen or twenty at +most, dressed like a young man, but small and feminine and rather +pretty, except that one eye was blind. Her dress was +handsome, and she had women’s jewels, diamonds, etc., and a +European watch and chain. Her manner was excellent, quite +<i>ungenirt</i>, and not the least impudent or swaggering, and I +was told—indeed, I could hear—that her language was +beautiful, a thing much esteemed among Arabs. She is a +virgin and fond of travelling and of men’s society, being +very clever, so she has her dromedary and goes about quite +alone. No one seemed surprised, no one stared, and when I +asked if it was <i>proper</i>, our captain was surprised. +‘Why not? if she does not wish to marry, she can go alone; +if she does, she can marry—what harm? She is a virgin +and free.’ She went to breakfast with the Mouniers on +their boat (Mme. M. is Egyptian born, and both speak Arabic +perfectly), and the young lady had many things to ask them, she +said. She expressed her opinions pretty freely as far as I +could understand her. Mme. Mounier had heard of her before, +and said she was much respected and admired. M. Mounier had +heard that she was a spy of the Pasha’s, but the people on +board the boat here say that the truth was that she went before +Said Pasha herself to complain of some tyrannical Moodir who +ground and imprisoned the <i>fellaheen</i>—a bold thing for +a girl to do. To me she seems, anyhow, far the most curious +thing I have yet seen.</p> +<p>The weather is already much warmer, it is nine in the evening, +we are steaming along and I sit with the cabin window open. +My cough is, of course, a great deal better. +<i>Inshallah</i>! Above Keneh (about another 150 miles) it +will go away. To-day, for the first time, I pulled my cloak +over my head in the sun, it was so stinging hot—quite +delicious, and it is the 5th of January. <i>Poveri voi</i> +in the cold! Our captain was prisoner for three years at +Moscow and at Bakshi Serai, and declares he never saw the sun at +all—hard lines for an Egyptian. Do you remember the +cigarettes you bought for me at Eaux Bonnes? Well, I gave +them to the old Turkish Effendi, who is dreadfully asthmatic, and +he is enchanted; of course five other people came to be cured +directly. The rhubarb pills are a real comfort to +travellers, for they can’t do much harm, and inspire great +confidence.</p> +<p>Luckily we left all the fleas behind in the fore-cabin, for +the benefit of the poor old Turk, who, I hear, suffers +severely. The divans were all brand-new, and the fleas came +in the cotton stuffing, for there are no live things of any sort +in the rest of the boat.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Girgeh</span>,<br /> +<i>January</i> 9, 1864.</p> +<p>We have put in here for the night. To-day we took on +board three convicts in chains, two bound for Fazogloo, one for +calumny and perjury, and one for manslaughter. Hard labour +for life in that climate will soon dispose of them. The +third is a petty thief from Keneh who has been a year in chains +in the Custom-house of Alexandria, and is now being taken back to +be shown in his own place in his chains. The <i>causes +célèbres</i> of this country would be curious +reading; they do their crimes so differently to us. If I +can get hold of anyone who can relate a few cases well, +I’ll write them down. Omar has told me a few, but he +may not know the details quite exactly.</p> +<p>I made further inquiries about the Bedawee lady, who is older +than she looks, for she has travelled constantly for ten +years. She is rich and much respected, and received in all +the best houses, where she sits with the men all day and sleeps +in the hareem. She has been in the interior of Africa and +to Mecca, speaks Turkish, and M. Mounier says he found her +extremely agreeable, full of interesting information about all +the countries she had visited. As soon as I can talk I must +try and find her out; she likes the company of Europeans.</p> +<p>Here is a contribution to folk-lore, new even to Lane I +think. When the coffee-seller lights his stove in the +morning, he makes two cups of coffee of the best and nicely +sugared, and pours them out all over the stove, saying, +‘God bless or favour Sheykh Shadhilee and his +descendants.’ The blessing on the saint who invented +coffee of course I knew, and often utter, but the libation is new +to me. You see the ancient religion crops up even through +the severe faith of Islam. If I could describe all the +details of an Arab, and still more of a Coptic, wedding, you +would think I was relating the mysteries of Isis. At one +house I saw the bride’s father looking pale and anxious, +and Omar said, ‘I think he wants to hold his stomach with +both hands till the women tell him if his daughter makes his face +white.’ It was such a good phrase for the sinking at +heart of anxiety. It certainly seems more reasonable that a +woman’s misconduct should blacken her father’s face +than her husband’s. There are a good many things +about hareem here which I am barbarian enough to think extremely +good and rational. An old Turk of Cairo, who had been in +Europe, was talking to an Englishman a short time ago, who +politely chaffed him about Mussulman license. The venerable +Muslim replied, ‘Pray, how many women have you, who are +quite young, seen (that is the Eastern phrase) in your whole +life?’ The Englishman could not count—of course +not. ‘Well, young man, I am old, and was married at +twelve, and I have seen in all my life seven women; four are +dead, and three are happy and comfortable in my house. +<i>Where are all yours</i>?’ Hassaneyn Effendi heard +the conversation, which passed in French, and was amused at the +question.</p> +<p>I find that the criminal convicted of calumny accused, +together with twenty-nine others not in custody, the +Sheykh-el-Beled of his place of murdering his servant, and +produced a basket full of bones as proof, but the Sheykh-el-Beled +produced the living man, and his detractor gets hard labour for +life. The proceeding is characteristic of the childish +<i>ruses</i> of this country. I inquired whether the thief +who was dragged in chains through the streets would be able to +find work, and was told, ‘Oh, certainly; is he not a poor +man? For the sake of God everyone will be ready to help +him.’ An absolute uncertainty of justice naturally +leads to this result. Our captain was quite shocked to hear +that in my country we did not like to employ a returned +convict.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>January</i> 13, 1864.</p> +<p>We spent all the afternoon of Saturday at Keneh, where I dined +with the English Consul, a worthy old Arab, who also invited our +captain, and we all sat round his copper tray on the floor and +ate with our fingers, the captain, who sat next me, picking out +the best bits and feeding me and Sally with them. After +dinner the French Consul, a Copt, one Jesus Buktor, sent to +invite me to a fantasia at his house, where I found the Mouniers, +the Moudir, and some other Turks, and a disagreeable Italian, who +stared at me as if I had been young and pretty, and put Omar into +a great fury. I was glad to see the dancing-girls, but I +liked old Seyyid Achmet’s patriarchal ways much better than +the tone of the Frenchified Copt. At first I thought the +dancing queer and dull. One girl was very handsome, but +cold and uninteresting; one who sang was also very pretty and +engaging, and a dear little thing. But the dancing was +contortions, more or less graceful, <i>very</i> wonderful as +gymnastic feats, and no more. But the captain called out to +one Latifeh, an ugly, clumsy-looking wench, to show the Sitt what +she could do. And then it was revealed to me. The +ugly girl started on her feet and became the ‘serpent of +old Nile,’—the head, shoulders and arms eagerly bent +forward, waist in, and haunches advanced on the bent +knees—the posture of a cobra about to spring. I could +not call it <i>voluptuous</i> any more than Racine’s +<i>Phèdre</i>. It is <i>Venus toute entière +à sa proie attachée</i>, and to me seemed +tragic. It is far more realistic than the +‘fandango,’ and far less coquettish, because the +thing represented is <i>au grande sérieux</i>, not +travestied, <i>gazé</i>, or played with; and like all such +things, the Arab men don’t think it the least +improper. Of course the girls don’t commit any +indecorums before European women, except the dance itself. +Seyyid Achmet would have given me a fantasia, but he feared I +might have men with me, and he had had a great annoyance with two +Englishmen who wanted to make the girls dance naked, which they +objected to, and he had to turn them out of his house after +hospitably entertaining them.</p> +<p>Our procession home to the boat was very droll. Mme. +Mounier could not ride an Arab saddle, so I lent her mine and +<i>enfourché’d</i> my donkey, and away we went with +men running with ‘meshhaals’ (fire-baskets on long +poles) and lanterns, and the captain shouting out ‘Full +speed!’ and such English phrases all the way—like a +regular old salt as he is. We got here last night, and this +morning Mustapha A’gha and the Nazir came down to conduct +me up to my palace. I have such a big rambling house all +over the top of the temple of Khem. How I wish I had you +and the chicks to fill it! We had about twenty +<i>fellahs</i> to clean the dust of <i>three years</i>’ +accumulation, and my room looks quite handsome with carpets and a +divan. Mustapha’s little girl found her way here when +she heard I was come, and it seemed quite pleasant to have her +playing on the carpet with a dolly and some sugar-plums, and +making a feast for dolly on a saucer, arranging the sugar-plums +Arab fashion. She was monstrously pleased with +Rainie’s picture and kissed it. Such a quiet, nice +little brown tot, and curiously like Rainie and walnut-juice.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill101b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Luxor, by Edward Lear, showing Lady Duff Gordon’s house, +now destroyed" +title= +"Luxor, by Edward Lear, showing Lady Duff Gordon’s house, +now destroyed" +src="images/ill101s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The view all round my house is magnificent on every side, over +the Nile in front facing north-west, and over a splendid range of +green and distant orange buff hills to the south-east, where I +have a spacious covered terrace. It is rough and dusty to +the extreme, but will be very pleasant. Mustapha came in +just now to offer me the loan of a horse, and to ask me to go to +the mosque in a few nights to see the illumination in honour of a +great Sheykh, a son of Sidi Hosseyn or Hassan. I asked +whether my presence might not offend any Muslimeen, and he would +not hear of such a thing. The sun set while he was here, +and he asked if I objected to his praying in my presence, and +went through his four <i>rekahs</i> very comfortably on my +carpet. My next-door neighbour (across the courtyard all +filled with antiquities) is a nice little Copt who looks like an +antique statue himself. I shall <i>voisiner</i> with his +family. He sent me coffee as soon as I arrived, and came to +help. I am invited to El-Moutaneh, a few hours up the +river, to visit the Mouniers, and to Keneh to visit Seyyid +Achmet, and also the head of the merchants there who settled the +price of a carpet for me in the bazaar, and seemed to like +me. He was just one of those handsome, high-bred, elderly +merchants with whom a story always begins in the Arabian +Nights. When I can talk I will go and see a real Arab +hareem. A very nice English couple, a man and his wife, +gave me breakfast in their boat, and turned out to be business +connections of Ross’s, of the name of Arrowsmith; they were +going to Assouan, and I shall see them on their way back. I +asked Mustapha about the Arab young lady, and he spoke very +highly of her, and is to let me know if she comes here and to +offer hospitality from me: he did not know her name—she is +called ‘el <i>Hággeh</i>’ (the +Pilgrimess).</p> +<p><i>Thursday</i>.—Now I am settled in my Theban palace, +it seems more and more beautiful, and I am quite melancholy that +you cannot be here to enjoy it. The house is very large and +has good thick walls, the comfort of which we feel to-day for it +blows a hurricane; but indoors it is not at all cold. I +have glass windows and doors to some of the rooms. It is a +lovely dwelling. Two funny little owls as big as my fist +live in the wall under my window, and come up and peep in, +walking on tip-toe, and looking inquisitive like the owls in the +hieroglyphics; and a splendid horus (the sacred hawk) frequents +my lofty balcony. Another of my contemplar gods I +sacrilegiously killed last night, a whip snake. Omar is +rather in consternation for fear it should be ‘the snake of +the house,’ for Islam has not dethroned the <i>Dii lares et +tutelares</i>.</p> +<p>I have been ‘sapping’ at the <i>Alif Bey</i> (A B +C) to-day, under the direction of Sheykh Yussuf, a graceful, +sweet-looking young man, with a dark brown face and such fine +manners, in his <i>fellah</i> dress—a coarse brown woollen +shirt, a <i>libdeh</i>, or felt skull-cap, and a common red shawl +round his head and shoulders; writing the wrong way is very hard +work. Some men came to mend the staircase, which had fallen +in and which consists of huge solid blocks of stone. One +crushed his thumb and I had to operate on it. It is +extraordinary how these people bear pain; he never winced in the +least, and went off thanking God and the lady quite +cheerfully. Till to-day the weather has been quite +heavenly; last night I sat with my window open, it was so +warm. If only I had you all here! How Rainie would +play in the temple, Maurice fish in the Nile, and you go about +with your spectacles on your nose. I think you would +discard Frangi dress and take to a brown shirt and a +<i>libdeh</i>, and soon be as brown as any <i>fellah</i>. +It was so curious to see Sheykh Yussuf blush from shyness when he +came in first; it shows quite as much in the coffee-brown Arab +skin as in the fairest European—quite unlike the much +lighter-coloured mulatto or Malay, who never change colour at +all. A photographer who is living here showed me +photographs done high up the White Nile. One negro girl is +so splendid that I must get him to do me a copy to send +you. She is not perfect like the Nubians, but so superbly +strong and majestic. If I can get hold of a handsome +<i>fellahah</i> here, I’ll get her photographed to show you +in Europe what a woman’s breast can be, for I never knew it +before I came here—it is the most beautiful thing in the +world. The dancing-girl I saw moved her breasts by some +extraordinary muscular effort, first one and then the other; they +were just like pomegranates and gloriously independent of stays +or any support.</p> +<h3>January 20, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Wednesday</i>, <i>January</i> 20, +1864.</p> +<p>I received your welcome letters of December 15 and 25 on +Monday, to my great joy, but was much grieved to hear of +Thomas’s death, and still more so to hear from Janet that +Thackeray and Mrs. Alison were dead. She died the morning I +left Cairo, so her last act almost was to send sweetmeats to the +boat after me on the evening before. Poor dear soul her +sweetness and patience were very touching. We have had a +week of piercing winds, and yesterday I stayed in bed, to the +great surprise of Mustapha’s little girl who came to see +me. To-day was beautiful again, and I mounted old +Mustapha’s cob pony and jogged over his farm with him, and +lunched on delicious sour cream and <i>fateereh</i> at a +neighbouring village, to the great delight of the +<i>fellaheen</i>. It was more Biblical than ever; the +people were all relations of Mustapha’s, and to see Sidi +Omar, the head of the household, and the ‘young men coming +in from the field,’ and the ‘flocks and herds and +camels and asses,’ was like a beautiful dream. All +these people are of high blood, and a sort of ‘roll of +Battle’ is kept here for the genealogies of the noble Arabs +who came in with Amr—the first Arab conqueror and +lieutenant of Omar. Not one of these brown men, who do not +own a second shirt, would give his brown daughter to the greatest +Turkish Pasha. This country <i>noblesse</i> is more +interesting to me by far than the town people, though Omar, who +is quite a Cockney, and piques himself on being +‘delicate,’ turns up his nose at their beggarly +pride, as Londoners used to do at bare-legged Highlanders. +The air of perfect equality—except as to the respect due to +the head of the clan—with which the villagers treated +Mustapha, and which he fully returned, made it all seem so very +gentlemanly. They are not so dazzled by a little show, and +far more manly than the Cairenes. I am on visiting terms +with all the ‘county families’ resident in Luxor +already. The Názir (magistrate) is a very nice +person, and my Sheykh Yussuf, who is of the highest blood (being +descended from Abu-l-Hajjaj himself), is quite charming. +There is an intelligent little German here as Austrian Consul, +who draws nicely. I went into his house, and was startled +by hearing a pretty Arab boy, his servant, inquire, +‘<i>Soll ich den Kaffee bringen</i>?’ What +next? They are all mad to learn languages, and Mustapha +begs me and Sally to teach his little girl Zeyneb English.</p> +<p><i>Friday</i>, 22<i>nd</i>.—Yesterday I rode over to +Karnac, with Mustapha’s <i>sais</i> running by my +side. Glorious hot sun and delicious air. To hear the +<i>sais</i> chatter away, his tongue running as fast as his feet, +made me deeply envious of his lungs. Mustapha joined me, +and pressed me to go to visit the Sheykh’s tomb for the +benefit of my health, as he and Sheykh Yussuf wished to say a +<i>Fathah</i> for me; but I must not drink wine at dinner. +I made a little difficulty on the score of difference of +religion, but Sheykh Yussuf, who came up, said that he presumed I +worshipped God, and not stones, and that sincere prayers were +good anywhere. Clearly the bigotry would have been on my +side if I had refused any longer. So in the evening I went +with Mustapha. It was a very curious sight, the little dome +illuminated with as much oil as the mosque could afford, and the +tombs of Abu-l-Hajjaj and his three sons. A magnificent old +man, like Father Abraham himself, dressed in white, sat on a +carpet at the foot of the tomb; he was the head of the family of +Abu-l-Hajjaj. He made me sit by, and was extremely +polite. Then came the Názir, the Kadee, a Turk +travelling on Government business, and a few other gentlemen, who +all sat down round us after kissing the hand of the old +Sheykh. Everyone talked; in fact it was a +<i>soirée</i> for the entertainment of the dead +Sheykh. A party of men sat at the further end of the place, +with their faces to the Kibleh, and played on a <i>taraboukeh</i> +(sort of small drum stretched on earthenware which gives a +peculiar sound), a tambourine without bells, and little tinkling +cymbals fitting on thumb and fingers (crotales), and chanted +songs in honour of Mohammed and verses from the Psalms of +David. Every now and then one of our party left off +talking, and prayed a little or counted his beads. The old +Sheykh sent for coffee, and gave me the first cup—a +wonderful concession. At last the Názir proposed a +<i>Fathah</i> for me, which the whole group round me repeated +aloud, and then each said to me, ‘Our Lord God bless and +give thee health and peace, to thee and thy family, and take thee +back safe to thy master and thy children,’ one adding +<i>Ameen</i> and giving the salaam with the hand. I +returned it, and said, ‘Our Lord reward thee and all the +people of kindness to strangers,’ which was considered a +very proper answer. After that we went away, and the worthy +Názir walked home with me to take a pipe and a glass of +sherbet, and enjoy a talk about his wife and eight children, who +are all in Foum-el-Bachr’, except two boys at school in +Cairo. Government appointments are so precarious that it is +not worth while to move them up here, as the expense would be too +heavy on a salary of £15 a month, with the chance of recall +any day. In Cairo or Lower Egypt it would be quite +impossible for a Christian to enter a Sheykh’s tomb at +all—above all on his birthday festival and on the night of +Friday.</p> +<p><i>Friday</i>, <i>January</i> 29.—I have been too unwell +to write all this week, but will finish this to-day to send off +by Lady Herbert’s boat. The last week has been very +cold here, the thermometer at 59° and 60°, with a nipping +wind and bright sun. I was obliged to keep my bed for three +or four days, as of course a <i>palazzo</i> without doors or +windows to speak of was very trying, though far better than a +boat. Yesterday and to-day are much better, not really much +warmer, but a different air.</p> +<p>The <i>moolid</i> (festival) of the Sheykh terminated last +Saturday with a procession, in which the new cover of his tomb, +and the ancient sacred boat, were carried on men’s +shoulders. It all seemed to have walked out of the royal +tombs, only dusty and shabby instead of gorgeous. These +festivals of the dead are such as Herodotus alludes to as held in +honour of ‘Him whose name he dares not mention—Him +who sleeps in Philæ,’ only the name is changed and +the mummy is absent.</p> +<p>For a fortnight everyone who had a horse and could ride came +and ‘made fantasia’ every afternoon for two hours +before sunset; and very pretty it was. The people here show +their good blood in their riding. On the last three days +all strangers were entertained with bread and cooked meat at the +expense of the Luxor people; every house killed a sheep and baked +bread. As I could not do that for want of servants enough, +I sent 100 piastres (12s) to the servants of Abu-l-Hajjaj at the +mosque to pay for the oil burnt at the tomb, etc. I was not +well and in bed, but I hear that my gift gave immense +satisfaction, and that I was again well prayed for. The +Coptic Bishop came to see me, but he is a tipsy old monk and an +impudent beggar. He sent for tea as he was ill, so I went +to see him, and perceived that his disorder was arrakee. He +has a very nice black slave, a Christian (Abyssinian, I think), +who is a friend of Omar’s, and who sent Omar a handsome +dinner all ready cooked; among other things a chicken stuffed +with green wheat was excellent. Omar constantly gets +dinners sent him, a lot of bread, some dates and cooked fowls or +pigeons, and <i>fateereh</i> with honey, all tied up hot in a +cloth. I gave an old fellow a pill and dose some days ago, +but his <i>dura ilia</i> took no notice, and he came for more, +and got castor-oil. I have not seen him since, but his +employer, <i>fellah</i> Omar, sent me a lot of delicious butter +in return. I think it shows great intelligence in these +people, how none of them will any longer consult an Arab +<i>hakeem</i> if they can get a European to physic them. +They now ask directly whether the Government doctors have been to +Europe to learn <i>Hekmeh</i>, and if not they don’t trust +them—for poor ‘savages’ and +‘heathens’ <i>ce n’est pas si +bête</i>. I had to interrupt my lessons from illness, +but Sheykh Yussuf came again last night. I have mastered +<i>Abba shedda o mus beteen</i>—<i>ibbi shedda o +heftedeen</i>, etc. Oh dear, what must poor Arab children +suffer in learning ABC! It is a terrible alphabet, and the +<i>shekel</i> (points) are <i>désespérants</i>; but +now I stick for want of a dictionary.</p> +<p>Mr. Arrowsmith kindly gave me Miss Martineau’s book, +which I have begun. It is true as far as it goes, but there +is the usual defect—the people are not real people, only +part of the scenery to her, as to most Europeans. You may +conceive how much we are naturalized when I tell you that I have +received a serious offer of marriage for Sally. Mustapha +A’gha has requested me to ‘give her to him’ for +his eldest son Seyyid, a nice lad of nineteen or twenty at +most. As Mustapha is the richest and most considerable +person here, it shows that the Arabs draw no unfavourable +conclusions as to our morals from the freedom of our +manners. He said of course she would keep her own religion +and her own customs. Seyyid is still in Alexandria, so it +will be time to refuse when he returns. I said she was too +old, but they think that no objection at all. She will have +to say that her father would not allow it, for of course a +handsome offer deserves a civil refusal. Sally’s +proposals would be quite an ethnological study; Mustapha asked +what I should require as dowry for her. Fancy Sally as +Hareem of the Sheykh-el-Beled of Luxor!</p> +<p>I am so charmed with my house that I begin seriously to +contemplate staying here all the time. Cairo is so dear +now, and so many dead cattle are buried there, that I think I +should do better in this place. There is a huge hall, so +large and cold now as to be uninhabitable, which in summer would +be glorious. My dear old captain of steamer XII. would +bring me up coffee and candles, and if I ‘sap’ and +learn to talk to people, I shall have plenty of company.</p> +<p>The cattle disease has not extended above Minieh to any +degree, and here there has not been a case. +<i>Alhamdulillah</i>! Food is very good here, rather less +than half Cairo prices even now; in summer it will be half +that. Mustapha urges me to stay, and proposes a picnic of a +few days over in the tombs with his Hareem as a diversion. +I have got a photo, for a stereoscope, which I send you, of my +two beloved, lovely palm-trees on the river-bank just above and +looking over Philæ.</p> +<p>Hitherto my right side has been the bad one, but now one side +is uneasy and the other impossible to lie on. It does not +make one sleep pleasantly, and the loss of my good, sound sleep +tries me, and so I don’t seem well. We shall see what +hot weather will do; if that fails I will give up the contest, +and come home to see as much as I shall have time for of you and +my chicks.</p> +<h3>February 7, 1864: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Sunday</i>, <i>February</i> 7, +1864</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>We have had our winter pretty sharp for three weeks, and +everybody has had violent colds and coughs—the Arabs, I +mean.</p> +<p>I have been a good deal ailing, but have escaped any violent +cold altogether, and now the thermometer is up to 64°, and it +feels very pleasant. In the sun it is always very hot, but +that does not prevent the air from being keen, and chapping lips +and noses, and even hands; it is curious how a temperature, which +would be summer in England, makes one shiver at +Thebes—<i>Alhamdulillah</i>! it is over now.</p> +<p>My poor Sheykh Yussuf is in great distress about his brother, +also a young Sheykh (<i>i.e.</i>, one learned in theology and +competent to preach in the mosque). Sheykh Mohammed is come +home from studying in ‘El-Azhar’ at Cairo—I +fear to die. I went with Sheykh Yussuf, at his desire, to +see if I could help him, and found him gasping for breath and +very, very ill. I gave him a little soothing medicine, and +put mustard plasters on him, and as it relieved him, I went again +and repeated them. All the family and a lot of neighbours +crowded in to look on. There he lay in a dark little den +with bare mud walls, worse off, to our ideas, than any pauper; +but these people do not feel the want of comforts, and one learns +to think it quite natural to sit with perfect gentlemen in places +inferior to our cattle-sheds. I pulled some blankets up +against the wall, and put my arm behind Sheykh Mohammed’s +back to make him rest while the poultices were on him, whereupon +he laid his green turban on my shoulder, and presently held up +his delicate brown face for a kiss like an affectionate +child. As I kissed him, a very pious old moollah said +<i>Bismillah</i> (In the name of God) with an approving nod, and +Sheykh Mohammed’s old father, a splendid old man in a green +turban, thanked me with effusion, and prayed that my children +might always find help and kindness. I suppose if I +confessed to kissing a ‘dirty Arab’ in a +‘hovel’ the English travellers would execrate me; but +it shows how much there is in ‘Mussulman bigotry, +unconquerable hatred, etc.,’ for this family are Seyyids +(descendents of the Prophet) and very pious. Sheykh Yussuf +does not even smoke, and he preaches on Fridays. You would +love these Saeedees, they are such thorough gentlemen. I +rode over to the village a few days ago to see a farmer named +Omar. Of course I had to eat, and the people were enchanted +at my going alone, as they are used to see the English armed and +guarded. Sidi Omar, however, insisted on accompanying me +home, which is the civil thing here. He piled a whole stack +of green fodder on his little nimble donkey, and hoisted himself +atop of it without saddle or bridle (the fodder was for Mustapha +A’gha), and we trotted home across the beautiful green +barley-fields, to the amazement of some European young men out +shooting. We did look a curious pair, certainly, with my +English saddle and bridle, habit, hat and feather, on horseback, +and Sidi Omar’s brown shirt, brown legs and white turban, +guiding his donkey with his chibouque. We were laughing +very merrily, too, over my blundering Arabic.</p> +<p>Young Heathcote and Strutt called here, but were hurrying on +up the river. I shall see more of them when they come +down. Young Strutt is so like his mother I knew him in the +street. I would like to give him a fantasia, but it is not +proper for a woman to send for the dancing-girls, and as I am the +friend of the Maōhn (police magistrate), the Kadee, and the +respectable people here, I cannot do what is indecent in their +eyes. It is quite enough that they approve my unveiled +face, and my associating with men; that is ‘my +custom,’ and they think no harm of it.</p> +<p>To-morrow or next day Ramadan begins at the first sight of the +new moon. It is a great nuisance, because everybody is +cross. Omar did not keep it last year, but this year he +will, and if he spoils my dinners, who can blame him? There +was a wedding close by here last night, and about ten +o’clock all the women passed under my windows with crys of +joy ‘ez-zaghareet’ down to the river. I find, +on inquiry, that in Upper Egypt, as soon as the bridegroom has +‘taken the face’ of his bride, the women take her +down to ‘see the Nile.’ They have not yet +forgotten that the old god is the giver of increase, it +seems.</p> +<p>I have been reading Miss Martineau’s book; the +descriptions are excellent, but she evidently knew and cared +nothing about the people, and had the feeling of most English +people here, that the difference of manners is a sort of +impassable gulf, the truth being that their feelings and passions +are just like our own. It is curious that all the old books +of travels that I have read mention the natives of strange +countries in a far more natural tone, and with far more attempt +to discriminate character, than modern ones, <i>e.g.</i>, +Niebuhr’s Travels here and in Arabia, Cook’s Voyages, +and many others. <i>Have</i> we grown so <i>very</i> +civilized since a hundred years that outlandish people seem like +mere puppets, and not like real human beings? Miss +M.’s bigotry against Copts and Greeks is droll enough, +compared to her very proper reverence for ‘Him who sleeps +in Philæ,’ and her attack upon hareems outrageous; +she implies that they are brothels. I must admit that I +have not seen a Turkish hareem, and she apparently saw no other, +and yet she fancies the morals of Turkey to be superior to those +of Egypt. It is not possible for a woman to explain all the +limitations to which ordinary people do subject themselves. +Great men I know nothing of; but women can and do, without blame, +sue their husbands-in-law for the full ‘payment of +debt,’ and demand a divorce if they please in +default. Very often a man marries a second wife out of duty +to provide for a brother’s widow and children, or the +like. Of course licentious men act loosely as +elsewhere. <i>Kulloolum Beni Adam</i> (we are all sons of +Adam), as Sheykh Yussuf says constantly, ‘bad-bad and +good-good’; and modern travellers show strange ignorance in +talking of foreign natives <i>in the lump</i>, as they nearly all +do.</p> +<p><i>Monday</i>.—I have just heard that poor Sheykh +Mohammed died yesterday, and was, as usual, buried at once. +I had not been well for a few days, and Sheykh Yussuf took care +that I should not know of his brother’s death. He +went to Mustapha A’gha, and told him not to tell anyone in +my house till I was better, because he knew ‘what was in my +stomach towards his family,’ and feared I should be made +worse by the news. And how often I have been advised not to +meddle with sick Arabs, because they are sure to suspect a +Christian of poisoning those who die! I do grieve for the +graceful, handsome young creature and his old father. Omar +was vexed at not knowing of his death, because he would have +liked to help to carry him to the grave.</p> +<p>I have at last learned the alphabet in Arabic, and can write +it quite tidily, but now I am in a fix for want of a dictionary, +and have written to Hekekian Bey to buy me one in Cairo. +Sheykh Yussuf knows not a word of English, and Omar can’t +read or write, and has no notion of grammar or of <i>word for +word</i> interpretation, and it is very slow work. When I +walk through the court of the mosque I give the customary coppers +to the little boys who are spelling away loudly under the arcade, +<i>Abba sheddeh o nusbeyteen</i>, <i>Ibbi sheddeh o +heftedeen</i>, etc., with a keen sympathy with their difficulties +and well-smudged tin slates. An additional evil is that the +Arabic books printed in England, and at English presses here, +require a 40-horse power microscope to distinguish a +letter. The ciphering is like ours, but with other figures, +and I felt very stupid when I discovered how I had reckoned Arab +fashion from right to left all my life and never observed the +fact. However, they ‘cast down’ a column of +figures from top to bottom.</p> +<p>I am just called away by some poor men who want me to speak to +the English travellers about shooting their pigeons. It is +very thoughtless, but it is in great measure the fault of the +servants and dragomans who think they must not venture to tell +their masters that pigeons are private property. I have a +great mind to put a notice on the wall of my house about +it. Here, where there are never less than eight or ten +boats lying for full three months, the loss to the +<i>fellaheen</i> is serious, and our Consul Mustapha A’gha +is afraid to say anything. I have given my neighbours +permission to call the pigeons mine, as they roost in flocks on +my roof, and to go out and say that the Sitt objects to her +poultry being shot, especially as I have had them shot off my +balcony as they sat there.</p> +<p>I got a note from M. Mounier yesterday, inviting me to go and +stay at El-Moutaneh, Halim Pasha’s great estate, near +Edfoo, and offering to send his dahabieh for me. I +certainly will go as soon as the weather is decidedly hot. +It is now very warm and pleasant. If I find Thebes too hot +as summer advances I must drop down and return to Cairo, or try +Suez, which I hear is excellent in summer—bracing desert +air. But it is very tempting to stay here—a splendid +cool house, food extremely cheap; about £1 a week for three +of us for fish, bread, butter, meat, milk, eggs and vegetables; +all grocery, of course, I brought with me; no trouble, rest and +civil neighbours. I feel very disinclined to move unless I +am baked out, and it takes a good deal to bake me. The only +fear is the Khamaseen wind. I do not feel very well. +I don’t ail anything in particular; blood-spitting +frequent, but very slight; much less cough; but I am so weak and +good for nothing. I seldom feel able to go out or do more +than sit in the balcony on one side or other of the house. +I have no donkey here, the hired ones are so very bad and so +dear; but I have written Mounier to try and get me one at +El-Moutaneh and send it down in one of Halim Pasha’s +corn-boats. There is no comfort like a donkey always +ready. If I have to send for Mustapha’s horse, I feel +lazy and fancy it is too much trouble unless I can go just when I +want.</p> +<p>I have received a letter from Alexandria of January 8. +What dreadful weather! We felt the ghost of it here in our +three weeks of cold. Sometimes I feel as if I must go back +to you all <i>coûte qui coûte</i>, but I know it +would be no use to try it in the summer. I long for more +news of you and my chicks.</p> +<h3>February 8, 1864: February 8, 1864</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Ross</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>Tuesday</i>, <i>February</i> 8, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Child</span>,</p> +<p>I got your letter No. 3 about a week ago, and two others +before it. I have been very lazy in writing, for it has +been very cold (for Thebes), and I have been very seedy—no +severe attack, but no strength at all. The last three or +four days the weather has been warm, and I am beginning to feel +better. I send this to Cairo by a clever, pleasant Mme. de +Beaulaincourt, a daughter of Maréchal Castellane, who is +here in one of the Pasha’s steamers. She will call on +you when she goes to Alexandria. I have been learning to +write Arabic, and know my letters—no trifle, I assure +you. My Sheykh is a perfect darling—the most +graceful, high-bred young creature, and a Seyyid. These +Saeedees are much nicer than the Lower Egypt people. They +have good Arab blood in their veins, keep pedigrees, and are more +manly and independent, and more liberal in religion.</p> +<p>Sheykh Yussuf took me into the tomb of his ancestor, Sheykh +Abul Hajjaj, the great saint here, and all the company said a +Fathah for my health. It was on the night of Friday, and +during the moolid of the Sheykh. Omar was surprised at the +proceeding, and a little afraid the dead Sheykh might be +offended. My great friend is the Maōhn (police +magistrate) here—a very kind, good man, much liked, I hear, +by all except the Kadee, who was displeased at his giving the +stick to a Mussulman for some wrong to a Copt. I am +beginning to stammer out a little Arabic, but find it horribly +difficult. The plurals are bewildering and the verbs quite +heart-breaking. I have no books, which makes learning very +slow work. I have written to Hekekian Bey to buy me a +dictionary.</p> +<p>The house here is delightful—rather cold now, but will +be perfect in hot weather—so airy and cheerful. I +think I shall stay on here all the time the expense is nil, and +it is very comfortable. I have a friend in a farm in a +neighbouring village, and am much amused at seeing country +life. It cannot be rougher, as regards material comforts, +in New Zealand or Central Africa, but there is no barbarism or +lack of refinement in the manners of the people. M. Mounier +has invited me to go and stay with them at El-Moutaneh, and +offers to send his dahabieh for me. When it gets really hot +I shall like the trip very much.</p> +<p>Pray, when you see Mme. Tastu, say civil things for me, and +tell her how much I like the house. I think it wonderful +that Omar cooked the dinner without being cross. I am sure +I should swear if I had to cook for a heretic in Ramadan.</p> +<h3>February 12, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>February</i> 12, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>We are in Ramadan now, and Omar really enjoys a good +opportunity of ‘making his soul.’ He fasts and +washes vigorously, prays his five times a day, goes to mosque on +Fridays, and is quite merry over it, and ready to cook +infidels’ dinners with exemplary good-humour. It is a +great merit in Muslims that they are not at all grumpy over their +piety. The weather has set in since five or six days quite +like paradise. I sit on my lofty balcony and drink the +sweet northerly breeze, and look at the glorious mountain +opposite, and think if only you and the chicks were here it would +be ‘the best o’ life.’ The beauty of +Egypt grows on one, and I think it far more lovely this year than +I did last. My great friend the Maōhn (he is +<i>not</i> the Nazir, who is a fat little pig-eyed, jolly Turk) +lives in a house which also has a superb view in another +direction, and I often go and sit ‘on the +bench’—<i>i.e.</i>, the <i>mastabah</i> in front of +his house—and do what little talk I can and see the people +come with their grievances. I don’t understand much +of what goes on, as the <i>patois</i> is broad and doubles the +difficulty, or I would send you a Theban police report; but the +Maōhn is very pleasant in his manner to them, and they +don’t seem frightened. We have appointed a very small +boy our <i>bowàb</i>, or porter—or, rather, he has +appointed himself—and his assumption of dignity is quite +delicious. He has provided himself with a huge staff, and +he behaves like the most tremendous janissary. He is about +Rainie’s size, as sharp as a needle, and possesses the +remains of a brown shirt and a ragged kitchen duster as +turban. I am very fond of little Achmet, and like to see +him doing <i>tableaux vivants</i> from Murillo with a plate of +broken victuals. The children of this place have become so +insufferable about <i>backsheesh</i> that I have complained to +the Maōhn, and he will assemble a committee of parents and +enforce better manners. It is only here and just where the +English go. When I ride into the little villages I never +hear the word, but am always offered milk to drink. I have +taken it two or three times and not offered to pay, and the +people always seem quite pleased.</p> +<p>Yesterday Sheykh Yussuf came again, the first time since his +brother’s death; he was evidently deeply affected, but +spoke in the usual way, ‘It is the will of God, we must all +die,’ etc. I wish you could see Sheykh Yussuf. +I think he is the sweetest creature in look and manner I ever +beheld—so refined and so simple, and with the animal grace +of a gazelle. A high-bred Arab is as graceful as an Indian, +but quite without the feline <i>Geschmeidigkeit</i> or the look +of dissimulation; the eye is as clear and frank as a +child’s. Mr. Ruchl, the Austrian Consul here, who +knows Egypt and Arabia well, tells me that he thinks many of them +quite as good as they look, and said of Sheykh Yussuf, <i>Er ist +so gemüthlich</i>. There is a German here deciphering +hieroglyphics, Herr Dümmichen, a very agreeable man, but he +has gone across the river to live at el-Kurneh. He has been +through Ethiopia in search of temples and inscriptions. I +am to go over and visit him, and see some of the tombs again in +his company, which I shall enjoy, as a good interpreter is sadly +wanted in those mysterious regions.</p> +<p>My chest is wonderfully better these last six or seven +days. It is quite clear that downright heat is what does me +good. Moreover, I have just heard from M. Mounier that a +good donkey is <i>en route</i> in a boat from +El-Moutaneh—he will cost me between £4 and £5 +and will enable me to be about far more than I can by merely +borrowing Mustapha’s horse, about which I have scruples as +he lends it to other lady travellers. Little Achmet will be +my sais as well as my door-keeper, I suppose. I wish you +would speak to Layard in behalf of Mustapha A’gha. He +has acted as English Consul here for something like thirty years, +and he really is the slave of the travellers. He gives them +dinners, mounts them, and does all the disagreeable business of +wrangling with the reis and dragomans for them, makes himself a +postmaster, takes care of their letters and sends them out to the +boats, and does all manner of services for them, and lends his +house for the infidels to pray in on Sundays when a clergyman is +here. For this he has no remuneration at all, except such +presents as the English see fit to make him, and I have seen +enough to know that they are neither large nor always gracefully +given. The old fellow at Keneh who has nothing to do gets +regular pay, and I think Mustapha ought to have something; he is +now old and rather infirm, and has to keep a clerk to help him; +and at least, his expenses should be covered. Please say +this to Layard from me as my message to him. Don’t +forget it, please, for Mustapha is a really kind friend to me at +all times and in all ways.</p> +<p><i>February</i> 14th.—Yesterday we had a dust-storm off +the desert. It made my head heavy and made me feel languid, +but did not affect my chest at all. To-day is a soft gray +day; there was a little thunder this morning and a few, very few, +drops of rain—hardly enough for even Herodotus to consider +portentous. My donkey came down last night, and I tried him +to-day, and he is very satisfactory though alarmingly small, as +the real Egyptian donkey always is; the big ones are from the +Hejaz. But it is wonderful how the little creatures run +along under one as easy as possible, and they have no will of +their own. I rode mine out to Karnac and back, and he did +not seem to think me at all heavy. When they are overworked +and overgalloped they become bad on the legs and easily fall, and +all those for hire are quite stumped up, poor beasts—they +are so willing and docile that everyone overdrives them.</p> +<h3>February 19, 1864: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>February</i> 19, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I have only time for a few lines to go down by Mr. Strutt and +Heathcote’s boat to Cairo. They are very good +specimens and quite recognised as ‘belonging to the higher +people,’ because they ‘do not make themselves +big.’ I received your letter of January 21 with +little darling Rainie’s three days ago.</p> +<p>I am better now that the weather is fine again. We had a +whole day’s rain (which Herodotus says is a portent here) +and a hurricane from the south worthy of the Cape. I +thought we should have been buried under the drifting sand. +To-day is again heavenly. I saw Abd-el-Azeez, the chemist +in Cairo; he seemed a very good fellow, and was a pupil of my old +friend M. Chrevreul, and highly recommended by him. Here I +am out of all European ideas. The Sheykh-el-Arab (of the +Ababdeh tribe), who has a sort of town house here, has invited me +out into the desert to the black tents, and I intend to pay a +visit with old Mustapha A’gha. There is a Roman well +in his yard with a ghoul in it. I can’t get the story +from Mustapha, who is ashamed of such superstitions, but +I’ll find it out. We had a fantasia at +Mustapha’s for young Strutt and Co., and a very good +dancing-girl. Some dear old prosy English people made me +laugh so. The lady wondered how the women here could wear +clothes ‘so different from English females—poor +things!’ but they were not <i>malveillants</i>, only +pitying and wonderstruck—nothing astonished them so much as +my salutations with Seleem Effendi, the Maōhn.</p> +<p>I begin to feel the time before me to be away from you all +very long indeed, but I do think my best chance is a long spell +of real heat. I have got through this winter without once +catching cold at all to signify, and now the fine weather is +come. I am writing in Arabic from Sheykh Yussuf’s +dictation the dear old story of the barber’s brother with +the basket of glass. The Arabs are so diverted at hearing +that we all know the <i>Alf Leyleh o Leyleh</i>, the +‘Thousand Nights and a Night.’ The want of a +dictionary with a teacher knowing no word of English is +terrible. I don’t know how I learn at all. The +post is pretty quick up to here. I got your letter within +three weeks, you see, but I get no newspapers; the post is all on +foot and can’t carry anything so heavy. One of my men +of last year, Asgalani the steersman, has just been to see me; he +says his journey was happier last year.</p> +<p>I hear that Phillips is coming to Cairo, and have written to +him there to invite him up here to paint these handsome +Saeedees. He could get up in a steamer as I did through +Hassaneyn Effendi for a trifle. I wish you <i>could</i> +come, but the heat here which gives me life would be quite +<i>impossible</i> to you. The thermometer in the cold +antechamber now is 67° where no sun ever comes, and the blaze +of the sun is prodigious.</p> +<h3>February 26, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>February</i> 26, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have just received your letter of the 3rd inst., and am glad +to get such good tidings. You would be amused to see Omar +bring me a letter and sit down on the floor till I tell him the +family news, and then <i>Alhamdulillah</i>, we are so pleased, +and he goes off to his pots and pans again. Lord and Lady +Spencer are here, and his sister, in two boats. The English +‘Milord,’ extinct on the Continent, has revived in +Egypt, and is greatly reverenced and usually much liked. +‘These high English have mercy in their stomachs,’ +said one of my last year’s sailors who came to kiss my +hand—a pleasing fact in natural history! <i>Fee wahed +Lord</i>, was little ragged Achmet’s announcement of Lord +Spencer—‘Here’s a Lord.’ They are +very pleasant people. I heard from Janet to-day of +<i>ice</i> at Cairo and at Shoubra, and famine prices. I +cannot attempt Cairo with meat at 1s. 3d. a pound, and will +e’en stay here and grill at Thebes. Marry-come-up +with your Thebes and savagery! What if we <i>do</i> wear +ragged brown shirts? ‘’Tis manners makyth +man,’ and we defy you to show better breeding.</p> +<p>We are now in the full enjoyment of summer weather; there has +been no cold for fully a fortnight, and I am getting better every +day now. My cough has quite subsided, and the pain in the +chest much diminished; if the heat does not overpower me I feel +sure it will be very healing to my lungs. I sit out on my +glorious balcony and drink the air from early morning till noon, +when the sun comes upon it and drives me under cover. The +thermometer has stood at 64° for a fortnight or three weeks, +rising sometimes to 67°, but people in the boats tell me it +is still cold at night on the river. Up here, only a +stone’s-throw from it, it is warm all night. I fear +the loss of cattle has suspended irrigation to a fearful extent, +and that the harvests of Lower Egypt of all kinds will be sadly +scanty. The disease has not spread above Minieh, or very +slightly; but, of course, cattle will rise in price here +also. Already food is getting dearer here; meat is +4½ piastres—7d.—the <i>rötl</i> (a +fraction less than a pound), and bread has risen +considerably—I should say corn, for no bakers exist +here. I pay a woman to grind and bake my wheat which I buy, +and delicious bread it is. It is impossible to say how +exactly like the early parts of the Bible every act of life is +here, and how totally new it seems when one reads it here. +Old Jacob’s speech to Pharaoh really made me laugh +(don’t be shocked), because it is so exactly what a fellah +says to a Pasha: ‘Few and evil have been the days,’ +etc. (Jacob being a most prosperous man); but it is manners to +say all that, and I feel quite kindly to Jacob, whom I used to +think ungrateful and discontented; and when I go to Sidi +Omar’s farm, does he not say, ‘Take now fine meal and +bake cakes quickly,’ and wants to kill a kid? +<i>Fateereh</i> with plenty of butter is what the ‘three +men’ who came to Abraham ate; and the way that +Abraham’s chief memlook, acting as Vakeel, manages +Isaac’s marriage with Rebekah! All the vulgarized +associations with Puritanism and abominable little +‘Scripture tales and pictures’ peel off here, and the +inimitably truthful representation of life and +character—not a flattering one certainly—comes out, +and it feels like Homer. Joseph’s tears and his love +for the brother born of the <i>same mother</i> is so +perfect. Only one sees what a bad inferior race the Beni +Israel were compared to the Beni Ishmael or to the +Egyptians. Leviticus and Deuteronomy are so very heathenish +compared to the law of the Koran, or to the early days of +Abraham. Verily the ancient Jews were a foul nation, +judging by the police regulations needful for them. Please +don’t make these remarks public, or I shall be burnt with +Stanley and Colenso (unless I suffer Sheykh Yussuf to propose me +El-Islam). He and M. de Rougé were here last +evening, and we had an Arabic <i>soirée</i>. M. de +Rougé speaks admirably, quite like an Alim, and it was +charming to see Sheykh Yussuf’s pretty look of grateful +pleasure at finding himself treated like a gentleman and a +scholar by two such eminent Europeans; for I (as a woman) am +quite as surprising as even M. de Rougé’s knowledge +of hieroglyphics and Arabic <i>Fosseeha</i>. It is very +interesting to see something of Arabs who have read and have the +‘gentleman’ ideas. His brother, the Imam, has +lost his wife; he was married twenty-two years, and won’t +hear of taking another. I was struck with the sympathy he +expressed with the English Sultana, as all the uneducated people +say, ‘Why doesn’t she marry again?’ It is +curious how refinement brings out the same feelings under all +‘dispensations.’ I apologized to Yussuf for +inadvertently returning the <i>Salaam aleykoum</i> (Peace be with +thee), which he said to Omar, and which I, as an unbeliever, +could not accept. He coloured crimson, touched my hand and +kissed his own, quite distressed lest the distinction might wound +me. When I think of a young parsonic prig at home I shudder +at the difference. But Yussuf is superstitious; he told me +how someone down the river cured his cattle with water poured +over a <i>Mushaf</i> (a copy of the Koran), and has hinted at +writing out a chapter for me to wear as a <i>hegab</i> (an amulet +for my health). He is interested in the antiquities and in +M. de Rougé’s work, and is quite up to the +connection between Ancient Egypt and the books of Moses, +exaggerating the importance of <i>Seyidna Moussa</i>, of +course.</p> +<p>If I go down to Cairo again I will get letters to some of the +Alim there from Abd-el-Waris, the Imam here, and I shall see what +no European but Lane has seen. I think things have altered +since his day, and that men of that class would be less +inaccessible than they were then; and then a woman who is old +(Yussuf guessed me at sixty) and educated does not shock, and +does interest them. All the Europeans here are traders, and +only speak the vulgarest language, and don’t care to know +Arab gentlemen; if they see anything above their servants it is +only Turks, or Arab merchants at times. Don’t fancy +that I can speak at all decently yet, but I understand a good +deal, and stammer out a little.</p> +<h3>March 1, 1864: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>March</i> 1, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I think I shall have an opportunity of sending letters in a +few days by a fast steamer, so I will begin one on the chance and +send it by post if the steamer is delayed long. The glory +of the climate now is beyond description, and I feel better every +day. I go out early—at seven or eight +o’clock—on my tiny black donkey, and come in to +breakfast about ten, and go out again at four.</p> +<p>I want to photograph Yussuf for you. The feelings and +prejudices and ideas of a cultivated Arab, as I get at them +little by little, are curious beyond compare. It +won’t do to generalize from one man, of course, but even +one gives some very new ideas. The most striking thing is +the sweetness and delicacy of feeling—the horror of hurting +anyone (this must be individual, of course: it is too good to be +general). I apologized to him two days ago for +inadvertently answering the <i>Salaam aleykoum</i>, which he, of +course, said to Omar on coming in. Yesterday evening he +walked in and startled me by a <i>Salaam aleykee</i> addressed to +me; he had evidently been thinking it over whether he ought to +say it to me, and come to the conclusion that it was not +wrong. ‘Surely it is well for all the creatures of +God to speak peace (<i>Salaam</i>) to each other,’ said +he. Now, no uneducated Muslim would have arrived at such a +conclusion. Omar would pray, work, lie, do anything for +me—sacrifice money even; but I doubt whether he +<i>could</i> utter <i>Salaam aleykoum</i> to any but a +Muslim. I answered as I felt: ‘Peace, oh my brother, +and God bless thee!’ It was almost as if a Catholic +priest had felt impelled by charity to offer the communion to a +heretic. I observed that the story of the barber was new to +him, and asked if he did not know the ‘Thousand and One +Nights.’ No; he studied only things of religion, no +light amusements were proper for an Alim (elder of religion); +<i>we</i> Europeans did not know that, of course, as <i>our</i> +religion was to enjoy ourselves; but <i>he</i> must not make +merry with diversions, or music, or droll stories. (See the +mutual ignorance of all ascetics!) He has a little girl of +six or seven, and teaches her to write and read; no one else, he +believes, thinks of such a thing out of Cairo; there many of the +daughters of the Alim learn—those who desire it. His +wife died two years ago, and six months ago he married again a +wife of twelve years old! (Sheykh Yussuf is thirty he tells +me; he looks twenty-two or twenty-three.) What a stepmother +and what a wife! He can repeat the whole Koran without a +book, it takes twelve hours to do it. Has read the +Towrát (old Testament) and the el-Aangeel (Gospels), of +course, every Alim reads them. ‘The words of Seyyidna +Eesa are the true faith, but Christians have altered and +corrupted their meaning. So we Muslims believe. We +are all the children of God.’ I ask if Muslims call +themselves so, or only the slaves of God. ‘’Tis +all one, children or slaves. Does not a good man care for +both tenderly alike?’ (Pray observe the Oriental +feeling here. <i>Slave</i> is a term of affection, not +contempt; and remember the Centurion’s +‘<i>servant</i> (slave) whom he loved.’) He had +heard from Fodl Pasha how a cow was cured of the prevailing +disease in Lower Egypt by water weighed against a <i>Mushaf</i> +(copy of the Koran), and had no doubt it was true, Fodl Pasha had +tried it. Yet he thinks the Arab doctors no use at all who +use verses of the Koran.</p> +<p>M. de Rougé, the great <i>Egyptologue</i>, came here +one evening; he speaks Arabic perfectly, and delighted Sheykh +Yussuf, who was much interested in the translations of the +hieroglyphics and anxious to know if he had found anything about +<i>Moussa</i> (Moses) or <i>Yussuf</i> (Joseph). He looked +pleased and grateful to be treated like a ‘gentleman and +scholar’ by such an Alim as M. de Rougé and such a +Sheykhah as myself. As he acts as clerk to Mustapha, our +consular agent, and wears a shabby old brown shirt, or gown, and +speaks no English, I dare say he not seldom encounters great +slights (from sheer ignorance). He produced a bit of old +Cufic MS. and consulted M. de R. as to its meaning—a pretty +little bit of flattery in an Arab Alim to a Frenchman, to which +the latter was not insensible, I saw. In answer to the +invariable questions about all my family I once told him my +father had been a great Alim of the Law, and that my mother had +got ready his written books and put some lectures in order to be +printed. He was amazed—first that I had a mother, as +he told me he thought I was fifty or sixty, and immensely +delighted at the idea. ‘God has favoured your family +with understanding and knowledge; I wish I could kiss the +<i>Sheykhah</i> your mother’s hand. May God favour +her!’ Maurice’s portrait (as usual) he admired +fervently, and said one saw his good qualities in his +face—a compliment I could have fully returned, as he sat +looking at the picture with affectionate eyes and praying, +<i>sotto voce</i>, for <i>el gedda</i>, <i>el gemeel</i> (the +youth, the beautiful), in the words of the <i>Fathah</i>, +‘O give him guidance and let him not stray into the paths +of the rejected!’ Altogether, something in Sheykh +Yussuf reminds me of Worsley: there is the same look of <i>Seelen +reinheit</i>, with far less thought and intelligence; indeed +little thought, of course, and an additional childlike +innocence. I suppose some medieval monks may have had the +same look, but no Catholic I have ever seen looks so peaceful or +so unpretending. I see in him, like in all people who +don’t know what doubt means, that easy familiarity with +religion. I hear him joke with Omar about Ramadan, and even +about Omar’s assiduous prayers, and he is a frequent and +hearty laugher. I wonder whether this gives you any idea of +a character new to you. It is so impossible to describe +<i>manner</i>, which gives so much of the impression of +novelty. My conclusion is the heretical one: that to dream +of converting here is absurd, and, I will add, wrong. All +that is wanted is general knowledge and education, and the +religion will clear and develop itself. The elements are +identical with those of Christianity, encumbered, as that has +been, with asceticism and intolerance. On the other hand, +the creed is simple and there are no priests, a decided +advantage. I think the faith has remained wonderfully +rational considering the extreme ignorance of those who hold +it. I will add Sally’s practical remark, that +‘The prayers are a fine thing for lazy people; they must +wash first, and the prayer is a capital drill.’</p> +<p>You would be amused to hear Sally when Omar does not wake in +time to wash, pray, and eat before daybreak now in +Ramadán. She knocks at his door and acts as +Muezzin. ‘Come, Omar, get up and pray and have your +dinner’ (the evening meal is ‘breakfast,’ the +early morning one ‘dinner’). Being a light +sleeper she hears the Muezzin, which Omar often does not, and +passes on the ‘Prayers is better than sleep’ in a +prose version. Ramadán is a dreadful business; +everybody is cross and lazy—no wonder! The camel-men +quarrelled all day under my window yesterday, and I asked what it +was all about. ‘All about nothing; it is +Ramadán with them,’ said Omar laughing. +‘I want to quarrel with someone myself; it is hot to-day, +and thirsty weather.’ Moreover, I think it injures +the health of numbers permanently, but of course it is the thing +of most importance in the eyes of the people; there are many who +never pray at ordinary times, but few fail to keep +Ramadán. It answers to the Scotch Sabbath, a +comparison also borrowed from Sally.</p> +<p><i>Friday</i>.—My friend Seleem Effendi has just been +here talking about his own affairs and a good deal of +theology. He is an immense talker, and I just put +<i>eywas</i> (yes) and <i>là</i> (no) and +<i>sahé</i> (very true), and learn manners and +customs. He tells me he has just bought two black slave +women, mother and daughter, from a Copt for about £35 the +two. The mother is a good cook, and the daughter is +‘for his bed,’ as his wife does not like to leave +Cairo and her boys at school there. It does give one a sort +of start to hear a most respectable magistrate tell one such a +domestic arrangement. He added that it would not interfere +with the <i>Sittel Kebeer</i> (the great lady), the black girl +being only a slave, and these people never think they have +children enough. Moreover, he said he could not get on with +his small pay without women to keep house, which is quite true +here, and women are not respectable in a man’s house on +other terms. Seleem has a high reputation, and is said not +to ‘eat the people.’ He is a hot Mussulman, and +held forth very much as a very superficial Unitarian might do, +evidently feeling considerable contempt for the absurdities, as +he thinks them, of the Copts (he was too civil to say +Christians), but no hatred (and he is known to show no +partiality), only he ‘can’t understand how people can +believe such nonsense.’ He is a good specimen of the +good, honest, steady-going man-of-the-world Muslim, a strong +contrast to the tender piety of dear Sheykh Yussuf, who has all +the feelings which we call Christian charity in the highest +degree, and whose face is like that of ‘the beloved +disciple,’ but who has no inclination for doctrinal +harangues like worthy Seleem. There is a very general idea +among the Arabs that Christians hate the Muslims; they attribute +to us the old Crusading spirit. It is only lately that Omar +has let us see him at prayer, for fear of being ridiculed, but +now he is sure that is not so, I often find him praying in the +room where Sally sits at work, which is a clean, quiet +place. Yussuf went and joined him there yesterday evening, +and prayed with him, and gave him some religious instruction +quite undisturbed by Sally and her needlework, and I am +continually complimented on <i>not hating</i> the Muslims. +Yussuf promises me letters to some Alim in Cairo when I go there +again, that I may be shown the Azhar (the great college). +Omar had told him that I refused to go with a janissary from the +Consul for fear of giving offence to any very strict Muslims, +which astonished him much. He says his friends shall dress +me in their women’s clothes and take me in. I asked +whether as a concealment of my religion, and he said no, only +there were ‘thousands’ of young men, and it would be +‘more delicate’ that they should not stare and talk +about my face.</p> +<p>Seleem told me a very pretty grammatical quibble about +‘son’ and ‘prophet’ (apropos of Christ) +on a verse in the Gospel, depending on the reduplicative sign +[Arabic sign for sheddeh] (<i>sheddeh</i>) over one letter; he +was just as put out when I reminded him that it was written in +Greek, as our amateur theologians are if you say the Bible was +not originally composed in English. However, I told him +that many Christians in England, Germany, and America did not +believe that Seyyidna Eesa was God, but only the greatest of +prophets and teachers, and that I was myself of that +opinion. He at once declared that that was sufficient, that +all such had ‘received guidance,’ and were not +‘among the rejected’; how could they be, since such +Christians only believed the teaching of Eesa, which was true, +and not the falsifications of the priests and bishops (the +bishops always ‘catch it,’ as schoolboys say). +I was curious to hear whether on the strength of this he would +let out any further intolerance against the Copts, but he said +far less and far less bitterly than I have heard from Unitarians, +and debited the usual most commonplace, common-sense kind of +arguments on the subject. I fancy it would not be very +palatable to many Unitarians, to be claimed <i>mir nichts dir +nichts</i> as followers of <i>el-Islam</i>; but if people really +wish to convert in the sense of improving, that door is open, and +no other.</p> +<p><i>Monday</i>, 7<i>th</i>.—The steamer is come down +already and will, I suppose, go on to-morrow, so I must finish +this letter to go by it. I have not received any letter for +some time, and am anxiously expecting the post. We have now +settled into quite warm weather ways, no more going out at +mid-day. It is now broiling, and I have been watching eight +tall fine blacks swimming and capering about, their skins shining +like otters’ fur when wet. They belong to a +<i>gelláab</i>—a slave-dealer’s boat. +The beautiful thing is to see the men and boys at work among the +green corn, the men half naked and the boys wholly so; in the sun +their brown skins look just like dark clouded +amber—semi-transparent, so fine are they.</p> +<p>I rejoice to say that on Wednesday is Bairam, and to-morrow +Ramadan ‘dies.’ Omar is very thin and yellow +and headachy, and everyone is cross. How I wish I were +going, instead of my letter, to see you all, but it is evident +that this heat is the thing that does me good, if anything +will.</p> +<h3>March 7, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>March</i> 7, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>The real hot weather (speaking after the manner of the +English) has begun, and the fine sun and clear air are delicious +and reviving. My cough fades away, and my strength +increases slowly. One can no longer go out in the middle of +the day, and I mount my donkey early and late, with little Achmet +trotting beside me. In the evenings comes my dear Sheykh +Yussuf, and I blunder through an hour’s dictation, and +reading of the story of the Barber’s fifth brother (he with +the basket of glass). I presume that Yussuf likes me too, +for I am constantly greeted with immense cordiality by graceful +men in green turbans, belonging, like him, to the holy family of +Sheykh Abu-’l-Hajjaj. They inquire tenderly after my +health, and pray for me, and hope I am going to stay among +them.</p> +<p>You would be much struck here with the resemblance to Spain, I +think. ‘Cosas de España’ is exactly the +‘<i>Shogl-el-Arab</i>,’ and Don Fulano is the Arabic +word <i>foolan</i> (such a one), as <i>Ojala</i> is +<i>Inshallah</i> (please God). The music and dancing here, +too, are Spanish, only ‘more so’ and much more.</p> +<p><i>March</i> 10, 1864.—Yesterday was Bairam, and on +Tuesday evening everybody who possessed a gun or a pistol banged +away, every drum and taraboukeh was thumped, and all the children +holloaed, <i>Ramadan Māt</i>, <i>Ramadan Māt</i> +(Ramadan’s dead) about the streets. At daybreak Omar +went to the early prayer, a special ceremony of the day. +There were crowds of people, so, as it was useless to pray and +preach in the mosque, Sheykh Yussuf went out upon a hillock in +the burying-ground, where they all prayed and he preached. +Omar reported the sermon to me, as follows (it is all extempore): +First Yussuf pointed to the graves, ‘Where are all those +people?’ and to the ancient temples, ‘Where are those +who built them? Do not strangers from a far country take +away their very corpses to wonder at? What did their +splendour avail them? etc., etc. What then, O Muslims, +<i>will</i> avail that you may be happy when that comes which +will come for all? Truly God is just and will defraud no +man, and He will reward you if you do what is right; and that is, +to wrong no man, neither in person, nor in his family, nor in his +possessions. <i>Cease then to cheat one another, O men</i>, +and to be greedy, and do not think that you can make amends by +afterwards giving alms, or praying, or fasting, or giving gifts +to the servants of the mosque. <i>Benefits come from God; +it is enough for you if you do no injury to any man, and above +all to any woman or little one</i>.’ Of course it was +much longer, but this was the substance, Omar tells me, and +pretty sound morality too, methinks, and might be preached with +advantage to a meeting of philanthropists in Exeter Hall. +There is no predestination in <i>Islam</i>, and every man will be +judged upon his actions. ‘Even unbelievers God will +not defraud,’ says the Koran. Of course, a belief in +meritorious works leads to the same sort of superstition as among +Catholics, the endeavour to ‘make one’s soul’ +by alms, fastings, endowments, etc.; therefore Yussuf’s +stress upon doing no evil seems to me very remarkable, and really +profound. After the sermon, all the company assembled +rushed on him to kiss his head, and his hands and his feet, and +mobbed him so fearfully that he had to lay about him with the +wooden sword which is carried by the officiating Alim. He +came to wish me the customary good wishes soon after, and looked +very hot and tumbled, and laughed heartily about the awful +kissing he had undergone. All the men embrace on meeting on +the festival of Bairam.</p> +<p>The kitchen is full of cakes (ring-shaped) which my friends +have sent me, just such as we see offered to the gods in the +temples and tombs. I went to call on the Maōhn in the +evening, and found a lot of people all dressed in their +best. Half were Copts, among them a very pleasing young +priest who carried on a religious discussion with Seleem Effendi, +strange to say, with perfect good-humour on both sides. A +Copt came up with his farm labourer, who had been beaten and the +field robbed. The Copt stated the case in ten words, and +the Maōhn sent off his cavass with him to apprehend the +accused persons, who were to be tried at sunrise and beaten, if +found guilty, and forced to make good the damage. General +Hay called yesterday—a fine old, blue-eyed soldier. +He found a lot of Fellaheen sitting with me, enjoying coffee and +pipes hugely, and they were much gratified at our pressing them +not to move or disturb themselves, when they all started up in +dismay at the entrance of such a grand-looking Englishman and got +off the carpet. So we told them that in our country the +business of a farmer was looked upon as very respectable, and +that the General would ask his farmers to sit and drink wine with +him. ‘<i>Mashallah, taib kateer</i>’ (It is the +will of God, and most excellent), said old Omar, my fellah +friend, and kissed his hand to General Hay quite +affectionately. We English are certainly liked here. +Seleem said yesterday evening that he had often had to do +business with them, and found them always <i>doghri</i> +(straight), men of one word and of no circumlocutions, ‘and +so unlike all the other Europeans, and especially the +French!’ The fact is that few but decent English come +here, I fancy our scamps go to the colonies, whereas Egypt is the +sink for all the iniquity of the South of Europe.</p> +<p>A worthy Copt here, one Todorus, took ‘a piece of +paper’ for £20 for antiquities sold to an Englishman, +and after the Englishman was gone, brought it to me to ask what +sort of paper it was, and how he could get it changed, or was he, +perhaps, to keep it till the gentleman sent him the money? +It was a circular note, which I had difficulty in explaining, but +I offered to send it to Cairo to Brigg’s and get it cashed; +as to when he would get the money I could not say, as they must +wait for a safe hand to send gold by. I told him to put his +name on the back of the note, and Todorus thought I wanted it +<i>as a receipt</i> for the money which was yet to come, and was +going cheerfully to write me a receipt for the £20 he was +entrusting to me. Now a Copt is not at all green where his +pocket is concerned, but they will take anything from the +English. I do hope no swindler will find it out. Mr. +Close told me that when his boat sank in the Cataract, and he +remained half dressed on the rock, without a farthing, four men +came and offered to lend him anything. While I was in +England last year an Englishman to whom Omar acted as <i>laquais +de place</i> went away owing him £7 for things +bought. Omar had money enough to pay all the tradespeople, +and kept it secret for fear any of the other Europeans should +say, ‘Shame for the English’ and did not even tell +his family. Luckily, the man sent the money by the next +mail from Malta, and the Sheykh of the dragomans proclaimed it, +and so Omar got it; but he would never have mentioned it +else. This ‘concealing of evil’ is considered +very meritorious, and where women are concerned positively a +religious duty. <i>Le scandale est ce qui fait +l’offense</i> is very much the notion in Egypt, and I +believe that very forgiving husbands are commoner here than +elsewhere. The whole idea is founded on the verse of the +Koran, incessantly quoted, ‘The woman is made for the man, +but the man is made for the woman’; <i>ergo</i>, the +obligations to chastity are equal; <i>ergo</i>, as the men find +it difficult, they argue that the women do the same. I have +never heard a woman’s misconduct spoken of without a +hundred excuses; perhaps her husband had slave girls, perhaps he +was old or sick, or she didn’t like him, or she +couldn’t help it. Violent love comes ‘by the +visitation of God,’ as our juries say; the man or woman +must satisfy it or die. A poor young fellow is now in the +muristan (the madhouse) of Cairo owing to the beauty and sweet +tongue of an English lady whose servant he was. How could +he help it? God sent the calamity.</p> +<p>I often hear of Lady Ellenborough, who is married to the +Sheykh-el-Arab of Palmyra, and lives at Damascus. The Arabs +think it inhuman of English ladies to avoid her. Perhaps +she has repented; at all events, she is married and lives with +her husband. I asked Omar if he would tell his brother if +he saw his wife do anything wrong. (N.B.—He +can’t endure her.) ‘Certainly not, I must cover +her with my cloak.’ I am told, also, that among the +Arabs of the desert (the <i>real</i> Arabs), when a traveller, +tired and wayworn, seeks their tents, it is the duty of his host, +generally the Sheykh, to send him into the hareem, and leave him +there three days, with full permission to do as he will after the +women have bathed, and rubbed, and refreshed him. But then +he must never speak of that Hareem; they are to him as his own, +to be reverenced. If he spoke, the husband would kill him; +but the Arab would never do it for a European, ‘because all +Europeans are so hard upon women,’ and do not fear God and +conceal their offences. If a dancing-girl repents, the most +respectable man may and does marry her, and no one blames or +laughs at him. I believe all this leads to a good deal of +irregularity, but certainly the feeling is amiable. It is +impossible to conceive how startling it is to a Christian to hear +the rules of morality applied with perfect impartiality to both +sexes, and to hear Arabs who know our manners talk of the English +being ‘jealous’ and ‘hard upon their +women.’ Any unchastity is wrong and <i>haram</i> +(unlawful), but equally so in men and women. Seleem Effendi +talked in this strain, and seemed to incline to greater +indulgence to women on the score of their ignorance and +weakness. Remember, I only speak of Arabs. I believe +the Turkish ideas are different, as is their whole hareem system, +and Egypt is not the rule for all Muslims.</p> +<p><i>Saturday</i>, 12<i>th</i>.—I dined last night with +Mustapha, who again had the dancing-girls for some Englishmen to +see. Seleem Effendi got the doctor, who was of the party, +to prescribe for him, and asked me to translate to him all about +his old stomach as coolly as possible. He, as usual, sat by +me on the divan, and during the pause in the dancing called +‘el Maghribeeyeh,’ the best dancer, to come and +talk. She kissed my hand, sat on her heels before us, and +at once laid aside the professional <i>galliardise</i> of manner, +and talked very nicely in very good Arabic and with perfect +propriety, more like a man than a woman; she seemed very +intelligent. What a thing we should think it for a +worshipful magistrate to call up a girl of that character to talk +to a lady!</p> +<p>Yesterday we had a strange and unpleasant day’s +business. The evening before I had my pocket picked in +Karnac by two men who hung about me, one to sell a bird, the +other one of the regular ‘loafers’ who hang about the +ruins to beg, and sell water or curiosities, and who are all a +lazy, bad lot, of course. I went to Seleem, who wrote at +once to the Sheykh-el-Beled of Karnac to say that we should go +over next morning at eight o’clock to investigate the +affair, and to desire him to apprehend the men. Next +morning Seleem fetched me, and Mustapha came to represent English +interests, and as we rode out of Luxor the Sheykh-el-Ababdeh +joined us, with four of his tribe with their long guns, and a lot +more with lances. He was a volunteer, and furious at the +idea of a lady and a stranger being robbed. It is the first +time it has happened here, and the desire to beat was so strong +that I went to act as counsel for the prisoner. Everyone +was peculiarly savage that it should have happened to me, a +person well known to be so friendly to <i>el Muslimeen</i>. +When we arrived we went into a square enclosure, with a sort of +cloister on one side, spread with carpets where we sat, and the +wretched fellows were brought in chains. To my horror, I +found they had been beaten already. I remonstrated, +‘What if you had beaten the wrong men?’ +‘<i>Maleysh</i>! (Never mind!) we will beat the whole +village until your purse is found.’ I said to +Mustapha, ‘This won’t do; you must stop +this.’ So Mustapha ordained, with the concurrence of +the Maōhn, that the Sheykh-el-Beled and the <i>gefiyeh</i> +(the keeper of the ruins) should pay me the value of the +purse. As the people of Karnac are very troublesome in +begging and worrying, I thought this would be a good lesson to +the said Sheykh to keep better order, and I consented to receive +the money, promising to return it and to give a napoleon over if +the purse comes back with its contents (3½ +napoleons). The Sheykh-el-Ababdeh harangued the people on +their ill-behaviour to Hareemát, called them +<i>harámee</i> (rascals), and was very high and mighty to +the Sheykh-el-Beled. Hereupon I went away to visit a +Turkish lady in the village, leaving Mustapha to settle. +After I was gone they beat eight or ten of the boys who had +mobbed me, and begged with the two men. Mustapha, who does +not like the stick, stayed to see that they were not hurt, and so +far it will be a good lesson to them. He also had the two +men sent over to the prison here, for fear the Sheykh-el-Beled +should beat them again, and will keep them here for a time. +So far so good, but my fear now is that innocent people will be +squeezed to make up the money, if the men do not give up the +purse. I have told Sheykh Yussuf to keep watch how things +go, and if the men persist in the theft and don’t return +the purse, I shall give the money to those whom the +Sheykh-el-Beled will assuredly squeeze, or else to the mosque of +Karnac. I cannot pocket it, though I thought it quite right +to exact the fine as a warning to the Karnac <i>mauvais +sujets</i>. As we went home the Sheykh-el-Ababdeh (such a +fine fellow he looks) came up and rode beside me, and said, +‘I know you are a person of kindness; do not tell this +story in this country. If Effendina (Ismail Pasha) comes to +hear, he may “take a broom and sweep away the +village.”’ I exclaimed in horror, and Mustapha +joined at once in the request, and said, ‘Do not tell +anyone in Egypt. The Sheykh-el-Ababdeh is quite true; it +might cost many lives.’ The whole thing distressed me +horribly. If I had not been there they would have beaten +right and left, and if I had shown any desire to have anyone +punished, evidently they would have half killed the two +men. Mustapha behaved extremely well. He showed +sense, decision, and more feelings of humanity than I at all +expected of him. Pray do as I begged you, try to get him +paid. Some of the Consuls in Cairo are barely civil, and +old Mustapha has all the bother and work of the whole of the Nile +boats (eighty-five this winter), and he is boundlessly kind and +useful to the English, and a real protection against cheating, +etc.</p> +<h3>March 16, 1864: Mr. Tom Taylor</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mr. Tom Taylor</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>March</i> 16, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Tom</span>,</p> +<p>I cannot tell you how delighted I was to hear that all had +gone well with Laura and your little daughter. +<i>Mashallah</i>! God bless her! When I told Omar +that a friend ‘like my brother,’ as Arabs say, had +got a baby, he proposed to illuminate our house and fire off all +the pistols in the premises. Pray give my kind love and +best wishes to Laura.</p> +<p>I am living here a very quiet, dreamy sort of life in hot +Thebes, visiting a little among my neighbours and learning a +little Arabic from a most sweet, gentle young Sheykh who preaches +on Fridays in the mosque of Luxor. I wish I could draw his +soft brown face and graceful, brown-draped figure; but if I +could, he is too devout I believe, to permit it. The police +magistrate—el-Maōhn—Seleem Effendi, is also a +great friend of mine, and the Kadee is civil, but a little +scornful to heretical Hareem, I think. It is already very +hot, and the few remaining traveller’s dahabiehs are now +here on their way down the river; after that I shall not see a +white face for many months, except Sally’s.</p> +<p>Sheykh Yussuf laughed so heartily over a print in an +illustrated paper, from a picture of Hilton’s, of Rebekah +at the well, with the old <i>Vakeel</i> of Sidi Ibraheem +(Abraham’s chief servant) <i>kneeling</i> before the girl +he was sent to fetch like an old fool without his turban, and +Rebekah and the other girls in queer fancy dresses, and the +camels with snouts like pigs. ‘If the painter could +not go to Es-Sham (Syria) to see how the Arab (Bedaween) really +look,’ said Sheykh Yussuf, ‘why did he not paint a +well in England with girls like English peasants? At least +it would have looked natural to English people, and the +<i>Vakeel</i> would not seem so like a <i>majnoon</i> (a madman) +if he had taken off a hat.’ I cordially agreed with +Yussuf’s art criticism. Fancy pictures of Eastern +things are hopelessly absurd, and fancy poems too. I have +got hold of a stray copy of Victor Hugo’s +‘<i>Orientales</i>,’ and I think I never laughed more +in my life.</p> +<p>The corn is now full-sized here, but still green; in twenty +days will be harvest, and I am to go to the harvest-home to a +fellah friend of mine in a village a mile or two off. The +crop is said to be unusually fine. Old Nile always pays +back the damage he does when he rises so very high. The +real disaster is the cattle disease, which still goes on, I hear, +lower down. It has not at present spread above Minieh, but +the destruction has been fearful.</p> +<p>I more and more feel the difficulty of quite understanding a +people so unlike ourselves—the more I know them, I +mean. One thing strikes me, that like children, they are +not conscious of the great gulf which divides educated Europeans +from themselves; at least, I believe it is so. We do not +attempt to explain our ideas to them, but I cannot discover any +such reticence in them. I wonder whether this has struck +people who can talk fluently and know them better than I +do? I find they appeal to my sympathy in trouble quite +comfortably, and talk of religious and other feelings apparently +as freely as to each other. In many respects they are more +unprejudiced than we are, and very intelligent, and very good in +many ways; and yet they seem so strangely childish, and I fancy I +detect that impression even in Lane’s book, though he does +not say so.</p> +<p>If you write to me, dear Tom, please address me care of Briggs +and Co., Cairo. I shall be so glad to hear of you and +yours. Janet is going to England. I wish I were going +too, but it is useless to keep trying a hopeless +experiment. At present I am very comfortable in health as +long as I do nothing and the weather is warm. I suffer +little pain, only I feel weak and weary.</p> +<p>I have extensive practice in the doctoring line; bad eyes, of +course, abound. My love to Watts, and give greetings to any +other of my friends. I grieve over Thackeray much, and more +over his girls’ lonely sort of position.</p> +<p>I think you would enjoy, as I do, the peculiar sort of social +equality which prevails here; it is the exact contrary of French +<i>égalité</i>. There are the great and +powerful people, much honoured (outwardly, at all events), but +nobody has <i>inferiors</i>. A man comes in and kisses my +hand, and sits down <i>off</i> the carpet out of respect; but he +smokes his pipe, drinks his coffee, laughs, talks and asks +questions as freely as if he were an Effendi or I were a +fellahah; he is not my inferior, he is my poor brother. The +servants in my friends’ houses receive me with profound +demonstrations of respect, and wait at dinner reverently, but +they mix freely in the conversation, and take part in all +amusements, music, dancing-girls, or reading of the Koran. +Even the dancing-girl is not an outcast; she is free to talk to +me, and it is highly irreligious to show any contempt or +aversion. The rules of politeness are the same for +all. The passer-by greets the one sitting still, or the one +who comes into a room those who are already there, without +distinction of rank. When I have greeted the men they +always rise, but if I pass without, they take no notice of +me. All this is very pleasant and graceful, though it is +connected with much that is evil. The fact that any man may +be a Bey or a Pasha to-morrow is not a good fact, for the +promotion is more likely to fall on a bad slave than on a good or +intelligent free man. Thus, the only honourable class are +those who have nothing to hope from the great—I won’t +say anything to fear, for all have cause for that. Hence +the high respectability and <i>gentility</i> of the merchants, +who are the most independent of the Government. The English +would be a little surprised at Arab judgments of them; they +admire our veracity and honesty, and like us on the whole, but +they blame the men for their conduct to women. They are +shocked at the way Englishmen talk about Hareem among themselves, +and think the English hard and unkind to their wives, and to +women in general. English Hareemát is generally +highly approved, and an Arab thinks himself a happy man if he can +marry an English girl. I have had an offer for Sally from +the chief man here for his son, proposing to allow her a free +exercise of her religion and customs as a matter of course. +I think the influence of foreigners is much more real and much +more useful on the Arabs than on the Turks, though the latter +show it more in dress, etc. But all the engineers and +physicians are Arabs, and very good ones, too. Not a Turk +has learnt anything practical, and the dragomans and servants +employed by the English have learnt a strong appreciation of the +value of a character for honesty, deserved or no; but many do +deserve it. Compared to the couriers and <i>laquais de +place</i> of Europe, these men stand very high. Omar has +just run in to say a boat is going, so good-bye, and God bless +you.</p> +<h3>March 22, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>March</i> 22, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I am glad my letters amuse you. Sometimes I think they +must breathe the unutterable dulness of Eastern life: not that it +is dull to me, a curious spectator, but how the men with nothing +to do can endure it is a wonder. I went yesterday to call +on a Turk at Karnac; he is a gentlemanly man, the son of a former +Moudir, who was murdered, I believe, for his cruelty and +extortion. He has 1,000 feddans (acres, or a little more) +of land, and lives in a mud house, larger but no better than any +fellahs, with two wives and the brother of one of them. He +leaves the farm to his fellaheen altogether, I fancy. There +was one book, a Turkish one; I could not read the title-page, and +he did not tell me what it was. In short, there was no +means of killing time but the narghile, no horse, no gun, +nothing, and yet they did not seem bored. The two women are +always clamorous for my visits, and very noisy and +school-girlish, but apparently excellent friends and very +good-natured. The gentleman gave me a <i>kufyeh</i> (thick +head kerchief for the sun), so I took the ladies a bit of silk I +happened to have. You never heard anything like his +raptures over Maurice’s portrait, ‘<i>Mashallah</i>, +<i>Mashallah</i>, <i>Wallahy zay el ward</i>’ (It is the +will of God, and by God he is like a rose). But I +can’t ‘cotton to’ the Turks. I always +feel that they secretly dislike us European women, though they +profess huge admiration and pay <i>personal</i> compliments, +which an Arab very seldom attempts. I heard Seleem Effendi +and Omar discussing English ladies one day lately while I was +inside the curtain with Seleem’s slave girl, and they did +not know I heard them. Omar described Janet, and was of the +opinion that a man who was married to her could want nothing +more. ‘By my soul, she rides like a Bedawee, she +shoots with the gun and pistol, and rows the boat; she speaks +many languages, works with the needle like an Efreet, and to see +her hands run over the teeth of the music-box (keys of piano) +amazes the mind, while her singing gladdens the soul. How +then should her husband ever desire the coffee-shop? +<i>Wallahy</i>! she can always amuse him at home. And as to +my lady, the thing is not that she does not know. When I +feel my stomach tightened, I go to the divan and say to her, +‘Do you want anything, a pipe, or sherbet, or so and +so?’ and I talk till she lays down her book and talks to +me, and I question her and amuse my mind, and, by God! if I were +a rich man and could marry one English Hareem like that I would +stand before her and serve her like her memlook. You see I +am only this lady’s servant, and I have not once sat in the +coffee-shop because of the sweetness of her tongue. Is it +not therefore true that the man who can marry such Hareem is rich +more than with money?’ Seleem seemed disposed to +think a little more of looks, though he quite agreed with all +Omar’s enthusiasm, and asked if Janet were beautiful. +Omar answered with decorous vagueness that she was a +‘moon,’ but declined mentioning her hair, eyes, etc. +(it is a liberty to describe a woman minutely). I nearly +laughed out at hearing Omar relate his manœuvres to make me +‘amuse his mind’; it seems I am in no danger of being +discharged for being dull.</p> +<p>The weather has set in so hot that I have shifted my quarters +out of my fine room to the south-west into one with only three +sides looking over a lovely green view to the north-east, with a +huge sort of solid veranda, as large as the room itself, on the +open side; thus I live in the open air altogether. The bats +and the swallows are quite sociable; I hope the serpents and +scorpions will be more reserved. ‘<i>El +Khamaseen</i>’ (the fifty) has begun, and the wind is +enough to mix up heaven and earth, but it is not distressing like +the Cape south-easter, and, though hot, not choking like the +Khamseen in Cairo and Alexandria. Mohammed brought me a +handful of the new wheat just now. Think of harvest in +March and April! These winds are as good for the crops here +as a ‘nice steady rain’ is in England. It is +not necessary to water so much when the wind blows strong. +As I rode through the green fields along the dyke, a little boy +sang as he turned round on the musically-creaking Sakìah +(the water-wheel turned by an ox) the one eternal Sakìah +tune—the words are <i>ad libitum</i>, and my little friend +chanted ‘Turn oh Sakìah to the right and turn to the +left—who will take care of me if my father dies? Turn +oh Sakìah, etc., pour water for the figs and the grass and +for the watermelons. Turn oh Sakìah!’ +Nothing is so pathetic as that Sakìah song.</p> +<p>I passed the house of the Sheykh-el-Ababdeh, who called out to +me to take coffee. The moon was splendid and the scene was +lovely. The handsome black-brown Sheykh in dark robes and +white turban, Omar in a graceful white gown and red turban, and +the wild Ababdeh in all manner of dingy white rags, and with +every kind of uncouth weapon, spears, matchlocks, etc., in every +kind of wild and graceful attitude, with their long black +ringlets and bare heads, a few little black-brown children quite +naked and shaped like Cupids. And there we sat and looked +so romantic and talked quite like ladies and gentlemen about the +merits of Sakna and Almás, the two great rival +women-singers of Cairo. I think the Sheykh wished to +display his experiences of fashionable life.</p> +<p>The Copts are now fasting and cross. They fast +fifty-five days for Lent; no meat, fish, eggs, or milk, no +exception for Sundays, no food till after twelve at noon, and no +intercourse with the hareem. The only comfort is lots of +arrak, and what a Copt can carry decently is an unknown quantity; +one seldom sees them drunk, but they imbibe awful +quantities. They offer me wine and arrak always, and +can’t think why I don’t drink it. I believe +they suspect my Christianity in consequence of my preference for +Nile water. As to that, though, they scorn all heretics, +<i>i.e.</i>, all Christians but themselves and the Abyssinians, +more than they do the Muslims, and dislike them more; the +procession of the Holy Ghost question divides us with the Gulf of +Jehannum. The gardener of this house is a Copt, such a nice +fellow, and he and Omar chaff one another about religion with the +utmost good humour; indeed they are seldom touchy with the +Moslems. There is a pretty little man called Michaïl, +a Copt, vakeel to M. Mounier. I wish I could draw him to +show a perfect specimen of the ancient Egyptian race; his blood +must be quite unmixed. He came here yesterday to speak to +Ali Bey, the Moudir of Keneh, who was visiting me (a splendid +handsome Turk he is); so little Michaïl crept in to mention +his business under my protection, and a few more followed, till +Ali Bey got tired of holding a durbar in my divan and went away +to his boat. You see the people think the <i>courbash</i> +is not quite so handy with an English spectator. The other +day Mustapha A’gha got Ali Bey to do a little job for +him—to let the people in the Gezeereh (the island), which +is Mustapha’s property, work at a canal there instead of at +the canal higher up for the Pasha. Very well, but down +comes the Nazir (the Moudir’s <i>sub</i>.), and courbashes +the whole Gezeereh, not Mustapha, of course, but the poor +<i>fellaheen</i> who were doing his corvée instead of the +Pasha’s by the Moudir’s order. I went to the +Gezeereh and thought that Moses was at work again and had killed +a firstborn in every house by the crying and wailing, when up +came two fellows and showed me their bloody feet, which their +wives were crying over like for a death, <i>Shorghl el +Mizr</i>—things of Egypt—like <i>Cosas de +España</i>.</p> +<p><i>Wednesday</i>.—Last night I bored Sheykh Yussuf with +Antara and Abou-Zeyd, maintaining the greater valour of Antara +who slew 10,000 for the love of Ibla; you know Antara. +Yussuf looks down on such profanities, and replied, ‘What +are Antara and Abou-Zeyd compared to the combats of our Lord +Moses with Og and other infidels of might, and what is the love +of Antara for Ibla compared to that of our Lord Solomon for +Balkees (Queen of Sheba), or their beauty and attractiveness to +that of our Lord Joseph?’ And then he related the +combat of <i>Seyyidna Mousa</i> with Og; and I thought, +‘hear O ye Puritans, and give ear O ye Methodists, and +learn how religion and romance are one to those whose manners and +ideas are the manners and ideas of the Bible, and how Moses was +not at all a crop-eared Puritan, but a gallant +warrior!’ There is the Homeric element in the +religion here, the Prophet is a hero like Achilles, and like him +directed by God—Allah instead of Athene. He fights, +prays, teaches, makes love, and is truly a <i>man</i>, not an +abstraction; and as to wonderful events, instead of telling one +to ‘gulp them down without looking’ (as children are +told with a nasty dose, and as we are told about Genesis, etc.) +they believe them and delight in them, and tell them to amuse +people. Such a piece of deep-disguised scepticism as +<i>Credo quia impossibile</i> would find no favour here; +‘What is impossible to God?’ settles +everything. In short, Mohammed has somehow left the stamp +of romance on the religion, or else it is in the blood of the +people, though the Koran is prosy and +‘common-sensical’ compared to the Old +Testament. I used to think Arabs intensely prosaic till I +could understand a little of their language, but now I can trace +the genealogy of Don Quixote straight up to some +Sheykh-el-Arab.</p> +<p>A fine, handsome woman with a lovely baby came to me the other +day. I played with the baby, and gave it a cotton +handkerchief for its head. The woman came again yesterday +to bring me a little milk and some salad as a present, and to +tell my fortune with date stones. I laughed, and so she +contented herself with telling Omar about his family, which he +believed implicitly. She is a clever woman evidently, and a +great sibyl here. No doubt she has faith in her own +predictions. She told Mme. Mounier (who is a Levantine) +that she would never have a child, and was forbidden the house +accordingly, and the prophecy has ‘come true.’ +Superstition is wonderfully infectious here. The fact is +that the Arabs are so intensely impressionable, and so cowardly +about inspiring any ill-will, that if a man looks askance at them +it is enough to make them ill, and as calamities are not +infrequent, there is always some mishap ready to be laid to the +charge of somebody’s ‘eye.’ Omar would +fain have had me say nothing about the theft of my purse, for +fear the Karnac people should hate me and give me the eye. +A part of the boasting about property, etc., is politeness, so +that one may not be supposed to be envious of one’s +neighbours’ nice things. My Sakka (water carrier) +admired my bracelet yesterday, as he was watering the verandah +floor, and instantly told me of all the gold necklaces and +earrings he had bought for his wife and daughters, that I might +not be uneasy and fear his envious eye. He is such a good +fellow. For two shillings a month he brings up eight or ten +huge skins of water from the river a day, and never begs or +complains, always merry and civil. I shall enlarge his +backsheesh. There are a lot of camels who sleep in the yard +under my verandah; they are pretty and smell nice, but they growl +and swear at night abominably. I wish I could draw you an +Egyptian farm-yard, men, women and cattle; but what no one can +draw is the amber light, so brilliant and so soft, not like the +Cape diamond sunshine at all, but equally beautiful, hotter and +less dazzling. There is no glare in Egypt like in the South +of France, and, I suppose, in Italy.</p> +<p><i>Thursday</i>.—I went yesterday afternoon to the +island again to see the crops, and show Sally my friend farmer +Omar’s house and Mustapha’s village. Of course +we had to eat, and did not come home till the moon had long +risen. Mustapha’s brother Abdurachman walked about +with us, such a noble-looking man, tall, spare, dignified and +active, grey-bearded and hard-featured, but as lithe and +bright-eyed as a boy, scorning any conveyance but his own feet, +and quite dry while we ‘ran down.’ He was like +Boaz, the wealthy gentleman peasant—nothing except the +Biblical characters gave any idea of the rich +<i>fellah</i>. We sat and drank new milk in a ‘lodge +in a garden of cucumbers’ (the ‘lodge’ is a +neat hut of palm branches), and saw the moon rise over the +mountains and light up everything like a softer sun. Here +you see all colours as well by moonlight as by day; hence it does +not look as brilliant as the Cape moon, or even as I have seen in +Paris, where it throws sharp black shadows and white light. +The night here is a tender, subdued, dreamy sort of +enchanted-looking day. My Turkish acquaintance from Karnac +has just been here; he boasted of his house in Damascus, and +invited me to go with him after the harvest here, also of his +beautiful wife in Syria, and then begged me not to mention her to +his wives here.</p> +<p>It is very hot now; what will it be in June? It is now +86° in my shady room at noon; it will be hotter at two or +three. But the mornings and evenings are delicious. I +am shedding my clothes by degrees; stockings are +unbearable. Meanwhile my cough is almost gone, and the pain +is quite gone. I feel much stronger, too; the horrible +feeling of exhaustion has left me; I suppose I must have +salamander blood in my body to be made lively by such heat. +Sally is quite well; she does not seem at all the worse at +present.</p> +<p><i>Saturday</i>.—This will go to-morrow by some +travellers, the last winter swallows. We went together +yesterday to the Tombs of the Kings on the opposite bank. +The mountains were red-hot, and the sun went down into Amenti all +on fire. We met Mr. Dümmichen, the German, who is +living in the temple of Dayr el-Bahree, translating inscriptions, +and went down Belzoni’s tomb. Mr. Dümmichen +translated a great many things for us which were very curious, +and I think I was more struck with the beauty of the drawing of +the figures than last year. The face of the Goddess of the +Western shore, Amenti, Athor, or Hecate, is ravishing as she +welcomes the King to her regions; death was never painted so +lovely. The road is a long and most wild one—truly +through the valley of the shadow of death—not an insect nor +a bird. Our moonlight ride home was beyond belief +beautiful. The Arabs who followed us were immensely amused +at hearing me interpret between German and English, and at my +speaking Arabic; they asked if I was dragoman of all the +languages in the world. One of them had droll theories +about ‘Amellica’ (America), as they pronounce it +always. Was the King very powerful that the country was +called ‘<i>Al Melekeh</i>’ (the Kings)? I said, +‘No: all are Kings there: you would be a King like the +rest.’ My friend disapproved utterly: ‘If all +are Kings they must all be taking away every man the +other’s money’—a delightful idea of the kingly +vocation.</p> +<p>When we landed on the opposite shore, I told little Achmet to +go back in the ferry-boat, in which he had brought me over my +donkey; a quarter of an hour after I saw him by my side. +The guide asked why he had not gone as I told him. +‘Who would take care of the lady?’ the monkey is +Rainie’s size. Of course he got tired, and on the way +home I told him to jump up behind me <i>en croupe</i> after the +Fellah fashion. I thought the Arabs would never have done +laughing and saying <i>Wallah</i> and <i>Mashallah</i>. +Sheykh Yussuf talked about the excavations, and is shocked at the +way the mummies are kicked about. One boy told him they +were not Muslims as an excuse, and he rebuked him severely, and +told him it was <i>haraam</i> (accursed) to do so to the children +of Adam. He says they have learned it very much of Mariette +Bey, but I suspect it was always so with the fellaheen. +To-day a tremendous wind is blowing; excellent for the +corn. At Mustapha’s farm they are preparing for the +harvest, baking bread and selecting a young bull to be killed for +the reapers. It is not hot to-day; only 84° in a cool +room. The dust is horrid with this high wind; everything is +gritty, and it obscures the sun. I am desired to eat a raw +onion every day during the Khamseen for health and +prosperity. This too must be a remnant of ancient +Egypt. How I do long to see you and the children. +Sometimes I feel rather down-hearted, but it is no good to say +all that. And I am much better and stronger. I stood +a long ride and some scrambling quite well last evening.</p> +<h3>April 6, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 6, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I received yours of March 10 two days ago; also one from +Hekekian Bey, much advising me to stay here the summer and get my +disease ‘evaporated.’ Since I last wrote the +great heat abated, and we now have 76° to 80°, with +strong north breezes up the river—glorious +weather—neither too hot nor chilly at any time. Last +evening I went out to the threshing-floor to see the stately oxen +treading out the corn, and supped there with Abdurachman on +roasted corn, sour cream, and eggs, and saw the reapers take +their wages, each a bundle of wheat according to the work he had +done—the most lovely sight. The graceful, half-naked, +brown figures loaded with sheaves; some had earned so much that +their mothers or wives had to help to carry it, and little +fawn-like, stark-naked boys trudged off, so proud of their little +bundles of wheat or of <i>hummuz</i> (a sort of vetch much eaten +both green and roasted). The <i>sakka</i> (water-carrier), +who has brought water for the men, gets a handful from each, and +drives home his donkey with empty waterskins and a heavy load of +wheat, and the barber who has shaved all these brown heads on +credit this year past gets his pay, and everyone is cheerful and +happy in their gentle, quiet way; here is no beer to make men +sweaty and noisy and vulgar; the harvest is the most exquisite +pastoral you can conceive. The men work seven hours in the +day (<i>i.e.</i>, eight, with half-hours to rest and eat), and +seven more during the night; they go home at sunset to dinner, +and sleep a bit, and then to work again—these ‘lazy +Arabs’! The man who drives the oxen on the +threshing-floor gets a measure and a half for his day and +night’s work, of threshed corn, I mean. As soon as +the wheat, barley, <i>addas</i> (lentils) and <i>hummuz</i> are +cut, we shall sow <i>dourrah</i> of two kinds, common maize and +Egyptian, and plant sugar-cane, and later cotton. The +people work very hard, but here they eat well, and being paid in +corn they get the advantage of the high price of corn this +year.</p> +<p>I told you how my purse had been stolen and the proceedings +thereanent. Well, Mustapha asked me several times what I +wished to be done with the thief, who spent twenty-one days here +in irons. With my absurd English ideas of justice I refused +to interfere at all, and Omar and I had quite a tiff because he +wished me to say, ‘Oh, poor man, let him go; I leave the +affair to God.’ I thought Omar absurd, but it was I +who was wrong. The authorities concluded that it would +oblige me very much if the poor devil were punished with a +‘rigour beyond the law,’ and had not Sheykh Yussuf +come and explained the nature of the proceedings, the man would +have been sent up to the mines in Fazogloo <i>for life</i>, out +of civility to me, by the Moudir of Keneh, Ali Bey. There +was no alternative between my ‘forgiving him for the love +of God’ or sending him to a certain death by a climate +insupportable to these people. Mustapha and Co. tried hard +to prevent Sheykh Yussuf from speaking to me, for fear I should +be angry and complain at Cairo, if my vengeance were not wreaked +on the thief, but he said he knew me better, and brought the +<i>procès verbal</i> to show me. Fancy my +dismay! I went to Seleem Effendi and to the Kádee +with Sheykh Yussuf, and begged the man might be let go, and not +sent to Keneh at all. Having settled this, I said that I +had thought it right that the people of Karnac should pay the +money I had lost, as a fine for their bad conduct to strangers, +but that I did not require it for the sake of the money, which I +would accordingly give to the poor of Luxor in the mosque and in +the church (great applause from the crowd). I asked how +many were Muslimeen and how many Nazranee, in order to divide the +three napoleons and a half, according to the numbers. +Sheykh Yussuf awarded one napoleon to the church, two to the +mosque, and the half to the water-drinking place—the +<i>Sebeel</i>—which was also applauded. I then said, +‘Shall we send the money to the bishop?’ but a +respectable elderly Copt said, ‘<i>Malcysh</i>! (never +mind) better give it all to Sheykh Yussuf; he will send the bread +to the church.’ Then the Cadi made me a fine speech, +and said I had behaved like a great <i>Emeereh</i>, and one that +feared God; and Sheykh Yussuf said he knew the English had mercy +in their stomachs, and that I especially had Mussulman feelings +(as we say, Christian charity). Did you ever hear of such a +state of administration of justice. Of course, sympathy +here, as in Ireland, is mostly with the ‘poor man’ in +prison—‘in trouble,’ as we say. I find +that accordingly a vast number of disputes are settled by private +arbitration, and Yussuf is constantly sent for to decide between +contending parties, who abide by his decision rather than go to +law; or else five or six respectable men are called upon to form +a sort of amateur jury, and to settle the matter. In +criminal cases, if the prosecutor is powerful, he has it all his +own way; if the prisoner can bribe high, he is apt to get +off. All the appealing to my compassion was quite <i>en +règle</i>. Another trait of Egypt.</p> +<p>The other day we found all our water-jars empty and our house +unsprinkled. On enquiry it turned out that the +<i>sakkas</i> had all run away, carrying with them their families +and goods, and were gone no one knew whither, in consequence of +some ‘persons having authority,’ one, a Turkish +<i>cawass</i> (policeman), having forced them to fetch water for +building purposes at so low a price that they could not bear +it. My poor <i>sakka</i> is gone without a whole +month’s pay—two shillings!—the highest pay by +far given in Luxor. I am interested in another story. +I hear that a plucky woman here has been to Keneh, and threatened +the Moudir that she will go to Cairo and complain to Effendina +himself of the unfair drafting for soldiers—her only son +taken, while others have bribed off. She’ll walk in +this heat all the way, unless she succeeds in frightening the +Moudir, which, as she is of the more spirited sex in this +country, she may possibly do. You see these Saeedes are a +bit less patient than Lower Egyptians. The <i>sakkas</i> +can strike, and a woman can face a Moudir.</p> +<p>You would be amused at the bazaar here. There is a +barber, and on Tuesdays some beads, calico, and tobacco are +sold. The only artizan is—a jeweller! We spin +and weave our own brown woollen garments, and have no other +wants, but gold necklaces and nose and earrings are +indispensable. It is the safest way of hoarding, and +happily combines saving with ostentation. Can you imagine a +house without beds, chairs, tables, cups, glasses, +knives—in short, with nothing but an oven, a few pipkins +and water-jars, and a couple of wooden spoons, and some mats to +sleep on? And yet people are happy and quite civilized who +live so. An Arab cook, with his fingers and one +cooking-pot, will serve you an excellent dinner quite +miraculously. The simplification of life possible in such a +climate is not conceivable unless one has seen it. The +Turkish ladies whom I visit at Karnac have very little +more. They are very fond of me, and always want me to stay +and sleep, but how could I sleep in my clothes on a mat-divan, +poor spoiled European that I am? But they pity and wonder +far more at the absence of my ‘master.’ I made +a bad slip of the tongue and said ‘my husband’ before +Abdul Rafiah, the master of the house. The ladies laughed +and blushed tremendously, and I felt very awkward, but they +turned the tables on me in a few minutes by some questions they +asked quite coolly.</p> +<p>I hardly know what I shall have to do. If the heat does +not turn out overpowering, I shall stay here; if I cannot bear +it, I must go down the river. I asked Omar if he could bear +a summer here, so dull for a young man fond of a little +coffee-shop and gossip, for that, if he could not, he might go +down for a time and join me again, as I could manage with some +man here. He absolutely cried, kissed my hands, and +declared he was never so happy as with me, and he could not rest +if he thought I had not all I wanted. ‘I am your +<i>memlook</i>, not your servant—your +<i>memlook</i>.’ I really believe that these people +sometimes love their English masters better than their own +people. Omar certainly has shown the greatest fondness for +me on all occasions.</p> +<h3>April 7, 1864: Mrs. Ross</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Ross</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 7, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Janet</span>,</p> +<p>I have continued very fairly well. We had great heat ten +days ago; now it is quite cool. Harvesting is going on, and +never did I see in any dream so lovely a sight as the whole +process. An acquaintance of mine, one Abdurachman, is Boaz, +and as I sat with him on the threshing-floor and ate roasted +corn, I felt quite puzzled as to whether I were really alive or +only existing in imagination in the Book of Ruth. It is +such a <i>kief</i> that one enjoys under the palm-trees, with +such a scene. The harvest is magnificent here; I never saw +such crops. There is no cattle disease, but a good deal of +sickness among the people; I have to practise very extensively, +and often feel very anxious, as I cannot refuse to go to the poor +souls and give them medicine, with sore misgivings all the +while. Fancy that Hekekian Bey can’t get me an Arabic +dictionary in Cairo. I must send to London, I suppose, +which seems hardly worth while. I wish you could see my +teacher, Sheykh Yussuf. I never before saw a pious person +amiable and good like him. He is intensely devout, and not +at all bigoted—a difficult combination; and, moreover, he +is lovely to behold, and has the prettiest and merriest laugh +possible. It is quite curious to see the mixture of a sort +of learning with utter ignorance and great superstition, and such +perfect high-breeding and beauty of character. It is +exactly like associating with St. John.</p> +<p>I want dreadfully to be able to draw, or to photograph. +The group at the Sheykh-el-Ababdeh’s last night was +ravishing, all but my ugly hat and self. The black ringlets +and dirty white drapery and obsolete weapons—the graceful +splendid Sheykh ‘black but beautiful’ like the +Shulamite—I thought of Antar and Abou Zeyd.</p> +<p>Give my salaam to Mme. Tastu and ask her whether I may stay on +here, or if I go down stream during the heat whether I may return +next winter, in which case I might leave some of my goods. +Hekekian strongly advises me to remain here, and thinks the heat +will be good. I will try; 88° seemed to agree with me +wonderfully, my cough is much better.</p> +<h3>April 14, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 14, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have but this moment received your letter of the 18th March, +which went after Janet, who was hunting at Tel-el-Kebir. We +have had a tremendous Khamseen wind, and now a strong north wind +quite fresh and cool. The thermometer was 92° during +the Khamseen, but it did me no harm. Luckily I am very well +for I am worked hard, as a strange epidemic has broken out, and I +am the <i>Hakeemeh</i> (doctress) of Luxor. The +<i>Hakeem</i> Pasha from Cairo came up and frightened the people, +telling them it was catching, and Yussuf forgot his religion so +far as to beg me not to be all day in the people’s huts; +but Omar and I despised the danger, I feeling sure it was not +infectious, and Omar saying <i>Min Allah</i>. The people +get stoppage of the bowels and die in eight days unless they are +physicked; all who have sent for me in time have recovered. +<i>Alhamdulillah</i>, that I can help the poor souls. It is +harvest, and the hard work, and the spell of intense heat, and +the green corn, beans, etc., which they eat, brings on the +sickness. Then the Copts are fasting from all animal food, +and full of green beans and salad, and green corn. Mustapha +tried to persuade me not to give physick, for fear those who died +should pass for being poisoned, but both Omar and I are sure it +is only to excuse his own selfishness. Omar is an excellent +assistant. The bishop tried to make money by hinting that +if I forbade my patients to fast, I might pay for their +indulgence. One poor, peevish little man refused the +chicken-broth, and told me that we Europeans had <i>our</i> +heaven in <i>this</i> world; Omar let out <i>kelb</i> (dog), but +I stopped him, and said, ‘Oh, my brother, God has made the +Christians of England unlike those of Egypt, and surely will +condemn neither of us on that account; mayest thou find a better +heaven hereafter than I now enjoy here.’ Omar threw +his arms round me and said, ‘Oh, thou good one, surely our +Lord will reward thee for acting thus with the meekness of a +Muslimeh, and kissing the hand of him who strikes thy +face.’ (See how each religion claims humility.) +Suleyman was not pleased at his fellow-christian’s display +of charity. It does seem strange that the Copts of the +lower class will not give us the blessing, or thank God for our +health like the Muslimeen. Most of my patients are +Christians, and some are very nice people indeed. The +people here have named me Sittee (Lady) +<i>Noor-ala-Noor</i>. A poor woman whose only child, a +young man, I was happy enough to cure when dreadfully ill, kissed +my feet and asked by what name to pray for me. I told her +my name meant <i>Noor</i> (light—<i>lux</i>), but as that +was one of the names of God I could not use it. ‘Thy +name is <i>Noor-ala-Noor</i>,’ said a man who was in the +room. That means something like ‘God is upon thy +mind,’ or ‘light from the light,’ and +<i>Noor-ala-Noor</i> it remains; a combination of one of the +names of God is quite proper, like Abdallah, Abdurachman, +etc. I begged some medicines from a Countess Braniscki, who +went down the other day; when all is gone I don’t know what +I shall do. I am going to try to make castor oil; I +don’t know how, but I shall try, and Omar fancies he can +manage it. The cattle disease has also broken out +desperately up in Esneh, and we see the dead beasts float down +all day. Of course we shall soon have it here.</p> +<p><i>Sunday</i>, <i>April</i> 17.—The epidemic seems to be +over, but there is still a great deal of gastric fever, etc., +about. The <i>hakeem</i> from Keneh has just been +here—such a pleasing, clever young man, speaking Italian +perfectly, and French extremely well. He is the son of some +fellah of Lower Egypt, sent to study at Pisa, and has not lost +the Arab gentility and elegance by a <i>Frenghi</i> +education. We fraternized greatly, and the young +<i>hakeem</i> was delighted at my love for his people, and my +high opinion of their intelligence. He is now gone to +inspect the sick, and is to see me again and give me +directions. He was very unhappy that he could not supply me +with medicines; none are to be bought above Cairo, except from +the hospital doctors, who sell the medicines of the Government, +as the Italian at Siout did. But Ali Effendi is too honest +for that. The old bishop paid me a visit of three and a +half hours yesterday, and <i>pour me tirer une carotte</i> he +sent me a loaf of sugar, so I must send a present ‘for the +church’ to be consumed in raki. The old party was not +very sober, and asked for wine. I coolly told him it was +<i>haraam</i> (forbidden) to us to drink during the +day—only with our dinner. I never will give the +Christians drink here, and now they have left off pressing me to +drink spirits at their houses. The bishop offered to alter +the hour of prayer for me, and to let me into the <i>Heykel</i> +(where women must not go) on Good Friday, which will be eighteen +days hence. All of which I refused, and said I would go on +the roof of the church and look down through the window with the +other <i>Hareemat</i>. Omar kissed the bishop’s hand, +and I said: ‘What! do <i>you</i> kiss his hand like a +Copt?’ ‘Oh yes, he is an old man, and a servant +of my God, but dreadful dirty,’ added Omar; and it was too +true. His presence diffused a fearful monastic odour of +sanctity. A Bishop must be a monk, as priests are +married.</p> +<p><i>Monday</i>.—To-day Ali Effendi-<i>el-Hakeem</i> came +to tell me how he had been to try to see my patients and failed; +all the families declared they were well and would not let him +in. Such is the deep distrust of everything to do with the +Government. They all waited till he was gone away, and then +came again to me with their ailments. I scolded, and they +all said, ‘<i>Wallah, ya Sitt, ya Emeereh</i>; that is the +<i>Hakeem</i> Pasha, and he would send us off to hospital at +Keneh, and then they would poison us; by thy eyes do not be angry +with us, or leave off from having compassion on us on this +account.’ I said, ‘Ali Effendi is an Arab and a +Muslim and an <i>Emeer</i> (gentleman), and he gave me good +advice, and would have given more,’ etc. No use at +all. He is the Government doctor, and they had rather die, +and will swallow anything from <i>el-Sittee +Noor-ala-Noor</i>. Here is a pretty state of things.</p> +<p>I gave Sheykh Yussuf £4 for three months’ daily +lessons last night, and had quite a contest to force it upon +him. ‘It is not for money, oh Lady;’ and he +coloured crimson. He had been about with Ali Effendi, but +could not get the people to see him. The Copts, I find, +<i>have</i> a religious prejudice against him, and, indeed, +against all heretics. They consider themselves and the +Abyssinians as the only true believers. If they acknowledge +<i>us</i> as brethren, it is for money. I speak only of the +low class, and of the priests; of course the educated merchants +are very different. I had two priests and two deacons, and +the mother of one, here to-day for physic for the woman. +She was very pretty and pleasing; miserably reduced and weak from +the long fast. I told her she must eat meat and drink a +little wine, and take cold baths, and gave her quinine. She +will take the wine and the quinine, but neither eat nor +wash. The Bishop tells them they will die if they break the +fast, and half the Christians are ill from it. One of the +priests spoke a little English; he fabricates false antiques very +cleverly, and is tolerably sharp; but, Oh <i>mon Dieu</i>, it is +enough to make one turn Muslim to compare these greasy rogues +with such high-minded charitable <i>shurafa</i> (noblemen) as +Abd-el-Waris and Sheykh Yussuf. A sweet little Copt boy who +is very ill will be killed by the stupid bigotry about the +fast. My friend Suleyman is much put out, and backs my +exhortations to the sick to break it. He is a capital +fellow, and very intelligent, and he and Omar are like brothers; +it is the priests who do all they can to keep alive religious +prejudice. <i>Alhamdulillah</i>, they are only partially +successful. Mohammed has just heard that seventy-five head +of cattle are dead at El-Moutaneh. Here only a few have +died as yet, and Ali Effendi thinks the disease less virulent +than in Lower Egypt. I hope he is right; but dead beasts +float down the river all day long.</p> +<p>To turn to something more amusing—but please don’t +tell it—such a joke against my gray hairs. I have had +a proposal, or at least an attempt at one. A very handsome +Sheykh-el-Arab (<i>Bedawee</i>) was here for a bit, and asked +Omar whether I were a widow or divorced, as in either case he +would send a <i>dellaleh</i> (marriage brokeress) to me. +Omar told him that would never do. I had a husband in +England; besides, I was not young, had a married daughter, my +hair was gray, etc. The Sheykh swore he didn’t care; +I could dye my hair and get a divorce; that I was not like stupid +modern women, but like an ancient Arab <i>Emeereh</i>, and worthy +of Antar or Abou Zeyd—a woman for whom men killed each +other or themselves—and he would pay all he could afford as +my dowry. Omar came in in fits of laughter at the idea, and +the difficulty he had had in stopping the <i>dellaleh’s</i> +visit. He told the Sheykh I should certainly beat her I +should be so offended. The disregard of differences of age +here on marriage is very strange. My adorer was not more +than thirty, I am sure. Don’t tell people, my dear +Alick; it is so very absurd; I should be ‘ashamed before +the people.’</p> +<p><i>Saturday</i>, <i>April</i> 23.—<i>Alhamdulillah</i>! +the sickness is going off. I have just heard +Suleyman’s report as follows: Hassan Abou-Achmet kisses the +Emeereh’s feet, and the bullets have cleaned his stomach +six times, and he has said the <i>Fathah</i> for the Lady. +The two little girls who had diarrhœa are well. The +Christian dyer has vomited his powder and wants another. +The mother of the Christian cook who married the priest’s +sister has got dysentery. The hareem of Mustapha Abou-Abeyd +has two children with bad eyes. The Bishop had a quarrel, +and scolded and fell down, and cannot speak or move; I must go to +him. The young-deacon’s jaundice is better. The +slave girl of Kursheed A’gha is sick, and Kursheed is +sitting at her head in tears; the women say I must go to her, +too. Kursheed is a fine young Turk, and very good to his +<i>Hareemat</i>. That is all; Suleyman has nothing on earth +to do, and brings me a daily report; he likes the gossip and the +importance.</p> +<p>The reis of a cargo-boat brought me up your Lafontaine, and +some papers and books from Hekekian Bey. Sheykh Yussuf is +going down to Cairo, to try to get back some of the lands which +Mahommed Ali took away from the mosques and the Ulema without +compensation. He asked me whether Ross would speak for him +to Effendina! What are the Muslimeen coming to? As +soon as I can read enough he offers to read in the Koran with +me—a most unusual proceeding, as the ‘noble +Koran’ is not generally put into the hands of heretics; but +my ‘charity to the people in sickness’ is looked upon +by Abd-el-Waris the Imam, and by Yussuf, as a proof that I have +‘received direction,’ and am of those Christians of +whom <i>Seyyidna</i> Mohammed (upon whose name be peace) has said +‘that they have no pride, that they rival each other in +good works, and that God will increase their reward.’ +There is no <i>arrière pensée</i> of conversion +that they think hopeless, but charity covers all sins with +Muslimeen. Next Friday is the <i>Djuma el-Kebeer</i> (Good +Friday) with the Copts, and the prayers are in the daytime, so I +shall go to the church. Next moon is the great Bairam, +<i>el-Eed el-Kebeer</i> (the great festival), with the +Muslimeen—the commemoration of the sacrifice of Isaac or +Ishmael (commentators are uncertain which)—and Omar will +kill a sheep for the poor for the benefit of his baby, according +to custom. I have at length compassed the destruction of +mine enemy, though he has not written a book. A fanatical +Christian dog (quadruped), belonging to the Coptic family who +live on the opposite side of the yard, hated me with such +virulent intensity that, not content with barking at me all day, +he howled at me all night, even after I had put out the lantern +and he could not see me in bed. Sentence of death has been +recorded against him, as he could not be beaten into +toleration. Michaïl, his master’s son, has just +come down from El-Moutaneh, where he is <i>vakeel</i> to M. +Mounier. He gives a fearful account of the sickness there +among men and cattle—eight and ten deaths a day; here we +have had only four a day, at the worst, in a population of (I +guess) some 2,000. The Mouniers have put themselves in +quarantine, and allow no one to approach their house, as Mustapha +wanted me to do. One hundred and fifty head of cattle have +died at El-Moutaneh; here only a few calves are dead, but as yet +no full-grown beasts, and the people are healthy again. I +really think I did some service by not showing any fear, and Omar +behaved manfully. By-the-by, will you find out whether a +<i>passaporto</i>, as they call it, a paper granting British +protection, can be granted in England. It is the object of +Omar’s highest ambition to belong as much as possible to +the English, and feel safe from being forced to serve a +Turk. If it can be done by any coaxing and jobbing, pray do +it, for Omar deserves any service I can render him in return for +all his devotion and fidelity. Someone tried to put it into +his head that it was <i>haraam</i> to be too fond of us heretics +and be faithful, but he consulted Sheykh Yussuf, who promised him +a reward hereafter for good conduct to me, and who told me of it +as a good joke, adding that he was <i>raghil ameen</i>, the +highest praise for fidelity, the sobriquet of the Prophet. +Do not be surprised at my lack of conscience in desiring to +benefit my own follower <i>in qualunque modo</i>; justice is not +of Eastern growth, and <i>Europeo</i> is ‘your only +wear,’ and here it is only base not to stick by one’s +friends. Omar kisses the hands of the <i>Sidi-el-Kebeer</i> +(the great master), and desires his best salaam to the little +master and the little lady, whose servant he is. He asks if +I, too, do not kiss Iskender Bey’s hand in my letter, as I +ought to do as his Hareem, or whether ‘I make myself big +before my master,’ like some French ladies he has +seen? I tell him I will do so if Iskender Bey will get him +his <i>warak</i> (paper), whereupon he picks up the hem of my +gown and kisses that, and I civilly expostulate on such +condescension to a woman. Yussuf is quite puzzled about +European women, and a little shocked at the want of respect to +their husbands they display. I told him that the outward +respect shown to us by our men was <i>our veil</i>, and explained +how superficial the difference was. He fancied that the law +gave us the upper hand. Omar reports yesterday’s +sermon ‘on toleration,’ it appears. Yussuf took +the text of ‘Thou shalt love thy brother as thyself, and +never act towards him but as thou wouldest he should act towards +thee.’ I forget chapter and verse; but it seems he +took the bull by the horns and declared <i>all men</i> to be +brothers, not Muslimeen only, and desired his congregation to +look at the good deeds of others and not at their erroneous +faith, for God is all-knowing (<i>i.e.</i>, He only knows the +heart), and if they saw aught amiss to remember that the best man +need say <i>Astafer Allah</i> (I beg pardon of God) seven times a +day.</p> +<p>I wish the English could know how unpleasant and mischievous +their manner of talking to their servants about religion +is. Omar confided to me how bad it felt to be questioned, +and then to see the Englishman laugh or put up his lip and say +nothing. ‘I don’t want to talk about his +religion at all, but if he talks about mine he ought to speak of +his own, too. You, my Lady, say, when I tell you things, +that is the same with us, or that is different, or good, or not +good in your mind, and that is the proper way, not to look like +thinking “all nonsense.”’</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Esneh</span>,<br +/> +<i>Saturday</i>, <i>April</i> 30.</p> +<p>On Thursday evening as I was dreamily sitting on my divan, who +should walk in but Arthur Taylor, on his way, all alone in a big +dahabieh, to Edfou. So I offered to go too, whereupon he +said he would go on to Assouan and see Philæ as he had +company, and we went off to Mustapha to make a bargain with his +Reis for it; thus then here we are at Esneh. I embarked on +Wednesday evening, and we have been two days <i>en +route</i>. Yesterday we had the thermometer at 110; I was +the only person awake all day in the boat. Omar, after +cooking, lay panting at my feet on the deck. Arthur went +fairly to bed in the cabin; ditto Sally. All the crew slept +on the deck. Omar cooked amphibiously, bathing between +every meal. The silence of noon with the <i>white heat</i> +glowing on the river which flowed like liquid tin, and the silent +Nubian rough boats floating down without a ripple, was +magnificent and really awful. Not a breath of wind as we +lay under the lofty bank. The Nile is not quite so low, and +I see a very different scene from last year. People think +us crazy to go up to Assouan in May, but I do enjoy it, and I +really wanted to forget all the sickness and sorrow in which I +have taken part. When I went to Mustapha’s he said +Sheykh Yussuf was ill, and I said ‘Then I won’t +go.’ But Yussuf came in with a sick headache +only. Mustapha repeated my words to him, and never did I +see such a lovely expression in a human face as that with which +Yussuf said <i>Eh, ya Sitt</i>! Mustapha laughed, and told +him to thank me, and Yussuf turned to me and said, in a low +voice, ‘my sister does not need thanks, save from +God.’ Fancy a Shereef, one of the Ulema, calling a +<i>Frengeeyeh</i> ‘sister’! His pretty little +girl came in and played with me, and he offered her to me for +Maurice. I cured Kursheed’s Abyssinian +slave-girl. You would have laughed to see him obeying my +directions, and wiping his eyes on his gold-embroidered +sleeve. And then the Coptic priest came for me for his wife +who was ill. He was in a great quandary, because, if she +died, he, as a priest, could never marry again, as he loudly +lamented before her; but he was truly grieved, and I was very +happy to leave her convalescent.</p> +<p>Verily we are sorely visited. The dead cattle float down +by thousands. M. Mounier buried a thousand at El-Moutaneh +alone, and lost forty men. I would not have left Luxor, but +there were no new cases for four days before, and the worst had +been over for full ten days. Two or three poor people +brought me new bread and vegetables to the boat when they saw me +going, and Yussuf came down and sat with us all the evening, and +looked quite sad. Omar asked him why, and he said it made +him think how it would seem when ‘<i>Inshallah</i> should +be well and should leave my place empty at Luxor and go back with +the blessing of God to my own place and to my own +people.’ Whereupon Omar grew quite sentimental too, +and nearly cried. I don’t know how Arthur would have +managed without us, for he had come with two Frenchmen who had +proper servants and who left the boat at Girgeh, and he has a +wretched little dirty idiotic Coptic tailor as a servant, who +can’t even sew on a button. It is becoming quite a +calamity about servants here. Arthur tells me that men, not +fit to light Omar’s pipe, asked him £10 a month in +Cairo and would not take less, and he gives his Copt +£4. I really feel as if I were cheating Omar to let +him stay on for £3; but if I say anything he kisses my hand +and tells me ‘not to be cross.’</p> +<p>I have letters from Yussuf to people at Assouan. If I +want anything I am to call on the Kadee. We have a very +excellent boat and a good crew, and are very comfortable. +When the Luxor folk heard the ‘son of my uncle’ was +come, they thought it must be my husband. I was diverted at +Omar’s propriety. He pointed out to Mustapha and +Yussuf how <i>he</i> was to sleep in the cabin between +Arthur’s and mine, which was considered quite satisfactory +apparently, and it was looked upon as very proper of Omar to have +arranged it so, as he had been sent to put the boat in +order. Arthur has been all along the Suez Canal, and seen a +great many curious things. The Delta must be very unlike +Upper Egypt from all he tells me. The little troop of +pilgrims for Mecca left Luxor about ten days ago. It was a +pretty and touching sight. Three camels, five donkeys, and +about thirty men and women, several with babies on their +shoulders, all uttering the <i>zaghareet</i> (cry of joy). +They were to walk to Koseir (eight days’ journey with good +camels), babies and all. It is the happiest day of their +lives, they say, when they have scraped together money enough to +make the <i>hajj</i>.</p> +<p>This minute a poor man is weeping beside our boat over a +pretty heifer decked with many <i>hegabs</i> (amulets), which +have not availed against the sickness. It is heart-rending +to see the poor beasts and their unfortunate owners. Some +dancing girls came to the boat just now for cigars which Arthur +had promised them, and to ask after their friend el Maghribeeyeh, +the good dancer at Luxor, whom they said was very ill. Omar +did not know at all about her, and the girls seemed much +distressed. They were both very pretty, one an +Abyssinian. I must leave off to send this to the post; it +will cost a fortune, but you won’t grudge it.</p> +<h3>May 15, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>May</i> 15, 1864,<br /> +<i>Day before Eed-el-Kebir</i><br /> +(<i>Bairam</i>).</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>We returned to Luxor the evening before last just after +dark. The salute which Omar fired with your old +horse-pistols brought down a lot of people, and there was a +chorus of <i>Alhamdulilah Salaameh ya Sitt</i>, and such a +kissing of hands, and ‘Welcome home to your place’ +and ‘We have tasted your absence and found it +bitter,’ etc., etc. Mustapha came with letters for +me, and Yussuf beaming with smiles, and Mahommed with new bread +made of new wheat, and Suleyman with flowers, and little Achmet +rushing in wildly to kiss hands. When the welcome had +subsided, Yussuf, who stayed to tea, told me all the cattle were +dead. Mustapha lost thirty-four, and has three left; and +poor farmer Omar lost all—forty head. The distress in +Upper Egypt will now be fearful. Within six weeks +<i>all</i> our cattle are dead. They are threshing the corn +with donkeys, and men are turning the sakiahs (water-wheels) and +drawing the ploughs, and dying by scores of overwork and want of +food in many places. The whole agriculture depended on the +oxen, and they are all dead. At El-Moutaneh and the nine +villages round Halim Pasha’s estate 24,000 head have died; +four beasts were left when we were there three days ago.</p> +<p>We spent two days and nights at Philæ and +<i>Wallahy</i>! it was hot. The basalt rocks which enclose +the river all round the island were burning. Sally and I +slept in the Osiris chamber, on the roof of the temple, on our +air-beds. Omar lay across the doorway to guard us, and +Arthur and his Copt, with the well-bred sailor Ramadan, were sent +to bivouac on the Pylon. Ramadan took the hareem under his +special and most respectful charge, and waited on us devotedly, +but never raised his eyes to our faces, or spoke till spoken +to. Philæ is six or seven miles from Assouan, and we +went on donkeys through the beautiful Shellaleeh (the village of +the cataract), and the noble place of tombs of Assouan. +Great was the amazement of everyone at seeing Europeans so out of +season; we were like swallows in January to them. I could +not sleep for the heat in the room, and threw on an +<i>abbayeh</i> (cloak) and went and lay on the parapet of the +temple. What a night! What a lovely view! The +stars gave as much light as the moon in Europe, and all but the +cataract was still as death and glowing hot, and the palm-trees +were more graceful and dreamy than ever. Then Omar woke, +and came and sat at my feet, and rubbed them, and sang a song of +a Turkish slave. I said, ‘Do not rub my feet, oh +brother—that is not fit for thee’ (because it is +below the dignity of a free Muslim altogether to touch shoes or +feet), but he sang in his song, ‘The slave of the Turk may +be set free by money, but how shall one be ransomed who has been +paid for by kind actions and sweet words?’ Then the +day broke deep crimson, and I went down and bathed in the Nile, +and saw the girls on the island opposite in their summer +fashions, consisting of a leathern fringe round their slender +hips—divinely graceful—bearing huge saucer-shaped +baskets of corn on their stately young heads; and I went up and +sat at the end of the colonnade looking up into Ethiopia, and +dreamed dreams of ‘Him who sleeps in Philæ,’ +until the great Amun Ra kissed my northern face too hotly, and +drove me into the temple to breakfast, and coffee, and pipes, and +<i>kief</i>. And in the evening three little naked Nubians +rowed us about for two or three hours on the glorious river in a +boat made of thousands of bits of wood, each a foot long; and +between whiles they jumped overboard and disappeared, and came up +on the other side of the boat. Assouan was full of Turkish +soldiers, who came and took away our donkeys, and stared at our +faces most irreligiously. I did not go on shore at Kom +Ombos or El Kab, only at Edfou, where we spent the day in the +temple; and at Esneh, where we tried to buy sugar, tobacco, etc., +and found nothing at all, though Esneh is a <i>chef-lieu</i>, +with a Moudir. It is only in winter that anything is to be +got for the travellers. We had to ask the Nazir in Edfou to +<i>order</i> a man to sell us charcoal. People do without +sugar, and smoke green tobacco, and eat beans, etc., etc. +Soon we must do likewise, for our stores are nearly +exhausted.</p> +<p>We stopped at El-Moutaneh, and had a good dinner in the +Mouniers’ handsome house, and they gave me a loaf of +sugar. Mme. Mounier described Rachel’s stay with them +for three months at Luxor, in my house, where they then +lived. She hated it so, that on embarking to leave she +turned back and spat on the ground, and cursed the place +inhabited by savages, where she had been <i>ennuyée a +mort</i>. Mme. Mounier fully sympathized with her, and +thought no <i>femme aimable</i> could live with Arabs, who are +not at all <i>galants</i>. She is Levantine, and, I +believe, half Arab herself, but hates the life here, and hates +the Muslims. As I write this I laugh to think of +<i>galanterie</i> and <i>Arab</i> in one sentence, and glance at +‘my brother’ Yussuf, who is sleeping on a mat, quite +overcome with the Simoom (which is blowing) and the fast which he +is keeping to-day, as the eve of the <i>Eed-el-Kebir</i> (great +festival). This is the coolest place in the village. +The glass is only 95½° now (eleven a.m.) in the +darkened divan. The Kádee, and the Maōhn, and +Yussuf came together to visit me, and when the others left he lay +down to sleep. Omar is sleeping in the passage, and Sally +in her room. I alone don’t sleep—but the Simoom +is terrible. Arthur runs about all day, sight-seeing and +drawing, and does not suffer at all from the heat. I +can’t walk now, as the sand blisters my feet.</p> +<p><i>Tuesday</i>, <i>May</i> 17.—Yesterday the Simoom was +awful, and last night I slept on the terrace, and was very +hot. To-day the north wind sprang up at noon and revived +us, though it is still 102° in my divan. My old +‘great-grandfather’ has come in for a pipe and +coffee; he was Belzoni’s guide, and his eldest child was +born seven days before the French under Bonaparte marched into +Luxor. He is superbly handsome and erect, and very +talkative, but only remembers old times, and takes me for Mme. +Belzoni. He is grandfather to Mahommed, the guard of this +house, and great-grandfather to my little Achmet. His +grandsons have married him to a tidy old woman to take care of +him; he calls me ‘My lady grand-daughter,’ and Omar +he calls ‘Mustapha,’ and we salute him as +‘grandfather.’ I wish I could paint him; he is +so grand to look at. Old Mustapha had a son born +yesterday—his tenth child. I must go and wish him +joy, after which I will go to Arthur’s boat and have a +bathe; the sailors rig me out a capital awning. We had a +good boat, and a capital crew; one man Mahommed, called Alatee +(the singer), sang beautifully, to my great delight, and all were +excellent fellows, quiet and obliging; only his servant was a +lazy beast, dirty and conceited—a Copt, spoiled by an +Italian education and Greek associates, thinking himself very +grand because he was a Christian. I wondered at the +patience and good-nature with which Omar did all his work and +endured all his insolence. There was one stupendous row at +Assouan, however. The men had rigged out a sort of tent for +me to bathe in over the side of the boat, and Ramadan caught the +Copt trying to peep in, and half strangled him. Omar called +him ‘dog,’ and asked him if he was an infidel, and +Macarius told him I was a Christian woman, and not <i>his +Hareem</i>. Omar lost his temper, and appealed to the old +reis and all the sailors, ‘O Muslims, ought not I to cut +his throat if he had defiled the noble person of the lady with +his pig’s eyes? God forgive me for mentioning her in +such a manner.’ Then they all cursed him for a pig +and an infidel, and threatened to put him ashore and leave him +for his vile conduct towards noble <i>Hareem</i>. Omar +sobbed with passion, saying that I was to him like the +‘back of his mother,’ and how ‘dare Macarius +take my name in his dirty mouth,’ etc. The Copt tried +to complain of being beaten afterwards, but I signified to him +that he had better hold his tongue, for that I understood Arabic, +upon which he sneaked off.</p> +<h3>May 23, 1864: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>Monday</i>, <i>May</i> 23, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I meant to have written to you by Arthur Taylor, who left for +Cairo yesterday morning, but the Simoom made me so stupid that I +could hardly finish a letter to Alick. So I begin one +to-day to recount the wonders of the season here. I went +over to Mustapha’s island to spend the day in the tent, or +rather the hut, of dourrah-stalks and palm-branches, which he has +erected there for the threshing and winnowing. He had +invited me and ‘his worship’ the Maōhn to a +picnic. Only imagine that it <i>rained</i>! all day, a +gentle slight rain, but enough to wet all the desert. I +laughed and said I had brought English weather, but the +Maōhn shook his head and opined that we were suffering the +anger of God. Rain in summer-time was quite a terror. +However, we consoled ourselves, and Mustapha called a nice little +boy to recite the ‘noble Koran’ for our amusement, +and out of compliment to me he selected the chapter of the family +of Amran (the history of Jesus), and recited it with marvellous +readiness and accuracy. A very pleasant-mannered man of the +Shourafa of Gurneh came and joined us, and was delighted because +I sent away a pipe which Abdurachman brought me (it is highly +improper to smoke while the Koran is being read or +recited). He thanked me for the respect, and I told him I +knew he would not smoke in a church, or while I prayed; why +should I? It rather annoys me to find that they always +expect from us irreverence to their religion which they would on +no account be guilty of to ours. The little boy was a +<i>fellah</i>, the child of my friend Omar, who has lost all his +cattle, but who came as pleasant and smiling as ever to kiss my +hand and wait upon me. After that the Maōhn read the +second chapter, ‘the Cow,’ in a rather nasal, +quavering chant. I perceived that no one present understood +any of it, except just a few words here and there—not much +more than I could follow myself from having read the +translation. I think it is not any nearer spoken Arabic +than Latin is to Italian. After this, Mustapha, the +Maōhn, Omar, Sally and I, sat down round the dinner-tray, +and had a very good dinner of lamb, fowls and vegetables, such as +bahmias and melucheeah, both of the mallow order, and both +excellent cooked with meat; rice, stewed apricots (mish-mish), +with nuts and raisins in it, and cucumbers and water-melons +strewed the ground. One eats all <i>durcheinander</i> with +bread and fingers, and a spoon for the rice, and green limes to +squeeze over one’s own bits for sauce. We were very +merry, if not very witty, and the Maōhn declared, +‘<i>Wallahi</i>! the English are fortunate in their +customs, and in the enjoyment of the society of learned and +excellent <i>Hareemat</i>;’ and Omar, lying on the rushes, +said: ‘This is the happiness of the Arab. Green +trees, sweet water, and a kind face, make the +“garden”’ (paradise), an Arab saying. The +Maōhn joked him as to how a ‘child of Cairo’ +could endure <i>fellah</i> life. I was looking at the heaps +of wheat and thinking of Ruth, when I started to hear the soft +Egyptian lips utter the very words which the Egyptian girl spake +more than a thousand years ago: ‘Behold my mother! where +she stays I stay, and where she goes I will go; her family is my +family, and if it pleaseth God, nothing but the Separator of +friends (death) shall divide me from her.’ I really +could not speak, so I kissed the top of Omar’s turban, Arab +fashion, and the Maōhn blessed him quite solemnly, and said: +‘God reward thee, my son; thou hast honoured thy lady +greatly before thy people, and she has honoured thee, and ye are +an example of masters and servants, and of kindness and +fidelity;’ and the brown labourers who were lounging about +said: ‘Verily, it is true, and God be praised for people of +excellent conduct.’ I never expected to feel like +Naomi, and possibly many English people might only think +Omar’s unconscious repetition of Ruth’s words rather +absurd, but to me they sounded in perfect harmony with the life +and ways of this country and these people, who are so full of +tender and affectionate feelings, when they have not been crushed +out of them. It is not humbug; I have seen their +actions. Because they use grand compliments, Europeans +think they are never sincere, but the compliments are not meant +to deceive, they only profess to be forms. Why do the +English talk of the beautiful sentiment of the Bible and pretend +to feel it so much, and when they come and see the same life +before them they ridicule it.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill174b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Omar, 1864, from a photograph" +title= +"Omar, 1864, from a photograph" +src="images/ill174s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p><i>Tuesday</i>.—We have a family quarrel going on. +Mohammed’s wife, a girl of eighteen or so, wanted to go +home on Bairam day for her mother to wash her head and unplait +her hair. Mohammed told her not to leave him on that day, +and to send for a woman to do it for her; whereupon she cut off +her hair, and Mohammed, in a passion, told her to ‘cover +her face’ (that is equivalent to a divorce) and take her +baby and go home to her father’s house. Ever since he +has been mooning about the yard and in and out of the kitchen +very glum and silent. This morning I went into the kitchen +and found Omar cooking with a little baby in his arms, and giving +it sugar. ‘Why what is that?’ say I. +‘Oh don’t say anything. I sent Achmet to fetch +Mohammed’s baby, and when he comes here he will see it, and +then in talking I can say so and so, and how the man must be good +to the <i>Hareem</i>, and what this poor, small girl do when she +big enough to ask for her father.’ In short, Omar +wants to exercise his diplomacy in making up the quarrel. +After writing this I heard Mohammed’s low, quiet voice, and +Omar’s boyish laugh, and then silence, and went to see the +baby and its father. My kitchen was a pretty scene. +Mohammed, in his ample brown robes and white turban, lay asleep +on the floor with the baby’s tiny pale face and little +eyelids stained with kohl against his coffee-brown cheek, both +fast asleep, baby in her father’s arms. Omar leant +against the <i>fournaise</i> in his house-dress, a white shirt +open at the throat and white drawers reaching to the knees, with +the red tarboosh and red and yellow <i>kufyeh</i> (silk +handkerchief) round it turban-wise, contemplating them with his +great, soft eyes. The two young men made an excellent +contrast between Upper and Lower Egypt. Mohammed is the +true Arab type—coffee-brown, thin, spare, sharp-featured, +elegant hands and feet, bright glittering small eyes and angular +jaw—not a handsome Arab, but <i>bien +charactérisé</i>. Omar, the colour of new +boxwood or old ivory, pale, with eyes like a cow, full lips, full +chin and short nose, not the least negro, but perfectly Egyptian, +the eyes wide apart—unlike the Arab—moustache like a +woman’s eyebrow, curly brown hair, bad hands and feet and +not well made, but graceful in movement and still more in +countenance, very inferior in beauty to the pure Arab blood which +prevails here, but most sweet in expression. He is a true +<i>Akh-ul-Benât</i> (brother of girls), and truly +chivalrous to <i>Hareem</i>. How astonished Europeans would +be to hear Omar’s real opinion of their conduct to +women. He mentioned some Englishman who had divorced his +wife and made her frailty public. You should have seen him +spit on the floor in abhorrence. Here it is quite +blackguard not to forfeit the money and take all the blame in a +divorce.</p> +<p><i>Friday</i>.—We have had better weather again, +easterly wind and pretty cool, and I am losing the cough and +languor which the damp of the Simoom brought me. Sheykh +Yussuf has just come back from Keneh, whither he and the Kadee +went on their donkeys for some law business. He took our +saddle bags at Omar’s request, and brought us back a few +pounds of sugar and some rice and tobacco (isn’t it like +Fielding’s novels?). It is two days’ journey, +so they slept in the mosque at Koos half way. I told Yussuf +how Suleyman’s child has the smallpox and how Mohammed only +said it was <i>Min Allah</i> (from God) when I suggested that his +baby should be vaccinated at once. Yussuf called him in and +said: ‘Oh man, when thou wouldst build a house dost thou +throw the bricks in a heap on the ground and say the building +thereof is from God, or dost thou use the brains and hands which +God has given thee, and then pray to Him to bless thy work? +In all things do the best of thy understanding and means, and +then say <i>Min Allah</i>, for the end is with Him!’ +There is not a pin to choose in fatalism here between Muslim and +Christian, the lazy, like Mohammed and Suleyman (one Arab the +other Copt), say <i>Min Allah</i> or any form of dawdle you +please; but the true Muslim doctrine is just what Yussuf laid +down—‘do all you can and be resigned to whatever be +the result.’ <i>Fais ce que dois advienne qui +pourra</i> is good doctrine. In fact, I am very much +puzzled to discover the slightest difference between Christian +and Muslim morality or belief—if you exclude certain +dogmas—and in fact, very little is felt here. No one +attempts to apply different standards of morals or of piety to a +Muslim and a Copt. East and West is the difference, not +Muslim and Christian. As to that difference I could tell +volumes. Are they worse? Are they better? Both +and neither. I am, perhaps, not quite impartial, because I +am <i>sympathique</i> to the Arabs and they to me, and I am +inclined to be ‘kind’ to their virtues if not +‘blind’ to their faults, which are visible to the +most inexperienced traveller. You see all our own familiar +‘bunkum’ (excuse the vulgarity) falls so flat on +their ears, bravado about ‘honour,’ +‘veracity,’ etc., etc., they look blank and bored +at. The schoolboy morality as set forth by Maurice is +current here among grown men. Of course we tell lies to +Pashas and Beys, why shouldn’t we? But shall I call +in that ragged sailor and give him an order to bring me up +£500 in cash from Cairo when he happens to come? It +would not be an unusual proceeding. I sleep every night in +a <i>makaab</i> (sort of verandah) open to all Luxor, and +haven’t a door that has a lock. They bother me for +backsheesh; but oh how poor they are, and how rich must be a +woman whose very servants drink sugar to their coffee! and who +lives in the <i>Kasr</i> (palace) and is respectfully visited by +Ali Bey—and, come to that, Ali Bey would like a present +even better than the poorest fellah, who also loves to give +one. When I know, as I now do thoroughly, all Omar’s +complete integrity—without any sort of mention of +it—his self-denial in going ragged and shabby to save his +money for his wife and child (a very great trial to a +good-looking young Arab), and the equally unostentatious love he +has shown to me, and the delicacy and real nobleness of feeling +which come out so oddly in the midst of sayings which, to our +ideas, seem very shabby and time-serving, very often I wonder if +there be anything as good in the civilized West. And as +Sally most justly says, ‘All their goodness is quite their +own. God knows there is no one to teach anything but +harm!’</p> +<p><i>Tuesday</i>.—Two poor fellows have just come home +from the Suez Canal work with gastric fever, I think. I +hope it won’t spread. The wife of one said to me +yesterday, ‘Are there more <i>Sittat</i> (ladies) like you +in your village?’ ‘Wallah,’ said I, +‘there are many better, and good doctors, +Alhamdullillah!’ ‘Alhamdullillah,’ said +she, ‘then the poor people don’t want you so much, +and by God you must stay here for <i>we</i> can’t do +without you, so write to your family to say so, and don’t +go away and leave us.’</p> +<p><i>Thursday</i>, <i>June</i> 2,—A steamer has just +arrived which will take this letter, so I can only say good-bye, +my dearest Mutter, and God bless you. I continue very +fairly well. The epidemic here is all but over; but my +medical fame has spread so, that the poor souls come twenty miles +(from Koos) for physic. The constant phrase of ‘Oh +our sister, God hath sent thee to look to us!’ is so +sad. <i>Such</i> a little help is a wonder to my poor +fellaheen. It is not so hot as it was I think, except at +night, and I now sleep half the night outside the house. +The cattle are all dead; perhaps five are left in all +Luxor. <i>Allah kereem</i>! (God is merciful) said fellah +Omar, ‘I have one left from fifty-four.’ The +grain is unthreshed, and butter three shillings a pound! We +get nothing here but by post; no papers, no nothing. I +suppose the high Nile will bring up boats. Now the river is +down at its lowest, and now I really know how Egyptians live.</p> +<h3>June 12, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>Sunday</i>, <i>June</i> 12, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>Three letters have I received from you within a few days, for +the post of the Saeed is not that of the Medes and +Persians. I have had an abominable toothache, which quite +floored me, and was aggravated by the Oriental custom, namely, +that all the <i>beau monde</i> of Thebes <i>would</i> come and +sit with me, and suggest remedies, and look into my mouth, and +make quite a business of my tooth. Sheykh Yussuf laid two +fingers on my cheek and recited verses from the Koran, I regret +to say with no effect, except that while his fingers touched me +the pain ceased. I find he <i>is</i> celebrated for +soothing headaches and other nervous pains, and I daresay is an +unconscious mesmeriser. The other day our poor Maōhn +was terrified by a communication from Ali Bey (Moudir of Keneh) +to the effect that he had heard from Alexandria that someone had +reported that the dead cattle had lain about the streets of Luxor +and that the place was pestilential. The British mind at +once suggested a counter-statement, to be signed by the most +respectable inhabitants. So the Cadi drew it up, and came +and read it to me, and took my deposition and witnessed my +signature, and the Maōhn went his way rejoicing, in that +‘the words of the Englishwoman’ would utterly defeat +Ali Bey. The truth was that the worthy Maōhn worked +really hard, and superintended the horrible dead cattle business +in person, which is some risk and very unpleasant. To +dispose of three or four hundred dead oxen every day with a +limited number of labourers is no trifle, and if a travelling +Englishman smells one a mile off he calls us ‘lazy +Arabs.’ The beasts could not be buried deep enough, +but all were carried a mile off from the village. I wish +some of the dilettanti who stop their noses at us in our trouble +had to see or to do what I have seen and done.</p> +<p><i>June</i> 17.—We have had four or five days of such +fearful heat with a Simoom that I have been quite knocked up, and +literally could not write. Besides, I sit in the dark all +day, and am now writing so—and at night go out and sit in +the verandah, and can’t have candles because of the +insects. I sleep outside till about six a.m., and then go +indoors till dark again. This fortnight is the hottest +time. To-day the drop falls into the Nile at its source, +and it will now rise fast and cool the country. It has +risen one cubit, and the water is green; next month it will be +blood colour. My cough has been a little troublesome again, +I suppose from the Simoom. The tooth does not ache +now. <i>Alhamdulillah</i>! for I rather dreaded the +<i>muzeyinn</i> (barber) with his <i>tongs</i>, who is the sole +dentist here. I was amused the other day by the entrance of +my friend the Maōhn, attended by Osman Effendi and his +cawass and pipe-bearer, and bearing a saucer in his hand, wearing +the look, half sheepish, half cocky, with which elderly gentlemen +in all countries announce what he did, <i>i.e.</i>, that his +black slave-girl was three months with child and longed for +olives, so the respectable magistrate had trotted all over the +bazaar and to the Greek corn-dealers to buy some, but for no +money were they to be had, so he hoped I might have some and +forgive the request, as I, of course, knew that a man must beg or +even steal for a woman under these circumstances. I called +Omar and said, ‘I trust there are olives for the honourable +Hareem of Seleem Effendi—they are needed +there.’ Omar instantly understood the case, and +‘Praise be to God a few are left; I was about to stuff the +pigeons for dinner with them; how lucky I had not done +it.’ And then we belaboured Seleem with +compliments. ‘Please God the child will be fortunate +to thee,’ say I. Omar says, ‘Sweeten my mouth, +oh Effendim, for did I not tell thee God would give thee good out +of this affair when thou boughtest her?’ While we +were thus rejoicing over the possible little mulatto, I thought +how shocked a white Christian gentleman of our Colonies would be +at our conduct to make all this fuss about a black +girl—‘<i>he</i> give her sixpence’ (under the +same circumstances I mean) ‘he’d see her d---d +first,’ and my heart warmed to the kind old Muslim sinner +(?) as he took his saucer of olives and walked with them openly +in his hand along the street. Now the black girl is free, +and can only leave Seleem’s house by her own good will and +probably after a time she will marry and he will pay the +expenses. A man can’t sell his slave after he has +made known that she is with child by him, and it would be +considered unmanly to detain her if she should wish to go. +The child will be added to the other eight who fill the +Maōhn’s quiver in Cairo and will be exactly as well +looked on and have equal rights if he is as black as a coal.</p> +<p>A most quaint little half-black boy a year and a half old has +taken a fancy to me and comes and sits for hours gazing at me and +then dances to amuse me. He is Mahommed our guard’s +son by a jet-black slave of his and is brown-black and very +pretty. He wears a bit of iron wire in one ear and iron +rings round his ankles, and that is all—and when he comes +up little Achmet, who is his uncle, ‘makes him fit to be +seen’ by emptying a pitcher of water over his head to rinse +off the dust in which of course he has been rolling—that is +equivalent to a clean pinafore. You would want to buy +little Said I know, he is so pretty and so jolly. He dances +and sings and jabbers baby Arabic and then sits like a quaint +little idol cross-legged quite still for hours.</p> +<p>I am now writing in the kitchen, which is the coolest place +where there is any light at all. Omar is diligently +spelling words of six letters, with the wooden spoon in his hand +and a cigarette in his mouth, and Sally is lying on her back on +the floor. I won’t describe our costume. It is +now two months since I have worn stockings, and I think you would +wonder at the fellaha who ‘owns you,’ so deep a brown +are my face, hands and feet. One of the sailors in +Arthur’s boat said: ‘See how the sun of the Arabs +loves her; he has kissed her so hotly that she can’t go +home among English people.’</p> +<p><i>June</i> 18.—I went last night to look at Karnac by +moonlight. The giant columns were overpowering. I +never saw anything so solemn. On our way back we met the +Sheykh-el-Beled, who ordered me an escort of ten men home. +Fancy me on my humble donkey, guarded most superfluously by ten +tall fellows, with oh! such spears and venerable +matchlocks. At Mustapha’s house we found a party +seated before the door, and joined it. There was a +tremendous Sheykh-el-Islam from Tunis, a Maghribee, seated on a +carpet in state receiving homage. I don’t think he +liked the heretical woman at all. Even the Maōhn did +not dare to be as ‘politeful’ as usual to me, but +took the seat above me, which I had respectfully left vacant next +to the holy man. Mustapha was in a stew, afraid not to do +the respectful to me, and fussing after the Sheykh. Then +Yussuf came fresh from the river, where he had bathed and prayed, +and then you saw the real gentleman. He salaamed the great +Sheykh, who motioned to him to sit before him, but Yussuf quietly +came round and sat <i>below</i> me on the mat, leaned his elbow +on my cushion, and made more demonstration of regard for me than +ever, and when I went came and helped me on my donkey. The +holy Sheykh went away to pray, and Mustapha hinted to Yussuf to +go with him, but he only smiled, and did not stir; he had prayed +an hour before down at the Nile. It was as if a poor curate +had devoted himself to a rank papist under the eye of a scowling +Shaftesbury Bishop. Then came Osman Effendi, a young Turk, +with a poor devil accused in a distant village of stealing a +letter with money in it addressed to a Greek money-lender. +The discussion was quite general, the man, of course, denying +all. But the Nazir had sent word to beat him. Then +Omar burst out, ‘What a shame to beat a poor man on the +mere word of a Greek money-lender who eats the people; the Nazir +shouldn’t help him.’ There was a Greek present +who scowled at Omar, and the Turk gaped at him in horror. +Yussuf said, with his quiet smile, ‘My brother, thou art +talking English,’ with a glance at me; and we all laughed, +and I said, ‘Many thanks for the compliment.’ +All the village is in good spirits; the Nile is rising fast, and +a star of most fortunate character has made its appearance, so +Yussuf tells me, and portends a good year and an end to our +afflictions. I am much better to-day, and I think I too +feel the rising Nile; it puts new life into all things. The +last fortnight or three weeks have been very trying with the +Simoom and intense heat. I suppose I look better for the +people here are for ever praising God about my amended +looks. I am too hot, and it is too dark to write more.</p> +<h3>June 26, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>June</i> 26, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have just paid a singular visit to a political <i>detenu</i> +or exile rather. Last night Mustapha came in with a man in +great grief who said his boy was very ill on board a cangia just +come from Cairo and going to Assouan. The watchman on the +river-bank had told him that there was an English Sitt ‘who +would not turn her face from anyone in trouble’ and advised +him to come to me for medicine, so he went to Mustapha and begged +him to bring him to me, and to beg the cawass (policeman) in +charge of El-Bedrawee (who was being sent to Fazoghlou in +banishment) to wait a few hours. The cawass (may he not +suffer for his humanity) consented. He described his +boy’s symptoms and I gave him a dose of castor oil and said +I would go to the boat in the morning. The poor fellow was +a Cairo merchant but living at Khartoum, he poured out his sorrow +in true Eastern style. ‘Oh my boy, and I have none +but he, and how shall I come before his mother, a Habbesheeyeh, +oh Lady, and tell her “thy son is dead”?’ +So I said, ‘<i>Allah kereem ya Seedee</i>, and <i>Inshallah +tayib</i>,’ etc., etc., and went this morning early to the +boat. It was a regular old Arab cangia lumbered up with +corn, sacks of matting, a live sheep, etc., and there I found a +sweet graceful boy of fifteen or so in a high fever. His +father said he had visited a certain Pasha on the way and +evidently meant that he had been poisoned or had the evil +eye. I assured him it was only the epidemic and asked why +he had not sent for the doctor at Keneh. The old +story! He was afraid, ‘God knows what a government +doctor might do to the boy.’ Then Omar came in and +stood before El-Bedrawee and said, ‘Oh my master, why do we +see thee thus? Mashallah, I once ate of thy bread when I +was of the soldiers of Said Pasha, and I saw thy riches and thy +greatness, and what has God decreed against thee?’ So +El-Bedrawee who is (or was) one of the wealthiest men of Lower +Egypt and lived at Tantah, related how Effendina (Ismail Pasha) +sent for him to go to Cairo to the Citadel to transact some +business, and how he rode his horse up to the Citadel and went +in, and there the Pasha at once ordered a cawass to take him down +to the Nile and on board a common cargo boat and to go with him +and take him to Fazoghlou. Letters were given to the cawass +to deliver to every Moudir on the way, and another despatched by +hand to the Governor of Fazoghlou with orders concerning +El-Bedrawee. He begged leave to see his son once more +before starting, or any of his family. ‘No, he must +go at once and see no one.’ But luckily a fellah, one +of his relations had come after him to Cairo and had £700 +in his girdle; he followed El-Bedrawee to the Citadel and saw him +being walked off by the cawass and followed him to the river and +on board the boat and gave him the £700 which he had in his +girdle. The various Moudirs had been civil to him, and +friends in various places had given him clothes and food. +He had not got a chain round his neck or fetters, and was allowed +to go ashore with the cawass, for he had just been to the tomb of +Abou-l-Hajjaj and had told that dead Sheykh all his affliction +and promised, if he came back safe, to come every year to his +<i>moolid</i> (festival) and pay the whole expenses (<i>i.e.</i> +feed all comers). Mustapha wanted him to dine with him and +me, but the cawass could not allow it, so Mustapha sent him a +fine sheep and some bread, fruit, etc. I made him a present +of some quinine, rhubarb pills, and sulphate of zinc for eye +lotion. Here you know we all go upon a more than English +presumption and believe every prisoner to be innocent and a +victim—as he gets no trial he <i>never</i> can be proved +guilty—besides poor old El-Bedrawee declared he had not the +faintest idea what he was accused of or how he had offended +Effendina.</p> +<p>I listened to all this in extreme amazement, and he said, +‘Ah! I know you English manage things very +differently; I have heard all about your excellent +justice.’</p> +<p>He was a stout, dignified-looking fair man, like a Turk, but +talking broad Lower Egypt fellah talk, so that I could not +understand him, and had to get Mustapha and Omar to repeat his +words. His father was an Arab, and his mother a Circassian +slave, which gave the fair skin and reddish beard. He must +be over fifty, fat and not healthy; of course he is <i>meant</i> +to die up in Fazoghlou, especially going at this season. He +owns (or owned, for God knows who has it now) 12,000 feddans of +fine land between Tantah and Samanhoud, and was enormously +rich. He consulted me a great deal about his health, and I +gave him certainly very good advice. I cannot write in a +letter which I know you will show what drugs a Turkish doctor had +furnished him with to ‘strengthen’ him in the trying +climate of Fazoghlou. I wonder was it intended to kill him +or only given in ignorance of the laws of health equal to his +own?</p> +<p>After a while the pretty boy became better and recovered +consciousness, and his poor father, who had been helping me with +trembling hands and swimming eyes, cried for joy, and said, +‘By God the most high, if ever I find any of the English, +poor or sick or afflicted up in Fazoghlou, I will make them know +that I Abu Mahommed never saw a face like the pale face of the +English lady bent over my sick boy.’ And then +El-Bedrawee and his fellah kinsman, and all the crew blessed me +and the Captain, and the cawass said it was time to sail. +So I gave directions and medicine to Abu Mahommed, and kissed the +pretty boy and went out. El-Bedrawee followed me up the +bank, and said he had a request to make—would I pray for +him in his distress. I said, ‘I am not of the +Muslimeen,’ but both he and Mustapha said, <i>Maleysh</i> +(never mind), for that it was quite certain I was not of the +<i>Mushkireen</i>, as they hate the Muslimeen and their deeds are +evil—but blessed be God, many of the English begin to +repent of their evil, and to love the Muslims and abound in kind +actions. So we parted in much kindness. It was a +strange feeling to me to stand on the bank and see the queer +savage-looking boat glide away up the stream, bound to such far +more savage lands, and to be exchanging kind farewells quite in a +homely manner with such utter ‘aliens in blood and +faith.’ ‘God keep thee Lady, God keep thee +Mustapha.’ Mustapha and I walked home very sad about +poor El-Bedrawee.</p> +<p><i>Friday</i>, <i>July</i> 7.—It has been so +‘awfully’ hot that I have not had pluck to go on with +my letter, or indeed to do anything but lie on a mat in the +passage with a minimum of clothes quite indescribable in +English. <i>Alhamdulilah</i>! laughs Omar, ‘that I +see the clever English people do just like the lazy +Arabs.’ The worst is not the positive heat, which has +not been above 104° and as low as 96° at night, but the +horrible storms of hot wind and dust which are apt to come on at +night and prevent one’s even lying down till twelve or one +o’clock. Thebes is bad in the height of summer on +account of its expanse of desert, and sand and dust. The +Nile is pouring down now gloriously, and <i>really</i> red as +blood—more crimson than a Herefordshire lane—and in +the distance the reflection of the pure blue sky makes it deep +violet. It had risen five cubits a week ago; we shall soon +have it all over the land here. It is a beautiful and +inspiriting sight to see the noble old stream as young and +vigorous as ever. No wonder the Egyptians worshipped the +Nile: there is nothing like it. We have had all the plagues +of Egypt this year, only the lice are commuted for bugs, and the +frogs for mice; the former have eaten me and the latter have +eaten my clothes. We are so ragged! Omar has one +shirt left, and has to sleep without and wash it every +night. The dust, the drenching perspiration, and the +hard-fisted washing of Mahommed’s slave-women destroys +everything.</p> +<p>Mustapha intends to give you a grand <i>fantasia</i> if you +come, and to have the best dancing girls down from Esneh for you; +but I am consternated to hear that you can’t come till +December. I hoped you would have arrived in Cairo early in +November, and spent a month there with me, and come up the river +in the middle of December when Cairo gets very cold.</p> +<p>I remain very well in general health, but my cough has been +troublesome again. I do not feel at all like breathing cold +damp air again. This depresses me very much as you may +suppose. You will have to divorce me, and I must marry some +respectable Kadee. I have been too ‘lazy Arab,’ +as Omar calls it, to go on with my Arabic lessons, and Yussuf has +been very busy with law business connected with the land and the +crops. Every harvest brings a fresh settling of the +land. Wheat is selling at £1 the ardeb <a +name="citation188"></a><a href="#footnote188" +class="citation">[188]</a> here <i>on the threshing-floor</i>, +and barley at one hundred and sixteen piastres; I saw some +Nubians pay Mustapha that. He is in comic perplexity about +saying <i>Alhamdulillah</i> about such enormous gains—you +see it is rather awkward for a Muslim to thank God for dear +bread—so he compounds by very lavish almsgiving. He +gave all his fellaheen clothes the other day—forty calico +shirts and drawers. Do you remember my describing an Arab +<i>emancipirtes Fraülein</i> at Siout? Well, the other +day I saw as I thought a nice-looking lad of sixteen selling corn +to my opposite neighbour, a Copt. It was a girl. Her +father had no son and is infirm, so she works in the field for +him, and dresses and does like a man. She looked very +modest and was quieter in her manner than the veiled women often +are.</p> +<p>I am so glad to hear such good accounts of my Rainie and +Maurice. I can hardly bear to think of another year without +seeing them. However it is fortunate for me that ‘my +lines have fallen in pleasant places,’ so long a time at +the Cape or any Colony would have become intolerable. Best +love to Janet, I really can’t write, it’s too hot and +dusty. Omar desires his salaam to his great master and to +that gazelle Sittee Ross.</p> +<h3>August 13, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>August</i> 13, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>For the last month we have had a purgatory of hot wind and +dust, such as I never saw—impossible to stir out of the +house. So in despair I have just engaged a return +boat—a <i>Gelegenheit</i>—and am off to Cairo in a +day or two, where I shall stop till <i>Inshallah</i>! you come to +me. Can’t you get leave to come at the beginning of +November? Do try, that is the pleasant time in Cairo.</p> +<p>I am a ‘stupid, lazy Arab’ now, as Omar says, +having lain on a mat in a dark stone passage for six weeks or so, +but my chest is no worse—better I think, and my health has +not suffered at all—only I am stupid and lazy. I had +a pleasant visit lately from a great doctor from Mecca—a +man so learned that he can read the Koran in seven different +ways, he is also a physician of European <i>Hekmeh</i> +(learning). Fancy my wonder when a great Alim in gorgeous +Hegazee dress walked in and said: ‘<i>Madame, tout ce +qu’on m’a dit de vous fait tellement +l’éloge de votre cœur et de votre esprit que +je me suis arreté pour tacher de me procurer le plaisir de +votre connaissance</i>!’ A lot of Luxor people came +in to pay their respects to the great man, and he said to me that +he hoped I had not been molested on account of religion, and if I +had I must forgive it, as the people here were so very ignorant, +and <i>barbarians were bigots everywhere</i>. I said, +‘<i>Wallahy</i>, the people of Luxor are my +brothers!’ and the Maōhn said, ‘True, the +fellaheen are like oxen, but not such swine as to insult the +religion of a lady who has served God among them like this +one. She risked her life every day.’ ‘And +if she <i>had</i> died,’ said the great theologian, +‘her place was made ready among the martyrs of God, because +she showed more love to her brothers than to herself!’</p> +<p>Now if this was humbug it was said in Arabic before eight or +ten people, by a man of great religious authority.</p> +<p>Omar was <i>aux anges</i> to hear his Sitt spoken of ‘in +such a grand way for the religion.’ I believe that a +great change is taking place among the Ulema, that Islam is +ceasing to be a mere party flag, just as occurred with +Christianity, and that all the moral part is being more and more +dwelt on. My great Alim also said I had practised the +precepts of the Koran, and then laughed and added, ‘I +suppose I ought to say the Gospel, but what matters it, <i>el +Hakh</i> (the truth) is one, whether spoken by Our Lord Jesus or +by Our Lord Mahommed!’ He asked me to go with him to +Mecca next winter for my health, as it was so hot and dry +there. I found he had fallen in with El-Bedrawee and the +Khartoum merchant at Assouan. The little boy was well +again, and I had been outrageously extolled by them. We are +now sending off all the corn. I sat the other evening on +Mustapha’s doorstep and saw the Greeks piously and +zealously attending to the divine command to spoil the +Egyptians. Eight months ago a Greek bought up corn at 60 +piastres the ardeb (he follows the Coptic tax-gatherer like a +vulture after a crow), now wheat is at 170 piastres the ardeb +here, and the fellah has paid 3½ <i>per cent. a month</i> +besides. Reckon the profit! Two men I know are quite +ruined, and have sold all they had. The cattle disease +forced them to borrow at these ruinous rates, and now alas, the +Nile is sadly lingering in its rise, and people are very +anxious. Poor Egypt! or rather, poor Egyptians! Of +course, I need not say that there is great improvidence in those +who can be fleeced as they are fleeced. Mustapha’s +household is a pattern of muddling hospitality, and Mustapha is +generous and mean by turns; but what chance have people like +these, so utterly uncivilized and so isolated, against Europeans +of unscrupulous characters.</p> +<p>I can’t write more in the wind and dust. You shall +hear again from Cairo.</p> +<h3>October 9, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>October</i> 9, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have not written for a long time because I have had a +fever. Now I am all right again, only weak. If you +can come please bring the books in enclosed list for an American +Egyptologist at Luxor—a friend of mine. My best love +to Janet and my other chicks. I wish I could see my +Maurice. Tell Janet that Hassan donkey boy, has married a +girl of eleven, and Phillips that Hassan remembers him quite +tenderly and is very proud of having had his ‘face’ +drawn by him, ‘certainly he was of the friends if not a +brother of the Sitt, he so loved the things of the +Arabs.’ I went to the Hareem <i>soirée</i> at +Hassan’s before the wedding—at that event I was +ill. My good doctor was up the river, and Hekekian Bey is +in Italy, so I am very lonely here. The weather is bad, so +very damp; I stream with perspiration more than in June at Luxor, +and I don’t like civilization so very much. It keeps +me awake at night in the grog shops and rings horrid bells and +fights and quarrels in the street, and disturbs my Muslim nerves +till I utter such epithets as <i>kelb</i> (dog) and +<i>khanseer</i> (pig) against the Frangi, and wish I were in a +‘beastly Arab’ quarter.</p> +<h3>October 21, 1864: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>October</i> 21, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I got your letter yesterday. I hope Alick got mine of +two weeks ago before leaving, and told you I was better. I +am still rather weak, however I ride my donkey and the weather +has suddenly become gloriously dry and cool. I rather +shiver with the thermometer at 79°—absurd is it not, +but I got so used to real heat.</p> +<p>I never wrote about my leaving Luxor or my journey, for our +voyage was quite tempestuous after the three first days and I +fell ill as soon as I was in my house here. I hired the +boat for six purses (£18) which had taken Greeks up to +Assouan selling groceries and strong drinks, but the reis would +not bring back their cargo of black slaves to dirty the boat and +picked us up at Luxor. We sailed at daybreak having waited +all one day because it was an unlucky day.</p> +<p>As I sat in the boat people kept coming to ask whether I was +coming back very anxiously and bringing fresh bread, eggs and +things as presents, and all the quality came to take leave and +hope, <i>Inshallah</i>, I should soon ‘come home to my +village safe and bring the Master, please God, to see +them,’ and then to say the <i>Fattah</i> for a safe journey +and my health. In the morning the balconies of my house +were filled with such a group to see us sail—a party of +wild Abab’deh with their long Arab guns and flowing hair, a +Turk elegantly dressed, Mohammed in his decorous brown robes and +snow-white turban, and several fellaheen. As the boat moved +off the Abab’deh blazed away with their guns and Osman +Effendi with a sort of blunderbuss, and as we dropped down the +river there was a general firing; even Todoros (Theodore), the +Coptic Mallim, popped off his American revolver. Omar +keeping up a return with Alick’s old horse pistols which +are much admired here on account of the excessive noise they +make.</p> +<p>Poor old Ismain, who always thought I was Mme. Belzoni and +wanted to take me up to Abou Simbel to meet my husband, was in +dire distress that he could not go with me to Cairo. He +declared he was still <i>shedeed</i> (strong enough to take care +of me and to fight). He is ninety-seven and only remembers +fifty or sixty years ago and old wild times—a splendid old +man, handsome and erect. I used to give him coffee and +listen to his old stories which had won his heart. His +grandson, the quiet, rather stately, Mohammed who is guard of the +house I lived in, forgot all his Muslim dignity, broke down in +the middle of his set speech and flung himself down and kissed +and hugged my knees and cried. He had got some notion of +impending ill-luck, I found, and was unhappy at our +departure—and the backsheesh failed to console him. +Sheykh Yussuf was to come with me, but a brother of his just +wrote word that he was coming back from the Hejaz where he had +been with the troops in which he is serving his time; I was very +sorry to lose his company. Fancy how dreadfully irregular +for one of the Ulema and a heretical woman to travel +together. What would our bishops say to a parson who did +such a thing? We had a lovely time on the river for three +days, such moonlight nights, so soft and lovely; and we had a +sailor who was as good as a professional singer, and who sang +religious songs, which I observe excite people here far more than +love songs. One which began ‘Remove my sins from +before thy sight Oh God’ was really beautiful and touching, +and I did not wonder at the tears which ran down Omar’s +face. A very pretty profane song was ‘Keep the wind +from me Oh Lord, I fear it will hurt me’ (<i>wind</i> means +<i>love</i>, which is like the Simoom) ‘Alas! it has struck +me and I am sick. Why do ye bring the physician? Oh +physician put back thy medicine in the canister, for only he who +has hurt can cure me.’ The masculine pronoun is +always used instead of <i>she</i> in poetry out of +decorum—sometimes even in conversation.</p> +<p><i>October</i> 23.—Yesterday I met a Saedee—a +friend of the brother of the Sheykh of the wild Abab’deh, +and as we stood handshaking and kissing our fingers in the road, +some of the Anglo-Indian travellers passed and gazed with fierce +disgust; the handsome Hassan, being black, was such a flagrant +case of a ‘native.’ Mutter dear, it is +heart-breaking to see what we are sending to India now. The +mail days are dreaded, we never know when some outrage may not +excite ‘Mussulman fanaticism.’ The English +tradesmen here complain as much as anyone, and I, who as the +Kadee of Luxor said am ‘not outside the family’ (of +Ishmael, I presume), hear what the Arabs really think. +There are also crowds ‘like lice’ as one Mohammed +said, of low Italians, French, etc., and I find my stalwart +Hassan’s broad shoulders no superfluous +<i>porte-respect</i> in the Frangee quarter. Three times I +have been followed and insolently stared at (<i>à mon +age</i>)!! and once Hassan had to speak. Fancy how dreadful +to Muslims! I hate the sight of a hat here now.</p> +<p>I can’t write more now my eyes are weak still. +Omar begs me to give you his best salaam and say, +<i>Inshallah</i>, he will take great care of your daughter, which +he most zealously and tenderly does.</p> +<h3>December 23, 1864: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">On the +Nile</span>,<br /> +<i>Friday</i>, <i>December</i> 23, 1864.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>Here I am again between Benisouef and Minieh, and already +better for the clear air of the river and the tranquil boat life; +I will send you my Christmas Salaam from Siout. While Alick +was with me I had as much to do as I was able and could not write +for there was much to see and talk about. I think he was +amused but I fear he felt the Eastern life to be very poor and +comfortless. I have got so used to having nothing that I +had quite forgotten how it would seem to a stranger.</p> +<p>I am quite sorry to find how many of my letters must have been +lost from Luxor; in future I shall trust the Arab post which +certainly is safer than English travellers. I send you my +long plaits by Alick, for I had my hair cut short as it took to +falling out by handfuls after my fever, and moreover it is more +convenient Turkish hareem fashion.</p> +<p>Please tell Dean Stanley how his old dragoman Mahommed Gazawee +cried with pleasure when he told me he had seen Sheykh +Stanley’s sister on her way to India, and the ‘little +ladies’ <i>knew his name</i> and shook hands with him, +which evidently was worth far more than the backsheesh. I +wondered who ‘Sheykh’ Stanley could be, and Mahommed +(who is a darweesh and very pious) told me he was the +<i>Gassis</i> (priest) who was <i>Imám</i> (spiritual +guide) to the son of our Queen, ‘and in truth,’ said +he, ‘he is <i>really</i> a Sheykh and one who teaches the +excellent things of religion, why he was kind even to his horse! +and it is of the mercies of God to the English that such a one is +the Imám of your Queen and Prince.’ I said +laughing, ‘How dost thou, a darweesh among Muslims, talk +thus of a Nazarene priest?’ ‘Truly oh +Lady,’ he answered, ‘one who loveth all the creatures +of God, him God loveth also, there is no doubt of +that.’ Is any one bigot enough to deny that Stanley +has done more for real religion in the mind of that Muslim +darweesh than if he had baptised a hundred savages out of one +fanatical faith into another?</p> +<p>There is no hope of a good understanding with Orientals until +Western Christians can bring themselves to recognise the common +faith contained in the two religions, the <i>real</i> difference +consists in all the class of notions and feelings (very important +ones, no doubt) which we derive—not from the Gospels at +all—but from Greece and Rome, and which of course are +altogether wanting here.</p> +<p>Alick will tell you how curiously Omar illustrated the +patriarchal feelings of the East by entirely dethroning me in +favour of the ‘Master.’ ‘That <i>our +Master</i>, we all eat bread from his hand, and he work for +<i>us</i>.’ Omar and I were equal before <i>our +Seedee</i>. He can sit at his ease at my feet, but when the +Master comes in he must stand reverently, and gave me to +understand that I too must be respectful.</p> +<p>I have got the boat of the American Mission at an outrageous +price, £60, but I could get nothing under; the consolation +is that the sailors profit, poor fellows, and get treble +wages. My crew are all Nubians. Such a handsome reis +and steersman—brothers—and there is a black boy, of +fourteen or so, with legs and feet so sweetly beautiful as to be +quite touching—at least I always feel those lovely round +young innocent forms to be somehow affecting. Our old boat +of last summer (Arthur Taylor’s) is sailing in company with +us, and stately old reis Mubharak hails me every morning with the +Blessing of God and the Peace of the Prophet. Alee Kuptan, +my steamboat captain will announce our advent at Thebes; he +passed us to-day. This boat is a fine sailer, but iron +built and therefore noisy, and not convenient. The crew +encourage her with ‘Get along, father of three,’ +because she has three sails, whereas two is the usual +number. They are active good-humoured fellows—my +men—but lack the Arab courtesy and <i>simpatico</i> ways, +and then I don’t understand their language which is pretty +and sounds a little like Caffre, rather bird-like and sing-song, +instead of the clattering guttural Arabic. I now speak +pretty tolerably for a stranger, <i>i.e.</i> I can keep up a +conversation, and understand all that is said to me much better +than I can speak, and follow about half what people say to each +other. When I see you, <i>Inshallah</i>, next summer I +shall be a good scholar, I hope.</p> +<h3>January 2, 1865: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>January</i> 2, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I posted a letter for you at Girgeh, as we passed Siout with a +good wind, I hope you will get it. My crew worked as I +never saw men work, they were paid to get to Luxor, and for +eighteen days they never rested or slept day or night, and all +the time were merry and pleasant. It shows what power of +endurance these ‘lazy Arabs’ have when there is good +money at the end of a job, instead of the favourite panacea of +‘stick.’</p> +<p>We arrived at midnight and next morning my boat had the air of +being pillaged. A crowd of laughing, chattering fellows ran +off to the house laden with loose articles snatched up at random, +loaves of sugar, pots and pans, books, cushions, all +helter-skelter. I feared breakages, but all was housed safe +and sound. The small boys of an age licensed to penetrate +into the cabin, went off with the oddest cargoes of dressing +things and the like—of backsheesh not one word. +<i>Alhamdulillah salaameh</i>! ‘Thank God thou art in +peace,’ and <i>Ya Sitt, Ya Emeereh</i>, till my head went +round. Old Ismaeen fairly hugged me and little Achmet hung +close to my side. I went up to Mustapha’s house while +the unpacking took place and breakfasted there, and found letters +from all of you, from you to darling Rainie, Sheykh Yussuf was +charmed with her big writing and said he thought the news in that +was the best of all.</p> +<p>The weather was intensely hot the first two days. Now it +is heavenly, a fresh breeze and gorgeous sunshine. I +brought two common Arab lanterns for the tomb of Abu-l-Hajjaj and +his <i>moolid</i> is now going on. Omar took them and +lighted them up and told me he found several people who called on +the rest to say the <i>Fathah</i> for me. I was sitting out +yesterday with the people on the sand looking at the men doing +<i>fantasia</i> on horseback for the Sheykh, and a clever +dragoman of the party was relating about the death of a young +English girl whom he had served, and so <i>de fil en aiguille</i> +we talked about the strangers buried here and how the bishop had +extorted £100. I said, ‘<i>Maleysh</i> (never +mind) the people have been hospitable to me alive and they will +not cease if I die, but give me a tomb among the +Arabs.’ One old man said, ‘May I not see thy +day, oh Lady, and indeed thou shouldest be buried as a daughter +of the Arabs, but we should fear the anger of thy Consul and thy +family, but thou knowest that wherever thou art buried thou wilt +assuredly lie in a Muslim grave.’ ‘How +so?’ said I. ‘Why, when a bad Muslim dies the +angels take him out of his tomb and put in one of the good from +among the Christians in his place.’ This is the +popular expression of the doctrine that the good are sure of +salvation. Omar chimed in at once, ‘Certainly there +is no doubt of it, and I know a story that happened in the days +of Mahommed Ali Pasha which proves it.’ We demanded +the story and Omar began. ‘There was once a very rich +man of the Muslims so stingy that he grudged everybody even so +much as a “bit of the paper inside the date” +(Koran). When he was dying he said to his wife, “Go +out and buy me a lump of pressed dates,” and when she had +brought it he bade her leave him alone. Thereupon he took +all his gold out of his sash and spread it before him, and rolled +it up two or three pieces at a time in the dates, and swallowed +it piece after piece until only three were left, when his wife +came in and saw what he was doing and snatched them from his +hand. Presently after he fell back and died and was carried +out to the burial place and laid in his tomb. When the +Kadee’s men came to put the seal on his property and found +no money they said, “Oh woman, how is this? we know thy +husband was a rich man and behold we find no money for his +children and slaves or for thee.” So the woman told +what had happened, and the Kadee sent for three other of the +Ulema, and they decided that after three days she should go +herself to her husband’s tomb and open it, and take the +money from his stomach; meanwhile a guard was put over the tomb +to keep away robbers. After three days therefore the woman +went, and the men opened the tomb and said, “Go in O woman +and take thy money.” So the woman went down into the +tomb alone. When there, instead of her husband’s body +she saw a box (coffin) of the boxes of the Christians, and when +she opened it she saw the body of a young girl, adorned with many +ornaments of gold necklaces, and bracelets, and a diamond +<i>Kurs</i> on her head, and over all a veil of black muslin +embroidered with gold. So the woman said within herself, +“Behold I came for money and here it is, I will take it and +conceal this business for fear of the Kadee.” So she +wrapped the whole in her <i>melayeh</i> (a blue checked cotton +sheet worn as a cloak) and came out, and the men said “Hast +thou done thy business?”’ and she answered +“Yes” and returned home.</p> +<p>‘In a few days she gave the veil she had taken from the +dead girl to a broker to sell for her in the bazaar, and the +broker went and showed it to the people and was offered one +hundred piastres. Now there sat in one of the shops of the +merchants a great Ma-allim (Coptic clerk) belonging to the Pasha, +and he saw the veil and said, “How much asketh thou?” +and the broker said “Oh thine honour the clerk whatever +thou wilt.” “Take from me then five hundred +piastres and bring the person that gave thee the veil to receive +the money.” So the broker fetched the woman and the +Copt, who was a great man, called the police and said, +“Take this woman and fetch my ass and we will go before the +Pasha,” and he rode in haste to the palace weeping and +beating his breast, and went before the Pasha and said, +“Behold this veil was buried a few days ago with my +daughter who died unmarried, and I had none but her and I loved +her like my eyes and would not take from her her ornaments, and +this veil she worked herself and was very fond of it, and she was +young and beautiful and just of the age to be married; and behold +the Muslims go and rob the tombs of the Christians and if thou +wilt suffer this we Christians will leave Egypt and go and live +in some other country, O Effendina, for we cannot endure this +abomination.”</p> +<p>‘Then the Pasha turned to the woman and said, “Woe +to thee O woman, art thou a Muslimeh and doest such +wickedness?” And the woman spoke and told all that +had happened and how she sought money and finding gold had kept +it. So the Pasha said, “Wait oh Ma-allim, and we will +discover the truth of this matter,” and he sent for the +three Ulema who had desired that the tomb should be opened at the +end of three days and told them the case; and they said, +“Open now the tomb of the Christian damsel.” +And the Pasha sent his men to do so, and when they opened it +behold it was full of fire, and within it lay the body of the +wicked and avaricious Mussulman.’ Thus it was +manifest to all that on the night of terror the angels of God had +done this thing, and had laid the innocent girl of the Christians +among those who have received direction, and the evil Muslim +among the rejected. Admire how rapidly legends arise +here. This story which everybody declared was quite true is +placed no longer ago than in Mahommed Ali Pasha’s time.</p> +<p>There are hardly any travellers this year, instead of a +hundred and fifty or more boats, perhaps twenty. A son of +one of the Rothschilds, a boy of fourteen, has just gone up like +a royal prince in one of the Pasha’s steamers—all his +expenses paid and crowds of attendants. ‘All that +honour to the money of the Jew,’ said an old fellah to me +with a tone of scorn which I could not but echo in my +heart. He has turned out his dragoman—a respectable +elderly man, very sick, and paid him his bare wages and the +munificent sum of £5 to take him back to Cairo. On +board there was a doctor and plenty of servants, and yet he +abandons the man here on Mustapha’s hands. I have +brought Er-Rasheedee here (the sick man) as poor Mustapha is +already overloaded with strangers. I am sorry the name of +<i>Yahoodee</i> (Jew) should be made to stink yet more in the +nostrils of the Arabs. I am very well, indeed my cough is +almost gone and I can walk quite briskly and enjoy it. I +think, dear Mutter, I am really better. I never felt the +cold so little as this winter since my illness, the chilly +mornings and nights don’t seem to signify at all now, and +the climate feels more delicious than ever.</p> +<p>Mr. Herbert, the painter, went back to Cairo from Farshoot +below Keneh; so I have no ‘Frangee’ society at +all. But Sheykh Yussuf and the Kadee drop in to tea very +often and as they are agreeable men I am quite content with my +company.</p> +<p>Bye the bye I will tell you about the tenure of land in Egypt +which people are always disputing about, as the Kadee laid it +down for me. The <i>whole</i> land belongs to the Sultan of +Turkey, the Pasha being his vakeel (representative), nominally of +course as we know. Thus there are no owners, only tenants +paying from one hundred piastres tariff (£1) down to thirty +piastres yearly per feddan (about an acre) according to the +quality of the land, or the favour of the Pasha when granting +it. This tenancy is hereditary to children only—not +to collaterals or ascendants—and it may be sold, but in +that case application must be made to the Government. If +the owner or tenant dies childless the land reverts to the +Sultan, <i>i.e.</i> to the Pasha, and <i>if the Pasha chooses to +have any man’s land he can take it from him on +payment—or without</i>. Don’t let any one tell +you that I exaggerate; I have known it happen: I mean the +<i>without</i>, and the man received feddan for feddan of desert, +in return for his good land which he had tilled and watered.</p> +<p>To-morrow night is the great night of Sheykh +Abu-l-Hajjaj’s <i>moolid</i> and I am desired to go to the +mosque for the benefit of my health, and that my friends may say +a prayer for my children. The kind hearty welcome I found +here has been a real pleasure, and every one was pleased because +I was glad to come home to my <i>beled</i> (town), and they all +thought it so nice of ‘my master’ to have come so far +to see me because I was sick—all but one Turk, who clearly +looked with pitying contempt on so much trouble taken about a +sick old woman.</p> +<p>I have left my letter for a long while. You will not +wonder—for after some ten days’ fever, my poor guest +Mohammed Er-Rasheedee died to-day. Two Prussian doctors +gave me help for the last four days, but left last night. +He sank to sleep quietly at noon with his hand in mine, a good +old Muslim sat at his head on one side and I on the other. +Omar stood at his head and his black boy Khayr at his feet. +We had laid his face to the Kibleh and I spoke to him to see if +he knew anything and when he nodded the three Muslims chanted the +<i>Islamee La Illáhá</i>, etc., etc., while I +closed his eyes. The ‘respectable men’ came in +by degrees, took an inventory of his property which they +delivered to me, and washed the body, and within an hour and a +half we all went out to the burial place; I following among a +troop of women who joined us to wail for ‘the brother who +had died far from his place.’ The scene as we turned +in between the broken colossi and the pylons of the temple to go +to the mosque was over-powering. After the prayer in the +mosque we went out to the graveyard, Muslims and Copts helping to +carry the dead, and my Frankish hat in the midst of the veiled +and wailing women; all so familiar and yet so strange. +After the burial the Imám, Sheykh Abd-el-Waris, came and +kissed me on the shoulders and the Shereef, a man of eighty, laid +his hands on my shoulders and said, ‘Fear not my daughter, +neither all the days of thy life nor at the hour of thy death, +for God is with thee.’ I kissed the old man’s +hand and turned to go, but numberless men came and said ‘A +thousand thanks, O our sister, for what thou hast done for one +among us,’ and a great deal more. Now the solemn +chanting of the <i>Fikees</i>, and the clear voice of the boy +reciting the Koran in the room where the man died are ringing +through the house. They will pass the night in prayer, and +to-morrow there will be the prayer of deliverance in the +mosque. Poor Khayr has just crept in to have a quiet +cry—poor boy. He is in the inventory and to-morrow I +must deliver him up to <i>les autorités</i> to be +forwarded to Cairo with the rest of the property. He is +very ugly with his black face wet and swollen, but he kisses my +hand and calls me his mother quite ‘natural +like’—you see colour is no barrier here.</p> +<p>The weather is glorious this year, and in spite of some +fatigue I am extremely well and strong, and have hardly any cough +at all. I am so sorry that the young Rothschild was so hard +to Er-Rasheedee and that his French doctor refused to come and +see him. It makes bad blood naturally. However, the +German doctors were most kind and helpful.</p> +<p>The festival of Abu-l-Hajjaj was quite a fine sight, not +splendid at all—<i>au contraire</i>—but +spirit-stirring; the flags of the Sheykh borne by his family +chanting, and the men tearing about in mimic fight on horseback +with their spears. My acquaintance of last year, +Abd-el-Moutovil, the fanatical Sheykh from Tunis was there. +At first he scowled at me. Then someone told him how +Rothschild had left Er-Rasheedee, and he held forth about the +hatred of all the unbelievers to the Muslims, and ended by asking +where the sick man was. A quaint little smile twinkled in +Sheykh Yussuf’s soft eyes and he curled his silky moustache +as he said demurely, ‘Your Honour must go and visit him at +the house of the English Lady.’ I am bound to say +that the Pharisee ‘executed himself handsomely, for in a +few minutes he came up to me and took my hand and even hoped I +would visit the tomb of Abu-l-Hajjaj with him!!</p> +<p>Since I wrote last I have been rather poorly—more cough, +and most wearing sleeplessness. A poor young Englishman +died here at the house of the Austrian Consular agent. I +was too ill to go to him, but a kind, dear young Englishwoman, a +Mrs. Walker, who was here with her family in a boat, sat up with +him three nights and nursed him like a sister. A young +American lay sick at the same time in the house, he is now gone +down to Cairo, but I doubt whether he will reach it alive. +The Englishman was buried on the first day of Ramadan where they +bury strangers, on the site of a former Coptic church. +Archdeacon Moore read the service; Omar and I spread my old flag +over the bier, and Copts and Muslims helped to carry the poor +stranger. It was a most impressive sight. The party +of Europeans, all strangers to the dead but all deeply moved; the +group of black-robed and turbaned Copts; the sailors from the +boats; the gaily dressed dragomans; several brown-shirted +fellaheen and the thick crowd of children—all the little +Abab’deh stark naked and all behaving so well, the +expression on their little faces touched me most of all. As +Muslims, Omar and the boatmen laid him down in the grave, and +while the English prayer was read the sun went down in a glorious +flood of light over the distant bend of the Nile. +‘Had he a mother, he was young?’ said an +Abab’deh woman to me with tears in her eyes and pressing my +hand in sympathy for that far-off mother of such a different +race.</p> +<p>Passenger steamboats come now every fortnight, but I have had +no letter for a month. I have no almanack and have lost +count of European time—to-day is the 3 of Ramadan, that is +all I know. The poor black slave was sent back from Keneh, +God knows why—because he had no money and the Moudir could +not ‘eat off him’ as he could off the money and +property—he believes. He is a capital fellow, and in +order to compensate me for what he eats he proposed to wash for +me, and you would be amused to see Khayr with his coal-black face +and filed teeth doing laundry-maid out in the yard. He +fears the family will sell him and hopes he may fetch a good +price for ‘his boy’—only on the other hand he +would so like me to buy him—and so his mind is +disturbed. Meanwhile the having all my clothes washed clean +is a great luxury.</p> +<p>The steamer is come and I must finish in haste. I have +corrected the proofs. There is not much to alter, and +though I regret several lost letters I can’t replace +them. I tried, but it felt like a forgery. Do you cut +out and correct, dearest Mutter, you will do it much better than +I.</p> +<h3>January 8, 1865: Dowager Lady Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To the Dowager Lady Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>January</i> 8, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear old Lady</span>,</p> +<p>I received your kind letter in the midst of the drumming and +piping and chanting and firing of guns and pistols and scampering +of horses which constitute a religious festival in Egypt. +The last day of the <i>moolid</i> of Abu-l-Hajjaj fell on the 1st +January so you came to wish me ‘May all the year be good to +thee’ as the people here were civil enough to do when I +told them it was the first day of the <i>Frankish</i> year. +(The <i>Christian</i> year here begins in September.)</p> +<p>I was very sorry to hear of poor Lady Theresa’s (Lady +Theresa Lewis) death. I feel as if I had no right to +survive people whom I left well and strong when I came away so +ill. As usual the air of Upper Egypt has revived me again, +but I am still weak and thin, and hear many lamentations at my +altered looks. However, ‘<i>Inshallah</i>, thou wilt +soon be better.’</p> +<p>Why don’t you make Alexander edit your letters from +Spain? I am sure they would be far more amusing than mine +can possibly be—for you <i>can</i> write letters and I +never could. I wish I had Miss Berry’s though I never +did think her such a genius as most people, but her letters must +be amusing from the time when they were written. Alexander +will tell you how heavy the hand of Pharaoh is upon this poor +people. ‘My father scourged you with whips but I will +scourge you with scorpions,’ did not Rehoboam say so? or I +forget which King of Judah. The distress here is frightful +in all classes, and no man’s life is safe.</p> +<p>Ali Bey Rheda told me the other day that Prince Arthur is +coming here and that he was coming up with him after taking a +Prince of Hohenzollern back to Cairo. There will be all the +<i>fantasia</i> possible for him here. Every man that has a +horse will gallop him to pieces in honour of the son of the Queen +of the English, and not a charge of powder will be spared. +If you see Layard tell him that Mustapha A’gha had the +whole Koran read for his benefit at the tomb of Abu-l-Hajjaj +besides innumerable <i>fathahs</i> which he said for him +himself. He consulted me as to the propriety of sending +Layard a backsheesh, but I declared that Layard was an Emeer of +the Arabs and a giver, not a taker of backsheesh.</p> +<h3>January 9, 1865: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>January</i> 9, 1865.</p> +<p>I gave Sheykh Yussuf your knife to cut his <i>kalem</i> (reed +pen) with, and to his little girl the coral waistband clasp you +gave me <i>as from you</i>. He was much pleased. I +also brought the Shereef the psalms in Arabic to his great +delight. The old man called on all ‘our family’ +to say a <i>fathah</i> for their sister, after making us all +laugh by shouting out ‘<i>Alhamdulillah</i>! here is our +darling safe back again.’</p> +<p>I wish you could have seen me in the crowd at Keneh holding on +to the Kadee’s <i>farageeyeh</i> (a loose robe worn by the +Ulema). He is the real original Kadee of the Thousand and +One Nights. Did ever Kadee tow an Englishwoman round a +Sheykh’s tomb before? but I thought his determination to +show the people that he considered a Christian not out of place +in a Muslim holy place very edifying.</p> +<p>I find an exceedingly pleasant man here, an Abab’deh, a +very great Sheykh from beyond Khartoum, a man of fifty I suppose, +with manners like an English nobleman, simple and polite and very +intelligent. He wants to take me to Khartoum for two months +up and back, having a tent and a <i>takhterawan</i> +(camel-litter) and to show me the Bishareen in the desert. +We traced the route on my map which to my surprise he understood, +and I found he had travelled into Zanzibar and knew of the +existence of the Cape of Good Hope and the English colony +there. He had also travelled in the Dinka and Shurook +country where the men are seven feet and over high (Alexander saw +a Dinka girl at Cairo three inches taller than himself!). +He knows Madlle. Tiné and says she is ‘on +everyone’s head and in their eyes’ where she has +been. You may fancy that I find Sheykh Alee very good +company.</p> +<p>To-day the sand in front of the house is thronged with all the +poor people with their camels, of which the Government has made a +new levy of eight camels to every thousand feddans. The +poor beasts are sent off to transport troops in the Soudan, and +not being used to the desert, they all die—at all events +their owners never see one of them again. The discontent is +growing stronger every day. Last week the people were +cursing the Pasha in the streets of Assouan, and every one talks +aloud of what they think.</p> +<p><i>January</i> 11.—The whole place is in desolation, the +men are being beaten, one because his camel is not good enough, +another because its saddle is old and shabby, and the rest +because they have not money enough to pay two months’ food +and the wages of one man, to every four camels, to be paid for +the use of the Government beforehand. The <i>courbash</i> +has been going on my neighbours’ backs and feet all the +morning. It is a new sensation too when a friend turns up +his sleeve and shows the marks of the wooden handcuffs and the +gall of the chain on his throat. The system of wholesale +extortion and spoliation has reached a point beyond which it +would be difficult to go. The story of Naboth’s +vineyard is repeated daily on the largest scale. I grieve +for Abdallah-el-Habbashee and men of high position like him, sent +to die by disease (or murder), in Fazoghou, but I grieve still +more over the daily anguish of the poor fellaheen, who are forced +to take the bread from the mouths of their starving families and +to eat it while toiling for the private profit of one man. +Egypt is one vast ‘plantation’ where the master works +his slaves without even feeding them. From my window now I +see the men limping about among the poor camels that are waiting +for the Pasha’s boats to take them, and the great heaps of +maize which they are forced to bring for their food. I can +tell you the tears such a sight brings to one’s eyes are +hot and bitter. These are no sentimental grievances; +hunger, and pain, and labour without hope and without reward, and +the constant bitterness of impotent resentment. To you all +this must sound remote and almost fabulous. But try to +imagine Farmer Smith’s team driven off by the police and +himself beaten till he delivered his hay, his oats and his +farm-servant for the use of the Lord Lieutenant, and his two sons +dragged in chains to work at railway embankments—and you +will have some idea of my state of mind to-day. I fancy +from the number of troops going up to Assouan that there is +another rising among the blacks. Some of the black +regiments revolted up in the Soudan last summer, and now I hear +Shaheen Pasha is to be here in a day or two on his way up, and +the camels are being sent off by hundreds from all the villages +every day. But I am weary of telling, and you will sicken +of hearing my constant lamentations.</p> +<p>Sheykh Hassan dropped in and dined with me yesterday and +described his mother and her high-handed rule over him. It +seems he had a ‘jeunesse orageuse’ and she defended +him against his father’s displeasure, but when the old +Sheykh died she informed her son that if he ever again behaved in +a manner unworthy of a Sheykh-el-Arab she would not live to see +it. ‘Now if my mother told me to jump into the river +and drown I should say <i>hader</i> (ready), for I fear her +exceedingly and love her above all people in the world, and have +left everything in her hand.’ He was good enough to +tell me that I was the only woman he knew like his mother and +that was why he loved me so much. I am to visit this Arab +Deborah at the Abab’deh village two days ride from the +first Cataract. She will come and meet me at the +boat. Hassan was splendid when he said how he feared his +mother exceedingly.</p> +<p>To my amazement to-day in walked the tremendous Alim from +Tunis, Sheykh Abd-el-Moutovil, who used to look so black at +me. He was very civil and pleasant and asked no end of +questions about steam engines, and telegraphs and chemistry; +especially whether it was true that the Europeans still fancied +they could make gold. I said that no one had believed that +for nearly two hundred years, and he said that the Arabs also +knew it was ‘a lie,’ and he wondered to hear that +Europeans, who were so clever, believed it. He had just +been across the Nile to see the tombs of the Kings and of course +‘improved the occasion’ and uttered a number of the +usual fine sayings about the vanity of human things. He +told me I was the only Frank he had ever spoken to. I +observed he did not say a word about religion, or use the usual +pious phrases. By the bye, Sheykh Yussuf filled up my +inkstand for me the other evening and in pouring the ink said +‘Bismillah el-Rachman el-Racheem’ (In the name of +God, the merciful, the compassionate). I said ‘I like +that custom, it is good to remind us that ink may be a cruel +poison or a good medicine.’</p> +<p>I am better, and have hardly any cough. The people here +think it is owing to the intercession of Abu-l-Hajjaj who +specially protects me. I was obliged to be wrapped in the +green silk cover of his tomb when it was taken off to be carried +in procession, partly for my health and general welfare, and as a +sort of adoption into the family. I made a feeble +resistance on the score of being a Nazraneeyeh but was told +‘Never fear, does not God know thee and the Sheykh also? no +evil will come to thee on that account but good.’ And +I rather think that general goodwill and kindness is +wholesome.</p> +<h3>February 7, 1865: Miss Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Miss Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>February</i> 7, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My Dearest Charley</span>,</p> +<p>I am tolerably well, but I am growing very homesick—or +rather children-sick. As the time slips on I get more and +more the feeling of all I am losing of my children. We have +delicious weather here and have had all the time; there has been +no cold at all this winter here.</p> +<p>M. Prévost Paradol is here for a few days—a very +pleasant man indeed, and a little good European talk is a very +agreeable interlude to the Arab prosiness, or rather +<i>enfantillage</i>, on the part of the women. I have +sought about for shells and a few have been brought me from the +Cataract, but of snails I can learn no tidings nor have I ever +seen one, neither can I discover that there are any shells in the +Nile mud. At the first Cataract they are found sticking to +the rocks. The people here are very stupid about natural +objects that are of no use to them. Like with the French +small birds are all sparrows, and wild flowers there are none, +and only about five varieties of trees in all Egypt.</p> +<p>This is a sad year—all the cattle are dead, the Nile is +now as low as it was last July, and the song of the men watering +with the <i>shadoofs</i> sounds sadly true as they chant <i>Ana +ga-ahn</i>, etc. ‘I am hungry, I am hungry for a +piece of dourrah bread,’ sings one, and the other chimes +in, <i>Meskeen</i>, <i>meskeen</i> ‘Poor man, poor +man,’ or else they sing a song about Seyyidna Iyoob +‘Our master Job’ and his patience. It is sadly +appropriate now and rings on all sides as the <i>shadoofs</i> are +greatly multiplied for lack of oxen to turn the <i>sakiahs</i> +(waterwheels). All is terribly dear, and many are sick from +sheer weakness owing to poor food; and then I hear fifty thousand +are to be taken to work at the canal from Geezeh to Siout through +the Fayoum. The only comfort is the enormous rise of wages, +which however falls heavy on the rich. The sailors who got +forty to fifty piastres five years ago now get three to five +hundred piastres a month. So I fear I must give up my +project of a dahabieh. If the new French Consul-General +‘knows not Joseph’ and turns me out, I am to live in +a new house which Sheykh Yussuf is now building and of which he +would give me the terrace and build three rooms on it for +me. I wish I got better or worse, and could go home. +I do get better, but <i>so</i> slowly, I cough a good deal at +times, and I am very thin, but not so weak as I was or so +breathless.</p> +<h3>February 7, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>February</i> 7, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I am enjoying a ‘great indulgence of talk’ with M. +Prévost Paradol as heartily as any nigger. He is a +delightful person. This evening he is coming with Arakel +Bey, his Armenian companion, and I will invite a few Arabs to +show him. I sent off the proofs yesterday per passenger +steamer. I trust they will arrive safe. It is too +disheartening about letters, so many are lost. I am +dreadfully disappointed in my letters, I <i>really</i> +don’t think them good—you know I don’t +<i>blaguer</i> about my own performances. I am very glad +people like my Cape letters which I forget—but honestly I +don’t think the Egyptian good. You know I don’t +‘pretend’ if I think I have done something well and I +was generally content with my translations, but I feel these all +to be poor and what Maurice calls ‘dry’ when I know +how curious and interesting and poetical the country really +is.</p> +<p>I paid Fadil Pasha a visit on his boat, and it was just like +the middle ages. In order to amuse me he called up a horrid +little black boy of about four to do tricks like a dancing dog, +which ended in a performance of the Mussulman prayer. The +little beast was dressed in a Stamboulee dress of scarlet +cloth.</p> +<p>All the Arab doctors come to see me now as they go up and down +the river to give me help if I want it. Some are very +pleasant men. Mourad Effendi speaks German exactly like a +German. The old Sheykh-el-Beled of Erment who visits me +whenever he comes here, and has the sweetest voice I ever heard, +complained of the climate of Cairo. ‘There is no sun +there at all, it is no brighter or warmer than the +moon.’ What do you think our sun must be now you know +Cairo. We have had a glorious winter, like the finest +summer weather at home only so much finer.</p> +<p>Janet wishes to go with me if I go to Soden, I must make +enquiries about the climate. Ross fears it is too cold for +an Egyptian like me. I should enjoy to have all the family +<i>au grand complet</i>. I will leave Luxor in May and get +to you towards the latter part of June, if that pleases you, +<i>Inshallah</i>!</p> +<h3>February 7, 1865: Mrs. Ross</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Ross</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>February</i> 7, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Janet</span>,</p> +<p>It is quite heartrending about my letters. I have +‘got the eye’ evidently. The black slave of the +poor dragoman who died in my house is here still, and like a dog +that has lost his master has devoted himself to me. It +seems nobody’s business to take him away—as the Kadee +did the money and the goods—and so it looks as if I should +quietly inherit poor ugly Khayr. He is of a degree of +ugliness quite transcendent, with teeth filed sharp ‘in +order to eat people’ as he says, but the most good-humoured +creature and a very fair laundry-maid. It is evidently no +concern of mine to send him to be sold in Cairo, so I wait the +event. If nobody ever claims him I shall keep him at +whatever wages may seem fit, and he will subside into +liberty. <i>Du reste</i>, the Maōhn here says he is +legally entitled to his freedom. If the new French +Consul-General will let me stay on here I will leave my furniture +and come down straight to your hospitable roof in Alexandria +<i>en route</i> for Europe. I fear my plan of a dahabieh of +my own would be too expensive, the wages of common boatmen now +are three napoleons a month. M. Prévost Paradol, +whose company has been a real <i>bonne fortune</i> to me, will +speak to the Consul-General. I know all Thebes would sign a +round-robin in my favour if they only knew how, for I am very +popular here, and the only <i>Hakeen</i>. I have effected +some brilliant cures, and get lots of presents. Eggs, +turkeys, etc., etc., it is quite a pleasure to see how the poor +people instead of trying to sponge on one are anxious to make a +return for kindness. I give nothing whatever but my +physick. These country people are very good. A nice +young Circassian Cawass sat up with a stranger, a dying +Englishman, all night because I had doctored his wife. I +have also a pupil, Mustapha’s youngest boy, a sweet +intelligent lad who is pining for an education. I wish he +could go to England. He speaks English very well and reads +and writes indifferently, but I never saw a boy so wild to +learn. Is it difficult to get a boy into the Abbassieh +college? as it is gratuitous I suppose it is. I quite +grieve over little Ach met forced to dawdle away his time and his +faculties here.</p> +<h3>March 13, 1865: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>March</i> 13, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I hope your mind has not been disturbed by any rumours of +‘battle, murder and sudden death’ up in our part of +the world. A week ago we heard that a Prussian boat had +been attacked, all on board murdered, and the boat burned; then +that ten villages were in open revolt, and that Effendina (the +Viceroy) himself had come up and ‘taken a broom and swept +them clean’ <i>i.e.</i>—exterminated the +inhabitants. The truth now appears to be that a crazy +darweesh has made a disturbance—but I will tell it as I +heard it. He did as his father likewise did thirty years +ago, made himself <i>Ism</i> (name) by repeating one of the +appellations of God, like <i>Ya Latif</i> three thousand times +every night for three years which rendered him +invulnerable. He then made friends with a Jinn who taught +him many more tricks—among others, that practised in +England by the Davenports of slipping out of any bonds. He +then deluded the people of the desert by giving himself out as +<i>El-Mahdi</i> (he who is to come with the Lord Jesus and to +slay Antichrist at the end of the world), and proclaimed a revolt +against the Turks. Three villages below Keneh—Gau, +Rayanaeh and Bedeh took part in the disturbance, and Fodl Pasha +came up with steamboats, burnt the villages, shot about one +hundred men and devastated the fields. At first we heard +one thousand were shot, now it is one hundred. The women +and children will be distributed among other villages. The +darweesh some say is killed, others that he is gone off into the +desert with a body of bedaween and a few of the fellaheen from +the three ravaged villages. Gau is a large place—as +large, I think as Luxor. The darweesh is a native of +Salamieh, a village close by here, and yesterday his brother, a +very quiet man, and his father’s father-in-law old Hajjee +Sultan were carried off prisoners to Cairo, or Keneh, we +don’t know which. It seems that the boat robbed +belonged to Greek traders, but no one was hurt, I believe, and no +European boat has been molested.</p> +<p>Baron Kevenbrinck was here yesterday with his wife, and they +saw all the sacking of the villages and said no resistance was +offered by the people whom the soldiers shot down as they ran, +and they saw the sheep etc. being driven off by the +soldiers. You need be in no alarm about me. The +darweesh and his followers could not pounce on us as we are eight +good miles from the desert, <i>i.e.</i> the mountain, so we must +have timely notice, and we have arranged that if they appear in +the neighbourhood the women and children of the outlying huts +should come into my house which is a regular fortress, and also +any travellers in boats, and we muster little short of seven +hundred men able to fight including Karnac, moreover Fodl Pasha +and the troops are at Keneh only forty miles off.</p> +<p>Three English boats went down river to-day and one came +up. The Kevenbrincks went up last night. I dined with +them, she is very lively and pleasant. I nearly died of +laughing to-day when little Achmet came for his lesson. He +pronounced that he was sick of love for her. He played at +cards with her yesterday afternoon and it seems lost his heart +(he is twelve and quite a boyish boy, though a very clever one) +and he said he was wishing to play a game for a kiss as the +stake. He had put on a turban to-day, on the strength of +his passion, to look like a man, and had neglected his dress +otherwise because ‘when young men are sick of love they +always do so.’ The fact is the Baroness was kind and +amiable and tried to amuse him as she would have done to a white +boy, hence Achmet’s susceptible heart was ‘on fire +for her.’ He also asked me if I had any medicine to +make him white, I suppose to look lovely in her eyes. He +little knows how very pretty he is with his brown face—as +he sits cross-legged on the carpet at my feet in his white turban +and blue shirt reading aloud—he was quite a picture. +I have grown very fond of the little fellow, he is so eager to +learn and to improve and so remarkably clever.</p> +<p>My little Achmet, who is donkey-boy and general little slave, +the smallest slenderest quietest little creature, has implored me +to take him with me to England. I wish Rainie could see +him, she would be so ‘arprized’ at his dark brown +little face, so <i>fein</i>, and with eyes like a dormouse. +He is a true little Arab—can run all day in the heat, +sleeps on the stones and eats anything—quick, gentle and +noiseless and fiercely jealous. If I speak to any other boy +he rushes at him and drives him away, and while black Khayr was +in the house, he suffered martyrdom and the kitchen was a scene +of incessant wrangle about the coffee. Khayr would bring me +my coffee and Achmet resented the usurpation of his +functions—of course quite hopelessly, as Khayr was a great +stout black of eighteen and poor little Achmet not bigger than +Rainie. I am really tempted to adopt the vigilant active +little creature.</p> +<p><i>March</i> 15.—Sheykh Yussuf returned from a visit to +Salamieh last night. He tells me the darweesh Achmet +et-Tayib is not dead, he believes that he is a mad fanatic and a +communist. He wants to divide all property equally and to +kill all the Ulema and destroy all theological teaching by +learned men and to preach a sort of revelation or interpretation +of the Koran of his own. ‘He would break up your +pretty clock,’ said Yussuf, ‘and give every man a +broken wheel out of it, and so with all things.’</p> +<p>One of the dragomans here had been urging me to go down but +Yussuf laughed at any idea of danger, he says the people here +have fought the bedaween before and will not be attacked by such +a handful as are out in the mountain now; <i>du reste</i> the +Abu-l-Hajjajieh (family of Abu-l-Hajjaj) will ‘put their +seal’ to it that I am their sister and answer for me with a +man’s life. It would be foolish to go down into +whatever disturbance there may be alone in a small country boat +and where I am not known. The Pasha himself we hear is at +Girgeh with steamboats and soldiers, and if the slightest fear +should arise steamers will be sent up to fetch all the +Europeans. What I grieve over is the poor villagers whose +little property is all confiscated, guilty and innocent alike, +and many shot as they ran away. Hajjee Ali tells me +privately that he believes the discontent against the Government +is very deep and universal and that there will be an +outbreak—but not yet. The Pasha’s attempt to +regulate the price of food by edicts has been very disastrous, +and of course the present famine prices are laid to his +charge—if a man will be omnipotent he must take the +consequences when he fails. I don’t believe in an +outbreak—I think the people are too thoroughly accustomed +to suffer and to obey, besides they have no means of +communication, and the steamboats can run up and down and destroy +them <i>en détail</i> in a country which is eight hundred +miles long by from one to eight wide, and thinly peopled. +Only Cairo could do anything, and everything is done to please +the Cairenes at the expense of the fellaheen.</p> +<p>The great heat has begun these last three days. My cough +is better and I am grown fatter again. The Nile is so low +that I fancy that six weeks or two months hence I shall have to +go down in two little boats—even now the dahabiehs keep +sticking fast continually. I have promised some neighbours +to bring back a little seed corn for them, some of the best +English wheat without beard. All the wheat here is bearded +and they have an ambition for some of ours. I long to bring +them wheelbarrows and spades and pickaxes. The great folks +get steamploughs, but the labourers work with their bare hands +and a rush basket <i>pour tout potage</i>, and it takes six to do +the work of one who has got good tools.</p> +<h3>March 25, 1865: Mrs. Ross</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Ross</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>March</i> 25, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Janet</span>,</p> +<p>I hope you have not had visions of me plundered and massacred +by the crazy darweesh who has caused the destruction of Gau and +three other villages. I assure you we are quite quiet here +and moreover have arranged matters for our defence if Achmet et +Tayib should honour us with a visit. The heat has just set +in, thermometer 89° to-day, of course I am much better, +fatter and cough less.</p> +<p>Many thanks to Henry about Achmet Ibn-Mustapha, but his father +is going to send him to England into Mr. Fowler’s workshop, +which will be a much better training I think. Mr. Fowler +takes him without a premium most kindly. Lord Dudley will +tell you what a splendid entertainment I gave him; I think he was +quite frightened at the sight of the tray and the black fingers +in the dishes.</p> +<p>The Abab’deh Sheykh and his handsome brother propose to +take me to the moolid of Sheykh-el-Shadhilee (the coffee saint) +in the desert to see all the wild Abab’deh and +Bishareeyeh. It is very tempting, if I feel pretty well I +must go I think and perhaps the change might do me good. +They believe no European ever went to that festival. There +are camel-races and a great show of pretty girls says the +handsome Hassan. A fine young Circassian cawass here has +volunteered to be my servant anywhere and to fight anybody for me +because I have cured his pretty wife. You would love +Kursheed with his clear blue eyes, fair face and brisk neat +soldierly air. He has a Crimean medal and such a lot of +daggers and pistols and is such a tremendous Muslim, but +never-the-less he loves me and tells me all his affairs and how +tiresome his wife’s mother is. I tell him all +wives’ mothers always are, but he swears <i>Wallahi</i>, +<i>Howagah</i> (Mr.) Ross don’t say so, <i>Wallahi</i>, +<i>Inshallah</i>!</p> +<h3>March 30, 1865: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>March</i> 30, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have just received your letter of March 3 with one from +Janet, which shows of how little moment the extermination of four +villages is in this country, for she does not allude to our +revolt and evidently has not heard of it.</p> +<p>In my last letter to Mutter I told how one Achmet et Tayib, a +mad darweesh had raised a riot at Gau below Keneh and how a boat +had been robbed and how we were all rather looking out for a +<i>razzia</i> and determined to fight Achmet et Tayib and his +followers. Then we called them <i>harámee</i> +(wicked ones) and were rather blood-thirstily disposed towards +them and resolved to keep order and protect our property. +But now we say <i>nas messakeen</i> (poor people) and whisper to +each other that God will not forget what the Pasha has +done. The truth of course we shall never know. But I +do know that one Pasha said he had hanged five hundred, and +another that he had sent three hundred to Fazoghlou (<i>comme qui +dirait Cayenne</i>) and all for the robbery of one Greek boat in +which only the steersman was killed. I cannot make out that +anything was done by the ‘insurgents’ beyond going +out into the desert to listen to the darweesh’s nonsense, +and ‘see a reed shaken by the wind;’ the party that +robbed the boat was, I am told, about forty strong. But the +most horrid stories are current among the people of the +atrocities committed on the wretched villagers by the +soldiers. Not many were shot, they say, and they attempted +no resistance, but the women and girls were outraged and murdered +and the men hanged and the steamers loaded with plunder. +The worst is that every one believes that the Europeans aid and +abet, and all declare that the Copts were spared to please the +<i>Frangees</i>. Mind I am not telling you <i>facts</i> +only what the people are saying—in order to show you their +feelings. One most respectable young man sat before me on +the floor the other day and told me what he had heard from those +who had come up the river. Horrible tales of the stench of +the bodies which are left unburied by the Pasha’s +order—of women big with child ripped open, etc., etc. +‘Thou knowest oh! our Lady, that we are people of peace in +this place, and behold now if one madman should come and a few +idle fellows go out to the mountain (desert) with him, Effendina +will send his soldiers to destroy the place and spoil our poor +little girls and hang us—is that right, oh Lady and Achmet +el-Berberi saw Europeans with hats in the steamer with Effendina +and the soldiers. Truly in all the world none are miserable +like us Arabs. The Turks beat us, and the Europeans hate us +and say <i>quite right</i>. By God, we had better lay down +our heads in the dust (die) and let the strangers take our land +and grow cotton for themselves. As for me I am tired of +this miserable life and of fearing for my poor little +girls.’</p> +<p>Mahommed was really eloquent, and when he threw his +<i>melayeh</i> over his face and sobbed, I am not ashamed to say +that I cried too. I know very well that Mahommed was not +quite wrong in what he says of the Europeans. I know the +cruel old platitudes about governing Orientals by fear which the +English pick up like mocking birds from the Turks. I know +all about ‘the stick’ and ‘vigour’ and +all that—but—‘I sit among the people’ and +I know too that Mohammed feels just as John Smith or Tom Brown +would feel in his place, and that men who were very savage +against the rioters in the beginning, are now almost in a humour +to rise against the Turks themselves just exactly as free-born +Britons might be. There are even men of the class who have +something to lose who express their disgust very freely.</p> +<p>I saw the steamer pass up to Fazoghlou but the prisoners were +all below. The Sheykh of the Abab’deh here has had to +send a party of his men to guard them through the desert. +Altogether this year is miserable in Egypt. I have not once +heard the <i>zaghareet</i>. Every one is anxious and +depressed, and I fear hungry, the land is parched from the low +Nile, the heat has set in six weeks earlier than usual, the +animals are scarecrows for want of food, and now these horrid +stories of bloodshed and cruelty and robbery (for the Pasha takes +the lands of these villages for his own) have saddened every +face. I think Hajjee Ali is right and that there will be +more disturbances. If there are they will be caused by the +cruelty and oppression at Gau and the three neighbouring +villages. From Salamieh, two miles above Luxor, every man +woman and child in any degree kin to Achmet et-Tayib has been +taken in chains to Keneh and no one here expects to see one of +them return alive. Some are remarkably good men, I hear, +and I have heard men say ‘if Hajjee Sultan is killed and +all his family we will never do a good action any more, for we +see it is of no use.’</p> +<p>There was a talk among the three or four Europeans here at the +beginning of the rumours of a revolt of organizing a defence +among Christians only. Conceive what a silly and gratuitous +provocation! There was no religion in the business at all +and of course the proper person to organize defence was the +Maōhn, and he and Mustapha and others had planned using my +house as a castle and defending that in case of a visit from the +rioters. I have no doubt the true cause of the row is the +usual one—hunger—the high price of food. It was +like our Swing, or bread riots, nothing more and a very feeble +affair too. It is curious to see the travellers’ gay +dahabiehs just as usual and the Europeans as far removed from all +care or knowledge of the distresses as if they were at +home. When I go and sit with the English I feel almost as +if they were foreigners to me too, so completely am I now <i>Dint +el-Beled</i> (daughter of the country) here.</p> +<p>I dined three days running with the Kevenbrincks and one day +after dinner we sent for a lot of Arab Sheykhs to come for +coffee—the two Abab’deh and a relation of theirs from +Khartoum, the Sheykh of Karnac, one Mohammed a rich fellah, and +we were joined by the A’gha of Halim Pasha’s Hareem, +and an ugly beast he is. The little Baroness won all +hearts. She is a regular <i>vif argent</i> or as we say +<i>Efreeteh</i> and to see the dark faces glittering with merry +smiles as they watched her was very droll. I never saw a +human being so thoroughly amused as the black Sheykh from the +Soudan. Next day we dined at the Austrian agent’s and +the Baroness at last made the Maōhn dance a polka with her +while the agent played the guitar. There were a lot of +Copts about who nearly died of laughing and indeed so did +I. Next day we had a capital dinner at Mustapha’s, +and the two Abab’deh Sheykhs, the Sheykh of Karnac, the +Maōhn and Sheykh Yussuf dined with us. The Sheykh of +Karnac gave a grand performance of eating like a Bedawee. I +have heard you talk of <i>tripas elasticas</i> in Spain but +<i>Wallahi</i>! anything like the performance of Sheykh Abdallah +none but an eyewitness could believe. How he plucked off +the lamb’s head and handed it to me in token of the highest +respect, and how the bones cracked beneath his fingers—how +huge handfuls of everything were chucked right down his throat +all scorching hot. I encouraged him of course, quoting the +popular song about ‘doing deeds that Antar did not’ +and we all grew quite uproarious. When Sheykh Abdallah +asked for drink, I cried ‘bring the <i>ballaree</i> (the +big jar the women fetch water in) for the Sheykh,’ and +Sheykh Yussuf compared him to Samson and to Og, while I more +profanely told how Antar broke the bones and threw them +about. The little Baroness was delighted and only expressed +herself hurt that no one had crammed anything into her +mouth. I told the Maōhn her disappointment which +caused more laughter as such a custom is unknown here, but he of +course made no end of sweet speeches to her. After dinner +she showed the Arabs how ladies curtsey to the Queen in England, +and the Abab’deh acted the ceremonial of presentation at +the court of Darfour, where you have to rub your nose in the dust +at the King’s feet. Then we went out with lanterns +and torches and the Abab’deh did the sword dance for +us. Two men with round shields and great straight swords do +it. One dances a <i>pas seul</i> of challenge and defiance +with prodigious leaps and pirouettes and Hah! Hahs! Then +the other comes and a grand fight ensues. When the handsome +Sheykh Hassan (whom you saw in Cairo) bounded out it really was +heroic. All his attitudes were alike grand and +graceful. They all wanted Sheykh Yussuf to play +<i>el-Neboot</i> (single stick) and said he was the best man here +at it, but his sister was not long dead and he could not. +Hassan looks forward to Maurice’s coming here to teach him +‘the fighting of the English.’ How Maurice +would pound him!</p> +<p>On the fourth night I went to tea in Lord Hopetoun’s +boat and their sailors gave a grand <i>fantasia</i> excessively +like a Christmas pantomime. One danced like a woman, and +there was a regular pantaloon only ‘more so,’ and a +sort of clown in sheepskin and a pink mask who was duly tumbled +about, and who distributed <i>claques</i> freely with a huge +wooden spoon. It was very good fun indeed, though it was +quite as well that the ladies did not understand the dialogue, or +that part of the dance which made the Maōhn roar with +laughter. The Hopetouns had two handsome boats and were +living like in May Fair. I am so used now to our poor +shabby life that it makes quite a strange impression on me to see +all that splendour—splendour which a year or two ago I +should not even have remarked—and thus out of ‘my +inward consciousness’ (as Germans say), many of the +peculiarities and faults of the people of Egypt are explained to +me and accounted for.</p> +<p><i>April</i> 2.—It is so dreadfully hot and dusty that I +shall rather hasten my departure if I can. The winds seem +to have begun, and as all the land which last year was green is +now desert and dry the dust is four times as bad. If I hear +that Ross has bought and sent up a dahabieh I will wait for that, +if not I will go in three weeks if I can.</p> +<h3>April 3, 1865: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 3, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I have just finished a letter to Alick to go by a steamer +to-day. You will see it, so I will go on with the stories +about the riots. Here is a thing happening within a few +weeks and within sixty miles, and already the events assume a +legendary character. Achmet et-Tayib is not dead and where +the bullets hit him he shows little marks like burns. The +affair began thus: A certain Copt had a Muslim slave-girl who +could read the Koran and who served him. He wanted her to +be his Hareem and she refused and went to Achmet et-Tayib who +offered money for her to her master. He refused it and +insisted on his rights, backed by the Government, and thereupon +Achmet proclaimed a revolt and the people, tired of taxes and +oppressions, said ‘we will go with thee.’ This +is the only bit of religious legend connected with the +business. But Achmet et-Tayib still sits in the Island, +invisible to the Turkish soldiers who are still there.</p> +<p>Now for a little fact. The man who told me fourteen +hundred had been beheaded was Hassan Sheykh of the Abab’deh +who went to Gau to bring up the prisoners. The boat stopped +a mile above Luxor, and my Mohammed, a most quiet respectable man +and not at all a romancer went up in her to El-Moutaneh. I +rode with him along the Island. When we came near the boat +she went on as far as the point of the Island, and I turned back +after only looking at her from the bank and smelling the smell of +a slave-ship. It never occurred to me, I own, that the Bey +on board had fled before a solitary woman on a donkey, but so it +was. He told the Abab’deh Sheykh on board not to +speak to me or to let me on board, and told the Captain to go a +mile or two further. Mohammed heard all this. He +found on board ‘one hundred prisoners less two’ +(ninety-eight). Among them the Moudir of Souhaj, a Turk, in +chains and wooden handcuffs like the rest. Mohammed took +him some coffee and was civil to him. He says the poor +creatures are dreadfully ill-used by the Abab’deh and the +Nubians (Berberi) who guard them.</p> +<p>It is more curious than you can conceive to hear all the +people say. It is just like going back four or five +centuries at least, but with the heterogeneous element of +steamers, electric telegraphs and the Bey’s dread of the +English lady’s pen—at least Mohammed attributed his +flight to fear of that weapon. It was quite clear that +European eyes were dreaded, as the boat stopped three miles above +Luxor and its dahabiehs, and had all its things carried that +distance.</p> +<p>Yussuf and his uncle want to take me next year to Mecca, the +good folks in Mecca would hardly look for a heretical face under +the green veil of a <i>Shereefateh</i> of Abu-l-Hajjaj. The +Hajjees (pilgrims) have just started from here to Cosseir with +camels and donkeys, but most are on foot. They are in great +numbers this year. The women chanted and drummed all night +on the river bank, and it was fine to see fifty or sixty men in a +line praying after their Imám with the red glow of the +sunset behind them. The prayer in common is quite a drill +and very stately to see. There are always quite as many +women as men; one wonders how they stand the march and the +hardships.</p> +<p>My little Achmet grows more pressing with me to take +him. I will take him to Alexandria, I think, and leave him +in Janet’s house to learn more house service. He is a +dear little boy and very useful. I don’t suppose his +brother will object and he has no parents. Achmet +ibn-Mustapha also coaxes me to take him with me to Alexandria, +and to try again to persuade his father to send him to England to +Mr. Fowler. I wish most heartily I could. He is an +uncommon child in every way, full of ardour to learn and do +something, and yet childish and winning and full of fun. +His pretty brown face is quite a pleasure to me. His +remarks on the New Testament teach me as many things as I can +teach him. The boy is pious and not at all ill taught, he +is much pleased to find so little difference between the teaching +of the Koran and the <i>Aangeel</i>. He wanted me, in case +Omar did not go with me, to take him to serve me. Here +there is no idea of its being derogatory for a gentleman’s +son to wait on one who teaches him, it is positively +incumbent. He does all ‘menial offices’ for his +mother, hands coffee, waits at table or helps Omar in anything if +I have company, nor will he eat or smoke before me, or sit till I +tell him—it is like service in the middle ages.</p> +<h3>April 3, 1865: Mrs. Ross</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Ross</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 3, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Janet</span>,</p> +<p>The weather has set in so horrid, as to dust, that I shall be +glad to get away as soon as I can. If you have bought a +dahabieh for me of course I will await its arrival. If not +I will have two small boats from Keneh, whereby I shall avoid +sticking in this very low water. Sheykh Hassan goes down in +his boat in twenty days and urges me to travel under his escort, +as of course the poor devils who are ‘out on their +keeping’ after the Gau business have no means of living +left but robbery, and Sheykh Hassan’s party is good for +seven or eight guns. You will laugh at my listening to such +a cowardly proposition (on my part) but my friends here are +rather bent upon it, and Hassan is a capital fellow. If +therefore the dahabieh is <i>in rerum naturæ</i> and can +start at once, well and good.</p> +<p><i>April</i> 14.—The dahabieh sounds an excellent +bargain to me and good for you also to get your people to Assouan +first. Many thanks for the arrangement.</p> +<p>Your version of our massacre is quite curious to us +here. I know very intimately the Sheykh-el-Arab who helped +to catch the poor people and also a young Turk who stood by while +Fadil Pasha had the men laid down by ten at a time and chopped +with pioneers’ axes. My Turkish friend (a very +good-humoured young fellow) quite admired the affair and +expressed a desire to do likewise to all the fellaheen in +Egypt. I have seen with my own eyes a second boatload of +prisoners. I wish to God the Pasha knew the deep +exasperation which his subordinates are causing. I do not +like to say all I hear. As to the Ulema, Kadees, Muftis, +etc., I know many from towns and villages, and all say ‘We +are Muslims, but we should thank God to send Europeans to govern +us,’ the feeling is against the Government and the Turks up +here—not against Christians. A Coptic friend of mine +has lost all his uncle’s family at Gau, all were shot +down—Copt and Christian alike. As to Hajjee Sultan, +who lies in chains at Keneh and his family up at Esneh, a better +man never lived, nor one more liberal to Christians. Copts +ate of his bread as freely as Muslims. He lies there +because he is distantly related by marriage to Achmet et-Tayib, +the real reason is because he is wealthy and some enemy covets +his goods.</p> +<p>Ask M. Mounier what he knows. Perhaps I know even more +of the feeling as I am almost adopted by the Abu-l-Hajjajeeah, +and sit every evening with some party or another of decent +men. I assure you I am in despair at all I see—and if +the soldiers do come it will be worse than the cattle +disease. Are not the cawasses bad enough? Do they not +buy in the market at their own prices and beat the sakkas in sole +payment for the skins of water? Who denies it here? +Cairo is like Paris, things are kept sweet there, but up +here—! Of course Effendina hears the ‘smooth +prophecies’ of the tyrants whom he sends up river. +When I wrote before I knew nothing certain but now I have +eye-witnesses’ testimony, and I say that the Pasha deceives +or is deceived—I hope the latter. An order from him +did stop the slaughter of women and children which Fadil Pasha +was about to effect.</p> +<p>To turn to less wretched matters. I will come right down +Alexandria with the boat, I shall rejoice to see you again.</p> +<p>Possibly the Abab’deh may come with me and I hope Sheykh +Yussuf, ‘my chaplain’ as Arthur Taylor called +him. We shall be quite a little fleet.</p> +<h3>April, 1865: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>April</i>, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alexander</span>,</p> +<p>Yesterday was the Bairam I rejoice to say and I have lots of +physic to make up, for all the stomachs damaged by Ramadan.</p> +<p>I have persuaded Mr. Fowler the engineer who was with Lord +Dudley to take my dear little pupil Achmet son of Ibn Mustapha to +learn the business at Leeds instead of idling in his +father’s house here. I will give the child a letter +to you in case he should go to London. He has been reading +the gospels with me at his own desire. I refused till I had +asked his father’s consent, and Sheykh Yussuf who heard me +begged me by all means to make him read it carefully so as to +guard him against the heretical inventions he might be beset with +among the English ‘of the vulgar sort.’ What a +poser for a missionary!</p> +<p>I sent down the poor black lad with Arakel Bey. He took +leave of me with his ugly face all blubbered like a sentimental +hippopotamus. He said ‘for himself, he wished to stay +with me, but then what would his boy, his little master +do—there was only a stepmother who would take all the +money, and who else would work for the boy?’ Little +Achmet was charmed to see Khayr go, of whom he chose to be +horribly jealous, and to be wroth at all he did for me. Now +the Sheykh-el-Beled of Baidyeh has carried off my watchman, and +the Christian Sheykh-el-Hara of our quarter of Luxor has taken +the boy Yussuf for the Canal. The former I successfully +resisted and got back Mansoor, not indeed <i>incolumes</i> for +<i>he</i> had been handcuffed and bastinadoed to make <i>me</i> +pay 200 piastres, but he bore it like a man rather than ask me +for the money and was thereupon surrendered. But the Copt +will be a tougher business—he will want more money and be +more resolved to get it. <i>Veremus</i>. I must I +suppose go to the Nazir at the Canal—a Turk—and beg +off my donkey boy.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill231b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Sir Alexander Duff Gordon, from sketch by G. F. Watts, R.A." +title= +"Sir Alexander Duff Gordon, from sketch by G. F. Watts, R.A." +src="images/ill231s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>I saw Hassan Sheykh-el-Abab’deh yesterday, who was loud +in praise of your good looks and gracious manners. +‘Mashallah, thy master is a sweet man, O Lady!’</p> +<p>Yesterday was Bairam, and lots of Hareem came in their best +clothes to wish me a happy year and enjoyed themselves much with +sweet cakes, coffee, and pipes. Kursheed’s wife (whom +I cured completely) looked very handsome. Kursheed is a +Circassian, a fine young fellow much shot and hacked about and +with a Crimean medal. He is cawass here and a great friend +of mine. He says if I ever want a servant he will go with +me anywhere and fight anybody—which I don’t doubt in +the least. He was a Turkish memlook and his condescension +in wishing to serve a Christian woman is astounding. His +fair face and clear blue eyes, and brisk, neat, soldier-like air +contrast curiously with the brown fellaheen. He is like an +Englishman only fairer and like them too fond of the +courbash. What would you say if I appeared in Germany +attended by a memlook with pistols, sword, dagger, carbine and +courbash, and with a decided and imperious manner the very +reverse of the Arab softness—and such a Muslim +too—prays five times a day and extra fasts besides +Ramadan. ‘I beat my wife’ said Kursheed, +‘oh! I beat her well! she talked so, and I am like +the English, I don’t like too many words.’ He +was quite surprised that I said I was glad <i>my</i> master +didn’t dislike talking so much.</p> +<p>I was talking the other day with Yussuf about people trying to +make converts and I said that eternal bêtise, ‘Oh +they mean well.’ ‘True, oh Lady! perhaps they +do mean well, but God says in the Noble Koran that he who injures +or torments those Christians whose conduct is not evil, merely on +account of religion, shall never smell the fragrance of the +Garden (paradise). Now when men begin to want to make +others change their faith it is extremely hard for them +<i>not</i> to injure or torment them and therefore I think it +better to abstain altogether and to wish rather to see a +Christian a good Christian and a Muslim a good Muslim.’</p> +<p>No wonder a most pious old Scotchman told me that the truth +which undeniably existed in the Mussulman faith was the work of +Satan and the Ulema his <i>meenesters</i>. My dear saint of +a Yussuf a <i>meenester</i> of Satan! I really think I +<i>have</i> learnt some ‘Muslim humility’ in that I +endured the harangue, and accepted a two-penny tract quite mildly +and politely and didn’t argue at all. As his friend +‘Satan’ would have it, the Fikees were reading the +Koran in the hall at Omar’s expense who gave a Khatmeh that +day, and Omar came in and politely offered him some sweet +prepared for the occasion. I have been really amazed at +several instances of English fanaticism this year. Why do +people come to a Mussulman country with such bitter hatred +‘in their stomachs’ as I have seen three or four +times. I feel quite hurt often at the way the people here +thank me for what the poor at home would turn up their noses +at. I think hardly a dragoman has been up the river since +Rashedee died but has come to thank me as warmly as if I had done +himself some great service—and many to give some little +present. While the man was ill numbers of the fellaheen +brought eggs, pigeons, etc. etc. even a turkey, and food is worth +money now, not as it used to be. I am quite weary too of +hearing ‘Of all the Frangee I never saw one like +thee.’ Was no one ever at all humane before? +For remember I give no money—only a little physic and +civility. How the British cottagers would ‘thank ye +for nothing’—and how I wish my neighbours here could +afford to do the same.</p> +<p>After much wrangling Mustapha has got back my boy Yussuf but +the Christian Sheykh-el-Hara has made his brother pay £2 +whereat Mohammed looks very rueful. Two hundred men are +gone out of our village to the works and of course the poor +Hareem have not bread to eat as the men had to take all they had +with them. I send you a very pretty story like +Tannhäuser.</p> +<p>There was once a man who loved a woman that lived in the same +quarter. But she was true to her husband, and his love was +hopeless, and he suffered greatly. One day as he lay on his +carpet sick with love, one came to him and said, O, such-a-one, +thy beloved has died even now, and they are carrying her out to +the tomb. So the lover arose and followed the funeral, and +hid himself near the tomb, and when all were gone he broke it +open, and uncovered the face of his beloved, and looked upon her, +and passion overcame him, and he took from the dead that which +when living she had ever denied him.</p> +<p>But he went back to the city and to his house in great grief +and anguish of mind, and his sin troubled him. So he went +to a Kadee, very pious and learned in the noble Koran, and told +him his case, and said, ‘Oh my master the Kadee, can such a +one as I obtain salvation and the forgiveness of God? I +fear not.’ And the Kadee gave him a staff of polished +wood which he held in his hand, and said ‘Who knoweth the +mercy of God and his justice, but God alone—take then this +staff and stick it in the sand beside the tomb where thou didst +sin and leave it the night, and go next morning and come and tell +me what thou shalt find, and may the Lord pardon thee, for thy +sin is great.’</p> +<p>And the man went and did as the Kadee had desired, and went +again at sunrise, and behold the staff had sprouted and was +covered with leaves and fruit. And he returned and told the +Kadee what had happened, and the Kadee replied, ‘Praise be +to God, the merciful, the compassionate.’</p> +<h3>April 29, 1865: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 29, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>Since I wrote last I have received the box with the cheese +quite fresh (and very good it tastes), and the various +things. Nothing called forth such a shout of joy from me as +your photo of the village pothouse. How green and fresh and +tidy! Many Mashallah’s have been uttered over the +<i>beyt-el-fellaheen</i> (peasant’s house) of +England. The railings, especially, are a great +marvel. I have also heard from Janet that Ross has bought +me a boat for £200 which is to take four of his agents to +Assouan and then come back for me. So all my business is +settled, and, <i>Inshallah</i>! I shall depart in another three +or four weeks.</p> +<p>The weather is quite cool and fresh again but the winds very +violent and the dust pours over us like water from the dried up +land, as well as from the Goomeh mountain. It is miserably +uncomfortable, but my health is much better again—spite of +all.</p> +<p>The Hakeem business goes on at a great rate. I think on +an average I have four sick a day. Sometimes a dozen. +A whole gipsy camp are great customers—the poor souls will +bring all manner of gifts it goes to my heart to eat, but they +can’t bear to be refused. They are astounded to hear +that people of their blood live in England and that I knew many +of their customs—which are the same here.</p> +<p>Kursheed Agha came to take final leave being appointed to +Keneh. He had been at Gau and had seen Fadil Pasha sit and +make the soldiers lay sixty men down on their backs by ten at a +time and <i>chop</i> them to death with the pioneers’ +axes. He estimated the people killed—men, women, and +children at 1,600—but Mounier tells me it was over +2,000. Sheykh Hassan agreed exactly with Kursheed, only the +Arab was full of horror and the Circassian full of +exultation. His talk was exactly what we all once heard +about ‘Pandies,’ and he looked and talked and laughed +so like a fine young English soldier, that I was ashamed to call +him the kelb (dog) which rose to my tongue, and I bestowed it on +Fadil Pasha instead. I must also say in behalf of my own +countrymen that they <i>had</i> provocation while here there was +none. Poor Haggee Sultan lies in chains at Keneh. One +of the best and kindest of men! I am to go and take secret +messages to him, and money from certain men of religion to bribe +the Moudir with. The Shurafa who have asked me to do this +are from another place, as well as a few of the +Abu-l-Hajjajieh. A very great Shereef indeed from lower +Egypt, said to me the other day, ‘Thou knowest if I am a +Muslim or no. Well, I pray to the most Merciful to send us +Europeans to govern us, and to deliver us from these wicked +men.’ We were all sitting after the funeral of one of +the Shurafa and I was sitting between the Shereef of Luxor and +the Imám—and this was said before thirty or forty +men, all Shurafa. No one said ‘No,’ and many +assented aloud.</p> +<p>The Shereef asked me to lend him the New Testament, it was a +pretty copy and when he admired it I said, ‘From me to +thee, oh my master the Shereef, write in it as we do in +remembrance of a friend—the gift of a Nazraneeyeh who loves +the Muslimeen.’ The old man kissed the book and said +‘I will write moreover—to a Muslim who loves all such +Christians’—and after this the old Sheykh of Abou Ali +took me aside and asked me to go as messenger to Haggee Sultan +for if one of them took the money it would be taken from them and +the man get no good by it.</p> +<p>Soldiers are now to be quartered in the Saeed—a new +plague worse than all the rest. Do not the cawasses already +rob the poor enough? They fix their own price in the market +and beat the sakkas as sole payment. What will the soldiers +do? The taxes are being illegally levied on lands which are +<i>sheragi</i>, <i>i.e.</i> totally unwatered by the last Nile +and therefore exempt <i>by law</i>—and the people are +driven to desperation. I feel sure there will be more +troubles as soon as there arises any other demagogue like Achmet +et-Tayib to incite the people and now every Arab sympathises with +him. Janet has written me the Cairo version of the affair +cooked for the European taste—and monstrous it is. +The Pasha accuses some Sheykh of the Arabs of having gone from +Upper Egypt to India to stir up the Mutiny against us! +<i>Pourquoi pas</i> to conspire in Paris or London? It is +too childish to talk of a poor Saeedee Arab going to a country of +whose language and whereabouts he is totally ignorant, in order +to conspire against people who never hurt him. You may +suppose how Yussuf and I talk by ourselves of all these +things. He urged me to try hard to get my husband here as +Consul-General—assuming that he would feel as I do. I +said, my master is not young, and to a just man the wrong of such +a place would be a martyrdom. ‘Truly thou hast said +it, but it is a martyr we Arabs want; shall not the reward of him +who suffers daily vexation for his brethren’s sake be equal +to that of him who dies in battle for the faith? If thou +wert a man, I would say to thee, take the labour and sorrow upon +thee, and thine own heart will repay thee.’ He too +said like the old Sheykh, ‘I only pray for Europeans to +rule us—now the fellaheen are really worse off than any +slaves.’ I am sick of telling of the daily +oppressions and robberies. If a man has a sheep, the Moodir +comes and eats it, if a tree, it goes to the Nazir’s +kitchen. My poor sakka is beaten by the cawasses in sole +payment of his skins of water—and then people wonder my +poor friends tell lies and bury their money.</p> +<p>I now know everybody in my village and the ‘cunning +women’ have set up the theory that my eye is lucky; so I am +asked to go and look at young brides, visit houses that are +building, inspect cattle, etc. as a bringer of good +luck—which gives me many a curious sight.</p> +<p>I went a few days ago to the wedding of handsome Sheykh Hassan +the Abab’deh, who married the butcher’s pretty little +daughter. The group of women and girls lighted by the +lantern which little Achmet carried up for me was the most +striking thing I have seen. The bride—a lovely girl +of ten or eleven all in scarlet, a tall dark slave of +Hassan’s blazing with gold and silver necklaces and +bracelets, with long twisted locks of coal black hair and such +glittering eyes and teeth, the wonderful wrinkled old women, and +the pretty, wondering, yet fearless children were beyond +description. The mother brought the bride up to me and +unveiled her and asked me to let her kiss my hand, and to look at +her, I said all the usual <i>Bismillah Mashallah’s</i>, and +after a time went to the men who were eating, all but Hassan who +sat apart and who begged me to sit by him, and whispered anxious +enquiries about his <i>aroosah’s</i> looks. After a +time he went to visit her and returned in half an hour very shy +and covering his face and hand and kissed the hands of the chief +guests. Then we all departed and the girl was taken to look +at the Nile, and then to her husband’s house. Last +night he gave me a dinner—a very good dinner indeed, in his +house which is equal to a very poor cattle shed at home. We +were only five. Sheykh Yussuf, Omar, an elderly merchant +and I. Hassan wanted to serve us but I made him sit.</p> +<p>The merchant, a well-bred man of the world who has enjoyed +life and married wives everywhere—had arrived that day and +found a daughter of his dead here. He said he felt very +miserable—and everyone told him not to mind and consoled +him oddly enough to English ideas. Then people told +stories. Omar’s was a good version of the man and +wife who would not shut the door and agreed that the first to +speak should do it—very funny indeed. Yussuf told a +pretty tale of a Sultan who married a Bint el-Arab (daughter of +the Bedawee) and how she would not live in his palace, and said +she was no fellaha to dwell in houses, and scorned his silk +clothes and sheep killed for her daily, and made him live in the +desert with her. A black slave told a prosy tale about +thieves—and the rest were more long than pointed.</p> +<p>Hassan’s Arab feelings were hurt at the small quantity +of meat set before me. (They can’t kill a sheep now +for an honoured guest.) But I told him no greater honour +could be paid to us English than to let us eat lentils and onions +like one of the family, so that we might not feel as strangers +among them—which delighted all the party. After a +time the merchant told us his heart was somewhat dilated—as +a man might say his toothache had abated—and we said +‘Praise be to God’ all round.</p> +<p>A short time ago my poor friend the Maōhn had a terrible +‘tile’ fall on his head. His wife, two married +daughters and nine miscellaneous children arrived on a sudden, +and the poor man is now tasting the pleasures which Abraham once +endured between Sarah and Hagar. I visited the ladies and +found a very ancient Sarah and a daughter of wonderful +beauty. A young man here—a Shereef—has asked me +to open negotiations for a marriage for him with the +Maōhn’s grand daughter a little girl of eight—so +you see how completely I am ‘one of the family.’</p> +<p>My boat has not yet made its appearance. I am very well +indeed now, in spite, or perhaps because of, the great +heat. But there is a great deal of sickness—chiefly +dysentery. I never get less than four new patients a day +and my ‘practice’ has become quite a serious +business. I spent all day on Friday in the Abab’deh +quarters where Sheykh Hassan and his slave Rahmeh were both +uncommonly ill. Both are ‘all right’ now. +Rahmeh is the nicest negro I ever knew, and a very great friend +of mine. He is a most excellent, honest, sincere man, and +an Effendi (<i>i.e.</i> writes and reads) which is more than his +master can do. He has seen all the queer people in the +interior of Africa.</p> +<p>The Sheykh of the Bishareen—eight days’ journey +from Assouan has invited me and promises me all the meat and milk +I can eat, they have nothing else. They live on a high +mountain and are very fine handsome people. If only I were +strong I could go to very odd places where Frangees are +not. Read a very stupid novel (as a story) called +‘<i>le Secret du Bonheur</i>’—it gives the +truest impression of the manners of Arabs that I have +read—by Ernest Feydeau. According to his book +<i>achouat</i> (we are brothers). The +‘caressant’ ways of Arabs are so well described.</p> +<p>It is the same here. The people come and pat and stroke +me with their hands, and one corner of my brown abbaieh is faded +with much kissing. I am hailed as <i>Sitt Betaana</i> +‘Our own Lady,’ and now the people are really +enthusiastic because I refused the offer of some cawasses as a +guard which a Bimbashee made me. As if I would have such +fellows to help to bully my friends. The said Bimbashee +(next in rank to a Bey) a coarse man like an Arnoout, stopped +here a day and night and played his little Turkish game, telling +me to beware—for the Ulema hated all Franks and set the +people against us—and telling the Arabs that Christian +Hakeems were all given to poison Muslims. So at night I +dropped in at the Maōhn’s with Sheykh Yussuf carrying +my lantern—and was loudly hailed with a <i>Salaam +Aleykee</i> from the old Shereef himself—who began praising +the Gospel I had given him, and me at the same time. Yussuf +had a little reed in his hand—the <i>kalem</i> for writing, +about two feet long and of the size of a quill. I took it +and showed it to the Bimbashee and said—‘Behold the +<i>neboot</i> wherewith we are all to be murdered by this Sheykh +of the Religion.’ The Bimbashee’s bristly +moustache bristled savagely, for he felt that the ‘Arab +dogs’ and the Christian <i>khanzeereh</i> (feminine pig) +were laughing at it together.</p> +<p>Another steam boat load of prisoners from Gau has just gone +up. A little comfort is derived here from the news that, +‘Praise be to God, Moussa Pasha (Governor of the Soudan) is +dead and gone to Hell.’ It must take no trifle to +send him there judging by the quiet way in which Fadil Pasha is +mentioned.</p> +<p>You will think me a complete rebel—but I may say to you +what most people would think ‘like my +nonsense’—that one’s pity becomes a perfect +passion, when one <i>sits among the people</i>—as I do, and +sees it all; least of all can I forgive those among Europeans and +Christians who can help to ‘break these bruised +reeds.’ However, in Cairo and more still in +Alexandria, all is quite different. There, the same system +which has been so successfully copied in France prevails. +The capital is petted at the expense of the fellaheen. +Prices are regulated in Cairo for meat and bread as they are or +were in Paris, and the ‘dangerous classes’ enjoy all +sorts of exemptions. Just like France! The Cairenes +eat the bread and the fellaheen eat the stick.</p> +<p>The people here used to dislike Mounier who arrived poor and +grew rich and powerful, but they all bless him now and say at +El-Moutaneh a man eats his own meat and not the courbash of the +Moudir—and Mounier has refused soldiers (as I refused them +on my small account) and ‘Please God,’ he will never +repent it. Yussuf says ‘What the Turkish Government +fears is not for <i>your</i> safety, but lest we should learn to +love you too well,’ and it is true. Here there is but +one voice. ‘Let the Franks come, let us have the laws +of the Christians.’</p> +<p>In Cairo the Franks have dispelled this <i>douce illusion</i> +and done the Turk’s work as if they were paid for it. +But here come only travellers who pay with money and not with +stick—a degree of generosity not enough to be adored.</p> +<p>I perceive that I am a bore—but you will forgive my +indignant sympathy with the kind people who treat me so +well. Yussuf asked me to let the English papers know about +the Gau business. An Alim ed Deen ul-Islam would fain call +for help to the Times! Strange changes and signs of the +times—these—are they not so?</p> +<p>I went to Church on Good Friday with the Copts. The +scene was very striking—the priest dressed like a beautiful +Crusader in white robes with crimson crosses. One thing has +my hearty admiration. The few children who are taken to +Church are allowed to play! Oh my poor little Protestant +fellow Christians, can you conceive a religion so delightful as +that which permits Peep-bo behind the curtain of the +sanctuary! I saw little Butrus and Scendariah at it all +church time—and the priest only patted their little heads +as he carried the sacrament out to the Hareem. Fancy the +parson kindly patting a noisy boy’s head, instead of the +beadle whacking him! I am entirely reconciled to the Coptic +rules.</p> +<h3>May, 1865: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Nile Boat, +</span><span class="smcap"><i>Urania</i></span>,<br /> +<i>May</i>, 1865.</p> +<p>Happy as I was in the prospect of seeing you all and miserable +as poor Upper Egypt has become, I could not leave without a +pang. Our Bairam was not gay. There was horse riding +for Sheykh Gibreel (the cousin of Abu’l Haggag) and the +scene was prettier than ever I saw. My old friend Yunis the +Shereef insisted on showing me that at eighty-five he could still +handle a horse and throw a Gereed ‘for Sheykh Gibreel and +the Lady’ as he said. Then arrived the Mufettish of +Zenia with his gay attendants and filled the little square in +front of the Cadi’s castellated house where we were +sitting. The young Sheykh of Salamieh rode beautifully and +there was some excellent Neboot play (sort of very severe +quarterstaff peculiar to the Fellaheen).</p> +<p>Next day was the great dinner given by Mohammed and Mustapha +outside Mohammed’s house opposite Sheykh Gibreel’s +tomb—200 men ate at his gate. I went to see it and +was of course asked to eat. ‘Can one like thee eat +the Melocheea of the Fellaheen?’ So I joined a party +of five round a little wooden tray, tucked up my sleeve and +ate—dipping the bread into the Melocheea which is like very +sloppy spinach but much nicer. Then came the master and his +servants to deal the pieces of meat out of a great +basket—sodden meat—and like Benjamin my piece was the +largest, so I tore off a bit and handed it to each of my +companions, who said ‘God take thee safe and happy to thy +place and thy children and bring thee back to us in safety to eat +the meat of the festival together once more.’</p> +<p>The moon rose clear and bright behind the one tall palm tree +that overhangs the tomb of Sheykh Gibreel. He is a saint of +homely tastes and will not have a dome over him or a cover for +his tomb, which is only surrounded by a wall breast-high, +enclosing a small square bit of ground with the rough tomb on one +side. At each corner was set up a flag, and a few dim +lanterns hung overhead. The 200 men eating were quite +noiseless—and as they rose, one by one washed their hands +and went, the crowd melted away like a vision. But before +all were gone, came the Bulook, or sub-magistrate—a Turkish +Jack in office with the manners of a Zouave turned parish +beadle. He began to sneer at the <i>melocheea</i> of the +fellaheen and swore he could not eat it if he sat before it 1,000 +years. Hereupon, Omar began to ‘chaff’ +him. ‘Eat, oh Bulook Pasha and if it swells thy belly +the Lady will give thee of the physick of the English to clean +thy stomach upwards and downwards of all thou hast eaten of the +food of the fellaheen.’ The Bulook is notorious for +his exactions—his ‘eating the people’—so +there was a great laugh. Poor Omar was very ill next +day—and every one thought the Bulook had given him the +eye.</p> +<p>Then came the Mufettish in state to pay his <i>devoirs</i> to +the Sheykh in the tomb. He came and talked to Mustapha and +Yussuf and enumerated the people taken for the works, 200 from +Luxor, 400 from Carnac, 310 from Zenia, 320 from Byadyeh, and 380 +from Salamieh—a good deal more than half the adult men to +go for sixty days leaving their fields uncultivated and their +Hareem and children hungry—for they have to take all the +food for themselves.</p> +<p>I rose sick at heart from the Mufettish’s harsh voice, +and went down to listen to the Moonsheeds chanting at the tomb +and the Zikheers’ strange sobbing, Allah, Allah.</p> +<p>I leaned on the mud wall watching the slender figures swaying +in the moonlight, when a tall, handsome fellah came up in his +brown shirt, felt <i>libdeh</i> (scull cap), with his blue cotton +<i>melaya</i> tied up and full of dried bread on his back. +The type of the Egyptian. He stood close beside me and +prayed for his wife and children. ‘Ask our God to +pity them, O Sheykh, and to feed them while I am away. Thou +knowest how my wife worked all night to bake all the wheat for me +and that there is none left for her and the +children.’ He then turned to me and took my hand and +went on, ‘Thou knowest this lady, oh Sheykh Gibreel, take +her happy and well to her place and bring her back to +us—<i>el Fathah, yah Beshoosheh</i>!’ and we said it +together. I could have laid my head on Sheykh +Gibreel’s wall and howled. I thanked him as well as I +could for caring about one like me while his own troubles were so +heavy. I shall never forget that tall athletic figure and +the gentle brown face, with the eleven days’ moon of +Zulheggeh, and the shadow of the palm tree. That was my +farewell. ‘The voice of the miserable is with thee, +shall God not hear it?’</p> +<p>Next day Omar had a sharp attack of fever and was +delirious—it lasted only two days but left him very weak +and the anxiety and trouble was great—for my helping hands +were as awkward as they were willing.</p> +<p>In a few days arrived the boat Urania. She is very nice +indeed. A small saloon, two good berths—bath and +cabinet, and very large <i>kasneh</i> (stern cabin). She is +dirty, but will be extremely comfortable when cleaned and +painted. On the 15th we sailed. Sheykh Yussuf went +with me to Keneh, Mustapha and Seyd going by land—and one +of Hajjee Sultan’s disciples and several Luxor men were +deck passengers. The Shereef gave me the bread and jars of +butter for his grandsons in Gama’l Azhar, and came to see +me off. We sat on the deck outside as there was a crowd to +say good-bye and had a lot of Hareem in the cabin. The old +Shereef made me sit down on the carpet close to him and then said +‘we sit here like two lovers’—at eighty-five +<i>even</i> an Arab and a Shereef may be +“<i>gaillard</i>”—so I cried, ‘Oh +Shereef, what if Omar tells my master the secret thou hast let +out—it is not well of thee.’ There was a great +laugh which ended in the Shereef saying ‘no doubt thy +master is of the best of the people, let us say the <i>Fathah</i> +for him,’ and he called on all the people ‘<i>El +Fathah</i> for the master of the lady!’ I hope it has +benefited you to be prayed for at Luxor.</p> +<p>I had written so far and passed Minieh when I fell ill with +pleurisy—I’ve lots more to tell of my journey but am +too weak after two weeks in bed (and unable to lie down from +suffocation)—but I am <i>much</i> better now. A man +from the Azhar is reading the Koran for me outside—while +another is gone with candles to Seyeedele Zeynet ‘the +fanatics!’</p> +<h3>June 16, 1865: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>June</i> 16, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I will go down to Alexandria in the boat and Omar will work at +her. She wants a great deal of repairing I find, and his +superintendence will save much money—besides he will do one +man’s work as he is a much better carpenter than most here +having learnt of the English workmen on the railroad—but +the Reis says the boat must come out of the water as her bottom +is unsound. She is a splendid sailer I hear and remarkably +comfortable. The beds in the <i>kasneh</i> would do for +Jacob Omnium. So when you ‘honour our house’ +you will be happy. The saloon is small, and the berths as +usual. Also she is a very handsome shape—but she +wants no end of repairs. So Omar is consoled at being left +because he will ‘save our money’ a great deal by +piecing sails, and cutting and contriving, and scraping and +painting himself. Only he is afraid for me. However, +<i>Allah Kereem</i>.</p> +<p>I have a very good Reis I think. The usual tight little +black fellow from near Assouan—very neat and active and +good tempered—the same cross steersman that we had up to +Bedreshayn—but he knows his work well. We had +contrary gales the whole way. My men worked all they +possibly could, and pulled the rope all day and rowed all night, +day after day—but we were twenty-eight days getting +down.</p> +<p>I can’t write any more.</p> +<h3>October 28, 1865: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Alexandria</span>,<br /> +<i>October</i> 28, 1865.</p> +<p>I am truly grieved to hear of your wrist and to see your +writing look cramped. I arrived here on Thursday after a +splendid passage and was very comfortable on board. I found +M. Olagnier waiting for me, and Omar, of course, and am +<i>installé</i> at Ross’s till my boat gets done +which I am told will be in six days. She will be remarkably +comfortable. Omar had caused a sort of divan with a roof +and back to be constructed just outside the cabin-door where I +always sat every evening, which will be the most delightful +little nest one can conceive. I shall sit like a Pasha +there.</p> +<p>My cough is still very harassing, but my chest less tight and +painful, and I feel less utterly knocked down. The weather +is beautiful here just now—warm and not nearly so damp as +usual.</p> +<p>Lord Edward St. Maur was on board, he has much of his +aunt’s pleasantness. Also a very young Bombay +Merchant—a Muslim who uttered not one syllable to any one +but to me. His talk was just like that of a well-bred and +intelligent young Englishman. I am glad to say that his +views of the state of India were very encouraging—he seemed +convinced that the natives were gradually working their way up to +more influence, and said ‘We shall have to thank you for a +better form of government by far than any native one ever would +have been’—he added, ‘We Muslims have this +advantage over the Hindus—that our religion is no barrier +at all, socially or politically—between us and you—as +theirs is. I mean it ought not to be when both faiths are +cleared of superstition and fanaticism.’ He spoke +very highly of Sir Bartle Frere but said ‘I wish it were +possible for more English <i>gentlemen</i> to come out to +India.’ He had been two years in England on +mercantile business and was going back to his brother Ala-ed-deen +much pleased with the English in England. It is one of the +most comforting <i>Erscheinungen</i> I have seen coming from +India—if that sort of good sense is pretty common among the +very young men they certainly will work their way up.</p> +<p>I should like to see Bayley’s article though I am quite +sick of my book—it is very ungracious of me, but I +can’t help it.</p> +<h3>November 2, 1865: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Alexandria</span>,<br /> +<i>November</i> 2, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>The boat like all other things goes but slowly—however +the weather here is unusually dry and fine.</p> +<p>I have just been to see my poor friend Sittee Zubeydeh, widow +of Hassaneyn Effendi who died in England—and I am filled +with admiration at her good sense and courage. She has +determined to carry on her husband’s business of letting +boats herself, and to educate her children to the best of her +power in habits of independence. I hope she will be +successful, and receive the respect such rare conduct in a +Turkish woman deserves from the English. I was much +gratified to hear from her how kindly she had been treated in +Glasgow. She said that nothing that could be done for her +was left undone. She arrived this morning and I went to see +her directly and was really astonished at all she said about her +plans for herself and her children. Poor thing! it is a sad +blow—for she and Hassaneyn were as thoroughly united as any +Europeans could be.</p> +<p>I went afterwards to my boat, which I hope will be done in +five or six days. I am extremely impatient to be off. +She will be a most charming boat—both comfortable and +pretty. The boom for the big sail is new—and I +exclaimed, ‘why you have broken the new boom and mended it +with leather!’ Omar had put on a <i>sham splice</i> +to avert the evil eye from such a fine new piece of wood! +Of course I dare not have the blemish renewed or <i>gare</i> the +first puff of wind—besides it is too characteristic.</p> +<p>There is some cholera about again, I hear—ten deaths +yesterday—so Olagnier tells me. I fancy the rush of +Europeans back again, each bringing ‘seven other devils +worse than himself’ is the cause of it.</p> +<p>I think I am beginning to improve a little; my cough has been +terribly harassing especially at night—but the weather is +very good, cool, and not damp.</p> +<h3>November 27, 1865: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>Monday</i>, <i>November</i> 27, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I arrived here last night and found a whole heap of +letters—and yours I will answer first. I had no heart +to write any more from Alexandria where I was worried out of all +courage and strength. At last after endless delays and +vexations the dahabieh was <i>tant bien que mal</i> ready.</p> +<p>Talk of Arab dawdle! after what I went through—and now I +have to wait here for fresh repairs, as we came up baling all the +way and I fear cursing the Christian workmen who had bungled so +shamefully.</p> +<p>However that is over, and I am much better as to my +cough—indeed it is all but gone. Omar was very ill +having had dysentery for two months, but he too is well +again. He is very grateful for your kind mention of him and +says, ‘Send the Great Mother my best Salaam, and tell her +her daughter’s people are my people, and where she goes I +will go too, and please God I will serve her rich or poor till +“He who separates us” shall take me from +her.’ The words of Ruth came after all these +centuries quite fresh from the soft Egyptian lips.</p> +<p>The ‘He who separated us’ I must explain to +you. It is one of the attributes of God, <i>The Separator +of Religions</i> implies toleration and friendship by attributing +the two religions alike to God—and is never used towards +one whose religion is not to be respected.</p> +<p>I have got a levee of former reis’s, sailors, etc. some +sick—but most come to talk.</p> +<p>The climate changes quite suddenly as one leaves the Delta, +and here I sit at eight in the evening with open doors and +windows.</p> +<p>I am so glad to hear of the great success of my dear +Father’s book, and to think of your courage in working at +it still.</p> +<p>I suppose I shall be here a week longer as I have several jobs +to do to my boat, and I shall try to get towed up so as to send +back the boat as soon as possible in order to let her. Ali +will give £80 a month for her if he gets a party of four to +take up. I pay my Reis five napoleons a month while +travelling and three while lying still. He is a good, +active little fellow.</p> +<p>We were nearly smashed under the railway bridge by an iron +barge—and <i>Wallah</i>! how the Reis of the bridge did +whack the Reis of the barge. I thought it a sad loss of +time, but Reis Ali and my Reis Mohammed seemed to look on the +stick as the most effective way of extricating my anchor from the +Pasha’s rudder. My crew can’t say +‘Urania’ so they sing ‘go along, oh darling +bride’ <i>Arooset er-ralee</i>, as the little Sitt’s +best description, and ‘Arooset er-ralee’ will be the +dahabieh’s exoteric name—as ‘<i>El +Beshoosheeh</i>, is my popular name.</p> +<h3>December 5, 1865: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>December</i> 5, 1865.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p><i>Alhamdulillah</i>—now I am at rest. I have got +all the boat in order. My captain, Reis Mohammed, is very +satisfactory, and to-day we sail as soon as Omar comes back with +the meat, etc. from market.</p> +<p>I received Meadow’s review; I wish he had not said so +much about me in it.</p> +<p>Mohammed Gazowee begs to give his best Salaam to Sheykh +Stanley whom he longs to see again. He says that all the +people said he was not a Christian, for he was not proud ever +towards them as Christians are, but a real Sheykh, and that the +Bedaween still talk of Sheykh Stanley and of his piety. The +old half-witted jester of Luxor has found me out—he has +wandered down here to see his eldest son who is serving in the +army. He had brought a little boy with him, but is +‘afraid for him’ here, I don’t know why, and +has begged me to take the child up to his mother. These +licensed <i>possenreisser</i> are like our fools in old +times—but less witty than we fancy them to have +been—thanks to Shakespeare, I suppose. Each district +has one who attends all <i>moolids</i> and other gatherings of +the people, and picks up a living. He tells me that the +Turkish Názir of Zeneea has begun some business against +our Kadee, Sheykh Ibraheem, and Sheykh Yussuf, accused them of +something—he does not know what—<i>perhaps of being +friends of Hajjee Sultan, or of stealing wood</i>!! If all +the friends of Hajjee Sultan are to be prosecuted that will +include the whole Saeed.</p> +<p>Of course I am anxious about my friends. All Haleem +Pasha Oghdee’s villages have been confiscated (those +tributary to him for work) <i>sous prétexte</i> that he +ill-used the people, <i>n.b.</i> he alone paid them—a bad +example. Pharoah is indeed laying intolerable +burthens—not on the Israelites—but on the +fellaheen.</p> +<p>Omar said of the great dinner to-day, ‘I think all the +food will taste of blood, it is the blood of the poor, and more +<i>haram</i> than any pork or wine or blood of +beasts.’ Of course such sentiments are not to be +repeated—but they are general. The <i>meneggets</i> +who picked and made ten mattrasses and fourteen cushions for me +in half a day, were laughing and saying, ‘for the +Pasha’s boat we work also, at so much a day and we should +have done it in four days.’ ‘And for me if I +paid by the day instead of by the piece, how long?’ +‘One day instead of half, O Lady, for fear thou shouldest +say to us, you have finished in half a day and half the wages is +enough for you.’ That is the way in which all the +work is done for <i>Effendeena</i>—no wonder his steamers +don’t pay.</p> +<p>I saw Ross yesterday—he tells me the Shereef of Mecca +has sent him a horse.</p> +<h3>December 25, 1865: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Thebes</span>,<br /> +<i>From December</i> 25, 1865, <i>to January</i> 3, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I wish you all, ‘may the year be good to thee’ as +we say here—and now for my history. We left Cairo on +the 5th Decr. I was not well. No wind as usual, and +we were a week getting to Benisonef where the Stamboolee Greek +lady who was so kind to me last summer in my illness came on +board with a very well-bred Arab lady. I was in bed, and +only stayed a few hours. On to Minieh another five or six +days—walked about and saw the preparations for the +Pasha’s arrival. Nothing so flat as these affairs +here. Not a creature went near the landing-place but his +own servants, soldiers, and officials. I thought of the +arrival of the smallest of German princes, which makes ten times +the noise. Next on to Siout. Ill again, and did not +land or see anyone. On to Girgeh, where we only stayed long +enough to deliver money and presents which I had been begged to +take for some old sailors of mine to their mothers and wives +there.</p> +<p>Between Siout and Girgeh an Abyssinian slave lad came and +wanted me to steal him; he said his master was a Copt and +ill-used him, and the lady beat him. But Omar sagely +observed to the sailors, who were very anxious to take him, that +a bad master did not give his slave such good clothes and even a +pair of shoes—<i>quel luxe</i>!—and that he made too +much of his master being a Copt; no doubt he was a lazy fellow, +and perhaps had run away with other property besides +himself. Soon after I was sitting on the pointed prow of +the boat with the Reis, who was sounding with his painted pole +(<i>vide</i> antique sculptures and paintings), and the men +towing, when suddenly something rose to the surface close to us: +the men cried out <i>Beni Adam</i>! and the Reis prayed for the +dead. It was a woman: the silver bracelets glittered on the +arms raised and stiffened in the agony of death, the knees up and +the beautiful Egyptian breasts floated above the water. I +shall never forget the horrid sight. ‘God have mercy +on her,’ prayed my men, and the Reis added to me, +‘let us also pray for her father, poor man: you see, no +robber has done this (on account of the bracelets). We are +in the Saeed now, and most likely she has blackened her +father’s face, and he has been forced to strangle her, poor +man.’ I said ‘Alas!’ and the Reis +continued, ‘ah, yes, it is a heavy thing, but a man must +whiten his face, poor man, poor man. God have mercy on +him.’ Such is Saeedee <i>point +d’honneur</i>. However, it turned out she was drowned +bathing.</p> +<p>Above Girgeh we stopped awhile at Dishné, a large +village. I strolled up alone, <i>les mains dans les +poches</i>, ‘<i>sicut meus est mos</i>:’ and was soon +accosted with an invitation to coffee and pipes in the +strangers’ place, a sort of room open on one side with a +column in the middle, like two arches of a cloister, and which in +all the villages is close to the mosque: two or three cloaks were +pulled off and spread on the ground for me to sit on, and the +milk which I asked for, instead of the village coffee, +brought. In a minute a dozen men came and sat round, and +asked as usual, ‘Whence comest thou, and whither goest +thou?’ and my gloves, watch, rings, etc. were handed round +and examined; the gloves always call forth many +<i>Mashallah’s</i>. I said, ‘I come from the +Frank country, and am going to my place near Abu’l +Hajjaj.’ Hereupon everyone touched my hand and said, +‘Praise be to God that we have seen thee. Don’t +go on: stay here and take 100 feddans of land and remain +here.’ I laughed and asked, ‘Should I wear the +<i>zaboot</i> (brown shirt) and the <i>libdeh</i>, and work in +the field, seeing there is no man with me?’ There was +much laughing, and then several stories of women who had farmed +large properties well and successfully. Such undertakings +on the part of women seem quite as common here as in Europe, and +more common than in England.</p> +<p>I took leave of my new friends who had given me the first +welcome home to the Saeed, and we went on to Keneh, which we +reached early in the morning, and I found my well-known +donkey-boys putting my saddle on. The father of one, and +the two brothers of the other, were gone to work on the railway +for sixty days’ forced labour, taking their own bread, and +the poor little fellows were left alone to take care of the +Hareem. As soon as we reached the town, a couple of tall +young soldiers in the Nizam uniform rushed after me, and greeted +me in English; they were Luxor lads serving their time. Of +course they attached themselves to us for the rest of the +day. We then bought water jars (the +<i>specialité</i> of Keneh); <i>gullehs</i> and +<i>zees</i>—and I went on to the Kadee’s house to +leave a little string of beads, just to show that I had not +forgotten the worthy Kadee’s courtesy in bringing his +little daughter to sit beside me at dinner when I went down the +river last summer. I saw the Kadee giving audience to +several people, so I sent in the beads and my salaam; but the +jolly Kadee sallied forth into the street and ‘fell upon my +neck’ with such ardour that my Frankish hat was sent +rolling by contact with the turban of Islam. The Kadee of +Keneh is the real original Kadee of our early days; sleek, +rubicund, polite—a puisne judge and a dean rolled into one, +combining the amenities of the law and the church—with an +orthodox stomach and an orthodox turban, both round and +stately. I was taken into the hareem, welcomed and regaled, +and invited to the festival of Seyd Abd er-Racheem, the great +saint of Keneh. I hesitated, and said there were great +crowds, and some might be offended at my presence; but the Kadee +declared ‘by Him who separated us’ that if any such +ignorant persons were present it was high time they learnt +better, and said that it was by no means unlawful for virtuous +Christians, and such as neither hated nor scorned the Muslimeen, +to profit by, or share in their prayers, and that I should sit +before the Sheykh’s tomb with him and the Mufti; and that +<i>du reste</i>, they wished to give thanks for my safe +arrival. Such a demonstration of tolerance was not to be +resisted. So after going back to rest, and dine in the +boat, I returned at nightfall into the town and went to the +burial-place. The whole way was lighted up and thronged +with the most motley crowd, and the usual mixture of holy and +profane, which we know at the Catholic <i>fêtes</i> also; +but more <i>prononcé</i> here. Dancing girls, +glittering with gold brocade and coins, swaggered about among the +brown-shirted fellaheen, and the profane singing of the +<i>Alateeyeh</i> mingled with the songs in honour of the Arab +prophet chanted by the Moonsheeds and the deep tones of the +‘Allah, Allah’ of the Zikeers. Rockets whizzed +about and made the women screech, and a merry-go-round was in +full swing. And now fancy me clinging to the skirts of the +Cadi ul Islam (who did not wear a spencer, as the Methodist +parson threatened his congregation he would do at the Day of +Judgement) and pushing into the tomb of the Seyd Abd er-Racheem, +through such a throng. No one seemed offended or even +surprised. I suppose my face is so well known at +Keneh. When my party had said a <i>Fattah</i> for me and +another for my family, we retired to another <i>kubbeh</i>, where +there was no tomb, and where we found the Mufti, and sat there +all the evening over coffee and pipes and talk. I was +questioned about English administration of justice, and made to +describe the process of trial by jury. The Mufti is a very +dignified gentlemanly man, and extremely kind and civil. +The Kadee pressed me to stay next day and dine with him and the +Mufti, but I said I had a lantern for Luxor, and I wanted to +arrive before the <i>moolid</i> was over, and only three days +remained. So the Kadee accompanied me back to the boat, +looked at my maps, which pleased him very much, traced out the +line of the railway as he had heard it, and had tea.</p> +<p>Next morning we had the first good wind, and bowled up to +Luxor in one day, arriving just after sunset. Instantly the +boat was filled. Of course Omar and the Reis at once +organized a procession to take me and my lantern to the tomb of +Abu-l-Hajjaj—it was the last night but one of his +moolid. The lantern was borne on a pole between two of my +sailors, and the rest, reinforced by men from a steamer which was +there with a Prussian prince, sung and thumped the tarabookeh, +and we all marched up after I had undergone every variety of +salutation, from Sheykh Yussuf’s embrace to the little +boys’ kissing of hands. The first thing I heard was +the hearty voice of the old Shereef, who praised God that +‘our darling’ was safe back again, and then we all +sat down for a talk; then more <i>Fattahs</i> were said for me, +and for you, and for the children; and I went back to bed in my +own boat. I found the guard of the French house had been +taken off to Keneh to the works, after lying eight days in chains +and wooden handcuffs for resisting, and claiming his rights as a +French <i>protégé</i>. So we waited for his +return, and for the keys which he had taken with him, in hopes +that the Keneh authorities would not care to keep me out of the +house. I wrote to the French Consular agent at Keneh, and +to the Consul at Alexandria, and got him back the third +day. What would you think in Europe to see me welcome with +enthusiasm a servant just out of chains and handcuffs? At +the very moment, too, that Mohammed and I were talking, a boat +passed up the river with musick and singing on board. It +was a Sheykh-el-Beled, of a place above Esneb, who had lain in +prison three years in Cairo, and whose friends were making all +the fantasia they could to celebrate the end of his misfortune, +of disgrace, <i>il n’en est pas question</i>; and why +should it? So many honest men go to prison that it is no +presumption at all against a man.</p> +<p>The day after my arrival was the great and last day. The +crowd was but little and not lively—times are too +hard. But the riding was beautiful. Two young men +from Hegaz performed wonderful feats.</p> +<p>I dined with the Maōhn, whose wife cooked me the best +dinner I ever ate in this country, or almost anywhere. +Marie, who was invited, rejoiced the kind old lady’s heart +by her Belgian appreciation of the excellent cookery. +‘Eat, my daughter, eat,’ and even I managed to give +satisfaction. Such Bakloweh I never tasted. We +removed to the house yesterday, and I have had company ever +since.</p> +<p>One Sheykh Alee—a very agreeable man from beyond +Khartoom, offers to take me up to Khartoom and back with a +Takhterawan (camel litter) in company with Mustapha A’gha, +Sheykh Yussuf and a troop of his own Abab’deh. It is +a terrible temptation—but it would cost £50—so +I refused. Sheykh Alee is so clever and well-bred that I +should enjoy it much, and the climate at this season is +delightful. He has been in the Denka country where the men +are a cubit taller than Sheykh Hassan whom you know, and who +enquires tenderly after you.</p> +<p>Now let me describe the state of things. From the +Moudeeriat of Keneh only, 25,000 men are taken to work for sixty +days without food or pay; each man must take his own basket, and +each third man a hoe, not a basket. If you want to pay a +substitute for a beloved or delicate son, it costs 1,000 +piastres—600 at the lowest; and about 300 to 400 for his +food. From Luxor only, 220 men are gone; of whom a third +will very likely die of exposure to the cold and misery (the +weather is unusually cold). That is to say that this little +village, of at most 2,000 souls male and female (we don’t +usually count women, from decorum), will pay in labour at least +£1,320 in sixty days. We have also already had eleven +camels seized to go up to the Soudan; a camel is worth from +£18 to £40.</p> +<p>Last year Mariette Bey made excavations at Gourneh forcing the +people to work but promising payment at the rate of—Well, +when he was gone the four Sheykhs of the village at Gourneh came +to Mustapha and begged him to advance the money due from +Government, for the people were starving. Mustapha agrees +and gives above 300 purses—about £1,000 in +<i>current</i> piastres on the understanding that he is to get +the money from Government in <i>tariff</i>—and to keep the +difference as his profit. If he cannot get it at all the +fellaheen are to pay him back without interest. Of course +at the rate at which money is here, his profit would be but small +interest on the money unless he could get the money directly, and +he has now waited six months in vain.</p> +<p>Abdallah the son of el-Habbeshee of Damankoor went up the +river in chains to Fazoghlou a fortnight ago and Osman Bey ditto +last week—El-Bedrawee is dead there, of course.</p> +<p>Shall I tell you what became of the hundred prisoners who were +sent away after the Gau business? As they marched through +the desert the Greek memlook looked at his list each morning, and +said, ‘Hoseyn, Achmet, Foolan (like the Spanish Don Fulano, +Mr. so and so), you are free; take off his chains.’ +Well, the three or four men drop behind, where some arnouts +strangle them out of sight. This is banishment to +Fazoghlou. Do you remember <i>le citoyen est +élargi</i> of the September massacres of Paris? +Curious coincidence, is it not? Everyone is +exasperated—the very Hareem talk of the government. +It is in the air. I had not been five minutes in Keneh +before I knew all this and much more. Of the end of Hajjee +Sultan I will not speak till I have absolute certainty, but, I +believe the proceeding was as I have described—set free in +the desert and murdered by the way. I wish you to publish +these facts, it is no secret to any but to those Europeans whose +interests keep their eyes tightly shut, and they will soon have +them opened. The blind rapacity of the present ruler will +make him astonish the Franks some day, I think.</p> +<p>Wheat is now 400 piastres the ardeb up here; the little loaf, +not quite so big as our penny roll, costs a piastre—about +three-half-pence—and all in proportion. I need not +say what the misery is. Remember that this is the second +levy of 220 men within six months, each for sixty days, as well +as the second seizure of camels; besides the conscription, which +serves the same purpose, as the soldiers work on the +Pasha’s works. But in Cairo they are paid—and +well paid.</p> +<p>It is curious how news travels here. The Luxor people +knew the day I left Alexandria, and the day I left Cairo, long +before I came. They say here that Abu-l-Hajjaj gave me his +hand from Keneh, because he would not finish his moolid without +me. I am supposed to be specially protected by him, as is +proved by my health being so far better here than anywhere +else.</p> +<p>By the bye, Sheykh Alee Abab’deh told me that all the +villages <i>close</i> on the Nile escaped the cholera almost +completely, whilst those who were half or a quarter of a mile +inland were ravaged. At Keneh 250 a day died; at Luxor one +child was supposed to have died of it, but I know he had diseased +liver for a year or more. In the desert the Bishareen and +Abab’deh suffered more than the people at Cairo, and you +know the desert is usually the place of perfect health; but fresh +Nile water seems to be <i>the</i> antidote. Sheykh Yussuf +laid the mortality at Keneh to the canal water, which the poor +people drink there. I believe the fact is as Sheykh Alee +told me.</p> +<p>Now I will say good-bye, for I am tired, and will write anon +to the rest. Let Mutter have this. I was very poorly +till I got above Siout, and then gradually mended—constant +blood spitting and great weakness and I am very thin, but, by the +protection of Abu-l-Hajjaj I suppose I am already much better, +and begin to eat again. I have not been out yet since the +first day, having much to do in the house to get to rights. +I felt very dreary on Christmas-day away from you all, and +Omar’s plum-pudding did not cheer me at all, as he hoped it +would. He begs me to kiss your hand for him, and every one +sends you salaam, and all lament that you are not the new Consul +at Cairo.</p> +<p>Kiss my chicks, and love to you all. Janet, I hope is in +Egypt ere this.</p> +<h3>January 3, 1866: Maurice Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Maurice Duff Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>January</i> 3, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My Darling Maurice</span>,</p> +<p>I was delighted to get your note, which arrived on New +Year’s day in the midst of the hubbub of the great festival +in honour of the Saint of Luxor. I wish you could have seen +two young Arabs (real Arabs from the Hedjaz, in Arabia) ride and +play with spears and lances. I never saw anything like +it—a man who played the tom-fool stood in the middle, and +they galloped round and round him, with their spears crossed and +the points resting on the ground, in so small a circle that his +clothes whisked round with the wind of the horses’ +legs. Then they threw jereeds and caught them as they +galloped: the beautiful thing was the perfect mastery of the +horses: they were ‘like water in their hands,’ as +Sheykh Hassan remarked. I perceived that I had never seen +<i>real</i> horsemanship in my life before.</p> +<p>I am now in the ‘palace’ at Luxor with my +dahabieh, ‘Arooset er-Ralee’ (the Darling Bride), +under my windows; quite like a Pasha.</p> +<p>In coming up we had an alarm of robbers. Under the +mountain called Gebel Foodah, we were entangled in shoals, owing +to a change in the bed of the river, and forced to stay all +night; and at three in the morning, the Reis sent in the boy to +say he had seen a man creeping on all fours—would I fire my +pistol? As my revolver had been stolen in Janet’s +house, I was obliged to beg him to receive any possible troop of +armed robbers very civilly, and to let them take what they +pleased. However, Omar blazed away with your father’s +old cavalry pistols (which had no bullets) and whether the +robbers were frightened, or the man was only a wolf, we heard no +more of the affair. My crew were horribly frightened, and +kept awake till daybreak.</p> +<p>The last night before reaching Keneh, the town forty miles +north of Luxor, my men held a grand fantasia on the bank. +There was no wind, and we found a lot of old maize stalks; so +there was a bonfire, and no end of drumming, singing and +dancing. Even Omar relaxed his dignity so far as to dance +the dance of the Alexandria young men; and very funny it all +was. I laughed consumedly; especially at the modest airs +and graces of a great lubberly fellow—one Hezayin, who +acted the bride—in a representation of a Nubian wedding +festivity. The new song of this year is very pretty—a +declaration of love to a young Mohammed, sung to a very pretty +tune. There is another, rather like the air of ‘Di +Provenza al mar’ in the ‘Traviata,’ with +extremely pretty words. As in England, every year has its +new song, which all the boys sing about the streets.</p> +<p>I hope, darling, you are sapping this year, and intend to make +up a bit for lost time. I hear you have lost no time in +growing tall at all events—‘ill weeds, +etc.’—you know Omar desires all sorts of messages to +you.</p> +<h3>January 15, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Monday</i>, <i>January</i> 15, +1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I hear that Mr. and Miss North are to be here in a day or +two. I hope you may have sent my saddle by them, for I want +it sadly—mine is just possible for a donkey, but quite too +broken for a horse.</p> +<p>Two great Sheykhs of Bishareen and Abab’deh came here +and picked me up out walking alone. We went and sat in a +field, and they begged me to communicate to the Queen of England +that they would join her troops if she would invade Egypt. +One laid my hand on his hand and said ‘Thou hast 3,000 men +in thy hand.’ The other rules 10,000. They say +there are 30,000 Arabs (bedaween) ready to join the English, for +they fear that the Viceroy will try to work and rob them like the +fellaheen, and if so they will fight to the last, or else go off +into Syria. I was rather frightened—for them, I mean, +and told them that our Queen could do nothing till 600 Sheykhs +and 400 Ameers had talked in public—all whose talk was +printed and read at Stambool and Cairo, and that they must not +think of such a thing from our Queen, but if things became bad, +it would be better for them to go off into Syria. I urged +great caution upon them, and I need not repeat that to you, as +the lives of thousands may be endangered. It might be +interesting to be known in high places and in profound secret, as +one of the indications of what is coming here.</p> +<p>If the saddle comes, as I hope, I may very likely go up to +Assouan, and leave the boat and servants, and go into the desert +for a few days to see the place of the Bishareen. They +won’t take anyone else: but you may be quite easy about me +‘in the face’ of a Sheykh-el-Arab. Handsome +Sheykh Hassan, whom you saw at Cairo, will go with me. But +if my saddle does not appear, I fear I should be too tired with +riding a camel.</p> +<p>The little district of Koos, including Luxor, has been mulcted +of camels, food for them and drivers, to the amount of 6,000 +purses—last week—£18,000, <i>fact</i>. I +cast up the account, and it tallied with what I got from a sub +<i>employé</i>, nor is the discontent any longer +whispered. Everyone talks aloud—and well they +may.</p> +<h3>February 7, 1886: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Tuesday</i>, 7 +<i>Ramadan</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I have just received your letter of Christmas-day, and am glad +to answer it with a really amended report of myself. I had +a very slight return a week ago, but for the last five or six +days the daily flushing and fever has also ceased. I sent +for one of the Arab doctors of the Azizeeyeh steamer to see Omar, +and myself also, and he was very attentive, and took a note of +medicines to send me from Cairo by a <i>confrère</i>: and +when I offered a fee he said, ‘God forbid—it is only +our duty to do anything in the world for you.’ +Likewise a very nice Dr. Ingram saw some of my worst cases for +me, and gave me good advice and help; but I want better +books—Kesteven is very useful, as far as it goes, but I +want something more <i>ausführlich</i> and scientific. +Ramadan is a great trouble to me, though Sheykh Yussuf tells the +people not to fast, if I forbid it: but many are ill from having +begun it, and one fine old man of about fifty-five died of +apoplexy on the fourth night. My Christian patient is +obstinate, and fasts, in spite of me, and will, I think, seal his +fate; he was so much better after the blistering and Dr. +Ingram’s mixture. I wish you could have seen a lad of +eighteen or so, who came here to-day for medicine. I think +I never saw such sweet frank, engaging manners, or ever heard any +one express himself better: quite <i>une nature +distinguée</i>, not the least handsome, but the most +charming countenance and way of speaking.</p> +<p>My good friend the Maōhn spent the evening with me, and +told me all the story of his marriage, though quite ‘unfit +to meet the virtuous eyes of British propriety—’ as I +read the other day in some paper apropos of I forget +what—it will give you an idea of the feelings of a Muslim +<i>honnête homme</i>, which Seleem is through and +through. He knew his wife before he married her, she being +twenty-five or twenty-six, and he a boy; she fell in love with +him, and at seventeen he married her, and they have had ten +children, all alive but two, and a splendid race they are. +He told me how she courted him with glasses of sherbet and trays +of sweatmeats, and how her mother proposed the marriage, and how +she hesitated on account of the difference of age, but, of +course, at last consented: all with the naïvest vanity in +his own youthful attractions, and great extolling of her personal +charms, and of her many virtues. When he was sent up here +she would not, or could not, leave her children. On the +Sitt’s arrival his slave girl was arrogant, and refused to +kiss her hand, and spoke saucily of her age, whereupon Seleem +gave her in marriage to a black man and pays for her support, as +long as she likes to suckle the child he (Seleem) had by her, +which child will in due time return to his house. +<i>Kurz</i>, the fundamental idea in it all, in the mind of an +upright man, is, that if a man ‘takes up’ with a +woman at all, he must make himself responsible for her before the +world; and above all for the fate of any child he may have by her +(you see the Prophet of the Arabs did not contemplate ladies +<i>qui savent nager</i> so well in the troubled waters of life as +we are now blessed with. I don’t mean to say that +many men are as scrupulous as my excellent friend Seleem, either +here or even in our own moral society). All this was told +with expressions quite incompatible with our manners, though not +at all <i>leste</i>—and he expatiated on his wife’s +personal charms in a very quaint way; the good lady is now hard +upon sixty and looks it fully; but he evidently is as fond of her +as ever. As a curious trait of primitive manners, he told +me of her piety and boundless hospitality; how when some friends +came late one evening, unexpectedly, and there was only a bit of +meat, she killed a sheep and cooked it for them with her own +hands. And this is a Cairene lady, and quite a lady too, in +manners and appearance. The day I dined there she was +dressed in very ragged, old cotton clothes, but spotlessly clean; +and she waited on me with a kind, motherly pleasure, that quite +took away the awkwardness I felt at sitting down while she +stood. In a few days she and her husband are to dine with +me, a thing which no Arab couple ever did before (I mean dine out +together), and the old lady was immensely amused at the +idea. Omar will cook and all male visitors will be sent to +the kitchen. Now that I understand all that is said to me, +and a great deal of the general conversation, it is much more +amusing. Seleem Effendi jokes me a great deal about my +blunders, especially my lack of <i>politikeh</i>, the Greek word +for what we should call flummery; and my saying <i>lazim</i> (you +must, or rather <i>il faut</i>), instead of humble +entreaties. I told him to teach me better, but he laughed +heartily, and said, ‘No, no, when you say <i>lazim</i>, it +is <i>lazim</i>, and nobody wants the stick to force him to say +<i>Hadr</i> (ready) O Sheykh-el-Arab, O Emeereh.’</p> +<p>Fancy my surprise the other day just when I was dictating +letters to Sheykh Yussuf (letters of introduction for +Ross’s inspecting agent) with three or four other people +here, in walked Miss North (Pop) whom I have not seen since she +was a child. She and her father were going up the second +cataract. She has done some sketches which, though rather +unskilful, were absolutely true in colour and effect, and are the +very first that I have seen that are so. I shall see +something of them on their return. She seemed very +pleasant. Mr. North looked rather horrified at the turbaned +society in which he found himself. I suppose it did look +odd to English eyes.</p> +<p>We have had three days of the south wind, which the +‘Saturday Review’ says I am not to call Samoom; and I +was poorly, and kept in bed two days with a cold. Apropos, +I will give you the Luxor contribution towards the further +confusion of the Samoom (or Simoom) controversy. I told +Sheykh Yussuf that an English newspaper, written by particularly +clever people, said that I was wrong to call the bad wind here +‘Samoom,’ (it was in an article on Palgrave’s +book, I think). Sheykh Yussuf said, ‘True, oh lady, +no doubt those learned gentlemen’ (politely saluting them +with his hand) ‘thought one such as thou shouldest have +written classical Arabic (<i>Arabi fossieh</i>), and have called +it “<i>al Daboor</i>;” nevertheless, it is proper to +write it “Samoom,” not, as some do +“Simoom,” which is the plural of <i>sim</i> +(poison).’ I shook my head, and said, I did not +recollect <i>al Daboor</i>. Then my Reis, sitting at the +door, offered his suggestion. ‘Probably the English, +who it is well known are a nation of sailors, use the name given +to the land wind by <i>el-baharieh</i> (the boatmen), and call it +<i>el-mereeseh</i>.’ ‘But,’ said I, +‘the clever gentlemen say that I am wrong altogether, and +never can have seen a <i>real</i> Samoom, for that would have +killed me in ten minutes.’ Hereupon Sheykh Mohammed +el-Abab’deh, who is not nearly so polished as his brother +Hassan, burst into a regular bedawee roar of laughter, and said, +‘Yah! do the <i>Ganassil</i> (Europeans) take thee for a +rat, oh lady? Whoever heard of <i>el Beni Adam</i> (the +children of Adam) dying of the wind? Men die of thirst +quicker when the Samoom blows and they have no water. But +no one ever died of the wind alone, except the rats—they +do.’ I give you the opinion of three +‘representative men—’ scholar, sailor, and +bedawee; if that helps you to a solution of the controversy.</p> +<p>We have just had a scene, rather startling to notions about +fatalism, etc. Owing to the importation of a good deal of +cattle from the Soudan, there is an expectation of the prevalence +of small-pox, and the village barbers are busy vaccinating in all +directions to prevent the infection brought, either by the cattle +or, more likely, by their drivers. Now, my maid had told me +she had never been vaccinated, and I sent for Hajjee Mahmood to +cut my hair and vaccinate her. To my utter amazement the +girl, who had never shown any religious bigotry, and does not +fast, or make any demonstrations, refused peremptorily. It +appears that the priests and sisters appointed by the enlightened +administration of Prussia instil into their pupils and penitents +that vaccination is a ‘tempting of God.’ <i>Oh +oui</i>, she said, <i>je sais bien que chez nous mes parents +pouvaient recevoir un procès verbal, mais il vaut mieux +cela que d’aller contre la volonté de Dieu. Si +Dieu le veut, j’aurai la petite-vérole, et +s’il ne veut pas, je ne l’aurai pas</i>. I +scolded her pretty sharply, and said it was not only stupid, but +selfish. ‘But what can one do?’ as Hajjee +Mahmood said, with a pitying shake of his head; ‘these +Christians are so ignorant!’ He blushed, and +apologized to me, and said, ‘It is not their fault; all +this want of sense is from the priests who talk folly to them for +money, and to keep them afraid before themselves. Poor +things, <i>they</i> don’t know the Word of +God.—“Help thyself, oh my servant, and I will help +thee.”’ This is the second contest I have had +on this subject. Last year it was with a Copt, who was all +<i>Allah kereem</i> and so on about his baby, with his child of +four dying of small-pox. ‘Oh, man,’ said Sheykh +Yussuf, ‘if the wall against which I am now sitting were to +shake above my head, should I fold my feet under me and say +<i>Allah kereem</i>, or should I use the legs God has given me to +escape from it?’</p> +<p>I had a visit the other day from a lady who, as I was +informed, had been a harlot in Siout. She has repented, and +married a converted Copt. They are a droll pair of +penitents, so very smart in their dress and manner. But no +one <i>se scandalise</i> at their antecedents—neither is it +proper to repent in sackcloth and ashes, or to confess sins, +except to God alone. You are not to <i>indulge</i> in +telling them to others; it is an offence. Repent inwardly, +and be ashamed to show it before the people—ask pardon of +God only. A little of this would do no harm in Europe, +methinks.</p> +<p>Here is a pretty story for you from the <i>Hadeth +en-Nebbee</i> (sayings of the Prophet). ‘Two prophets +were sitting together, and discoursing of prayer and the +difficulty of fixing the attention entirely on the act. One +said to the other, “Not even for the duration of two +<i>rekahs</i> (prayers ending with the prostration and <i>Allah +akbar</i>) can a man fix his mind on God alone.” The +other said, “Nay, but I can do it!” “Say +then two <i>rekahs</i>,” replied the elder of the two; +“I will give thee my cloak.” Now he wore two +cloaks—a new handsome red one and an old shabby blue +one. The younger prophet rose, raised his hands to his +head, said <i>Allah akbar</i>, and bent to the ground for his +first <i>rekah</i>; as he rose again he thought “Will he +give me the red cloak or the blue, I wonder?”’ +It is very stupid of me not to write down all the pretty stories +I hear, but this one is a capital specimen of Arab wit. +Some day I must bring over Omar with me, Inshallah, to England, +and he will tell you stories like Scheherazade herself. A +jolly Nubian Alim told me the other night how in his village no +man ever eats meat, except on Bairam day: but one night a woman +had a piece of meat given her by a traveller; she put it in the +oven and went out. During her absence her husband came in +and smelt it, and as it was just the time of the +<i>eshé</i> (first prayers one hour after sunset), he ran +up to the hill outside the village, and began to chaunt forth the +<i>tekbeer</i> with all his might—<i>Allah akbar</i>, +<i>Allah akbar</i>, etc. etc., till the people ran to see what +was the matter. ‘Why, to-day is Bairam,’ says +he. ‘Where is thy witness, O man?’ +‘The meat in the oven—the meat in the +oven.’</p> +<h3>February 15, 1866: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>February</i> 15, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I have only time for a short letter to say that the cold +weather is over and that I continue to improve, not very fast, +but still very sensibly.</p> +<p>My young Frenchman turns out to be a M. Brune <i>grand prix de +Rome</i>, an architect, and is a very nice fellow indeed, and a +thorough gentleman. His odd awkward manner proved to be +mere vexation at finding himself quartered <i>nolens volens</i> +on a stranger, and a woman; but we have made great friends, and I +have made him quite happy by telling him that he shall pay his +share of the food. He was going to hurry off from shyness +though he had begun a work here by which I fancy he hopes to get +<i>Kudos</i>. I see he is poor and very properly +proud. He goes out to the temple at sunrise, and returns to +dinner at dark, and works well, and his drawings are very +clever. In short, I am as much obliged to the French Consul +for sending me such an intelligent man as I was vexed at +first. An <i>homme sérieux</i> with an absorbing +pursuit is always good company in the long run. Moreover M. +Brune behaves like a perfect gentleman in every way. So +<i>tout est pour le mieux</i>.</p> +<p>I am sorry to say that Marie has become so excessively bored, +dissatisfied, and, she says, ill, that I am going to send her +back rather than be worried so—and <i>damit hats eine +ende</i> of European maids. Of course an ignorant girl +<i>must</i> be bored to death here—a land of no amusements +and no flirtation <i>is</i> unbearable. I shall borrow a +slave of a friend here, an old black woman who is quite able and +more than willing to serve me, and when I go down to Cairo I will +get either a ci-devant slave or an elderly Arab woman. Dr. +Patterson strongly advised me to do so last year. He had +one who has been thirteen years his housekeeper, an old +bedaweeyeh, I believe, and as I now am no longer looked upon as a +foreigner, I shall be able to get a respectable Arab woman, a +widow or a divorced woman of a certain age who will be too happy +to have ‘a good home,’ as our maids say. I +think I know one, a certain Fatoomeh, a widow with no children +who does washing and needlework in Cairo. You need not be +at all uneasy. I shall be taken good care of if I fall ill, +much better than I should get from a European in a sulky frame of +mind. Hajjee Ali has very kindly offered to take Marie down +to Cairo and start her off to Alexandria, whence Ross’s +people can send her home. If she wants to stay in +Alexandria and get placed by the nuns who piously exhorted her to +extort ninety francs a month from me, so much the better for +me. Ali refuses to take a penny from me for her +journey—besides bringing me potatoes and all sorts of +things: and if I remonstrate he says he and all his family and +all they have is mine, in consequence of my treatment of his +brother.</p> +<p>You will be amused and pleased to hear how Sheykh Yussuf was +utterly puzzled and bewildered by the civilities he received from +the travellers this year, till an American told Mustapha I had +written a book which had made him (the American) wish well to the +poor people of this country, and desire to behave more kindly to +them than would have been the case before.</p> +<p>To-morrow is the smaller Bairam, and I shall have all the +Hareem here to visit me.</p> +<p>Two such nice Englishmen called the other day and told me they +lived in Hertford Street opposite Lady D. G.’s and saw +Alexander go in and out, and met Maurice in the gardens. It +gave me a terrible twinge of <i>Heimweh</i>, but I thought it so +kind and pretty and <i>herzlich</i> of them to come and tell me +how Alexander and Maurice looked as they went along the +street.</p> +<h3>February 22, 1866: Mrs. Ross</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Ross</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>February</i> 22, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Janet</span>,</p> +<p>I received your letter of the 4th inst. yesterday. I am +much distressed not to hear a better account of you. Why +don’t you go to Cairo for a time? Your experience of +your German confirms me (if I needed it) in my resolution to have +no more Europeans unless I should find one +‘seasoned.’ The nuisance is too great. I +shall borrow a neighbour’s slave for my stay here and take +some one in Cairo. My dress will do very well in native +hands.</p> +<p>I am at last getting really better again, I hope. We +have had a cold winter, but not trying. There has not been +much wind, and the weather has been very steady and clear. +I wish I had Palgrave’s book. Hajjee Ali was to bring +up my box, but it had not arrived when he sailed. I will +send down the old saddle whenever I can find a safe opportunity +and have received the other.</p> +<p>Many thanks for all the various detachments of newspapers, +which were a great solace. I wish you would give me your +photo—large size—to hang up with Rainie and Maurice +here and in the boat. Like the small one you gave me at +Soden, you said you had some copies big.</p> +<p>My doctoring business has become quite formidable. I +should like to sell my practice to any ‘rising young +surgeon.’ It brings in a very fair income of +vegetables, eggs, turkeys pigeons, etc.</p> +<p>How is the Shereef of Mecca’s horse? I ambition to +ride that holy animal.</p> +<h3>February 22, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>February</i> 22, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>The weather here is just beginning to get warm, and I of +course to get better. There has been a good deal of nervous +headache here this Ramadan. I had to attend the Kadee, and +several more. My Turkish neighbour at Karnac has got a +<i>shaitan</i> (devil), <i>i.e.</i> epileptic fits, and I was +sent for to exorcise him, which I am endeavouring to do with +nitrate of silver, etc.; but I fear imagination will kill him, so +I advise him to go to Cairo, and leave the devil-haunted +house. I have this minute killed the first snake of this +year—a sign of summer.</p> +<p>I was so pleased to see two Mr. Watsons—your opposite +neighbours—who said they saw you every morning go down the +street—<i>ojala</i>! that I did so too! I liked Mr. +and Mrs. Webb of Newstead Abbey very much; nice, hearty, +pleasant, truly English people.</p> +<p>There have not been above twenty or thirty boats up this +year—mostly Americans. There are some here now, very +nice people, with four little children, who create quite an +excitement in the place, and are ‘mashallahed’ no +end. Their little fair faces do look very pretty here, and +excite immense admiration.</p> +<p>Seyd has just come in to take my letter to the steamer which +is now going down. So <i>addio</i>, dearest Alick. I +am much better but still weakish, and very <i>triste</i> at my +long separation.</p> +<h3>March 6, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Tuesday</i>, <i>March</i> 6, +1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I write to be ready for the last <i>down</i> steamer which +will be here in a few days. Mr. and Miss North are here +working hard at sketching, and M. Brune will take a place in +their Dahabieh (my old Zint el Bahreyn), and leave me in six or +seven days. I shall quite grieve to lose his company. +If ever you or yours fall in with him, pray cultivate his +acquaintance, he is very clever, very hard working, and a +‘thorough-bred gentleman’ as Omar declares. We +are quite low-spirited at parting after a month spent together at +Thebes.</p> +<p>I hear that Olagnier has a big house in Old Cairo and will +lodge me. The Norths go to-day (Thursday) and M. Brune does +not go with them as he intended, but will stay on and finish a +good stroke of work and take his chance of a conveyance.</p> +<p>I spent yesterday out in Mustapha’s tent among the bean +gatherers, and will go again. I think it does me good and +is not too long a ride. The weather has set in suddenly +very hot, which rather tries everybody, but gloriously fine clear +air. I hope you will get this, as old fat Hassan will take +it to the office in Cairo himself—for the post is very +insecure indeed. I have written very often, if you +don’t get my letters I suppose they interest the court of +Pharaoh.</p> +<h3>March 17, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Thebes</span>,<br /> +<i>March</i> 17, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>The high winds have begun with a vengeance and a great bore +they are.</p> +<p>I went a few days ago out to Medarnoot, and lunched in +Mustapha’s tent, among his bean harvest. I was +immensely amused by the man who went with me on to Medarnoot, one +Sheriff, formerly an illustrious robber, now a watchman and very +honest man. He rode a donkey, about the size of +Stirling’s wee pony, and I laughed, and said, ‘The +man should carry the ass.’ No sooner said than done, +Sheriff dismounted, or rather let his beast down from between his +legs, shouldered the donkey, and ran on. His way of keeping +awake is original; the nights are still cold, so he takes off all +his clothes, rolls them up and lays them under his head, and the +cold keeps him quite lively. I never saw so powerful, +active and healthy an animal. He was full of stories how he +had had 1,000 stripes of the courbash on his feet and 500 on his +loins at one go. ‘Why?’ I asked. +‘Why, I stuck a knife into a cawass who ordered me to carry +water-melons; I said I was not his donkey; he called me worse: my +blood got up, and so!—and the Pasha to whom the cawass +belonged beat me. Oh, it was all right, and I did not say +“ach” once, did I?’ (addressing another). +He clearly bore no malice, as he felt no shame. He has a +grand romance about a city two days’ journey from here, in +the desert, which no one finds but by chance, after losing his +way; and where the ground is strewed with valuable +<i>anteekehs</i> (antiquities). I laughed, and said, +‘Your father would have seen gold and jewels.’ +‘True,’ said he, ‘when I was young, men spit on +a statue or the like, when they turned it up in digging, and now +it is a fortune to find one.’</p> +<h3>March 31, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>March</i> 31, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>As for me I am much better again; the cough has subsided, I +really think the Arab specific, camel’s milk, has done me +great good. I have mended ever since I took it. It +has the merit of being quite delicious. Yesterday I was +much amused when I went for my afternoon’s drink, to find +Sheriff in a great taking at having been robbed by a woman, under +his very nose. He saw her gathering hummuz from a field +under his charge, and went to order her off, whereupon she coolly +dropped the end of her <i>boordeh</i> which covered the head and +shoulders, effectually preventing him from going near her; made +up her bundle and walked off. His respect for the Hareem +did not, however, induce him to refrain from strong language.</p> +<p>M. Brune has made very pretty drawings of the mosque here, +both outside and in; it is a very good specimen of modern Arab +architecture; and he won’t believe it could be built +without ground plan, elevations, etc., which amuses the people +here, who build without any such inventions.</p> +<p>The harvest here is splendid this year, such beans and wheat, +and prices have fallen considerably in both: but meat, butter, +etc., remain very dear. My fame as a Hakeemeh has become +far too great, and on market-days I have to shut up shop. +Yesterday a very handsome woman came for medicine to make her +beautiful, as her husband had married another who teazed her, and +he rather neglected her. And a man offered me a camel load +of wheat if I would read something over him and his wife to make +them have children. I don’t try to explain to them +how very irrational they are but use the more intelligible +argument that all such practices savour of the <i>Ebu er +Rukkeh</i> (equivalent to black art), and are <i>haram</i> to the +greatest extent; besides, I add, being ‘all lies’ +into the bargain. The applicants for child-making and +charm-reading are Copts or Muslims, quite in equal numbers, and +appear alike indifferent as to what ‘Book’: but all +but one have been women; the men are generally perfectly rational +about medicine and diet.</p> +<p>I find there is a good deal of discontent among the Copts with +regard to their priests and many of their old customs. +Several young men have let out to me at a great rate about the +folly of their fasts, and the badness and ignorance of their +priests. I believe many turn Muslim from a real conviction +that it is a better religion than their own, and not as I at +first thought merely from interest; indeed, they seldom gain much +by it, and often suffer tremendous persecution from their +families; even they do not escape the rationalizing tendencies +now abroad in Christendom. Then their early and +indissoluble marriages are felt to be a hardship: a boy is +married at eight years old, perhaps to his cousin aged seventeen +(I know one here in that case), and when he grows up he wishes it +had been let alone. A clever lad of seventeen propounded to +me his dissatisfaction, and seemed to lean to Islam. I gave +him an Arabic New Testament, and told him to read that first, and +judge for himself whether he could not still conform to the +Church of his own people, and inwardly believe and try to follow +the Gospels. I told him it was what most Christians had to +do, as every man could not make a sect for himself, while few +could believe everything in any Church. I suppose I ought +to have offered him the Thirty-nine Articles, and thus have made +a Muslim of him out of hand. He pushed me a little hard +about several matters, which he says he does not find in +‘the Book’: but on the whole he is well satisfied +with my advice.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Coptic Palm Sunday</i>, +<i>April</i> 1.</p> +<p>We hear that Fadil Pasha received orders at Assouan to go up +to Khartoum in Giaffar Pasha’s place: it is a civil way of +killing a fat old Turk, if it is true. He was here a week +or two ago. My informant is one of my old crew who was in +Fadil Pasha’s boat.</p> +<p>I shall wait to get a woman-servant till I go to Cairo, the +women here cannot iron or sew; so, meanwhile, the wife of Abd +el-Kader, does my washing, and Omar irons; and we get on +capitally. Little Achmet waits, etc., and I think I am more +comfortable so than if I had a maid,—it would be no use to +buy a slave, as the trouble of teaching her would be greater than +the work she would do for me.</p> +<p>My medical reputation has become far too great, and all my +common drugs—Epsom salts, senna, aloes, rhubarb, +quassia—run short. Especially do all the poor, +tiresome, ugly old women adore me, and bore me with their aches +and pains. They are always the doctor’s greatest +plague. The mark of confidence is that they now bring the +sick children, which was never known before, I believe, in these +parts. I am sure it would pay a European doctor to set up +here; the people would pay him a little, and there would be good +profit from the boats in the winter. I got turkeys when +they were worth six or eight shillings apiece in the market, and +they were forced upon me by the fellaheen. I must seal up +this for fear the boat should come; it will only pick up M. Brune +and go on.</p> +<h3>April, 1866: Mrs. Ross</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Ross</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Eed el +Kebeer</span>,<br /> +<i>Wednesday</i>, <i>April</i>, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Janet</span>,</p> +<p>I had not heard a word of Henry’s illness till Mr. +Palgrave arrived and told me, and also that he was better. +Alhamdulillah! I only hope that you are not knocked up, my +darling. I am not ill, but still feel unaccountably weak +and listless. I don’t cough much, and have got fatter +on my <i>régime</i> of camel’s milk,—so I hope +I may get over the languor. The box has not made its +appearance. What a clever fellow Mr. Palgrave is! I +never knew such a hand at languages. The folks here are in +admiration at his Arabic. I hope you will see M. +Brune. I am sure you would like him. He is a very +accomplished and gentlemanly man.</p> +<p>You have never told me your plans for this year or whether I +shall find you when I go down. The last three days the +great heat has begun and I am accordingly feeling better. I +have just come home from the Bairam early prayer out in the +burial-place, at which Palgrave also assisted. He is +unwell, and tells me he leaves Luxor to-morrow morning. I +shall stay on till I am too hot here, as evidently the summer +suits me.</p> +<p>Many thanks for Miss Berry and for the wine, which makes a +very pleasant change from the rather bad claret I have got. +Palgrave’s book I have read through hard, as he wished to +take it back for you. It is very amusing.</p> +<p>If you come here next winter Mustapha hopes you will bring a +saddle, and ride ‘all his horses.’ I think I +could get you a very good horse from a certain Sheykh Abdallah +here.</p> +<p>Well, I must say good-bye. <i>Kulloo sana intee +tayib</i>, love to Henry.</p> +<h3>April, 1866: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Bairam</span>,<br /> +<i>April</i>, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I write this to go down by Mr. Palgrave who leaves +to-morrow. He has been with Mustapha Bey conducting an +enquiry into Mustapha A’gha’s business. +Mariette Bey struck Mustapha, and I and some Americans took it +ill and wrote a very strong complaint to our respective +Consuls. Mariette denied the blow and the words +‘liar, and son of a dog’—so the American and +English Consuls sent up Palgrave as commissioner to enquire into +the affair, and the Pasha sent Mustapha Bey with him. +Palgrave is very amusing of course, and his knowledge of +languages is wonderful, Sheykh Yussuf says few <i>Ulema</i> know +as much of the literature and niceties of grammar and +composition. Mustapha Bey is a darling; he knew several +friends of mine, Hassan Effendi, Mustapha Bey Soubky, and others, +so we were friends directly.</p> +<p>I have not yet got a woman-servant, but I don’t miss it +at all; little Achmet is very handy, Mahommed’s slave girl +washes, and Omar irons and cleans the house and does housemaid, +and I have kept on the meek cook, Abd el-Kader, whom I took while +the Frenchman was here. I had not the heart to send him +away; he is such a <i>meskeen</i>. He was a smart +travelling waiter, but his brother died, leaving a termagant +widow with four children, and poor Abd el-Kader felt it his duty +to bend his neck to the yoke, married her, and has two more +children. He is a most worthy, sickly, terrified +creature.</p> +<p>I have heard that a decent Copt here wants to sell a black +woman owing to reverses of fortune, and that she might suit +me. Sheykh Yussuf is to negotiate the affair and to see if +the woman herself likes me for a mistress, and I am to have her +on trial for a time, and if I like her and she me, Sheykh Yussuf +will buy her with my money in his name. I own I have very +little scruple about the matter, as I should consider her price +as an advance of two or three years’ wages and tear the +paper of sale as soon as she had worked her price out, which I +think would be a fair bargain. But I must see first whether +Feltass (the Copt) really wants to sell her or only to get a +larger price than is fair, in which case I will wait till I go to +Cairo. Anything is better than importing a European who at +once thinks one is at her mercy on account of the expense of the +journey back.</p> +<p>I went out this morning to the early prayer of Bairam day, +held in the burial-place. Mahmoud ibn-Mustapha preached, +but the boys and the Hareem made such a noise behind us that I +could not hear the sermon. The weather has set in hot these +last days, and I am much the better. It seems strange that +what makes others languid seems to strengthen me. I have +been very weak and languid all the time, but the camel’s +milk has fattened me prodigiously, to Sherayeff’s great +delight; and the last hot days have begun to take away the +miserable feeling of fatigue and languor.</p> +<p>Palgrave is not well at all, and his little black boy he fears +will die, and several people in the steamer are ill, but in Luxor +there is no sickness to speak of, only chronic old women, so old +and ugly and <i>achy</i>, that I don’t know what to do with +them, except listen to their complaints, which begin, +‘<i>Ya ragleh</i>.’ <i>Ragel</i> is man, so +<i>ragleh</i> is the old German <i>Männin</i>, and is the +civil way of addressing a Saeedee woman. To one old body I +gave a powder wrapped up in a fragment of a <i>Saturday +Review</i>. She came again and declared Mashallah! the +<i>hegab</i> (charm) was a powerful one, for though she had not +been able to wash off all the fine writing from the paper, even +that little had done her a deal of good. I regret that I am +unable to inform you what the subject of the article in the +<i>Saturday</i> which had so drastic an effect.</p> +<p>Good-bye, dearest Mutter, I must go and take a sleep before +the time of receiving the visits of to-day (the great +festival). I was up before sunrise to see the prayer, so +must have a siesta in a cool place. To-morrow morning early +this will go. I hope you got a letter I sent ten days or so +ago.</p> +<h3>May 10, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>May</i> 10, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>The real summer heat—the <i>Skems el-Kebeer</i> (big +sun) has fairly set in, and of course I am all the better. +You would give my camel a good backsheesh if you saw how +prodigiously fat I have grown on her milk; it beats codliver-oil +hollow. You can drink a gallon without feeling it, it is so +easy of digestion.</p> +<p>I have lent the dahabieh to Mustapha and to one or two more, +to go to Keneh on business, and when she returns (which will be +to-day) I shall make ready to depart too, and drop down +stream. Omar wants me to go down to Damietta, to +‘amuse my mind and dilate my stomach’ a little; and I +think of doing so.</p> +<p>Palgrave was here about a fortnight ago, on Mustapha’s +and Mariette’s business. ‘By God! this English +way is wonderful,’ said a witness, ‘that English Bey +questioned me till my stomach came out.’ I loved +Mustapha Bey, who was with him; such a nice, kind, gentle +creature, and very intelligent and full of good sense. I +rejoice to hear that he returns my liking, and has declared +himself ‘one of my darweeshes.’ Talking of +darweeshes reminds me of the Festival of Sheykh Gibrieel this +year. I had forgotten the day, but in the evening some +people came for me to go and eat some of the meat of the Sheykh, +who is also a good patron of mine, they say; being a poor +man’s saint, and of a humble spirit, it is said he favours +me. There was plenty of meat and <i>melocheea</i> and +bread; and then <i>zikrs</i> of different kinds, and a <i>Gama el +Fokara</i> (assembly of the poor). <i>Gama</i> is the true +word for Mosque—<i>i.e.</i>, Meeting, which consists in a +great circle of men seated thick on the ground, with two poets +facing each other, who improvise religious verses. On this +occasion the rule of the game was to end each stanza with a word +having the sound of <i>wahed</i> (one), or <i>el Had</i> (the +first). Thus one sung: ‘Let a man take heed how he +walks,’ etc., etc.; and ‘pray to God not to let him +fall,’ which sound like <i>Had</i>. And so they went +on, each chanting a verse alternately. One gesticulated +almost as much as an Italian and pronounced beautifully; the +other was quiet, but had a nice voice, and altogether it was very +pretty. At the end of each verse the people made a sort of +chorus, which was sadly like the braying of asses. The +<i>zikr</i> of the Edfoo men was very curious. Our people +did it quietly, and the <i>moonsheed</i> sang very +sweetly—indeed ‘the song of the moonsheed is the +sugar in the sherbet to the Zikkeer,’ said a man who came +up when it was over, streaming with perspiration and radiant with +smiles. Some day I will write to you the whole +‘<i>grund Idee</i>’ of a <i>zikr</i>, which is, in +fact, an attempt to make present ‘the communion of +saints,’ dead or living. As I write arrives the +Arooset er-rallee, and my crew furl her big sail quite +‘Bristol fashion.’ My men have come together +again, some from Nubia and some from the Delta; and I shall go +down with my old lot.</p> +<p>Omar and Achmet have implored me not to take another maid at +all; they say they live like Pashas now they have only the lady +to please; that it will be a pleasure to ‘lick my shoes +clean,’ whereas the boots of the <i>Cameriera</i> were +intolerable. The feeling of the Arab servants towards +European colleagues is a little like that of +‘niggers’ about ‘mean whites’—mixed +hatred, fear, and scorn. The two have done so well to make +me comfortable that I have no possible reason for insisting on +encumbering myself with ‘an old man of the sea,’ in +the shape of a maid; and the difference in cost is immense. +The one dish of my dinner is ample relish to their bread and +beans, while the cooking for a maid, and her beer and wine, cost +a great deal. Omar irons my clothes very tidily, and little +Achmet cleans the house as nicely as possible. I own I am +quite as much relieved by the absence of the ‘civilized +element’ as my retainers are.</p> +<p>Did I describe the Coptic Good Friday? Imagine 450 +<i>Rekahs</i> in church! I have seen many queer things, but +nothing half so queer as the bobbing of the Copts.</p> +<p>I went the other day to the old church six or eight miles off, +where they buried the poor old Bishop who died a week ago. +Abu Khom, a Christian <i>shaheed</i> (martyr), is buried +there. He appeared to Mustapha’s father when lost in +the desert, and took him safe home. On that occasion he was +well mounted, and robed all in white, with a <i>litham</i> in +over his face. No one dares to steal anything near his +tomb, not one ear of corn. He revealed himself long ago to +one of the descendants of Abu-l-Hajjaj, and to this day every +Copt who marries in Luxor gives a pair of fowls to the family of +that Muslim in remembrance of Abu Khom.</p> +<p>I shall leave Luxor in five or six days—and write now to +stop all letters in Cairo.</p> +<p>I don’t know what to do with my sick; they come from +forty miles off, and sometimes twenty or thirty people sleep +outside the house. I dined with the Maōhn last +night—‘pot luck’—and was much +pleased. The dear old lady was so vexed not to have a +better dinner for me that she sent me a splendid tray of +<i>baklaweh</i> this morning to make up for it.</p> +<h3>June 22, 1866: Maurice Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Maurice Duff Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>June</i> 22, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Maurice my Darling</span>,</p> +<p>I send you a Roman coin which a man gave me as a fee for +medical attendance. I hope you will like it for your +watch-chain. I made our Coptic goldsmith bore a hole in +it. Why don’t you write to me, you young +rascal? I am now living in my boat, and I often wish for +you here to donkey ride about with me. I can’t write +you a proper letter now as Omar is waiting to take this up to Mr. +Palgrave with the drawings for your father. Omar desires +his best salaam to you and to Rainie, and is very much +disappointed that you are not coming out in the winter to go up +to Luxor. We had a hurricane coming down the Nile, and a +boat behind us sank. We only lost an anchor, and had to +wait and have it fished up by the fishermen of a neighbouring +village. In places the water was so shallow that the men +had to push the boat over by main force, and all went into the +river. The captain and I shouted out, <i>Islam el +Islam</i>, equivalent to, ‘Heave away, boys.’ +There are splendid illuminations about to take place here, +because the Pasha has got leave to make his youngest boy his +successor, and people are ordered to rejoice, which they do with +much grumbling—it will cost something enormous.</p> +<h3>July 10, 1866: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Off Boulak, +Cairo</span>,<br /> +<i>July</i> 10, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I am much better again. My cold went off without a +violent illness and I was only weak and nervous. I am very +comfortable here, anchored off Boulak, with my Reis and one +sailor who cleans and washes my clothes which Omar irons, as at +Luxor, as he found the washerwomen here charged five francs a +dozen for all small things and more for dresses. A bad +<i>hashash</i> boy turned Achmet’s head, who ran away for +two days and spent a dollar in riotous living; he returned +penitent, and got no fatted calf, but dry bread and a +confiscation of his new clothes.</p> +<p>The heat, when I left Luxor, was prodigious. I was +detained three days by the death of Sheykh Yussuf’s poor +little wife and baby (in childbirth) so I was forced to stay and +eat the funeral feast, and be present at the <i>Khatmeh</i> +(reading of the Koran on the third night), or it would not have +seemed kind. The Kadee gave me a very curious prayer-book, +the Guide of the Faithful, written in Darfour! in beautiful +characters, and with very singular decorations, and in splendid +binding. It contains the names of all the prophets and of +the hundred appellations of Mohammed, and is therefore a powerful +<i>hegab</i> or talisman. He requested me never to give it +away and always to keep it with me. Such books cannot be +bought with money at all. I also bought a most beautiful +<i>hegab</i> of cornelian set in enamel, the verse of the throne +splendidly engraved, and dated 250 years ago. I sent over +by Palgrave to Alick M. Brune’s lovely drawings of Luxor +and Karnac, and to Maurice a gold coin which I received as a fee +from an old Bedawee.</p> +<p>It was so hot that I could not face the ride up to Keneh, when +all my friends there came to fetch me, nor could I go to +Siout. I never felt such heat. At Benisouef I went to +see our Maōhn’s daughter married to another Maōhn +there; it was a pleasant visit. The master of the house was +out, and his mother and wife received me like one of the family; +such a pretty woman and such darling children!—a pale, +little slight girl of five, a sturdy boy of four, and a baby of +one year old. The eager hospitality of the little creatures +was quite touching. The little girl asked to have on her +best frock, and then she stood before me and fanned me seriously +and diligently, and asked every now and then, ‘Shall I make +thee a sherbet?’ ‘Shall I bring thee a +coffee?’ and then questions about grandpapa and grand +mamma, and Abd el-Hameed and Abd el-Fattah; while the boy sat on +his heels before me and asked questions about my family in his +baby talk, and assured me it was a good day to him, and wanted me +to stay three days, and to sleep with them. Their father +came in and gave each an ashara (10 foddahs, ½ piastre) +which, after consulting together, they tied in the corner of my +handkerchief; ‘to spend on my journey.’ The +little girl took such care of my hat and gloves and shoes, all +very strange garments to her, but politeness was stronger than +curiosity with the little things. I breakfasted with them +all next day, and found much cookery going on for me. I +took a doll for my little friend Ayoosheh, and some sugar-plums +for Mohammed, but they laid them aside in order to devote +themselves to the stranger, and all quietly, and with no sort of +show-off or obtrusiveness. Even the baby seemed to have the +instinct of hospitality, and was full of smiles. It was all +of a piece with the good old lady, their grandmother at Luxor, +who wanted to wash my clothes for me herself, because I said the +black slave of Mohammed washed badly. Remember that to do +‘menial offices’ for a guest is an honour and +pleasure, and not derogatory at all here. The ladies cook +for you, and say, ‘I will cook my best for +thee.’ The worst is that they stuff one so. +Little Ayoosheh asked after my children, and said, ‘May God +preserve them for thee! Tell thy little girl that Mohammed +and I love her from afar off.’ Whereupon Mohammed +declared that in a few years, please God, when he should be +<i>balal</i> (marriageable) he would marry her and live with +me. When I went back to the boat the Effendi was ill with +asthma, and I would not let him go with me in the heat (a polite +man accompanies an honoured guest back to his house or boat, or +tent). So the little boy volunteered, and we rode off on +the Effendi’s donkey, which I had to bestride, with +Mohammed on the hump of the saddle before me. He was +delighted with the boat, of course, and romped and played about +till we sailed, when his slave took him home. Those +children gave me a happy day with their earnest, gracious +hospitality.</p> +<p><i>July</i> 14<i>th</i>.—Since I wrote this, I have had +the boat topsy-turvy, with a carpenter and a <i>menegget</i> +(cushion-stuffer), and had not a corner even to write in. I +am better, but still cough every morning. I am, however, +much better, and have quite got over the nervous depression which +made me feel unable and ashamed to write. My young +carpenter—a Christian—half Syrian, half Copt, of the +Greek rite, and altogether a Cairene—would have pleased +you. He would not work on Sunday, but instead, came mounted +on a splendid tall black donkey, and handsomely dressed, to pay +me a visit, and go out with me for a ride. So he, I, and +Omar went up to the Sittee (Lady) Zeyneb’s mosque, to +inquire for Mustapha Bey Soubky, the Hakeem Pasha, whom I had +known at Luxor. I was told by the porter of the mosque to +seek him at the shop of a certain grocer, his particular friend, +where he sits every evening. On going there we found the +shop with its lid shut down (a shop is like a box laid on its +side with the lid pulled up when open and dropped when shut; as +big as a cobbler’s stall in Europe). The young grocer +was being married, and Mustapha Bey was ill. So I went to +his house in the quarter—such narrow streets!—and was +shown up by a young eunuch into the hareem, and found my old +friend very poorly, but spent a pleasant evening with him, his +young wife—a Georgian slave whom he had married,—his +daughter by a former wife—whom he had married when he was +fourteen, and the female dwarf buffoon of the Valideh Pasha +(Ismail’s mother) whose heart I won by rising to her, +because she was so old and deformed. The other women +laughed, but the little old dwarf liked it. She was a +Circassian, and seemed clever. You see how the +‘Thousand and One Nights’ are quite true and real; +how great Beys sit with grocers, and carpenters have no +hesitation in offering civility to <i>naas omra</i> (noble +people). This is what makes Arab society quite +unintelligible and impossible to most Europeans.</p> +<p>My carpenter’s boy was the son of a <i>moonsheed</i> +(singer in the Mosque), and at night he used to sit and warble to +us, with his little baby-voice, and little round, innocent face, +the most violent love-songs. He was about eight years old, +and sang with wonderful finish and precision, but no expression, +until I asked him for a sacred song, which begins, ‘I +cannot sleep for longing for thee, O Full Moon’ (the +Prophet), and then the little chap warmed to his work, and the +feeling came out.</p> +<p>Palgrave has left in my charge a little black boy of his, now +at Luxor, where he left him very ill, with Mustapha +A’gha. The child told me he was a <i>nyan-nyan</i> +(cannibal), but he did not look ogreish. I have written to +Mustapha to send him me by the first opportunity. Achmet +has quite recovered his temper, and I do so much better without a +maid that I shall remain so. The difference in expense is +enormous, and the peace and quiet a still greater gain; no more +grumbling and ‘exigencies’ and worry; Omar irons very +fairly, and the sailor washes well enough, and I don’t want +toilette—anyhow, I would rather wear a sack than try the +experiment again. An uneducated, coarse-minded European is +too disturbing an element in the family life of Easterns; the +sort of filial relation, at once familiar and reverential of +servants to a master they like, is odious to English and still +more to French servants. If I fall in with an Arab or +Abyssinian woman to suit me I will take her; but of course it is +rare; a raw slave can do nothing, nor can a fellaha, and a Cairo +woman is bored to death up in the Saeed. As to care and +attention, I want for nothing. Omar does everything well +and with pride and pleasure, and is delighted at the saving of +expense in wine, beer, meat, etc. etc. One feeds six or +eight Arabs well with the money for one European.</p> +<p>While the carpenter, his boy, and two <i>meneggets</i> were +here, a very moderate dish of vegetables, stewed with a pound of +meat, was put before me, followed by a chicken or a pigeon for me +alone. The stew was then set on the ground to all the men, +and two loaves of a piastre each, to every one, a jar of water, +and, <i>Alhamdulillah</i>, four men and two boys had dined +handsomely. At breakfast a water-melon and another +loaf-a-piece, and a cup of coffee all round; and I pass for a +true Arab in hospitality. Of course no European can live +so, and they despise the Arabs for doing it, while the Arab +servant is not flattered at seeing the European get all sorts of +costly luxuries which he thinks unnecessary; besides he has to +stand on the defensive, in order not to be made a drudge by his +European fellow-servant, and despised for being one; and so he +leaves undone all sorts of things which he does with alacrity +when it is for ‘the master’ only. What Omar +does now seems wonderful, but he says he feels like the Sultan +now he has only me to please.</p> +<p><i>July</i> 15<i>th</i>.—Last night came the two +<i>meneggets</i> to pay a friendly visit, and sat and told +stories; so I ordered coffee, and one took his sugar out of his +pocket to put in his cup, which made me laugh inwardly. He +told a fisherman, who stopped his boat alongside for a little +conversation, the story of two fishermen, the one a Jew, the +other a Muslim, who were partners in the time of the Arab Prophet +(upon whom be blessing and peace!). The Jew, when he flung +his nets called on the Prophet of the Jews, and hauled it up full +of fish every time; then the Muslim called on our Master Mohammed +etc., etc., and hauled up each time only stones, until the Jew +said, ‘Depart, O man, thou bringest us misfortune; shall I +continue to take half thy stones, and give thee half my +fish? Not so.’ So the Muslim went to our Master +Mohammed and said, ‘Behold, I mention thy name when I cast +my net, and I catch only stones and calamity. How is +this?’ But the blessed Prophet said to him, +‘Because thy stomach is black inwardly, and thou thoughtest +to sell thy fish at an unfair price, and to defraud thy partner +and the people, while the Jew’s heart was clean towards +thee and the people, and therefore God listened to him rather +than to thee.’ I hope our fisherman was edified by +this fine moral. I also had good stories from the chief +diver of Cairo, who came to examine the bottom of my boat, and +told me, in a whisper, a long tale of his grandfather’s +descent below the waters of the Nile, into the land of the people +who lived there, and keep tame crocodiles to hunt fish for +them. They gave him a sleeve-full of fishes’ scales, +and told him never to return, and not to tell about them: and +when he got home the scales had turned to money. But most +wonderful of all was Haggi Hannah’s story of her own life, +and the journey of Omar’s mother carrying her old mother in +a basket on her head from Damietta to Alexandria, and dragging +Omar then a very little boy, by the hand. The energy of +many women here is amazing.</p> +<p>The Nile is rising fast, and the <i>Bisheer</i> is come (the +messenger who precedes the Hajj, and brings letters). +<i>Bisheer</i> is ‘good tidings,’ to coin a +word. Many hearts are lightened and many half-broken +to-day. I shall go up to the Abassia to meet the Mahmal and +see the Hajjees arrive.</p> +<p>Next Friday I must take my boat out of the water, or at least +heel her over, to repair the bad places made at Alexandria. +It seems I once cured a Reis of the Pasha’s of dysentery at +Minieh, and he has not forgotten it, though I had; so Reis Awad +will give me a good place on the Pasha’s bank, and lend +ropes and levers which will save a deal of expense and +trouble. I shall move out all the things and myself into a +boat of Zubeydeh’s for four or five days, and stay +alongside to superintend my caulkers.</p> +<p>Miss Berry <i>is</i> dull no doubt, but few books seem dull to +me now, I can tell you, and I was much delighted with such a +<i>pièce de résistance</i>. Miss Eden I +don’t wish for—that sort of theatre burlesque view of +the customs of a strange country is inexpressibly tedious to one +who is familiar with one akin to it. There is plenty of +<i>real</i> fun to be had here, but that sort is only funny to +cockneys. I want to read Baker’s book very +much. I am much pleased with Abd el-Kader’s book +which Dozon sent me, and want the original dreadfully for Sheykh +Yussuf, to show him that he and I are supported by such an +authority as the great Ameer in our notions about the real unity +of the Faith. The book is a curious mixture of good sense +and credulity—quite ‘Arab of the Arabs.’ +I will write a paper on the popular beliefs of Egypt; it will be +curious, I think. By the way, I see in the papers and +reviews speculations as to some imaginary Mohammedan conspiracy, +because of the very great number of pilgrims last year from all +parts to Mecca. <i>C’est chercher midi à +quatorze heures</i>. Last year the day of Abraham’s +sacrifice,—and therefore <i>the</i> day of the +pilgrimage—(the sermon on Mount Arafat) fell on a Friday, +and when that happens there is always a rush, owing to the +popular notion that the <i>Hajj el-Gumma</i> (pilgrimage of the +Friday) is seven times blessed, or even equivalent to making it +seven times in ordinary years. As any beggar in the street +could tell a man this, it may give you some notion of how +absurdly people make theories out of nothing for want of a little +commonsense.</p> +<p>The <i>Moolid en-Nebbee</i> (Festival of the Prophet) has just +begun. I am to have a place in the great Derweesh’s +tent to see the Doseh.</p> +<p>The Nile is rising fast; we shall kill the poor little Luxor +black lamb on the day of the opening of the canal, and have a +<i>fantasia</i> at night; only I grieve for my little white +pussy, who sleeps every night on Ablook’s (the +lamb’s) woolly neck, and loves him dearly. Pussy +(‘Bish’ is Arabic for puss) was the gift of a Coptic +boy at Luxor, and is wondrous funny, and as much more active and +lissom than a European cat as an Arab is than an +Englishman. She and Achmet and Ablook have fine games of +romps. Omar has set his heart on an English signet ring +with an oval stone to engrave his name on, here you know they +sign papers with a signet, not with a pen. It must be +<i>solid</i> to stand hard work.</p> +<p>Well, I must finish this endless letter. Here comes +<i>such</i> a bouquet from the Pasha’s garden +(somebody’s sister’s son is servant to the chief +eunuch and brings it to me), a great round of scarlet, surrounded +with white and green and with tall reeds, on which are threaded +single tube-rose flowers, rising out of it so as to figure a huge +flower with white pistils. Arab gardeners beat French +flower-girls in bouquets.</p> +<h3>July 17, 1866: Alick</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>July</i> 17, 1866.</p> +<p>Dearest Alick,</p> +<p>I am perfectly comfortable now with my aquatic +<i>ménage</i>. The Reis is very well behaved and +steady and careful, and the sort of Caliban of a sailor is a very +worthy savage. Omar of course is hardworked—what with +going to market, cooking, cleaning, ironing, and generally +keeping everything in nice order but he won’t hear of a +maid of any sort. No wonder!</p> +<p>A clever old Reis has just come and over-hauled the bottom of +the boat, and says he can mend her without taking her out of the +water. We shall see; it will be great luck if he can. +As I am the river doctor, all the sailoring men are glad to do me +a civility.</p> +<p>We have had the hottest of summers; it is now 98 in the +cabin. I have felt very unwell, but my blue devils are +quite gone, and I am altogether better. What a miserable +war it is in Europe! I am most anxious for the next +papers. Here it is money misery; the Pasha is something +like bankrupt, and no one has had a day’s pay these three +months, even pensions of sixty piastres a month (seven shillings) +to poor old female slaves of Mahommed Ali’s are +stopped.</p> +<p><i>August</i> 4.—The heat is and has been something +fearful: we are all panting and puffing. I can’t +think what Palgrave meant about my being tired of poor old Egypt; +I am very happy and comfortable, only I felt rather weak and +poorly this year, and sometimes, I suppose, rather <i>wacham</i>, +as the Arabs say, after you and the children. The heat, +too, has made me lazy—it is 110 in the cabin, and 96 at +night.</p> +<p>I saw the <i>Moolid en-Nebbee</i> (Festival of the Prophet), +and the wonderful <i>Dóseh</i> (treading); it is an awful +sight; so many men drunk with religious ardour. <a +name="citation293"></a><a href="#footnote293" +class="citation">[293]</a> I also went to a Turkish Hareem, +where my darweesh friends sent me; it is just like a tea-party at +Hampton Court, only handsomer, not as to the ladies, but the +clothes, furniture and jewels, and not a bit like the description +in Mrs. Lott’s most extraordinary book. Nothing is so +clean as a Turkish hareem, the furniture is Dutch as to +cleanliness, and their persons only like themselves—but oh! +how dull and <i>triste</i> it all seemed. One nice lady +said to me, ‘If I had a husband and children like thee, I +would die a hundred times rather than leave them for an +hour,’ another envied me the power of going into the street +and seeing the <i>Dóseh</i>. She had never seen it, +and never would.</p> +<p>To-morrow Olagnier will dine and spend the night here, to see +the cutting of the canal, and the ‘Bride of the Nile’ +on Monday morning. We shall sail up to old Cairo in the +evening with the Bride’s boat; also Hajjee Hannah is coming +for the fantasia; after the high Nile we shall take the boat out +and caulk her and then, if the excessive heat continues, I rather +think of a month’s jaunt to Beyrout just to freshen me +up. Hajjee Ali is there, with all his travelling materials +and tents, so I need only take Omar and a bath and +carpet-bag. If the weather gets cool I shall stay in my +boat. The heat is far more oppressive here than it was at +Luxor two years ago; it is not so dry. The Viceroy is +afraid of cholera, and worried the poor Hajjees this year with +most useless quarantine. The <i>Mahmal</i> was smuggled +into Cairo before sunrise, without the usual honours, and all +sightseers and holiday makers disappointed, and all good Muslims +deeply offended. The idea that the Pasha has turned +Christian or even Jew is spreading fast; I hear it on all +sides. The new firman illegitimatising so many of his +children is of course just as agreeable to a sincere Moslem as a +law sanctioning polygamy for our royal family would be with +us.</p> +<h3>August 20, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Off +Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>August</i> 20, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>Since I wrote I have had a bad bilious attack, which has of +course aggravated my cough. Everyone has had the same, and +most far worse than I, but I was very wretched and most +shamefully cross. Omar said, ‘That is not you but the +sickness,’ when I found fault with everything, and it was +very true. I am still seedy. Also I am beyond measure +exasperated about my boat. I went up to the <i>Ata +el-Khalig</i> (cutting of the canal) to see the great sight of +the ‘Bride of the Nile,’ a lovely spectacle; and on +returning we all but sank. I got out into a boat of +Zubeydeh’s with all my goods, and we hauled up my boat, and +found her bottom rotten from stem to stern. So here I am in +the midst of wood merchants, sawyers, etc., etc., rebuilding her +bottom. My Reis said he had ‘carried her on his head +all this time’ but ‘what could such a one as he say +against the word of a Howagah, like Ross’s +storekeeper?’ When the English cheat each other there +remains nothing but to seek refuge with God. Omar buys the +wood and superintends, together with the Reis, and the builders +seem good workmen and fair-dealing. I pay day by day, and +have a scribe to keep the accounts. If I get out of it for +£150 I shall think Omar has done wonders, for every atom +has to be new. I never saw anything so rotten afloat. +If I had gone up the Cataract I should never have come down +alive. It is a marvel we did not sink long ago.</p> +<p>Mahbrook, Palgrave’s boy, has arrived, and turns out +well. He is a stout lubberly boy, with infinite good +humour, and not at all stupid, and laughs a good real nigger +yahyah, which brings the fresh breezes and lilac mountains of the +Cape before me when I hear it. When I tell him to do +anything he does it with strenuous care, and then asks, +<i>tayib</i>? (is it well) and if I say ‘Yes’ he goes +off, as Omar says, ‘like a cannon in Ladyship’s +face,’ in a guffaw of satisfaction. Achmet, who is +half his size, orders him about and teaches him, with an air of +extreme dignity and says pityingly to me, ‘You see, oh +Lady, he is quite new, quite green.’ Achmet, who had +never seen a garment or any article of European life two years +ago, is now a smart valet, with very distinct ideas of waiting at +table, arranging my things etc. and cooks quite cleverly. +Arab boys are amazing. I have promoted him to +wages—one napoleon a month—so now he will keep his +family. He is about a head taller than Rainie.</p> +<p>I intend to write a paper on the various festivals and customs +of Copts and Muslims; but I must wait to see Abu Seyfeyn, near +Luxor, the great Christian Saint, where all go to be cured of +possession—all mad people. The Viceroy wages steady +war against all festivals and customs. The <i>Mahmal</i> +was burked this year, and the fair at Tantah forbidden. +Then the Europeans spoil all; the Arabs no longer go to the +<i>Ata el-Khalig</i>, and at the <i>Dóseh</i>, the Frangee +carriages were like the Derby day. It is only up country +that the real thing remains.</p> +<p>To-morrow my poor black sheep will be killed over the new prow +of the boat; his blood ‘straked’ upon her, and his +flesh sodden and eaten by all the workmen, to keep off the evil +eye; and on the day she goes into the water, some <i>Fikees</i> +will read the Koran in the cabin, and again there will be boiled +mutton and bread. The Christian <i>Ma-allimeen</i> (skilled +workmen) hold to the ceremony of the sheep quite as much as the +others, and always do it over a new house, boat, mill, waterwheel +etc.</p> +<p>Did I tell you Omar has another girl—about two months +ago? His wife and babies are to come up from Alexandria to +see him, for he will not leave me for a day, on account of my +constantly being so ailing and weak. I hope if I die away +from you all, you will do something for Omar for my sake, I +cannot conceive what I should do without his faithful and loving +care. I don’t know why he is so devotedly fond of me, +but he certainly does love me as he says ‘like his +mother,’ and moreover as a very affectionate son loves his +other. How pleasant it would be if you could come—but +please don’t run any risks of fatigue or exposure to cold +on your return. If you cannot come I shall go to Luxor +early in October and send back the boat to let. I hear from +Luxor that the people are all running away from the land, unable +to pay triple taxes and eat bread: the ruin is universal. +The poor Sheykhs el-Beled, who had the honour of dining with the +Viceroy at Minieh have each had a squeeze politely +administered. One poor devil I know had to ‘make a +present’ of 50 purses.</p> +<p>How is my darling Rainie? I do so long for her earnest +eyes at times, and wonder if I shall ever be able to get back to +you all again. I fear that break down at Soden sent me down +a great terrace. I have never lost the pain and the cough +for a day since. I have not been out for an age, or seen +anyone. Would you know the wife of your bosom in a pair of +pink trousers and a Turkish <i>tob</i>? Such is my costume +as I write. The woman who came to sew could not make a +gown, so she made me a pair of trousers instead. Farewell, +dearest, I dare hardly say how your hint of possibly coming has +made me wish it, and yet I dread to persuade you. The great +heat is quite over with the high Nile, and the air on the river +fresh and cool—cold at night even.</p> +<h3>August 27, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Off +Boulak</span><br /> +<i>August</i> 27, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>Your letter of the 18th has this moment arrived. I am +very glad to hear you are so much better. I am still +seedy-ish, but no worse. Everybody is liver-sick this year, +I give calomel and jalep all round—except to myself.</p> +<p>The last two or three days we have been in great tribulation +about the boat. On Saturday all her ribs were finished, and +the planking and caulking ready to be put on, when in the night +up came the old Nile with a rush, and threatened to carry her +off; but by the favour of Abu-l-Hajjaj and Sheykh el-Bostawee she +was saved in this wise. You remember the tall old steersman +who went with us to Bedreeshayn, and whom we thought so +ill-conditioned; well, he was in charge of a dahabieh close by, +and he called up all the Reises and steermen to help. +‘Oh men of el-Bostawee, this is <i>our</i> boat +(<i>i.e.</i> we are the servants of her owner) and she is in our +faces;’ and then he set the example, stripped and carried +dust and hammered in piles all night, and by the morning she was +surrounded by a dyke breast-high. The +‘long-shore’ men of Boulak were not a little +surprised to see dignified Reises working for nothing like +fellaheen. Meanwhile my three <i>Ma-allimeen</i>, the chief +builder, caulker and foreman, had also stayed all night with Omar +and my Reis, who worked like the rest, and the Sheykh of all the +boat-builders went to visit one of my <i>Ma-allimeen</i>, who is +his nephew, and hearing the case came down too at one in the +morning and stayed till dawn. Then as the workmen passed, +going to their respective jobs, he called them, and said, +‘Come and finish this boat; it must be done by to-morrow +night.’ Some men who objected and said they were +going to the Pasha’s dockyard, got a beating <i>pro +forma</i> and the end of it was that I found forty-six men under +my boat working ‘like Afreets and Shaitans,’ when I +went to see how all was going in the morning. The old +Sheykh marked out a piece to each four men, and then said, +‘If that is not done to-night, Oh dogs! to-morrow +I’ll put on the hat’—<i>i.e.</i> ‘To-day +I have beaten moderately, like an Arab, but to-morrow, please +God, I’ll beat like a Frank, and be mad with the +stick.’ <i>Kurz und gut</i>, the boat which yesterday +morning was a skeleton, is now, at four p.m. to-day, finished, +caulked, pitched and all capitally done; if the Nile carries off +the dyke, she will float safe. The shore is covered with +débris of other people’s half-finished boats I +believe. I owe the ardour of the <i>Ma-allims</i> and of +the Sheykh of the builders to one of my absurd pieces of Arab +civility. On the day when Omar killed poor Ablook, my black +sheep, over the bows and ‘straked’ his blood upon +them, the three <i>Ma-allimeen</i> came on board this boat to eat +their dish, and I followed the old Arab fashion and ate out of +the wooden dish with them and the Reis ‘for luck,’ or +rather ‘for a blessing’ as we say here; and it seems +that this gave immense satisfaction.</p> +<p>My Reis wept at the death of the black sheep, which used to +follow him to the coffee-shop and the market, and ‘was to +him as a son,’ he said, but he ate of him +nevertheless. Omar surreptitiously picked out the best +pieces for my dinner for three days, with his usual eye to +economy; then lighted a fire of old wood, borrowed a cauldron of +some darweeshes, cut up the sheep, added water and salt, onions +and herbs, and boiled the sheep. Then the big washing +copper (a large round flat tray, like a sponging bath) was filled +with bread broken in pieces, over which the broth was slowly +poured till the bread was soaked. Next came a layer of +boiled rice, on the top of that the pieces of boiled meat, and +over all was poured butter, vinegar and garlic boiled +together. This is called a <i>Fettah</i>, and is the +orthodox dish of darweeshes and given at all <i>Khatmehs</i> and +other semi-religious, semi-festive, semi-charitable +festivities. It is excellent and not expensive. I +asked how many had eaten and was told one hundred and thirty men +had ‘blessed my hand.’ I expended 160 piastres +on bread, butter and vinegar, etc. and the sheep was worth two +napoleons; three napoleons in all, or less—for I ate for +two days of the mutton.</p> +<p>The three <i>Ma-allims</i> came on board this boat, as I said +and ate; and it was fine to hear us—how polite we +were. ‘A bit more, oh <i>Ma-allim</i>?’ +‘Praise be to God, we have eaten well—we will return +to our work’; ‘By the Prophet, coffee and a +pipe.’ ‘Truly thou art of the most noble +people.’ ‘Oh <i>Ma-allim</i>, ye have honoured +us and rejoiced us,’ ‘Verily this is a day white +among days,’ etc. A very clever Egyptian engineer, a +pupil of Whitworth’s, who is living in a boat alongside +mine, was much amused, and said, ‘Ah you know how to manage +’em.’</p> +<p>I have learnt the story of the two dead bodies that hitched in +my anchor-chain some time ago. They were not Europeans as I +thought, but Circassians—a young man and his mother. +The mother used to take him to visit an officer’s wife who +had been brought up in the hareem of the Pasha’s +mother. The husband caught them, killed them, tied them +together and flung them into the Nile near Rhoda, and gave +himself into the hands of the police. All was of course +hushed up. He goes to Fazoghlou; and I don’t know +what becomes of the slave-girl, his wife. These sort of +things happen every day (as the bodies testify) among the Turks, +but the Europeans never hear it. I heard it by a curious +chance.</p> +<p><i>September</i> 4.—My boat will soon be finished, and +now will be as good as new. Omar has worked like a good one +from daybreak till night, overlooking, buying all the materials, +selling all the old wood and iron, etc., and has done +capitally. I shall take a paper from my <i>Ma-allims</i> +who are all first class men, to certify what they have done and +that the boat is as good as new. Goodah Effendi has kindly +looked at her several times for me and highly approves the work +done. I never saw men do a better day’s work than +those at the boat. It is pretty to see the carpenter +holding the wood with one hand and one foot while he saws it, +sitting on the ground—just like the old frescoes. Do +you remember the picture of boat-building in the tomb at +Sakkara? Well, it is just the same; all done with the adze; +but it is stout work they put into it, I can tell you.</p> +<p>If you do not come (and I do not like to press you, I fear the +fatigue for you and the return to the cold winter) I shall go to +Luxor in a month or so and send back the boat to let. I +have a neighbour now, Goodah Effendi, an engineer, who studied +and married in England. His wife is gone there with the +children, and he is living in a boat close by; so he comes over +of an evening very often, and I am glad of his company: he is a +right good fellow and very intelligent.</p> +<p>My best love to all at home. I’ve got a log from +the cedars of Lebanon, my Moslem carpenter who smoothed the +broken end, swallowed the sawdust, because he believed ‘Our +Lady Mary’ had sat under the tree with ‘Our Lord +Jesus.’</p> +<h3>September 21, 1886: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Off +Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>September</i> 21, 1886.</p> +<p>I am better again now and go on very comfortably with my two +little boys. Omar is from dawn till night at work at my +boat, so I have only Mahbrook and Achmet, and you would wonder to +see how well I am served. Achmet cooks a very good dinner, +serves it and orders Mahbrook about. Sometimes I whistle +and hear <i>hader</i> (ready) from the water and in tumbles +Achmet, with the water running ‘down his innocent +nose’ and looking just like a little bronze triton of a +Renaissance fountain, with a blue shirt and white skull-cap +added. Mahbrook is a big lubberly lad of the +laugh-and-grow-fat breed, clumsy, but not stupid, and very good +and docile. You would delight in his guffaws, and the merry +games and hearty laughter of my <i>ménage</i> is very +pleasant to me. Another boy swims over from Goodah’s +boat (his Achmet), and then there are games at piracy, and much +stealing of red pots from the potter’s boats. The +joke is to snatch one under the owner’s very nose, and swim +off brandishing it, whereupon the boatman uses eloquent language, +and the boys out-hector him, and everybody is much amused. +I only hope Palgrave won’t come back from Sookum Kaleh to +fetch Mahbrook just as he has got clever—not at stealing +jars, but in his work. He already washes my clothes very +nicely indeed; his stout black arms are made for a +washer-boy. Achmet looked forward with great eagerness to +your coming. He is mad to go to England, and in his heart +planned to ingratiate himself with you, and go as a +‘general servant.’ He is very little, if at +all, bigger than a child of seven, but an Arab boy ‘<i>ne +doute de rien</i>’ and does serve admirably. What +would an English respectable cook say to seeing ‘two dishes +and a sweet’ cooked over a little old wood on a few bricks, +by a baby in a blue shirt? and very well cooked too, and followed +by incomparable coffee.</p> +<p>You will be pleased to hear that your capital story of the +London cabman has its exact counterpart here. ‘Oh +gracious God, what aileth thee, oh Achmet my brother, and why is +thy bosom contracted that thou hast not once said to me d------n +thy father, or son of a dog or pig, as thou art used to +do.’</p> +<p>Can’t you save up your holidays and come for four months +next winter with my Maurice? However perhaps you would be +bored on the Nile. I don’t know. People either +enjoy it rapturously or are bored, I believe. I am glad to +hear from Janet that you are well. I am much better. +The carpenter will finish in the boat to-day, then the painter +begins and in a week, Inshallah, I shall get back into her.</p> +<h3>September 21, 1886: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Off +Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>September</i> 21, 1886.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I am a good deal better again; the weather is delightful, and +the Nile in full flood, which makes the river scenery from the +boat very beautiful. Alick made my mouth water with his +descriptions of his rides with Janet about the dear old Surrey +country, having her with him seems to have quite set him +up. I have seen nothing and nobody but my ‘next +boat’ neighbour, Goodah Effendi, as Omar has been at work +all day in the boat, and I felt lazy and disinclined to go out +alone. Big Hassan of the donkeys has grown too lazy to go +about and I don’t care to go alone with a small boy +here. However I am out in the best of air all day and am +very well off. My two little boys are very diverting and +serve me very well. The news from Europe is to my ignorant +ideas <i>désolant</i>, a <i>dégringolade back</i> +into military despotism, which would have excited indignation +with us in our fathers’ days, I think. I get lots of +newspapers from Ross, which afterwards go to an Arab grocer, who +reads the <i>Times</i> and the <i>Saturday Review</i> in his shop +in the bazaar! what next? The cargo of books which Alick +and you sent will be most acceptable for winter +consumption. If I were a painter I would take up the Moslem +traditions of Joseph and Mary. He was not a white-bearded +old gentleman at all you must know, but young, lovely and pure as +Our Lady herself. They were cousins, brought up together; +and she avoided the light conversation of other girls, and used +to go to the well with her jar, hand in hand with Joseph carrying +his. After the angel Gabriel had announced to her the will +of God, and blown into her sleeve, whereby she conceived +‘the Spirit of God,’ Joseph saw her state with +dismay, and resolved to kill her, as was his duty as her nearest +male relation. He followed her, knife in hand, meaning +always to kill her at the next tree, and each time his heart +failed him, until they reached the well and the tree under which +the Divine messenger stood once more and said, ‘Fear not oh +Joseph, the daughter of thy uncle bears within her Eesa, the +Messiah, the Spirit of God.’ Joseph married his +cousin without fear. Is it not pretty? the two types of +youthful purity and piety, standing hand in hand before the +angel. I think a painter might make something out of the +soft-eyed Syrian boy with his jar on his shoulder (hers on the +head), and the grave, modest maiden who shrank from all profane +company.</p> +<p>I now know all about Sheykh Seleem, and why he sits naked on +the river bank; from very high authority—a great Sheykh to +whom it has been revealed. He was entrusted with the care +of some of the holy she camels, like that on which the Prophet +rode to Jerusalem in one night, and which are invisible to all +but the elect, and he lost one, and now he is God’s +prisoner till she is found.</p> +<p>A letter from aunt Charley all about her own and +Rainie’s country life, school feasts etc., made me quite +cry, and brought before me—oh, how vividly—the +difference between East and West, not quite <i>all</i> to the +advantage of home however, though mostly. What is pleasant +here is the primitive ways. Three times since I have been +here lads of most respectable families of Luxor have come to ask +hospitality, which consists in a place on the deck of the boat, +and liberty to dip their bread in the common dish with my slave +boy and Achmet. The bread they brought with them, +‘bread and shelter’ were not asked, as they slept +<i>sub dio</i>. In England I must have refused the +hospitality, on account of <i>gêne</i> and expense. +The chief object to the lads was the respectability of being +under my eye while away from their fathers, as a satisfaction to +their families; and while they ate and slept like beggars, as we +should say, they read their books and chatted with me, when I was +out on the deck, on perfectly equal terms, only paying the +respect proper to my age. I thought of the +‘orphanages and institutions’ and all the countless +difficulties of that sort, and wondered whether something was not +to be said for this absence of civilization in knives, forks, +beds, beer, and first and second tables above all. Of +course climate has a good deal to do with the facility with which +widows and orphans are absorbed here.</p> +<p>Goodbye dearest Mutter: to-day is post day, and Reis Mohammed +is about to trudge into town in such a dazzling white turban and +such a grand black robe. His first wife, whom he was going +to divorce for want of children, has brought him a son, and we +jeer him a little about what he may find in Luxor from the +second, and wish him a couple of dozen.</p> +<h3>October 15, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>October</i> 15, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have been back in my own boat four days, and most +comfortable she is. I enlarged the saloon, and made a good +writing table, and low easy divans instead of benches, and added +a sort of pantry and sleeping cabin in front; so that Omar has +not to come through the saloon to sleep; and I have all the +hareem part to myself. Inside there is a good large stern +cabin, and wash-closet and two small cabins with beds long enough +even for you. Inshallah, you and Maurice will come next +winter and go up the Nile and enjoy it with me. I intend to +sail in ten days and to send back the ‘Urania’ to +seek work for the winter. We had a very narrow escape of +being flooded this year. I fear a deal of damage has been +done to the dourrah and cotton crops. It was sad to see the +villagers close by here trying to pull up a little green dourrah +as the Nile slowly swallowed up the fields.</p> +<p>I was forced to flog Mabrook yesterday for smoking on the sly, +a grave offence here on the part of a boy; it is considered +disrespectful; so he was ordered, with much parade, to lie down, +and Omar gave him two cuts with a rope’s end, an apology +for a flogging which would have made an Eton boy stare. The +stick here is quite nominal, except in official hands. I +can’t say Mabrook seemed at all impressed, for he was +laughing heartily with Omar in less than ten minutes; but the +affair was conducted with as much solemnity as an execution.</p> +<p>‘Sheykh’ Stanley’s friend, Gezawee, has +married his negro slave to his own sister, on the plea that he +was the best young man he knew. What would a Christian +family say to such an arrangement?</p> +<p>My boat is beautifully buoyant now, and has come up by the +bows in fine style. I have not sailed her yet, but have +doubt she will ‘walk well’ as the Arabs say. +Omar got £10 by the sale of old wood and nails, and also +gave me 2000 piastres, nearly £12, which the workmen had +given him as a sort of backsheesh. They all pay one, two or +three piastres daily to any <i>wakeel</i> (agent) who +superintends; that is his profit, and it is enormous at that +rate. I said, ‘Why did you not refuse +it?’ But Omar replied they had pay enough after that +reduction, which is always made from them, and that in his +opinion therefore, it came out of the master’s pocket, and +was ‘cheatery.’ How people have been talking +nonsense about Jamaica <i>chez vous</i>. I have little +doubt Eyre did quite right, and still less doubt that the niggers +have had enough of the sort of provocation which I well know, to +account for the outbreak. Baker’s effusion is a very +poor business. There may be blacks like tigers (and whites +too in London for that matter). I myself have seen at least +five sorts of blacks (negroes, not Arabs), more unlike each other +than Swedes are unlike Spaniards; and many are just like +ourselves. Of course they want governing with a strong +hand, like all ignorant, childish creatures. But I am fully +convinced that custom and education are the only real differences +between one set of men and another, their inner nature is the +same all the world over.</p> +<p>My Reis spoke such a pretty parable the other day that I must +needs write it. A Coptic Reis stole some of my wood, which +we got back by force and there was some reviling of the Nazarenes +in consequence from Hoseyn and Ali; but Reis Mohammed said: +‘Not so; Girgis is a thief, it is true, but many Christians +are honest; and behold, all the people in the world are like +soldiers, some wear red and some blue; some serve on foot, others +on horseback, and some in ships; but all serve one Sultan, and +each fights in the regiment in which the Sultan has placed him, +and he who does his duty best is the best man, be his coat red or +blue or black.’ I said, ‘Excellent words, oh +Reis, and fit to be spoken from the best of pulpits.’ +It is surprising what happy sayings the people here hit upon; +they cultivate talk for want of reading, and the consequence is +great facility of narration and illustration. Everybody +enforces his ideas like Christ, in parables. Hajjee Hannah +told me two excellent fairy tales, which I will write for Rainie +with some Bowdlerizing, and several laughable stories, which I +will leave unrecorded, as savouring too much of Boccaccio’s +manner, or that of the Queen of Navarre. I told Achmet to +sweep the floor after dinner just now. He hesitated, and I +called again: ‘What manner is this, not to sweep when I bid +thee?’ ‘By the most high God,’ said the +boy, ‘my hand shall not sweep in thy boat after sunset, oh +Lady; I would rather have it cut off than sweep thee out of thy +property.’ I found that you must not sweep at night, +nor for three days after the departure of a guest whose return +you desire, or of the master of the house. ‘Thinkest +thou that my brother would sweep away the dust of thy feet from +the floors at Luxor,’ continued Achmet, ‘he would +fear never to see thy fortunate face again.’ If you +don’t want to see your visitor again you break a +<i>gulleh</i> (water-jar) behind him as he leaves the house, and +sweep away his footsteps.</p> +<p>What a canard your papers have in Europe about a constitution +here. I won’t write any politics, it is all too +dreary; and Cairo gossip is odious, as you may judge by the +productions of Mesdames Odouard and Lott. Only remember +this, there is no law nor justice but the will, or rather the +caprice, of one man. It is nearly impossible for any +European to conceive such a state of things as really +exists. Nothing but perfect familiarity with the governed, +<i>i.e.</i> oppressed, class will teach it; however intimate a +man may be with the rulers he will never fully take it in. +I am <i>à l’index</i> here, and none of the people I +know dare come to see me; Arab I mean. It was whispered in +my ear in the street by a friend I met. Ismael +Pasha’s chief pleasure is gossip, and a certain number of +persons, chiefly Europeans, furnish him with it daily, true or +false. If the farce of the constitution ever should be +acted here it will be superb. Something like the Consul +going in state to ask the fellaheen what wages they got. I +could tell you a little of the value of consular information; but +what is the use? Europe is enchanted with the enlightened +Pasha who has ruined this fine country.</p> +<p>I long so to see you and Rainie! I don’t like to +hope too much, but Inshallah, next year I shall see you all.</p> +<h3>October 19, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Off +Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>October</i> 19, 1866.</p> +<p>I shall soon sail up the river. Yesterday Seyd Mustapha +arrived, who says that the Greeks are all gone, and the poor +Austrian at Thebes is dead, so I shall represent Europe in my +single person from Siout to, I suppose, Khartoum.</p> +<p>You would delight in Mabrook; a man asked him the other day +after his flogging, if he would not run away, to see what he +would say as he alleged, I suspect he meant to steal and sell +him. ‘I run away, to eat lentils like you? when +<i>my</i> Effendi gives me meat and bread every day, and <i>I eat +such a lot</i>.’ Is not that a delicious practical +view of liberty? The creature’s enjoyment of life is +quite a pleasure to witness, and he really works very well and +with great alacrity. If Palgrave claims him I think I must +buy him.</p> +<p>I hear sad accounts from the Saeed: the new taxes and the new +levies of soldiers are driving the people to despair and many are +running away from the land, which will no longer feed them after +paying all exactions, to join the Bedaween in the desert, which +is just as if our peasantry turned gipsies. A man from +Dishné visited me: the people there want me to settle in +their village and offer me a voluntary <i>corvée</i> if I +will buy land, so many men to work for me two days a month each, +I haven’t a conception why. It is a place about fifty +miles below Luxor, a large agricultural village.</p> +<p>Omar’s wife Mabrookah came here yesterday, a nice young +woman, and the babies are fine children and very +sweet-tempered. She told me that the lion’s head, +which I sent down to Alexandria to go to you, was in her room +when a neighbour of hers, who had never had a child, saw it, and +at once conceived. The old image worship survives in the +belief, which is all over Egypt, that the ‘Anteeks’ +(antiques) can cure barrenness. Mabrookah was of course +very smartly dressed, and the reckless way in which Eastern women +treat their fine clothes gives them a grand air, which no +Parisian Duchess could hope to imitate—not that I think it +a virtue mind you, but some vices are genteel.</p> +<p>Last night was a great Sheykh’s fête, such +drumming and singing, and ferrying across the river. The +Nile is running down unusually fast, and I think I had better go +soon, as the mud of Cairo is not so sweet as the mud of the upper +land.</p> +<h3>October 25, 1866: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Off +Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>October</i> 25, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I have got all ready, and shall sail on Saturday. My men +have baked the bread, and received their wages to go to Luxor and +bring the boat back to let. It is turning cold, but I feel +none the worse for it, though I shall be glad to go. +I’ve had a dreary, worrying time here, and am tired of +hearing of all the meannesses and wickedness which constitute the +<i>on dits</i> here. Not that I hear much, but there is +nothing else. I shall be best at Luxor now the winter has +set in so early. You would laugh at such winter when one +sits out all day under an awning in English summer clothes, and +wants only two blankets at night; but all is comparative <i>ici +bas</i>, and I call it cold, and Mabrook ceases to consider his +clothes such a grievance as they were to him at first, and takes +kindly to a rough <i>capote</i> for the night. I have just +been interrupted by my Reis and one of my men, who came in to +display the gorgeous printed calico they have bought; one for his +Luxor wife and the other for his betrothed up near Assouan. +(The latter is about eight years old, and Hosein has dressed her +and paid her expenses these five years, as is the custom up in +that district.) The Reis has bought a silk head-kerchief +for nine shillings, but that was in the marriage contract. +So I must see, admire and wish good luck to the finery, and to +the girls who are to wear it. Then we had a little talk +about the prospects of letting the boat, and, Inshallah, making +some money for <i>el gamma</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, ‘all our +company,’ or ‘all of us together.’ The +Reis hopes that the <i>Howagat</i> will not be too outrageous in +their ways or given to use the stick, as the solution of every +difficulty.</p> +<p>The young Shurafa of Abu-l-Hajjaj came from Gama’l Azhar +to-day to bid me goodbye and bring their letters for Luxor. +I asked them about the rumours that the Ulema are preaching +against the Franks (which is always being said), but they had +heard nothing of the sort, and said they had not heard of +anything the Franks had done lately which would signify to the +Muslims at all. It is not the Franks who press so many +soldiers, or levy such heavy taxes three months in advance! +I will soon write again. I feel rather like the wandering +Jew and long for home and rest, without being dissatisfied with +what I have and enjoy, God knows. If I <i>could</i> get +better and come home next summer.</p> +<h3>November 21, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>November</i> 21, 1866</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I arrived here on the morning of the 11th. I am a beast +not to have written, but I caught cold after four days and have +really not been well, so forgive me, and I will narrate and not +apologize. We came up best pace, as the boat is a flyer +now, only fourteen days to Thebes, and to Keneh only +eleven. Then we had bad winds, and my men pulled away at +the rope, and sang about the <i>Reis el-Arousa</i> (bridegroom) +going to his bride, and even Omar went and pulled the rope. +We were all very merry, and played practical jokes on a rascal +who wanted a pound to guide me to the tombs: we made him run +miles, fetch innumerable donkeys, and then laughed at his +beard. Such is boatmen fun. On arriving at Luxor I +heard a <i>charivari</i> of voices, and knew I was ‘at +home,’ by the shrill pipe of the little children, <i>el +Sitt</i>, <i>el Sitt</i>. Visitors all day of course, at +night comes up another dahabieh, great commotion, as it had been +telegraphed from Cairo (which I knew before I left, and was to be +stopped). So I coolly said, ‘Oh Mustapha, the Indian +saint (Walee) is in thine eye, seeing that an Indian is all as +one with an Englishman.’ ‘How did I know there +was an Indian and a Walee?’ etc. Meanwhile the Walee +had a bad thumb, and some one told his slave that there was a +wonderful English doctress, so in the morning he sent for me, and +I went inside the hareem. He was very friendly, and made me +sit close beside him, told me he was fourth in descent from Abd +el-Kader Gylamee of Bagdad, but his father settled at Hyderabad, +where he has great estates. He said he was a Walee or +saint, and would have it that I was in the path of the +darweeshes; gave me medicine for my cough; asked me many +questions, and finally gave me five dollars and asked if I wanted +more? I thanked him heartily, kissed the money politely, +and told him I was not poor enough to want it and would give it +in his name to the poor of Luxor, but that I would never forget +that the Indian Sheykh had behaved like a brother to an English +woman in a strange land. He then spoke in great praise of +the ‘laws of the English,’ and said many more kind +things to me, adding again, ‘I tell thee thou art a +Darweesh, and do not thou forget me.’ Another Indian +from Lahore, I believe the Sheykh’s tailor, came to see +me—an intelligent man, and a Syrian doctor; a manifest +scamp. The people here said he was a <i>bahlawar</i> +(rope-dancer). Well, the authorities detained the boat with +fair words till orders came from Keneh to let them go up +further. Meanwhile the Sheykh came out and performed some +miracles, which I was not there to see, perfuming people’s +hands by touching them with his, and taking English sovereigns +out of a pocketless jacket, and the doctor told wonders of +him. Anyhow he spent £10 in one day here, and he is a +regular darweesh. He and all the Hareem were poorly dressed +and wore no ornaments whatever. I hope Seyd Abdurachman +will come down safe again, but no one knows what the Government +wants of him or why he is so watched. It is the first time +I ever saw an Oriental travelling for pleasure. He had +about ten or twelve in the hareem, among them his three little +girls, and perhaps twenty men outside, Indians, and Arabs from +Syria, I fancy.</p> +<p>Next day I moved into the old house, and found one end in +ruins, owing to the high Nile and want of repair. However +there is plenty more safe and comfortable. I settled all +accounts with my men, and made an inventory in Arabic, which +Sheykh Yussuf wrote for me, which we laughed over hugely. +How to express a sauce-boat, a pie-dish, etc. in Arabic, was a +poser. A genteel Effendi, who sat by, at last burst out in +uncontrollable amazement; ‘There is no God but God: is it +possible that four or five Franks can use all these things to +eat, drink and sleep on a journey?’ (N.B. I fear the +Franks will think the stock very scanty.) Whereupon master +Achmet, with the swagger of one who has seen cities and men, held +forth. ‘Oh Effendim, that is nothing; Our Lady is +almost like the children of the Arabs. One dish or two, a +piece of bread, a few dates, and Peace, (as we say, there is an +end of it). But thou shouldst see the merchants of +Escandarieh, (Alexandria), three tablecloths, forty dishes, to +each soul seven plates of all sorts, seven knives and seven forks +and seven spoons, large and small, and seven different glasses +for wine and beer and water.’ ‘It is the will +of God,’ replied the Effendi, rather put down: +‘but,’ he added, ‘it must be a dreadful fatigue +to them to eat their dinner.’ Then came an impudent +merchant who wanted to go down with his bales and five souls in +my boat for nothing. But I said, ‘Oh man, she is my +property, and I will eat from her of thy money as of the money of +the Franks.’ Whereupon he offered £1, but was +bundled out amid general reproaches for his avarice and want of +shame. So all the company said a <i>Fattah</i> for the +success of the voyage, and Reis Mohammed was exhorted to +‘open his eyes,’ and he should have a tarboosh if he +did well.</p> +<p>Then I went to visit my kind friend the Maōhn’s +wife, and tell her all about her charming daughter and +grandchildren. I was, of course, an hour in the streets +salaaming, etc. ‘<i>Sheerafteenee Beledna</i>, thou +hast honoured our country on all sides.’ +‘Blessings come with thee,’ etc.</p> +<p>Everything is cheaper than last year, but there is no money to +buy with, and the taxes have grown beyond bearing, as a fellah +said, ‘a man can’t (we will express it “blow +his nose,” if you please; the real phrase was less +parliamentary, and expressive of something at once <i>ventose</i> +and valueless) without a cawass behind him to levy a tax on +it.’ The ha’porth of onions we buy in the +market is taxed on the spot, and the fish which the man catches +under my window. I paid a tax on buying charcoal, and +another on having it weighed. People are terribly beaten to +get next year’s taxes out of them, which they have not the +money to pay.</p> +<p>The Nubian M.P.’s passed the other day in three boats, +towed by a steamer, very frightened and sullen. I fell in +with some Egyptians on my way, and tried the European style of +talk. ‘Now you will help to govern the country, what +a fine thing for you,’ etc. I got such a look of +rueful reproach. ‘Laugh not thou at our beards O +Effendim! God’s mercy, what words are these? and who +is there on the banks of the Nile who can say anything but +<i>hader</i> (ready), with both hands on the head, and a salaam +to the ground even to a Moudir; and thou talkest of speaking +before Effendina! Art thou mad, Effendim?’ Of +all the vexations none are more trying than the distinctions +which have been inflicted on the unlucky Sheykhs el-Beled. +In fear and trembling they ate their Effendina’s banquet +and sadly paid the bill: and those who have had the <i>Nishan</i> +(the order of the Mejeedee) have had to disburse fees whereat the +Lord Chamberlain’s staff’s mouths might water, and +now the wretched delegates to the Egyptian Chambers (God save the +mark) are going down with their hearts in their shoes. The +Nubians say that the Divan is to be held in the Citadel and that +the road by which the Memlook Beys left it is not stopped up, +though perhaps it goes underground nowadays. <a +name="citation315"></a><a href="#footnote315" +class="citation">[315]</a></p> +<p><i>November</i> 27.—The first steamer full of travellers +has just arrived, and with it the bother of the ladies all +wanting my saddle. I forbade Mustapha to send for it, but +they intimidate the poor old fellow, and he comes and kisses my +hand not to get him into trouble with one old woman who says she +is the relation of a Consul and a great lady in her own +country. I am what Mrs. Grote called ‘cake’ +enough to concede to Mustapha’s fears what I had sworn to +refuse henceforth. Last year five women on one steamer all +sent for my saddle, besides other things—campstools, +umbrellas, beer, etc., etc. This year I’ll bolt the +doors when I see a steamer coming. I hear the big people +are so angry with the Indian saint because he treated them like +dirt everywhere. One great man went with a Moudir to see +him, and asked him to sell him a memlook (a young slave +boy). The Indian, who had not spoken or saluted, burst +forth, ‘Be silent, thou wicked one! dost thou dare to ask +me to sell thee a soul to take it with thee to hell?’ +Fancy the surprise of the ‘distinguished’ Turk. +Never had he heard such language. The story has travelled +all up the river and is of course much enjoyed.</p> +<p>Last night Sheykh Yussuf gave an entertainment, killed a +sheep, and had a reading of the <i>Sirat er-Russoul</i> (Chapter +on the Prophet). It was the night of the Prophet’s +great vision, and is a great night in Islam. I was sorry +not to be well enough to go. Now that there is no Kadee +here, Sheykh Yussuf has lots of business to settle; and he came +to me and said, ‘Expound to me the laws of marriage and +inheritance of the Christians, that I may do no wrong in the +affairs of the Copts, for they won’t go and be settled by +the priest out of the Gospels, and I can’t find any laws, +except about marriage in the Gospels.’ I set him up +with the text of the tribute money, and told him to judge +according to his own laws, for that Christians had no laws other +than those of the country they lived in. Poor Yussuf was +sore perplexed about a divorce case. I refused to +‘expound,’ and told him all the learned in the law in +England had not yet settled which text to follow.</p> +<p>Do you remember the German story of the lad who travelled +<i>um das Grüseln zu lernen</i>? Well, I, who never +<i>grüselte</i> before, had a touch of it a few evenings +ago. I was sitting here quietly drinking tea, and four or +five men were present, when a cat came to the door. I +called ‘biss, biss,’ and offered milk, but pussy, +after looking at us, ran away. ‘Well dost thou, oh +Lady,’ said a quiet, sensible man, a merchant here, +‘to be kind to the cat, for I dare say he gets little +enough at home; <i>his</i> father, poor man, cannot cook for his +children every day.’ And then in an explanatory tone +to the company, ‘That is Alee Nasseeree’s boy +Yussuf—it must be Yussuf, because his fellow twin Ismaeen +is with his mule at Negadeh.’ <i>Mir +grüselte</i>, I confess, not but what I have heard things +almost as absurd from gentlemen and ladies in Europe; but an +‘extravagance’ in a <i>kuftan</i> has quite a +different effect from one in a tail coat. ‘What my +butcher’s boy who brings the meat—a cat?’ I +gasped. ‘To be sure, and he knows well where to look +for a bit of good cookery, you see. All twins go out as +cats at night if they go to sleep hungry; and their own bodies +lie at home like dead meanwhile, but no one must touch them, or +they would die. When they grow up to ten or twelve they +leave it off. Why your boy Achmet does it. Oh Achmet! +do you go out as a cat at night?’ ‘No,’ +said Achmet tranquilly, ‘I am not a twin—my +sister’s sons do.’ I inquired if people were +not afraid of such cats. ‘No, there is no fear, they +only eat a little of the cookery, but if you beat them they will +tell their parents next day, “So-and-so beat me in his +house last night,” and show their bruises. No, they +are not Afreets, they are <i>beni Adam</i> (sons of Adam), only +twins do it, and if you give them a sort of onion broth and +camel’s milk the first thing when they are born, they +don’t do it at all.’ Omar professed never to +have heard of it, but I am sure he had, only he dreads being +laughed at. One of the American missionaries told me +something like it as belonging to the Copts, but it is entirely +Egyptian, and common to both religions. I asked several +Copts who assured me it was true, and told it just the +same. Is it a remnant of the doctrine of +transmigration? However the notion fully accounts for the +horror the people feel at the idea of killing a cat.</p> +<p>A poor pilgrim from the black country was taken ill yesterday +at a village six miles from here, he could speak only a few words +of Arabic and begged to be carried to the Abab’deh. +So the Sheykh el-Beled put him on a donkey and sent him and his +little boy, and laid him in Sheykh Hassan’s house. He +called for Hassan and begged him to take care of the child, and +to send him to an uncle somewhere in Cairo. Hassan said, +‘Oh you will get well Inshallah, etc., and take the boy +with you.’ ‘I cannot take him into the grave +with me,’ said the black pilgrim. Well in the night +he died and the boy went to Hassan’s mat and said, +‘Oh Hassan, my father is dead.’ So the two +Sheykhs and several men got up and went and sat with the boy till +dawn, because he refused to lie down or to leave his +father’s corpse. At daybreak he said, ‘Take me +now and sell me, and buy new cloth to dress my father for the +tomb.’ All the Abab’deh cried when they heard +it, and Hassan went and bought the cloth, and some sweet stuff +for the boy who remains with him. Such is death on the road +in Egypt. I tell it as Hassan’s slave told it to me, +and somehow we all cried again at the poor little boy rising from +his dead father’s side to say, ‘Come now sell me to +dress my father for the tomb.’ These strange black +pilgrims always interest me. Many take four years to Mecca +and home, and have children born to them on the road, and learn a +few words of Arabic.</p> +<h3>December 5, 1866: Mrs. Ross</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Ross</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>December</i> 5, 1866.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Janet</span>,</p> +<p>I write in answer to yours by the steamer, to go down by the +same. I fancy I should be quite of your mind about +Italy. I hate the return of Europe to</p> +<blockquote><p>‘The good old rule and ancient plan,<br /> +That he should take who has the power,<br /> +And he should keep who can.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Nor can I be bullied into looking on ‘might’ as +‘right.’ Many thanks for the papers, I am +anxious to hear about the Candia business. All my +neighbours are sick at heart. The black boy Palgrave left +with me is a very good lad, only he can’t keep his clothes +clean, never having been subject to that annoyance before. +He has begun to be affectionate ever since I did not beat him for +breaking my only looking-glass. I wish an absurd respect +for public opinion did not compel him to wear a blue shirt and a +tarboosh (his suit), I see it is misery to him. He is a +very gentle cannibal.</p> +<p>I have been very unwell indeed and still am extremely weak, +but I hope I am on the mend. A eunuch here who is a holy +man tells me he saw my boat coming up heavily laden in his sleep, +which indicates a ‘good let.’ I hope my +reverend friend is right. If you sell any of your things +when you leave Egypt let me have some blankets for the boat; if +she is let to a friendly dragoman he will supply all deficiencies +out of his own canteen, but if to one ‘who knows not +Joseph’ I fear many things will be demanded by rightminded +British travellers, which must be left to the Reis’s +discretion to buy for them. I hope all the <i>fattahs</i> +said for the success of the ‘Urania’s’ voyage +will produce a due effect. Here we rely a good deal on the +favour of Abu-l-Hajjaj in such matters. The +<i>naïveté</i> with which people pray here for money +is very amusing—though really I don’t know why one +shouldn’t ask for one’s daily sixpence as well as +one’s daily bread.</p> +<p>An idiot of a woman has written to me to get her a place as +governess in an ‘European or Arabian family in the +neighbourhood of Thebes!’ Considering she has been +six years in Egypt as she says, she must be well fitted to +teach. She had better learn to make <i>gilleh</i> and spin +wool. The young Americans whom Mr. Hale sent were very +nice. The Yankees are always the best bred and best +educated travellers that I see here.</p> +<h3>December 31, 1886: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>December</i> 31, 1886.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I meant to have sent you a long yarn by a steamer which went +the other day, but I have been in my bed. The weather set +in colder than I ever felt it here, and I have been very unwell +for some time. Dr. Osman Ibraheem (a friend of mine, an +elderly man who studied in Paris in Mohammed Ali’s time) +wants me to spend the summer up here and take sand baths, +<i>i.e.</i> bury myself up to the chin in the hot sand, and to +get a Dongola slave to rub me. A most fascinating derweesh +from Esneh gave me the same advice; he wanted me to go and live +near him at Esneh, and let him treat me. I wish you could +see Sheykh Seleem, he is a sort of remnant of the Memlook +Beys—a Circassian—who has inherited his +master’s property up at Esneh, and married his +master’s daughter. The master was one of the Beys, +also a slave inheriting from his master. Well after being a +terrible <i>Shaitan</i> (devil) after drink, women, etc. +Seleem has repented and become a man of pilgrimage and prayer and +perpetual fasting; but he has retained the exquisite grace and +charm of manner which must have made him irresistible in his +<i>shaitan</i> days, and also the beautifully delicate style of +dress—a dove-coloured cloth <i>sibbeh</i> over a pale blue +silk <i>kuftan</i>, a turban like a snow-drift, under which +flowed the silky fair hair and beard, and the dainty white hands +under the long muslin shirt sleeve made a picture; and such a +smile, and such ready graceful talk. Sheykh Yussuf brought +him to me as a sort of doctor, and also to try and convert me on +one point. Some Christians had made Yussuf quite miserable, +by telling him of the doctrine that all unbaptized infants went +to eternal fire; and as he knew that I had lost a child very +young, it weighed on his mind that perhaps I fretted about this, +and so he said he could not refrain from trying to convince me +that God was not so cruel and unjust as the Nazarene priests +represented Him, and that all infants whatsoever, as well as all +ignorant persons, were to be saved. ‘Would that I +could take the cruel error out of the minds of all the hundreds +and thousands of poor Christian mothers who must be tortured by +it,’ said he, ‘and let them understand that their +dead babies are with Him who sent and who took them.’ +I own I did not resent this interference with my orthodoxy, +especially as it is the only one I ever knew Yussuf attempt.</p> +<p>Dr. Osman is a lecturer in the Cairo school of medicine, a +Shereef, and eminently a gentleman. He came up in the +passenger steamer and called on me and spent all his spare time +with me. I liked him better than the bewitching derweesh +Seleem; he is so like my old love Don Quixote. He was +amazed and delighted at what he heard here about me. +‘<i>Ah Madame, on vous aime comme une sœur, et on +vous respecte comme une reine; cela rejouit le cœur des +honnêtes gens de voir tous les préjugés +oubliés et détruits à ce +point</i>.’ We had no end of talk. Osman is the +only Arab I know who has read a good deal of European literature +and history and is able to draw comparisons. He said, +‘<i>Vous seule dans toute l’Egypte connaissez le +peuple et comprenez ce qui se passe, tous les autres +Européens ne savent absolument rien que les dehors; il +n’y a que vous qui ayez inspiré la confiance +qu’il faut pour connaître la +vénté</i>.’ Of course this is between +ourselves, I tell you, but I don’t want to boast of the +kind thoughts people have of me, simply because I am decently +civil to them.</p> +<p>In Egypt we are eaten up with taxes; there is not a penny left +to anyone. The taxes for the whole year <i>eight months in +advance</i> have been levied, as far as they can be beaten out of +the miserable people. I saw one of the poor dancing girls +the other day, (there are three in Luxor) and she told me how +cruel the new tax on them is. It is left to the discretion +of the official who farms it to make each woman pay according to +her presumed gains, <i>i.e.</i> her good looks, and thus the poor +women are exposed to all the caprices and extortions of the +police. This last new tax has excited more disgust than +any. ‘We now know the name of our ruler,’ said +a fellah who had just heard of it, ‘he is <i>Mawas</i> +Pasha.’ I won’t translate—but it is a +terrible epithet when uttered in a tone which gives it the true +meaning, though in a general way the commonest word of abuse to a +donkey, or a boy, or any other cattle. The wages of +prostitution are unclean, and this tax renders all Government +salaries unlawful according to strict law. The capitation +tax too, which was remitted for three years on the pasha’s +accession to the people of Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta and +Rascheed, is now called for. Omar will have to pay about +£8 back tax, which he had fondly imagined himself excused +from. You may conceive the distress this must cause among +artisans, etc., who have spent their money and forgotten it, and +feel cheated out of the blessings they then bestowed on the +Pasha—as to that they will take out the change in +curses.</p> +<p>There was a meeting here the other day of the Kadee, Sheykh +el-Beled, and other notables to fix the amount of tax each man +was to pay towards the increased police tax; and the old Shereef +at the end spoke up, and said he had heard that one man had asked +me to lend him money, and that he hoped such a thing would not +happen again. Everyone knew I had had heavy expenses this +year, and most likely had not much money; that my heart was soft, +and that as everyone was in distress it would be ‘breaking +my head,’ and in short that he should think it unmanly if +anyone tried to trouble a lone woman with his troubles. I +did offer one man £2 that he might not be forced to run +away to the desert, but he refused it and said, ‘I had +better go at once and rob out there, and not turn rogue towards +thee—never could I repay it.’ The people are +running away in all directions.</p> +<p>When the Moolid of the Sheykh came the whole family +Abu-l-Hajjaj could only raise six hundred and twenty piastres +among them to buy the buffalo cow, which by custom—strong +as the laws of the Medes and Persians—must be killed for +the strangers who come; and a buffalo cow is worth one thousand +piastres. So the stout old Shereef (aged 87) took his staff +and the six hundred and twenty piastres, and sallied forth to +walk to Erment and see what God would send them; and a charitable +woman in Erment did give a buffalo cow for the six hundred and +twenty piastres, and he drove her home the twenty miles +rejoicing.</p> +<p>There has been a burglary over at Gourneh, an unheard-of +event. Some men broke into the house of the Coptic +<i>gabit</i> (tax-gatherer) and stole the money-box containing +about sixty purses—over £150. The <i>gabit</i> +came to me sick with the fright which gave him jaundice, and +about eight men are gone in chains to Keneh on suspicion. +Hajjee Baba too, a Turkish cawass, is awfully bilious; he says he +is ‘sick from beating men, and it’s no use, you +can’t coin money on their backs and feet when they +haven’t a para in the world.’ Altogether +everyone is gloomy, and many desperate. I never saw the +aspect of a population so changed.</p> +<p>January 1, 1867. God bless you, dearest Alick, and grant +you many good years more. I must finish this to go +to-morrow by the steamer. I would give a great deal to see +you again, but when will that be?</p> +<h3>January 12, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>January</i> 12, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>Only two days ago I received letters from you of the 17 +September and the 19 November. I wonder how many get lost +and where? Janet gives me hopes of a visit of a few days in +March and promises me a little terrier dog, whereat Omar is in +raptures. I have made no plans at all, never having felt +well enough to hope to be able to travel. The weather has +changed for the better, and it is not at all old now; we shall +see what the warmth does for me. You make my bowels yearn +with your account of Rainie. If only we had Prince +Achmet’s carpet, and you could all come here for a few +months.</p> +<p>We were greatly excited here last week; a boy was shot out in +the sugar-cane field: he was with four Copts, and at first it +looked ugly for the Copts. But the Maōhn tells me he +is convinced they are innocent, and that they only prevaricated +from fear—it was robbers shot the poor child. What +struck and surprised me in the affair was the excessive horror +and consternation it produced; the Maōhn had not had a +murder in his district at all in eight years. The +market-place was thronged with wailing women, Omar was sick all +day, and the Maōhn pale and wretched. The horror of +killing seems greater here than ever I saw it. Palgrave +says the same of the Arabian Arabs in his book: it is not +one’s notion of Oriental feeling, but a murder in England +is taken quite as a joke compared with the scene here. I +fear there will be robberies, owing to the distress, and the +numbers who are running away from the land unable to pay their +taxes. Don’t fear for me, for I have two watchmen in +the house every night—the regular guard and an amateur, a +man whose boy I took down to Cairo to study in Gama’l +Azhar.</p> +<p>Palgrave has written to Ross wanting Mabrook back. I am +very sorry, the more so as Mabrook is recalcitrant. +‘I want to stay with thee, I don’t want to go back to +the Nazarene.’ A boy who heard him said, ‘but +the Lady is a Nazarene too;’ whereupon Mabrook slapped his +face with great vigour. He will be troublesome if he does +turn restive, and he is one who can only be managed by +kindness. He is as good and quiet as possible with us, but +the stubborn will is there and he is too ignorant to be reasoned +with.</p> +<p><i>January</i> 14.—To-day the four Copts have again +changed their story, and after swearing that the robbers were +strangers, have accused a man who has shot birds for me all this +winter: and the poor devil is gone to Keneh in chains. The +weather seems to have set in steadily for fine. I hope soon +to get out, but my donkey has grown old and shaky and I am too +weak to walk, so I sit in the balcony.</p> +<h3>January 14, 1867: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>January</i> 14, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>We have had a very cold winter and I have been constantly +ailing, luckily the cough has transferred itself from the night +to the day, and I get some good sleep. The last two days +have been much warmer and I hope matters will mend. I am +beginning to take cod-liver oil, as we can’t find a milch +camel anywhere.</p> +<p>My boat has been well let in Cairo and is expected here every +day. The gentlemen shoot, and tell the crew not to row, and +in short take it easy, and give them £2 in every +place. Imagine what luxury for my crew. I shall have +to dismiss the lot, they will be so spoilt. The English +Consul-General came up in a steamer with Dr. Patterson and Mr. +Francis. I dined with them one day; I wish you could have +seen me carried in my armchair high up on the shoulders of four +men, like a successful candidate, or more like one of the +Pharaohs in an ancient bas-relief, preceded by torch bearers and +other attendants and followers, my procession was quite +regal. I wish I could show you a new friend of mine, Osman +Ibraheem, who studied medicine five years in Paris. My +heart warmed to him directly, because like most high-bred Arabs, +he is so like Don Quixote—only Don Quixote quite in his +senses. The sort of innocent sententiousness, and perfectly +natural love of fine language and fine sentiments is unattainable +to any European, except, I suppose, a Spaniard. It is quite +unlike Italian fustian or French <i>sentiment</i>. I +suppose to most Europeans it is ridiculous, but I used to cry +when the carriers beat the most noble of all knights, when I was +a little girl and read Don Quixote; and now I felt as it were +like Sancho, when I listened to Osman reciting bits of heroic +poetry, or uttering ‘wise saws’ and ‘modern +instances,’ with the peculiar mixture of strong sense of +‘exultation’ which stamps the great Don. I may +not repeat all I heard from him of the state of things here, and +the insults he had to endure—a Shereef and an educated +man—from coarse Turkish Pashas; it was the carriers over +again. He told me he had often cried like a woman, at night +in his own room, at the miseries he was forced to witness and +could do nothing to relieve; all the men I have particularly +liked I find are more or less pupils of the Sheykh el-Bagooree +now dead, who seems to have had a gift of inspiring honourable +feeling. Our good Maōhn is one; he is no conjuror, but +the honesty and goodness are heroic which lead a man to starve on +£15 a month, when he is expected to grow rich on +plunder.</p> +<p>The war in Crete saddens many a household here. Sheykh +Yussuf’s brother, Sheykh Yooris, is serving there, and many +more. People are actually beginning to say ‘We hope +the English and French won’t fight for the Sultan if the +Moscovites want to eat him—there will be no good for us +till the Turks are driven out.’ All the old religious +devotion to the Sultan seems quite gone.</p> +<p>Poor Mustapha has been very unwell and I stopped his Ramadan, +gave him some physic and ordered him not to fast, for which I +think he is rather grateful. The Imaam and Mufti always +endorse my prohibitions of fasting to my patients. Old +Ismaeen is dead, aged over a hundred; he served Belzoni, and when +he grew doting was always wanting me to go with him to join +Belzoni at Abu Simbel. He was not at all ill—he only +went out like a candle. His grandson brought me a bit of +the meat cooked at his funeral, and begged me to eat it, that I +might live to be very old, according to the superstition +here. When they killed the buffalo for the Sheykh +Abu-l-Hajjaj, the man who had a right to the feet kindly gave +them to Omar, who wanted to make calves’ foot jelly for +me. I had a sort of profane feeling, as if I were eating a +descendant of the bull Apis.</p> +<p>I am reading Mme. du Deffand’s letters. What a +repulsive picture of a woman. I don’t know which I +dislike most, Horace Walpole or herself: the conflict of +selfishness, vanity and <i>ennui</i> disguised as sentiment is +quite hateful: to her Turgot was <i>un sot animal</i>,—so +much for her great gifts.</p> +<p>Remember me kindly to William and tell him how much I wish I +could see his ‘improvements,’ Omar also desires his +salaam to him, having a sort of fellow feeling for your faithful +henchman. I need not say he kisses your hand most +dutifully.</p> +<h3>January 22, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>January</i> 22, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>The weather has been lovely, for the last week, and I am +therefore somewhat better. My boat arrived to-day, with all +the men in high good-humour, and Omar tells me all is in good +order, only the people in Cairo gave her the evil eye, and broke +the iron part of the rudder which had to be repaired at +Benisouef. Mr. Lear has been here the last few days, and is +just going up to the second cataract; he has done a little +drawing of my house for you—a new view of it. He is a +pleasant man and I was glad to see him.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill328b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Lady Duff Gordon, from oil portrait by Henry W. Phillips, about +1851" +title= +"Lady Duff Gordon, from oil portrait by Henry W. Phillips, about +1851" +src="images/ill328s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Such a queer fellow came here the other day—a tall +stalwart Holsteiner, I should think a man of fifty, who has been +four years up in the Soudan and Sennaar, and being penniless, had +walked all through Nubia begging his way. He was not the +least ‘down upon his luck’ and spoke with enthusiasm +of the hospitality and kindness of Sir Samuel Baker’s +‘tigers.’ <i>Ja, das sind die rechten Kerls, +dass ist das glückliche Leben</i>. His account is that +if you go with an armed party, the blacks naturally show fight, +as men with guns, in their eyes, are always slave hunters; but if +you go alone and poor, they kill an ox for you, unless you prefer +a sheep, give you a hut, and generally anything they have to +offer, <i>merissey</i> (beer) to make you as drunk as a lord, and +young ladies to pour it out for you—and—you need not +wear any clothes. If you had heard him you would have +started for the interior at once. I gave him a dinner and a +bottle of common wine, which he emptied, and a few shillings, and +away he trudged merrily towards Cairo. I wonder what the +Nubians thought of a <i>howagah</i> begging. He said they +were all kind, and that he was sure he often ate what they +pinched themselves to give—dourrah bread and dates.</p> +<p>In the evening we were talking about this man’s stories, +and of ‘anthropophagi and men whose heads do grow’ to +a prodigious height, by means of an edifice woven of their own +hair, and other queer things, when Hassan told me a story which +pleased me particularly. ‘My father,’ said he, +‘Sheykh Mohammed (who was a taller and handsomer man than I +am), was once travelling very far up in the black country, and he +and the men he was with had very little to eat, and had killed +nothing for many days; presently they heard a sort of wailing +from a hole in the rock, and some of the men went in and dragged +out a creature—I know not, and my father knew not, whether +a child of Adam or a beast. But it was like a very foul and +ill-shaped woman, and had six toes on its feet. The men +wished to slay it, according to the law declaring it to be a +beast and lawful food, but when it saw the knife, it cried sadly +and covered its face with its hands in terror, and my father +said, ‘By the Most High God, ye shall not slay the poor +woman-beast which thus begs its life; I tell you it is unlawful +to eat one so like the children of Adam.’ And the +beast or woman clung to him and hid under his cloak; and my +father carried her for some time behind him on his horse, until +they saw some creatures like her, and then he sent her to them, +but he had to drive her from him by force, for she clung to +him. Thinkest thou oh Lady, it was really a beast, or some +sort of the children of Adam?’</p> +<p>‘God knows, and He only,’ said I piously, +‘but by His indulgent name, thy father, oh Sheykh, was a +true nobleman.’ Sheykh Yussuf chimed in and gave a +decided opinion that a creature able to understand the sight of +the knife and to act so, was not lawful to kill for food. +You see what a real Arab Don Quixote was. It is a picture +worthy of him,—the tall, noble-looking Abab’deh +sheltering the poor ‘woman-beast,’ most likely a +gorilla or chimpanzee, and carrying her <i>en croupe</i>.</p> +<h3>January 26, 1867: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>January</i> 26, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I must betray dear Sheykh Yussuf’s confidence, and tell +you his love story.</p> +<p>A young fellow ran away with a girl he loved a short time ago, +she having told him that her parents wanted to marry her to +another, and that she would go to such a spot for water, and he +must come on a horse, beat her and carry her off (the beating +saves the maiden’s blushes). Well, the lad did it, +and carried her to Salamieh where they were married, and then +they went to Sheykh Yussuf to get him to conciliate the family, +which he did. He told me the affair, and I saw he +sympathized much with the runaways. ‘Ah,’ he +said ‘Lady, it is love, and that is terrible, I can tell +thee love is dreadful indeed to bear.’ Then he +hesitated and blushed, and went on, ‘I felt it once, Lady, +it was the will of God that I should love her who is now my +wife. Thirteen years ago I loved her and wished to marry +her, but my father, and her grandfather my uncle the Shereef, had +quarrelled, and they took her and married her to another +man. I never told anyone of it, but my liver was burning +and my heart ready to burst for three years; but when I met her I +fixed my eyes on the ground for fear she should see my love, and +I said to myself, Oh Yussuf, God has afflicted thee, praise be +unto Him, do thou remember thy blood (Shereef) and let thy +conduct be that of the Beni Azra who when they are thus afflicted +die rather than sin, for they have the strongest passion of love +and the greatest honour. And I did not die but went to +Cairo to the Gama el-Azhar and studied, and afterwards I married +twice, as thou knowest, but I never loved any but that one, and +when my last wife died the husband of this one had just divorced +her to take a younger and prettier one and my father desired me +then to take her, but I was half afraid not knowing whether she +would love me; but, Praise be to God I consented, and behold, +poor thing, she also had loved me in like manner.’ I +thought when I went to see her that she was unusually radiant +with new-married happiness, and she talked of +‘el-Sheykh’ with singular pride and delight, and +embraced me and called me ‘mother’ most +affectionately. Is it not a pretty piece of regular Arab +romance like Ghamem?</p> +<p>My boat has gone up to-day with two very nice Englishmen in +her. Their young Maltese dragoman, aged twenty-four, told +me his father often talked of ‘the Commissioners’ and +all they had done, and how things were changed in the island for +the better. (1) Everything spiritual and temporal has been +done for the boat’s safety in the Cataract—urgent +letters to the Maōhn el Baudar, and him of Assouan to see to +the men, and plenty of prayers and vows to Abu-l-Hajjaj on behalf +of the ‘property of the Lady,’ or <i>kurzweg</i> +‘our boat’ as she is commonly called in Luxor.</p> +<p>Here we have the other side of the misery of the Candian +business; in Europe, of course, the obvious thing is the +sufferings of the Cretans, but really I am more sorry for the +poor fellah lads who are dragged away to fight in a quarrel they +had no hand in raising, and with which they have no +sympathy. The <i>Times</i> suggests that the Sultan should +relinquish the island, and that has been said in many an Egyptian +hut long before. The Sultan is worn out, and the Muslims +here know it, and say it would be the best day for the Arabs if +he were driven out; that after all a Turk never was the true +<i>Ameer el-Moomeneen</i> (Commander of the Faithful). Only +in Europe people talk and write as if it were all Muslim +<i>versus</i> Christian, and the Christians were all oppressed, +and the Muslims all oppressors. I wish they could see the +domineering of the Greeks and Maltese as Christians. The +Englishman domineers as a free man and a Briton, which is +different, and that is the reason why the Arabs wish for English +rule, and would dread that of Eastern Christians. Well they +may; for if ever the Greeks do reign in Stamboul the sufferings +of the Muslims will satisfy the most eager fanatic that ever +cursed Mahound. I know nothing of Turkey, but I have seen +and heard enough to know that there are plenty of other divisions +besides that of Christian and Muslim. Here in Egypt it is +clear enough: it is Arab <i>versus</i> Turk and the Copt siding +with the stronger for his interest, while he rather sympathizes +with his brother fellah. At all events the Copt don’t +want other Christians to get power; he would far rather have a +Muslim than a heretic ruler, above all the hated Greek. The +Englishman he looks on as a variety of Muslim—a man who +washes, has no pictures in his church, who has married bishops, +and above all, who does not fast from all that has life for half +the year, and this heresy is so extreme as not to give offence, +unless he tries to convert.</p> +<p>The Pasha’s sons have just been up the river: they +ordered a reading of the Koran at the tomb of Abu-l-Hajjaj and +gave every Alim sixpence. We have not left off chaffing (as +Maurice would say) Sheykh Allah-ud-deen, the Muezzin, and sundry +others on this superb backsheesh, and one old Fikee never knows +whether to laugh, to cry, or to scold, when I ask to see the +shawl and tarboosh he has bought with the presents of +Pashas. Yussuf and the Kadee too had been called on to +contribute baskets of bread to the steamer so that their +sixpences were particularly absurd.</p> +<p>The little boy whose father died is still with the +Abab’deh, who will not let him travel to Cairo till the +weather is warmer and they find a safe person to be kind to +him. Rachmeh says ‘Please God, he will go with the +Sitt, perhaps.’ Hassan has consoled him with +sugar-cane and indulgence, and if I lose Mabrook, and the little +boy takes to me, he may fall into my hands as Achmet has +done. I hear he is a good boy but a perfect savage; that +however, I find makes no difference—in fact, I think they +learn faster than those who have ways of their own. So I +see Terence was a nigger! I would tell Rachmeh so if I +could make him understand who Terence was, and that he, Rachmeh, +stood in need of any encouragement, but the worthy fellow never +imagines that his skin is in any way inferior to mine.</p> +<h3>February 3, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>February</i> 3, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>The boat goes down to-morrow and I have little to add to +Mutter’s letter, only that I am better.</p> +<p>There is a man here from Girgeh, who says he is married to a +Ginneeyeh (fairy) princess. I have asked to be presented to +her, but I suspect there will be some hitch about it. It +will be like Alexis’s <i>Allez, Madame, vous êtes +trop incrédule</i>. <a name="citation334"></a><a +href="#footnote334" class="citation">[334]</a> The +unintelligible thing is the motive which prompts wonders and +miracles here, seeing that the wonder workers do not get any +money by it; and indeed, very often give, like the Indian saint I +told you of who gave me four dollars. His miracles were all +gratis, which was the most miraculous thing of all in a +saint. I am promised that the Ginneeyeh shall come through +the wall. If she should do so I shall be compelled to +believe in her, as there are no mechanical contrivances in +Luxor. All the Hareem here believe it, and the man’s +human wife swears she waits on her like a slave, and backs her +husband’s lie or delusion fully. I have not seen the +man, but I should not wonder if it were a delusion—real +<i>bona fide</i> visions and revelations are so common, and I +think there is but little downright imposture. Meanwhile +familiarity breeds contempt. Jinns, Afreets and Shaitans +inspire far less respect than the stupidest ghost at home, and +the devil (Iblees) is reduced to deplorable insignificance. +He is never mentioned in the pulpit, or in religious +conversation, with the respect he enjoys in Christian +countries. I suppose we may console ourselves with the hope +that he will pay off the Muslims for their neglect of him +hereafter.</p> +<p>I cannot describe to you the misery here now, indeed it is +wearisome even to think of: every day some new tax. Now +every beast; camel, cow, sheep, donkey, horse, is made to +pay. The fellaheen can no longer eat bread, they are living +on barley meal, mixed with water and new green stuff, vetches +etc., which to people used to good food is terrible, and I see +all my acquaintances growing seedy and ragged and anxious. +Yussuf is clear of debt, his religion having kept him from +borrowing, but he wants to sell his little slave girl, and has +sold his donkey, and he is the best off. The taxation makes +life almost impossible—100 piastres per feddan, a tax on +every crop, on every annual fruit, and again when it is sold in +the market; on every man, on charcoal, on butter, on salt, on the +dancing girls. I wonder I am not tormented for +money—not above three people have tried to beg or +borrow.</p> +<p>Thanks for the Westminster epilogue; it always amuses me +much. So Terence was a nigger. There is no trace of +the negro ‘boy’ in his Davus. My nigger has +grown huge, and has developed a voice of thunder. He is of +the elephantine rather than the tiger species, a very mild young +savage. I shall be sorry when Palgrave takes him. I +am tempted to buy Yussuf’s nice little Dinka girl to +replace him, only a girl is such an impossibility where there is +no regular hareem. In the boat Achmet is enough under Omar; +but in this large dusty house, and with errands to run, and +comers and goers to look after, pipes and coffee and the like, it +takes two boys to be comfortable. Mabrook too washes very +well. It is surprising how fast the boys learn, and how +well they do their work. Achmet, who is quite little, would +be a perfectly sufficient servant for a man alone; he can cook, +wash, clean the rooms, make the beds, do all the table service, +knife and plate cleaning, all fairly well, and I believe now he +would get along even without Omar’s orders. Mabrook +is slower, but he has the same merit our poor Hassan had, <a +name="citation336"></a><a href="#footnote336" +class="citation">[336]</a> he never forgets what he has been once +told to do, and he is clean in his work, though hopelessly dirty +as to his clothes. He cannot get used to them, and takes a +roll in the dust, or leans against a dirty wall, oblivious of his +clean-washed blue shirt. Achmet is quicker and more +careless, but they both are good boys and very fond of +Omar. ‘Uncle Omar’ is the form of address, +though he scolds them pretty severely if they misbehave; and I +observe that the high jinks take place chiefly when only I am in +the way, and Omar gone to market or to the mosque. The +little rogues have found out that their laughing does not +‘affect my nerves,’ and I am often treated to a share +in the joke. How I wish Rainie could see the children: they +would amuse her. Yussuf’s girl, ‘Meer en +Nezzil,’ is a charming child, and very clever; her emphatic +way of explaining everything to me, and her gestures, would +delight you. Her cousin and future husband, age five (she +is six), broke the doll which I had given her, and her +description of it was most dramatic, ending with a wheedling +glance at the cupboard and ‘of course there are no more +dolls there; oh no, no more.’ She is a fine little +creature, far more Arab than fellaha; quite a <i>Shaitan</i>, her +father says. She came in full of making cakes for Bairam, +and offered her services; ‘Oh my aunt, if thou wantest +anything I can work,’ said she, tucking up her sleeves.</p> +<h3>March 6, 1867: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>March</i> 6, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>The warm weather has set in, and I am already as much the +better for it as usual. I had a slight attack, not nearly +so bad as that at Soden, but it lingered and I kept my bed as a +measure of precaution. Dear Yussuf was with me the evening +I was attacked, and sat up all night to give me my medicine every +hour. At the prayer of dawn, an hour and a half before +sunrise, I heard his supplications for my life and health, and +for you and all my family; and I thought of what I had lately +read, how the Greeks massacred their own patriots because the +Turks had shown them mercy—a display of temper which I hope +will enlighten Western Christendom as to what the Muslims have to +expect, if they (the Western Christians) help the Eastern +Christians to get the upper hand. Yussuf was asking about a +lady the other day who has turned Catholic. ‘Poor +thing,’ said he, ‘the priests have drawn out her +brains through her ears, no doubt: but never fear, her heart is +good and her charity is great, and God will not deal hardly with +those who serve Him with their hearts, though it is sad she +should bow down before images. But look at thy slave +Mabrook, can he understand one hundredth part of the thoughts of +thy mind? Never-the-less he loves thee, and obeys thee with +pleasure and alacrity; and wilt thou punish him because he knows +not all thy ways? And shall God, who is so much higher +above us as thou art above thy slave, be less just than +thou?’ I pinned him at once, and insisted on knowing +the orthodox belief; but he quoted the Koran and the decisions of +the Ulema to show that he stretched no point as far as Jews and +Christians are concerned, and even that idolaters are not to be +condemned by man. Yussuf wants me to write a short account +of the faith from his dictation. Would anyone publish +it? It annoys him terribly to hear the Muslims constantly +accused of intolerance, and he is right—it is not +true. They show their conviction that their faith is the +best in the world with the same sort of naïveté that +I have seen in very innocent and ignorant English women; in fact, +display a sort of religious conceit; but it is not often bitter +or <i>haineux</i>, however much they are in earnest.</p> +<p>I am going to write to Palgrave and ask him to let me send +another boy or the money for Mabrook, who can’t endure the +notion of leaving me. Achmet, who was always hankering +after the fleshpots of Alexandria, got some people belonging to +the boats to promise to take him, and came home and picked a +quarrel and departed. Poor little chap; the Sheykh el-Beled +‘put a spoke in his wheel’ by informing him he would +be wanted for the Pasha’s works and must stay in his own +place. Since he went Mabrook has come out wonderfully and +does his own work and Achmet’s with the greatest +satisfaction. He tells me he likes it best so; he likes to +be quiet. He just suits me and I him, it is humiliating to +find how much more I am to the taste of savages than of the +‘polite circles.’</p> +<p>The old lady of the Maōhn proposed to come to me, but I +would not let her leave her home, which would be quite an +adventure to her. I knew she would be exclamatory, and +lament over me, and say every minute, ‘Oh my liver. +Oh my eyes! The name of God be upon thee, and never mind! +to-morrow please God, thou wilt be quite well,’ and so +forth. People send me such odd dishes, some very +good. Yussuf’s wife packed two calves’ feet +tight in a little black earthern pan, with a seasoning of herbs, +and baked it in the bread oven, and the result was +excellent. Also she made me a sort of small macaroni, +extremely good. Now too we can get milk again, and Omar +makes <i>kishta</i>, alias clotted cream.</p> +<p>Do send me a good edition of the ‘Arabian Nights’ +in Arabic, and I should much like to give Yussuf Lane’s +Arabic dictionary. He is very anxious to have it. I +can’t read the ‘Arabian Nights,’ but it is a +favourite amusement to make one of the party read aloud; a stray +copy of ‘Kamar ez-Zeman and Sitt Boodoora’ went all +round Luxor, and was much coveted for the village +<i>soirées</i>. But its owner departed, and left us +to mourn over the loss of his MSS.</p> +<p>I must tell you a black standard of respectability (it is +quite equal to the English one of the gig, or the ham for +breakfast). I was taking counsel with my friend Rachmeh, a +negro, about Mabrook, and he urged me to buy him of Palgrave, +because he saw that the lad really loved me. +‘Moreover,’ he said, ‘the boy is of a +respectable family, for he told me his mother wore a cow’s +tail down to her heels (that and a girdle to which the tail is +fastened, and a tiny leathern apron in front, constituted her +whole wardrobe), and that she beat him well when he told lies or +stole his neighbours eggs.’ Poor woman; I wish this +abominable slave trade had spared her and her boy. What +folly it is to stop the Circassian slave trade, if it is stopped, +and to leave this. The Circassians take their own children +to market, as a way of providing for them handsomely, and both +boys and girls like being sold to the rich Turks; but the blacks +and Abyssinians fight hard for their own liberty and that of +their cubs. Mabrook swears that there were two Europeans in +the party which attacked his village and killed he knew not how +many, and carried him and others off. He was not stolen by +Arabs, or by Barrabias, like Hassan, but taken in war from his +home by the seaside, a place called Bookee, and carried in a ship +to Jedda, and thence back to Koseir and Keneh, where Palgrave +bought him. I must say that once here the slaves are happy +and well off, but the waste of life and the misery caused by the +trade must be immense. The slaves are coming down the river +by hundreds every week, and are very cheap—twelve to twenty +pounds for a fine boy, and nine pounds and upwards for a +girl. I heard that the last <i>gellab</i> offered a woman +and baby for anything anyone would give for them, on account of +the trouble of the baby. By-the-bye, Mabrook displays the +negro talent for babies. Now that Achmet is gone, who +scolded them and drove them out, Mohammed’s children, quite +babies, are for ever trotting after ‘Maboo,’ as they +pronounce his name, and he talks incessantly to them. It +reminds me so of Janet and poor Hassan, but Mabrook is not like +Hassan, he is one of the sons of Anak, and already as big and +strong as a man, with the most prodigious chest and limbs.</p> +<p>Don’t be at all uneasy about me as to care. Omar +knows exactly what to do as he showed the other day when I was +taken ill. I had shown him the medicines and given him +instructions so I had not even to speak, and if I were to be ill +enough to want more help, Yussuf would always sit up alternate +nights; but it is not necessary. Arabs make no grievance +about broken rest; they don’t ‘go to bed +properly,’ but lie down half dressed, and have a happy +faculty of sleeping at odd times and anyhow, which enables them +to wait on one day and night, without distressing themselves as +it distresses us.</p> +<p><i>Thursday</i>.—A telegram has just come announcing +that Janet will leave Cairo to-morrow in a steamer, and therefore +be here, Inshallah, this day week. I enclose a note from a +Copt boy, which will amuse you. He is ‘sapping’ +at English, and I teach him whenever I am able. I am a +special favourite with all the young lads; they must not talk +much before grown men, so they come and sit on the floor round my +feet, and ask questions and advice, and enjoy themselves +amazingly. Hobble-de-hoy-hood is very different here from +what it is with us; they care earlier for the affairs of the +grown-up world, and are more curious and more polished, but lack +the fine animal gaiety of our boys. The girls are much more +<i>gamin</i> than the boys, and more romping and joyous.</p> +<p>It is very warm now. I fear Janet will sigh terribly +over the heat. They have left their voyage too late for +such as do not love the Shems el-Kebeer (the big sun), which has +just begun. I who worship Ammun Ra, love to feel him in his +glory. It is long since I had any letters, I want so to +hear how you all are.</p> +<h3>March 7, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>March</i> 7, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have written a long yarn to Mutter and am rather tired, so I +only write to say I am much better. The heat has set in, +and, of course with it my health has mended, but I am a little +shaky and afraid to tire myself. Moreover I want to nurse +up and be stronger by next Thursday when Janet and Ross are +expected.</p> +<p>What a queer old fish your Dublin antiquary is, who wants to +whitewash Miss Rhampsinitus, and to identify her with the beloved +of Solomon (or Saleem); my brain spun round as I read it. +Must I answer him, or will you? A dragoman gave me an old +broken travelling arm-chair, and Yussuf sat in an arm-chair for +the first time in his life. ‘May the soul of the man +who made it find a seat in Paradise,’ was his exclamation, +which strikes me as singularly appropriate on sitting in a very +comfortable armchair. Yussuf was thankful for small mercies +in this case.</p> +<p>I am afraid Janet may be bored by all the people’s +civility; they will insist on making great dinners and fantasias +for her I am sure. I hope they will go on to Assouan and +take me with them; the change will do me good, and I should like +to see as much of her as I can before she leaves Egypt for +good.</p> +<p>The state of business here is curious. The last +regulations have stopped all money lending, and the prisons are +full of Sheykh el-Beled whose villages can’t pay the +taxes. Most respectable men have offered me to go partners +with them now in their wheat, which will be cut in six weeks, if +only I would pay their present taxes, I to take half the crop and +half the taxes, with interest out of their half—some such +trifle as 30 per cent, per month. Our prison is full of +men, and we send them their dinner <i>à tour de +rôle</i>. The other day a woman went with a big +wooden bowl on her head, full of what she had cooked for them, +accompanied by her husband. One Khaleel Effendi, a new +vakeel here, was there, and said, ‘What dost thou ask here +thou harlot?’ Her husband answered, ‘That is no +harlot, oh Effendim, but my wife.’ Whereupon he was +beaten till he fainted, and then there was a lamentation; they +carried him down past my house, with a crowd of women all +shrieking like mad creatures, especially his wife, who yelled and +beat her head and threw dust over it, <i>more majorum</i>, as you +see in the tombs. The humours of tax-gathering in this +country are quite <i>impayable</i> you perceive—and ought +to be set forth on the escutcheon of the new Knight of the Bath +whom the Queen hath delighted to honour. Cawass battant, +Fellah rampant, and Fellaha pleurant would be the proper +blazon. Distress in England is terrible, but, at least, it +is not the result of extortion, as it is here, where everything +from nature is so abundant and glorious, and yet mankind so +miserable. It is not a little hunger, it is the cruel +oppression which maddens the people now. They never +complained before, but now whole villages are deserted. The +boat goes to-morrow morning so I must say goodbye.</p> +<h3>April 12, 1867: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 12, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I have just received your letters, including the one for Omar +which I read to him, and which he kissed and said he should keep +as a <i>hegab</i> (talisman). I have given him an order on +Coutts’ correspondents for the money, in case I die. +Omar proposes to wait till we get to Cairo and then to buy a +little house, or a floor in one. I am to keep all the money +till the house is found, so he will in no way be tempted to do +anything foolish with it. I hope you approve?</p> +<p>Janet’s visit was quite an <i>Eed</i> (festival), as the +people said. When I got up on the morning she was expected, +I found the house decked with palm branches and lemon blossoms, +and the holy flags of Abu-l-Hajjaj waving over my balcony. +The mosque people had brought them, saying all the people were +happy to-day, because it was a fortunate day for me. I +suppose if I had had a mind to <i>testify</i>, I ought to have +indignantly torn down the banners which bore the declaration, +‘There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His +Prophet.’ But it appeared to me that if Imaams and +Muezzins could send their banners to decorate a Christian house, +the Christian might manage to endure the kindness. Then +there was fantasia on horseback, and all the notables to meet the +boat, and general welcome and jubilation. Next day I went +on with Henry and Janet in the steamer, and had a very pleasant +time to Assouan and back, and they stayed another day here, and I +hired a little dahabieh which they towed down to Keneh where they +stayed a day; after which Sheykh Yussuf and I sailed back again +to Luxor. As bad luck would have it we had hot weather just +the week they were up here: since then it has been quite +cool.</p> +<p>Janet has left me her little black and tan terrier, a very +nice little dog, but I can’t hope to rival Omar in his +affections. He sleeps in Omar’s bosom, and Omar +spoils and pets him all day, and boasts to the people how the dog +drinks tea and coffee and eats dainty food, and the people say +Mashallah! whereas I should have expected them to curse the +dog’s father. The other day a scrupulous person drew +back with an air of alarm from Bob’s approach, whereupon +the dog stared at him, and forthwith plunged into Sheykh +Yussuf’s lap, from which stronghold he ‘yapped’ +defiance at whoever should object to him. I never laughed +more heartily, and Yussuf went into <i>fou rire</i>. The +mouth of the dog only is unclean, and Yussuf declares he is a +very well-educated dog, and does not attempt to lick; he pets him +accordingly, and gives him tea in his own saucer, only <i>not</i> +in the cup.</p> +<p>I am to inherit another little blackie from Ross’s +agency at Keneh: the funniest little chap. I cannot think +why I go on expecting so-called savages to be different from +other people. Mabrook’s simple talk about his +village, and the animals and the victuals; and how the men of a +neighbouring village stole him in order to sell him for a gun +(the price of a gun is a boy), but were prevented by a razzia of +Turks, etc. who killed the first aggressors and took all the +children—all this he tells just as an English boy might +tell of bird-nesting—delights me. He has the same +general notion of right and wrong; and yet his tribe know neither +bread nor any sort of clothes, nor cheese nor butter, nor even +drink milk, nor the African beer; and it always rains there, and +is always deadly cold at night, so that without a fire they would +die. They have two products of civilization—guns and +tobacco, for which they pay in boys and girls, whom they +steal. I wonder where the country is, it is called +Sowaghli, and the next people are Mueseh, on the sea-coast, and +it is not so hot as Egypt. It must be in the southern +hemisphere. The new <i>négrillon</i> is from +Darfoor. Won’t Maurice be amused by his attendants, +the Darfoor boy will trot after him, as he can shoot and clean +guns, tiny as he is Maurice seems to wish to come and I hope +Alexander will let him spend the winter here, and I will take him +up to the second Cataract; I really think he would enjoy it.</p> +<p>My boat will not return I think for another six weeks. +Mr. Eaton and Mr. Baird were such nice people! their dragoman, a +Maltese, appeared to hate the Italians with ferocity. He +said all decent people in Malta would ten times rather belong to +the Mahommedans than to the Italians—after all blood +tells. He was a very respectable young man, and being a +dragoman and the son of a dragoman, he has seen the world, and +particularly the Muslims. I suppose it is the Pope that +makes the Italians so hateful to them.</p> +<p>The post here is dreadful, I would not mind their reading +one’s letters if they would only send them on. Omar +begs we to say that he and his children will pray for you all his +life, please God, not for the money only but still more for the +good words and the trusting him. But he says, ‘I +can’t say much <i>politikeh</i>, Please God she shall see, +only I kiss her hand now.’ You will hear from Janet +about her excursion. What I liked best was shooting the +Cataract in a small boat; it was fine fantasia.</p> +<h3>April 19, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i> 19, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have been much amused lately by a new acquaintance, who, in +romances of the last century, would be called an ‘Arabian +sage.’ Sheykh Abdurrachman lives in a village half a +day’s journey off, and came over to visit me and to doctor +me according to the science of Galen and Avicenna. Fancy a +tall, thin, graceful man, with a grey beard and liquid eyes, +absorbed in studies of the obsolete kind, a doctor of theology, +law, medicine and astronomy. We spent three days in arguing +and questioning; I consented to swallow a potion or two which he +made up before me, of very innocent materials. My friend is +neither a quack nor superstitious, and two hundred years ago +would have been a better physician than most in Europe. +Indeed I would rather swallow his physic now than that of many a +M.D. I found him like all the learned theologians I have +known, extremely liberal and tolerant. You can conceive +nothing more interesting and curious than the conversation of a +man learned and intelligent, and utterly ignorant of all our +modern Western science. If I was pleased with him, he was +enchanted with me, and swore by God that I was a Mufti indeed, +and that a man could nowhere spend time so delightfully as in +conversation with me. He said he had been acquainted with +two or three Englishmen who had pleased him much, but that if all +Englishwomen were like me the power must necessarily be in our +hands, for that my <i>akl</i> (brain, intellect) was far above +that of the men he had known. He objected to our medicine +that it seemed to consist in palliatives, which he rather +scorned, and aimed always at a radical cure. I told him +that if he had studied anatomy he would know that radical cures +were difficult of performance, and he ended by lamenting his +ignorance of English or some European language, and that he had +not learned our <i>Ilm</i> (science) also. Then we plunged +into sympathies, mystic numbers, and the occult virtues of +stones, etc., and I swallowed my mixture (consisting of +liquorice, cummin and soda) just as the sun entered a particular +house, and the moon was in some favourable aspect. He +praised to me his friend, a learned Jew of Cairo. I could +have fancied myself listening to Abu Suleyman of Cordova, in the +days when we were the barbarians and the Arabs were the learned +race. There is something very winning in the gentle, +dignified manners of all the men of learning I have seen here, +and their homely dress and habits make it still more +striking. I longed to photograph my Sheykh as he sat on the +divan pulling MSS. out of his bosom to read me the words of +<i>El-Hakeem Lokman</i>, or to overwhelm me with the authority of +some physician whose very name I had never heard.</p> +<p>The hand of the Government is awfully heavy upon us. All +this week the people have been working night and day cutting +their unripe corn, because three hundred and ten men are to go +to-morrow to work on the railroad below Siout. This green +corn is, of course, valueless to sell and unwholesome to eat; so +the magnificent harvest of this year is turned to bitterness at +the last moment. From a neighbouring village all the men +are gone, and seven more are wanted to make up the +<i>corvée</i>. The population of Luxor is 1,000 +males of all ages, so you can guess how many strong men are left +after three hundred and ten are taken.</p> +<p>I don’t like to think too much about seeing you and +Maurice next winter for fear I should be disappointed. If I +am too sick and wretched I can hardly wish you to come because I +know what a nuisance it is to be with one always coughing and +panting, and unable to do like other people. But if I pick +up tolerably this summer I shall indeed be glad to see you and +him once more.</p> +<p>This house is falling sadly to decay, which produces snakes +and scorpions. I sent for the <i>hawee</i> (snake-catcher) +who caught a snake, but who can’t conjure the scorpions out +of their holes. One of my fat turkeys has just fallen a +victim, and I am in constant fear for little Bob, only he is +always in Omar’s arms. I think I described to you the +festival of Sheykh Gibrieel: the dinner, and the poets who +improvised; this year I had a fine piece of declamation in my +honour. A real calamity is the loss of our good Maōhn, +Seleem Effendi. The Mudir hailed him from his steamer to go +to Keneh directly, with no further notice. We hoped some +good luck for him, and so it would have been to a Turk. He +is made overseer over the poor people at the railway work, and +only gets two pounds five shillings per month additional, he has +to keep a horse and a donkey, and to buy them and to hire a sais, +and he does <i>not</i> know how to squeeze the fellaheen. +It is true ‘however close you skin an onion, a clever man +can always peel it again,’ which means that even the +poorest devils at the works can be beaten into giving a little +more; but our dear Seleem, God bless him, will be ruined and made +miserable by his promotion. I had a very woeful letter from +him yesterday.</p> +<h3>May 15, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>May</i> 15, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>All the Christendom of Upper Egypt is in a state of +excitement, owing to the arrival of the Patriarch of Cairo, who +is now in Luxor. My neighbour, Mikaeel, entertains him, and +Omar has been busily decorating his house and arranging the +illumination of his garden, and to-day is gone to cook the +confectionery, he being looked upon as the person best acquainted +with the customs of the great. Last night the Patriarch +sent for me, and I went to kiss his hand, but I won’t go +again. It was a very droll caricature of the thunders of +the Vatican. Poor Mikaeel had planned that I was to dine +with the Patriarch, and had borrowed my silver spoons, etc., +etc., in that belief. But the representative of St. Mark is +furious against the American missionaries who have converted some +twenty Copts at Koos, and he could not bring himself to be +decently civil to a Protestant. I found a coarse-looking +man seated on a raised divan smoking his chibouk, on his right +were some priests on a low divan; I went up and kissed his hand +and was about to sit by the priests, but he roughly ordered a +cawass to put a wooden chair <i>off the carpet</i> to his left, +at a distance from him, and told me to sit there. I looked +round to see whether any of my neighbours were present, and I saw +the consternation in their faces so, not wishing to annoy them, I +did as if I did not perceive the affront, and sat down and talked +for half an hour to the priests, and then took leave. I was +informed that the Catholics were <i>naas mesakeen</i> (poor +inoffensive people), and that the Muslims at least were of an old +religion, but that the Protestants ate meat all the year round, +‘like dogs’—‘or Muslims,’ put in +Omar, who stood behind my chair and did not relish the mention of +dogs and the ‘English religion’ in one +sentence. As I went the Patriarch called for dinner, it +seems he had told Mikaeel he would not eat with me. It is +evidently ‘a judgment’ of a most signal nature that I +should be snubbed for the offences of missionaries, but it has +caused some ill blood; the Kadee and Sheykh Yussuf and the rest, +who all intended to do the civil to the Patriarch, now +won’t go near him on account of his rudeness to me. +He has come up in a steamer, at the Pasha’s expense, with a +guard of cawasses, and, of course, is loud in praise of the +Government, though he failed in getting the Moudir to send all +the Protestants of Koos to the public works, or the army.</p> +<p>From what he said before me about the Abyssinians, and still +more, from what he said to others about the English prisoners up +there, I am convinced that the place to put the screw on is the +<i>Batrarchane</i> (Patriarch’s palace) at Cairo, and that +the priests are at the bottom of that affair. <a +name="citation350"></a><a href="#footnote350" +class="citation">[350]</a> He boasted immensely of the +obedience and piety of <i>El Habbesh</i> (the Abyssinians).</p> +<p><i>Saturday</i>.—Yesterday I heard a little whispered +grumbling about the money demanded by the +‘Father.’ One of my Copt neighbours was forced +to sell me his whole provision of cooking butter to pay his +quota. This a little damps the exultation caused by seeing +him so honoured by the Effendina. One man who had heard +that he had called the American missionaries +‘beggars,’ grumbled to me, ‘Ah yes, beggars, +beggars, they didn’t beg of me for money.’ I +really do think that there must be something in this dread of the +Protestant movement. Evidently the Pasha is backing up the +Patriarch who keeps his church well apart from all other +Christians, and well under the thumb of the Turks. It was +pretty to hear the priests talk so politely of Islam, and curse +the Protestants so bitterly. We were very nearly having a +row about a woman, who formerly turned Moslimeh to get rid of an +old blind Copt husband who had been forced upon her, and was +permitted to recant, I suppose in order to get rid of the Muslim +husband in his turn. However he said, ‘I don’t +care, she is the mother of my two children, and whether she is +Muslim or Christian she is my wife, and I won’t divorce +her, but I’ll send her to church as much as she +likes.’ Thereupon the priests of course dropped the +wrangle, much to the relief of Sheykh Yussuf, in whose house she +had taken up her quarters after leaving the church, and who was +afraid of being drawn into a dispute.</p> +<p>My new little Darfour boy is very funny and very +intelligent. I hope he will turn out well, he seems well +disposed, though rather lazy. Mabrook quarrelled with a boy +belonging to the quarter close to us about a bird, and both boys +ran away. The Arab boy is missing still I suppose, but +Mabrook was brought back by force, swelling with passion, and +with his clothes most scripturally ‘rent.’ He +had regularly ‘run amuck.’ Sheykh Yussuf +lectured him on his insolence to the people of the quarter, and I +wound up by saying, ‘Oh my son! whither dost thou wish to +go? I cannot let thee wander about like a beggar, with torn +clothes and no money, that the police may take thee and put thee +in the army; but say where thou desirest to go, and we will talk +about it with discretion.’ It was at once borne in +upon him that he did not want to go anywhere, and he said, +‘I repent; I am but an ox, bring the courbash, beat me, and +let me go to finish cooking the Sitt’s dinner.’ +I remitted the beating, with a threat that if he bullied the +neighbours again he would get it at the police, and not from +Omar’s very inefficient arm. In half an hour he was +as merry as ever. It was a curious display of negro temper, +and all about nothing at all. As he stood before me, he +looked quite grandly tragic; and swore he only wanted to run +outside and die; that was all.</p> +<p>I wish you could have heard (and understood) my +<i>soirées, au clair de la lune</i>, with Sheykh Yussuf +and Sheykh Abdurrachman. How Abdurrachman and I wrangled, +and how Yussuf laughed, and egged us on. Abdurrachman was +wroth at my want of faith in physic generally, as well as in +particular, and said I talked like an infidel, for had not God +said, ‘I have made a medicine for every +disease?’ I said, ‘Yes, but He does not say +that He has told the doctors which it is; and meanwhile I say, +<i>hekmet Allah</i>, (God will cure) which can’t be called +an infidel sentiment.’ Then we got into alchemy, +astrology, magic and the rest; and Yussuf vexed his friend by +telling gravely stories palpably absurd. Abdurrachman +intimated that he was laughing at <i>El-Ilm el-Muslimeen</i> (the +science of the Muslims), but Yussuf said, ‘What is the +<i>Ilm el-Muslimeen</i>? God has revealed religion through +His prophets, and we can learn nothing new on that point; but all +other learning He has left to the intelligence of men, and the +Prophet Mohammed said, “All learning is from God, even the +learning of idolaters.” Why then should we Muslims +shut out the light, and want to remain ever like children? +The learning of the Franks is as lawful as any +other.’ Abdurrachman was too sensible a man to be +able to dispute this, but it vexed him.</p> +<p>I am tired of telling all the <i>plackereien</i> of our poor +people, how three hundred and ten men were dragged off on Easter +Monday with their bread and tools, how in four days they were all +sent back from Keneh, because there were no orders about them, +and made to <i>pay their boat hire</i>. Then in five days +they were sent for again. Meanwhile the harvest was cut +green, and the wheat is lying out unthreshed to be devoured by +birds and rats, and the men’s bread was wasted and spoiled +with the hauling in and out of boats. I am obliged to send +camels twenty miles for charcoal, because the Abab’deh +won’t bring it to market any more, the tax is too +heavy. Butter too we have to buy secretly, none comes into +the market. When I remember the lovely smiling landscape +which I first beheld from my windows, swarming with beasts and +men, and look at the dreary waste now, I feel the ‘foot of +the Turk’ heavy indeed. Where there were fifty +donkeys there is but one; camels, horses, all are gone; not only +the horned cattle, even the dogs are more than decimated, and the +hawks and vultures seem to me fewer; mankind has no food to spare +for hangers-on. The donkeys are sold, the camels +confiscated, and the dogs dead (the one sole advantage). +Meat is cheap, as everyone must sell to pay taxes and no one has +money to buy. I am implored to take sheep and poultry for +what I will give.</p> +<h3>May 23, 1867: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>May</i> 23, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I have only time for a few words by Giafar Pasha, who goes +early to-morrow morning. My boat arrived all right and +brought your tin box. The books and toys are very +welcome. The latter threw little Darfour into ecstasies, +and he got into disgrace for ‘playing with the Sitt’ +instead of minding some business on hand. I fear I shall +spoil him, he is so extremely engaging and such a baby. He +is still changing his teeth, so cannot be more than eight; at +first I did not like him, and feared he was sullen, but it was +the usual <i>khoss</i> (fear), the word that is always in +one’s ears, and now that is gone, he is always coming +hopping in to play with me. He is extremely intelligent and +has a pretty baby nigger face. The Darfour people are, as +you know, an independent and brave people, and by no means +‘savages.’ I can’t help thinking how +pleased Rainie would be with the child. He asked me to give +him the picture of the English Sultaneh out of the <i>Illustrated +London News</i>, and has pasted it inside the lid of his box.</p> +<p>I am better as usual, since the hot weather has begun, the +last six days. I shall leave this in a week, I think, and +Mustapha and Yussuf will go with me to Cairo. Yussuf was +quite enchanted with your note to him; his eyes glistened, and he +took an envelope to keep it carefully. Omar said such a +letter is like a <i>hegab</i> (amulet) and Yussuf said, +‘Truly it is, and I could never have one with more +<i>baraka</i> (blessing) or more like the virtue which went out +of Jesus, if ever I wore one at all; I will never part with +it.’</p> +<p>We had a very pretty festival for the Sheykh, whose tomb you +have a photograph of, and I spent a very pleasant evening with +Sheykh Abd el-Mootooal, who used to scowl at me, but now we are +‘like brothers.’ I found him very clever, and +better informed than any Arab I have met, who is quite apart from +all Franks. I was astonished to find that he <i>abondait +dans man sens</i> in my dispute with Sheykh Abdurrachman, and +said that it was the duty of Muslims to learn what they could +from us, and not to stick to the old routine.</p> +<p>On Sunday the Patriarch snubbed me, and would not eat with me, +and on Monday a <i>Walee</i> (saint) picked out tit-bits for me +with his own fingers, and went with me inside the tomb. The +Patriarch has made a blunder with his progress. He has come +ostentatiously as the <i>protegé</i> and <i>pronem</i> of +the Pasha, and he has ‘eaten’ and beaten the +fellaheen. The Copts of Luxor have had to pay fifty pounds +for the honour of his presence, besides no end of sheep, poultry, +butter, etc. If I were of a proselytising mind I could make +converts of several whose pockets and backs are smarting, and the +American missionaries will do it. Of course the Muslims +sympathize with the converts to a religion which has no +‘idols,’ and no monks, and whose priests marry like +other folk, so they are the less afraid. I hear there are +now fifty Protestants at Koos, and the Patriarch was furious +because he could not beat them. Omar cooked a grand dinner +for him last night for our neighbour Mikaeel, and the eating was +not over till two in the morning. Our Government should +manage to put the screw on him about our Abyssinian +prisoners. I dare not say who told me all he said, but he +was a truthful man and a Christian. The Patriarch answered +me sharply when I asked about the state of religion in Abyssinia +that, ‘they were lovers of the faith, and his obedient +children.’ Whenever there is mischief among the +Copts, the priests are at the bottom of it. If the +Patriarch chose those people would be let go; and so it would be +but he hates all Europeans bitterly.</p> +<p>I should like to have the <i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i> of all +things, but I don’t know how it is to come here, or what +the postage would cost. They send nothing but letters above +Cairo by post, as all goes on men’s backs. +‘Inshallah! I am the bearer of good news,’ +cries the postman, as he flings the letter over the wall. I +am so glad of the chance of getting news to you quick by Giafar +Pasha, who came here like a gentleman, alone, without a retinue; +he is on his way from two years in the Soudan, where he was +absolute Pasha. He is very much liked and respected, and +seems a very sensible and agreeable man, quite unlike any Turkish +big-wig I have seen. Great potentate as he is, he made +Yussuf Mustapha and Abdallah sit down, and was extremely civil +and simple in his manners.</p> +<h3>June 30, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Benisouef</span>,<br /> +<i>June</i> 30, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I write on the chance that this may go safe by post so that +you may not think me lost. I left Luxor on May 31, got to +Siout (half-way) in a week, and have ever since been battling +with an unceasing furious north and north-east wind. I feel +like the much travelled Odysseus, and have seen ‘villages +and men,’ unlike him, however ‘my companions’ +have neither grumbled nor deserted, though it is a bad business +for them, having received their money at the rate of about twenty +days’ pay, for which they must take me to Cairo. They +have eaten all, and are now obliged to stop and make bread here, +but they are as good-humoured as if all were well. My fleet +consisted of my dahabieh, flag ship; tender, a <i>kyasseh</i> +(cargo boat) for my horse and sais, wherein were packed two +extremely poor shrivelled old widows, going to Cairo to see their +sons, now in garrison there; lots of hard bread, wheat, flour, +jars of butter, onions and lentils for all the lads of ‘my +family’ studying at Gama’l Azhar, besides in my box +queer little stores of long hoarded money for those +<i>megowareen</i> (students of Gama’l Azhar). +Don’t you wish you could provide for Maurice with a sack of +bread, a basket of onions and one pound sixteen shillings?</p> +<p>The handsome brown Sheykh el-Arab, Hassan, wanted me to take +him, but I knew him to be a ‘fast’ man, and asked +Yussuf how I could avoid it without breaking the laws of +hospitality, so my ‘father,’ the old Shereef, told +Hassan that he did not choose his daughter to travel with a +wine-bibber and a frequenter of loose company. Under my +convoy sailed two or three little boats with family +parties. One of these was very pretty, whose steersman was +a charming little fat girl of five years old. All these +hoped to escape being caught and worried by the way, by belonging +to me, and they dropped off at their several villages. I am +tolerably well, better than when I started, in spite of the +wind.</p> +<p>Poor Reis Mohammed had a very bad attack of ophthalmia, and +sat all of a heap, groaning all day and night, and protesting +‘I am a Muslim,’ equivalent to ‘God’s +will be done.’ At one place I was known, and had a +lot of sick to see, and a civil man killed a sheep and regaled us +all with meat and <i>fateereh</i>. The part of the river in +which we were kept by the high wind is made cheerful by the +custom of the Hareem being just as free to mix with men as +Europeans, and I quite enjoyed the pretty girls’ faces, and +the gossip with the women who came to fill their water-jars and +peep in at the cabin windows, which, by the way, they always ask +leave to do. The Sheykh el-Hawara gave me two sheep which +are in the cargo-boat with four others—all +presents—which Omar intends you to eat at Cairo. The +Sheykh is very anxious to give you an entertainment at his +palace, if you come up the river, with horse-riding, feasting and +dancing girls. In fact I am charged with many messages to +<i>el-Kebir</i> (the great master).</p> +<h3>July 8, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>,<br +/> +<i>July</i> 8, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I arrived to-day, after thirty-eight days’ voyage, one +month of ceaseless furious wind. My poor men had a hard +pull down against it. However I am feeling better than when +I left Luxor.</p> +<p>Omar has just brought a whole cargo of your letters, the last +of the 26 June. Let me know your plans. If you can go +up the river I might send the boat beforehand to Minieh, so far +there is a railway now, which would break the neck of the tedious +part of the voyage for you if you are pressed for time. I +must send this off at once to catch early post to-morrow. +Excuse haste, I write in all the bustle of arrival.</p> +<h3>July 28, 1867: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>July</i> 28, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>I know I can write nothing more sure to please you than that I +am a good deal better. It has been intensely hot, and the +wind very worrying, but my cough has greatly abated and I do not +feel so weak as I did. I am anchored here in the river at +my old quarters, and have not yet been ashore owing to the hot +wind and the dust, which of course are far less troublesome here +on the river. I have seen but very few people and have but +one neighbour, in a boat anchored near mine, a very bewitching +Circassian, the former slave of a rich Pasha, now married to a +respectable dragoman, and staying in his boat for a week or +two. She is young and pretty, and very amiable, and we +visit each other often and get on very well indeed. She is +a very religious little lady, and was much relieved when I +assured her it was not part of my daily devotions to curse the +Prophet, and revile the noble Koran.</p> +<p>I am extremely glad that the English have given a hearty +welcome to the Ameer el-Moornemeen (Commander of the Faithful); +it will have an excellent effect in all Mussulman +countries. A queer little Indian from Delhi who had been +converted to Islam, and spent four years at Mecca acting as +dragoman to his own countrymen, is now settled at Karnac. I +sent for him, and he carne shaking in his shoes. I asked +why he was afraid? ‘Oh, perhaps I was angry about +something, and he was my <i>rayah</i>, and I might have him +beaten.’ I cried out at him, ‘Ask pardon of +God, O man. How could I beat thee any more than thou +couldst beat me? Have we not laws? and art thou not my +brother, and the <i>rayah</i> of our Queen, as I am and no +more?’ ‘Mashallah!’ exclaimed the six or +eight fellaheen who were waiting for physic, in prodigious +admiration and wonder; ‘and did we not tell thee that the +face of the Sitt brings good fortune and not calamity and +stick?’ I found the little Indian had been a hospital +servant in Calcutta, and was practising a little physic on his +own account. So I gave him a few drugs especially for bad +eyes, which he knew a good deal about, and we became very good +friends; he was miserable when I left and would have liked me to +have taken him as a volunteer servant.</p> +<p>I have come to a curious honour. <i>Ich bin beim +lebendigem Leibe besungen</i>. Several parties of real +Arabs came with their sick on camels from the desert above +Edfou. I asked at last what brought them, and they told me +that a <i>Shaer</i> (bard or poet) had gone about singing my +praises, as how the daughter of the English was a flower on the +heads of the Arabs, and those who were sick should go and smell +the perfume of the flower and rejoice in the brightness of the +light (<i>nooreen</i>)—my name. Rather a highflown +way of mentioning the ‘exhibition’ of a black +dose. But we don’t feel that a man makes a fool of +himself here when he is romantic in his talk even about an old +woman.</p> +<p>It is no use to talk of the state of things here; all classes +are suffering terribly under the fearful taxation, the total ruin +of the fellaheen, and the destruction of trade brought about by +this much extolled Pasha. My grocer is half ruined by the +‘improvements’ made a <i>l’instar de +Paris</i>—long military straight roads cut through the +heart of Cairo. The owners are expropriated, and there is +an end of it. Only those who have half a house left are to +be pitied, because they are forced to build a new front to the +street on a Frankish model which renders it uninhabitable to them +and unsaleable.</p> +<p>The river men are excited about the crews gone to Paris, for +fear they should be forcibly detained by the <i>Sultaneh +Franzaweeh</i>, I assured them that they will all come home safe +and happy, with a good backsheesh. Many of them think it a +sort of degradation to be taken for the Parisians to stare at +like an anteeka, a word which here means what our people call a +‘curiosity.’</p> +<p>I go on very well with my two boys. Mabrook washes very +well and acts as <i>marmiton</i>. Darfour is housemaid and +waiter in his very tiny way. He is only troublesome as +being given to dirty his clothes in an incredibly short +time. His account of the school system of Darfour is +curious. How when the little boy has achieved excellence he +is carried home in triumph to his father’s house, who makes +a festival for the master and boys. I suppose you will be +surprised to hear that the Darfour ‘niggers’ can +nearly all read and write. Poor little Darfour apologised +to me for his ignorance, he was stolen he said, when he had only +just begun to go to school. I wish an English or French +servant could hear the instructions given by an Alim here to +serving men. How he would resent them! ‘When +thou hast tired out thy back do not put thy hand behind it (do +not shirk the burden). Remember that thou art not only to +obey, but to please thy master, whose bread thou eatest;’ +and much more of the like. In short, a standard of +religious obedience and fidelity fit for the highest Catholic +idea of the ‘religious life.’ Upon the few who +seek instruction it does have an effect (I am sure that Omar +looks on his service as a religious duty), but of course they are +few; and those who don’t seek it themselves get none. +It is curious how all children here are left utterly without any +religious instruction. I don’t know whether it is in +consequence of this that they grow up so very devout.</p> +<h3>July 29, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>July</i> 29, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>Your letter has arrived to my great relief—only I fear +you are not at all well. About Maurice. If he wishes +to see the Nile let him come, but if he is only to be sent +because of me, let it alone. I know I am oppressive company +now, and am apt, like Mr. Wodehouse in ‘Emma,’ to +say, ‘Let us all have some gruel.’</p> +<p>We know nothing here of a prohibition of gunpowder, at this +moment some Europeans are popping away incessantly at Embabeh +just opposite. Evidently the Pasha wants to establish a +right of search on the Nile. That absurd speech about +slaves he made in Paris shows that. With 3,000 in his +hareem, several slave regiments, and lots of gangs on all his +sugar plantations, his impudence is wonderful. He is +himself the greatest living slave trader as well as owner. +My lads are afraid to go out alone for fear of being snapped up +by cawasses and taken to the army or the sugar works. You +will be sorry to hear that your stalwart friend Hassan has had +fifty blows on each foot-sole, and had to pay six pounds. +He was taking two donkeys to Shepheard’s hotel before +sunrise for a French lady and gentleman to go to the Pyramids, +when a cawass met him, seized the donkeys, and on Hassan’s +refusal to give them up, spat on the side-saddle and reviled +Hassan’s own Hareem and began to beat him with his +courbash. Hassan got impatient, took the cawass up in his +arms and threw him on the ground, and went on. Presently +four cawasses came after him, seized him and took him to the +Zaptieh (police office), where they all swore he had beaten them, +torn their clothes, and robbed one of an imaginary gold +watch—all valued at twenty-four pounds. After the +beating he was carried to prison in chains, and there sentenced +to be a soldier. A friend however interfered and settled +the matter for six pounds. Hassan sends you his best +salaam.</p> +<p>Last night was very pretty—all the boats starting for +the <i>moolid</i> of Seyd el-Bedawee at Tanta. Every boat +had a sort of pyramid of lanterns, and the derweeshes chanted, +and the worldly folks had profane music and singing, and I sat +and looked and listened, and thought how many thousand years ago +just the same thing was going on in honour of Bubastis.</p> +<h3>August 7, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>August</i> 7, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>Two sailors of mine of last year went to Paris in the dahabieh +for the Empress, and are just come back. When I see them I +expect I shall have some fun out of their account of their +journey. Poor Adam’s father died of grief at his +son’s going, nothing would persuade him that Adam would +come back safe, and having a heart complaint, he died. And +now the lad is back, well and with fine clothes, but is much cut +up, I hear, by his father’s death. Please send me a +tremendous whistle; mine is not loud enough to wake Omar at the +other end of the cabin; a boatswain’s whistle or something +in the line of the ‘last trump’ is needed to wake +sleeping Arabs.</p> +<p>My pretty neighbour has gone back into the town. She was +a nice little woman, and amused me a good deal. I see that +a good respectable Turkish hareem is an excellent school of +useful accomplishments—needlework, cookery, etc. But +I observed that she did not care a bit for the Pasha, by whom she +had a child, but was extremely fond of ‘her lady,’ as +she politely called her, also that like every Circassian I ever +knew, she regarded being sold as quite a desirable fate, and did +not seem sorry for her parents, as the negroes always are.</p> +<p>The heat has been prodigious, but I am a good deal +better. Yesterday the Nile had risen above ten cubits, and +the cutting of the Kalig took place. The river is pretty +full now, but they say it will go down fast this year. I +don’t know why. It looks very beautiful, blood-red +and tossed into waves by the north wind fighting the rapid +stream.</p> +<p>Good-bye dear Alick, I hope to hear a better account of your +health soon.</p> +<h3>August 8, 1867: Mrs. Austin</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Austin</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>August</i> 8, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mutter</span>,</p> +<p>Two of my sailors were in Paris and have just come home. +I hear they are dreadfully shocked by the dancing, and by the +French women of the lower class generally. They sit in the +coffee-shops like <i>shaers</i> (poets), and tell of the wonders +of Paris to admiring crowds. They are enthusiastic about +the courtesy of the French police, who actually did not beat them +when they got into a quarrel, but scolded the Frankish man +instead, and accompanied them back to the boat quite +politely. The novelty and triumph of not being beaten was +quite intoxicating. There is such a curious sight of a +crowd of men carrying huge blocks of stone up out of a +boat. One sees exactly how the stones were carried in +ancient times; they sway their bodies all together like one great +lithe animal with many legs, and hum a low chant to keep +time. It is quite unlike any carrying heavy weights in +Europe.</p> +<p>It is getting dusk and too windy for candles, so I must say +goodnight and eat the dinner which Darfour has pressed upon me +two or three times, he is a pleasant little creature, so lively +and so gentle. It is washing day. I wish you could +see Mabrook squatting out there, lathering away at the clothes +with his superb black arms. He is a capital washer and a +fair cook, but an utter savage.</p> +<p>[The foregoing letter reached England the day after the death +of my grandmother, Mrs. Austin, which was a great shock to my +mother and made her ill and unhappy; so it was settled that my +brother Maurice should go out and spend the winter with her on +the Nile.]</p> +<h3>September 7, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>September</i> 7, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>Many thanks for your letter and for all the trouble you have +taken. I wish you were better.</p> +<p>There is such a group all stitching away at the big new sail; +Omar, the Reis, two or three volunteers, some old sailors of +mine, and little Darfour. If I die I think you must have +that tiny nigger over; he is such a merry little soul, I am sure +you would love him, he is quite a civilized being and has a +charming temper, and he seems very small to be left alone in the +world.</p> +<p>I hope Maurice is not of the faction of the +<i>ennuyés</i> of this generation. I am more and +more of Omar’s opinion, who said, with a pleased sigh, as +we sat on the deck under some lovely palm-trees in the bright +moon-light, moored far from all human dwellings, ‘how sweet +are the quiet places of the world.’</p> +<p>I wonder when Europe will drop the absurd delusion about +Christians being persecuted by Muslims. It is absolutely +the other way,—here at all events. The Christians +know that they will always get backed by some Consul or other, +and it is the Muslims who go to the wall invariably. The +brute of a Patriarch is resolved to continue his persecution of +the converts, and I was urged the other day by a Sheykh to go to +the Sheykh ul-Islam himself and ask him to demand equal rights +for all religions, which is the law, on behalf of these Coptic +Protestants. Everywhere the Ulema have done what they could +to protect them, even at Siout, where the American missionaries +had caused them (the Ulemas) a good deal of annoyance on a former +occasion. No one in Europe can conceive how much the Copts +have the upper hand in the villages. They are backed by the +Government, and they know that the Europeans will always side +with them.</p> +<p><i>September</i> 13.—Omar is crazy with delight at the +idea of Maurice’s arrival, and Reis Mohammed is planning +what men to take who can make fantasia, and not ask too much +wages. Let me know what boat Maurice comes by that I may +send Omar to Alexandria to meet him. Omar begs me to give +you and Sitti Rainie his best salaam, and his assurance that he +will take great care of the young master and ‘keep him very +tight.’ I think Maurice will be diverted with small +Darfour. Mabrook now really cooks very fairly under +Omar’s orders, but he is beyond belief uncouth, and utters +the wildest howls now that his voice is grown big and strong like +himself. Moreover he ‘won’t be spoken +to,’ as our servants say; but he is honest, clean, and +careful. I should not have thought any human creature could +remain so completely a savage in a civilized community. I +rather respect his savage <i>hauteur</i>, especially as it is +combined with truth and honesty.</p> +<h3>October 17, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Boat </span><span class="smcap"><i>Marie +Louise</i></span>,<br /> +<i>October</i> 17, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>You must not be wroth with me because I have not written for a +long time—I have been ill, but am much better. Omar +will go down to Alexandria to meet Maurice on Monday.</p> +<p>My boat is being painted, but is nearly finished; as soon as +it is done I shall move back into her. I got out into a +little cangia but it swarmed with bugs and wasps, and was too +dirty, so I moved yesterday into a good boat belonging to a +dragoman, and hope to be back in my own by Sunday. But oh +Lord! I got hold of the Barber himself turned painter; and +as the little cangia was moored alongside the <i>Urania</i> in +order to hold all the mattresses, carpets, etc. I was his +victim. First, it was a request for ‘three pounds to +buy paint.’ ‘None but the best of paint is +fitting for a noble person like thee, and that thou knowest is +costly, and I am thy servant and would do thee +honour.’ ‘Very well,’ say I, ‘take +the money, and see, oh man, that the paint is of the best, or thy +backsheesh will be bad also.’ Well, he begins and +then rushes in to say: ‘Come oh Bey, oh Pasha! and behold +the brilliancy of the white paint, like milk, like glass, like +the full moon.’ I go and say, ‘Mashallah! but +now be so good as to work fast, for my son will be here in a few +days, and nothing is ready.’ Fatal remark. +‘Mashallah! Bismillah! may the Lord spare him, may +God prolong thy days, let me advise thee how to keep the eye from +him, for doubtless thy son is beautiful as a memlook of 1,000 +purses. Remember to spit in his face when he comes on +board, and revile him aloud that all the people may hear thee, +and compel him to wear torn and dirty clothes when he goes +out:—and how many children hast thou, and our master, thy +master, and is he well?’ etc. etc. ‘<i>Shukr +Allah</i>! all is well with us,’ say I; ‘but, by the +Prophet, paint, oh <i>Ma-alim</i> (exactly the German +<i>Meister</i>) and do not break my head any more.’ +But I was forced to take refuge at a distance from Hajj’ +Alee’s tongue. Read the story of the Barber, and you +will know exactly what Ma-alim Hajj’ Alee is. Also +just as I got out of my boat and he had begun, the painter whom I +had last year and with whom I was dissatisfied, went to the +Sheykh of the painters and persuaded him to put my man in prison +for working too cheap—that was at daybreak. So I sent +up my Reis to the Sheykh to inform him that if my man did not +return by next day at daybreak, I would send for an European +painter and force the Sheykh to pay the bill. Of course my +man came.</p> +<p>My steersman Hassan, and a good man, Hoseyn, who can wash and +is generally nice and pleasant, arrived from el-Bastowee a few +days ago, and are waiting here till I want them. Poor +little ugly black Hassan has had his house burnt down in his +village, and lost all the clothes which he had bought with his +wages; they were very good clothes, some of them, and a heavy +loss. He is my Reis’s brother, and a good man, clean +and careful and quiet, better than my Reis even—they are a +respectable family. Big stout Hazazin owes me 200 piastres +which he is to work out, so I have still five men and a boy to +get. I hope a nice boy, called Hederbee (the lizard), will +come. They don’t take pay till the day before we +sail, except the Reis and Abdul Sadig, who are permanent. +But Hassan and Hoseyn are working away as merrily as if they were +paid. People growl at the backsheesh, but they should also +remember what a quantity of service one gets for nothing here, +and for which, oddly enough, no one dreams of asking +backsheesh. Once a week we shift the anchors, for fear of +their silting over, and six or eight men work for an hour; then +the mast is lowered—twelve or fourteen men work at +this—and nobody gets a farthing.</p> +<p>The other day Omar met in the market an ‘agreeable +merchant,’ an Abyssinian fresh from his own country, which +he had left because of the tyranny of Kassa, alias Todoros, the +Sultan. The merchant had brought his wife and concubines to +live here. His account is that the mass of the people are +delighted to hear that the English are coming to conquer them, as +they hope, and that everyone hates the King except two or three +hundred scamps who form his bodyguard. He had seen the +English prisoners, who, he says, are not ill-treated, but +certainly in danger, as the King is with difficulty restrained +from killing them by the said scamps, who fear the revenge of the +English; also that there is one woman imprisoned with the native +female prisoners. Hassan the donkeyboy, when he was a +<i>marmiton</i> in Cairo, knew the Sultan Todoros, he was the +only man who could be found to interpret between the then King of +Abyssinia and Mohammed Ali Pasha, whom Todoros had come to +visit. The merchant also expressed a great contempt for the +Patriarch, and for their <i>Matraam</i> or Metropolitan, whom the +English papers call the <i>Abuna</i>. <i>Abuna</i> is +Arabic for ‘our father.’ The man is a Cairene +Copt and was a hanger-on of two English missionaries (they were +really Germans) here, and he is more than commonly a rascal and a +hypocrite. I know a respectable Jew whom he had robbed of +all his merchandise, only Ras Alee forced the <i>Matraam</i> to +disgorge. Pray what was all that nonsense about the +Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem writing to Todoros? what could he +have to do with it? The Coptic Patriarch, whose place is +Cairo, could do it if he were forced.</p> +<p>At last my boat is finished, so to-morrow Omar will clean the +windows, and on Saturday move in the cushions, etc. and me, and +on Sunday go to Alexandria. I hear the dreadful voice of +Hajj’ Alee, the painter, outside, and will retire before he +gets to the cabin door, for fear he should want to bore me +again. I do hope Maurice will enjoy his journey; everyone +is anxious to please him. The Sheykh of the Hawara sent his +brother to remind me to stop at his ‘palace’ near +Girgeh, that he might make a fantasia for my son. So +Maurice will see real Arab riding, and jereed, and sheep roasted +whole and all the rest of it. The Sheykh is the last of the +great Arab chieftains of Egypt, and has thousands of fellaheen +and a large income. He did it for Lord Spencer and for the +Duke of Rutland and I shall get as good a fantasia, I have no +doubt. Perhaps at Keneh Maurice had better not see the +dancing, for Zeyneb and Latefeeh are terribly fascinating, they +are such pleasant jolly girls as well as pretty and graceful, but +old Oum ez-Zeyn (mother of beauty), so-called on account of his +hideousness, will want us to eat his good dinner.</p> +<h3>October 21, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap"><i>Urania</i></span><span class="smcap">, +Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>October</i> 21, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>So many thanks for the boxes and their contents. My +slaves are enchanted with all that the ‘great master’ +has sent. Darfour hugged the horsecloth in ecstasy that he +should never again be cold at night. The waistcoats of +printed stuff, and the red flannel shirts are gone to be made up, +so my boys will be like Pashas this winter, as they told the +Reis. He is awfully perturbed about the evil eye. +‘Thy boat, <i>Mashallah</i>, is such as to cause envy from +all beholders; and now when they see a son with thee, +<i>Bismillah</i>! <i>Mashallah</i>! like a flower, +verily. I fear, I fear greatly from the eye of the +people.’ We have bought a tambourine and a tarabouka, +and are on the look-out for a man who can sing well, so as to +have fantasia on board.</p> +<p><i>October</i> 22.—I hear to-day that the Pasha sent a +telegram <i>hochst eigenhändig</i> to Koos, in consequence +whereof one Stefanos, an old Copt of high character, many years +in Government employ, was put in chains and hurried off within +twenty minutes to Fazoghlou with two of his friends, for no other +crime than having turned Presbyterian. This is quite a new +idea in Egypt, and we all wonder why the Pasha is so anxious to +‘brush the coat’ of the Copt Patriarch. We also +hear that the people up in the Saaed are running away by +wholesale, utterly unable to pay the new taxes and to do the work +exacted. Even here the beating is fearful. My Reis +has had to send all his month’s wages to save his aunt and +his sister-in-law, both widows, from the courbash. He did +not think so much of the blows, but of the ‘shame’; +‘those are women, lone women, from whence can they get the +money?’</p> +<h3>November 3, 1867: Mrs. Ross</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Mrs. Ross</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>November</i> 3, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Janet</span>,</p> +<p>Maurice arrived on Friday week, and is as happy as can be, he +says he never felt so well and never had such good snipe +shooting. Little Darfour’s amusement at Maurice is +boundless; he grins at him all the time he waits at table, he +marvels at his dirty boots, at his bathing, at his much walking +out shooting, at his knowing no Arabic. The dyke burst the +other day up at Bahr Yussuf, and we were nearly all swept away by +the furious rush of water. My little boat was upset while +three men in her were securing the anchor, and two of them were +nearly drowned, though they swim like fish; all the dahabiehs +were rattled and pounded awfully; and in the middle of the +<i>fracas</i>, at noonday, a steamer ran into us quite +deliberately. I was rather frightened when the steamer +bumped us, and carried away the iron supports of the awning; and +they cursed our fathers into the bargain, which I thought +needless. The English have fallen into such contempt here +that one no longer gets decent civility from anything in the +<i>Miri</i> (Government).</p> +<p>Olagnier has lent us a lovely little skiff, and I have had her +repaired and painted, so Maurice is set up for shooting and +boating. Darfour calls him the ‘son of a +crocodile’ because he loves the water, and generally +delights in him hugely, and all my men are enchanted with +him.</p> +<h3>December 20, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>December</i> 20, 1867.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>We arrived here all safe three days ago. I think of +starting for Nubia directly after Christmas Day, which we must +keep here. We have lovely weather. Maurice is going +with a friend of my friends, a Bedawee, to shoot, I hope among +the Abab’deh he will get some gazelle shooting. I +shall stop at Syaleh to visit the Sheykh’s mother, and with +them Maurice could go for some days into the desert. As to +crocodiles, Inshallah, we will eat their hearts, and not they +ours. You may rely on it that Maurice is ‘on the head +and in the eye’ of all my crew, and will not be allowed to +bathe in ‘unclean places.’ Reis Mohammed +stopped him at Gebel Abu’l Foda. You would be +delighted to see how different he looks; all his clothes are too +tight now. He says he is thoroughly happy, and that he was +never more amused than when with me, which I think very +flattering.</p> +<p>Half of the old house at Luxor fell down into the temple +beneath six days before I arrived; so there is an end of the +<i>Maison de France</i>, I suppose. It might be made very +nice again at a small expense, but I suppose the Consul will not +do it, and certainly I shall not unless I want it again. +Nothing now remains solid but the three small front rooms and the +big hall with two rooms off it. All the part I lived in is +gone, and the steps, so one cannot get in. Luckily Yussuf +had told Mohammed to move my little furniture to the part which +is solid, having a misgiving of the rest. He has the most +exquisite baby, an exact minature of himself. He is in a +manner my godson, being named Noor ed-Deen Hishan Abu-l-Hajjaj, +to be called <i>Noor</i> like me.</p> +<h3>January, 1868: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">On Board the +</span><span class="smcap"><i>Urania</i></span>,<br /> +<i>January</i>, 1868.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>Your letter of the 10 December most luckily came on to Edfoo +by the American Consul-General, who overtook us there in his +steamer and gave me a lunch. Maurice was as usual up to his +knees in a distant swamp trying to shoot wild geese. Now we +are up close to Assouan, and there are no more marshes; but <i>en +revanche</i> there are quails and <i>kata</i>, the beautiful +little sand grouse. I eat all that Maurice shoots, which I +find very good for me; and as for Maurice he has got back his old +round boyish face; he eats like an ogre, walks all day, sleeps +like a top, bathes in the morning and has laid on flesh so that +his clothes won’t button. At Esneh we fell in with +handsome Hassan, who is now Sheykh of the Abab’deh, as his +elder brother died. He gave us a letter to his brother at +Syaleh, up in Nubia; ordering him to get up a gazelle hunt for +Maurice, and I am to visit his wife. I think it will be +pleasant, as the Bedaween women don’t veil or shut up, and +to judge by the men ought to be very handsome. Both Hassan +and Abu Goord, who was with him, preached the same sermon as my +learned friend Abdurrachman had done at Luxor. ‘Why, +in God’s name, I left my son without a wife?’ +They are sincerely shocked at such indifference to a son’s +happiness.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Assouan</span>,<br /> +10 <i>Ramadan</i>.</p> +<p>I have no almanach, but you will be able to know the date by +your own red pocketbook, which determined the beginning of +Ramadan at Luxor this year. They received a telegram fixing +it for Thursday, but Sheykh Yussuf said that he was sure the +astronomers in London knew best, and made it Friday. +To-morrow we shall make our bargain, and next day go up the +Cataract—Inshallah, in safety. The water is very +good, as Jesus the black pilot tells me. He goes to the +second Cataract and back, as I intend to stay nearly two months +in Nubia. The weather here is perfect now, we have been +lucky in having a lovely mild winter hitherto. We are very +comfortable with a capital crew, who are all devoted to +Maurice. The Sheykh of the Abab’deh has promised to +join us if he can, when he has convoyed some 400 Bashibazouks up +to Wady Halfa, who are being sent up because the English are in +Abyssinia.</p> +<h3>April, 1868: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Luxor</span>,<br +/> +<i>April</i>, 1868.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I have been too weak to write, but the heat set in three days +ago and took away my cough, and I feel much better. Maurice +also flourishes in the broil, and protests against moving +yet. He speaks a good deal of Arabic and is friends with +everyone. It is <i>Salaam aleykoum ya maris</i> on all +sides. A Belgian has died here, and his two slaves, a very +nice black boy and an Abyssinian girl, got my little varlet, +Darfour, to coax me to take them under my protection, which I +have done, as there appeared a strong probability that they would +be ‘annexed’ by a rascally Copt who is a Consular +agent at Keneh. I believe the Belgian has left money for +them, which of course they would never get without someone to +look after it, and so I have Ramadan, the boy, with me, and shall +take the girl when I go, and carry them both to Cairo, settle +their little business, and let them present a sealed-up book +which they have to their Consul there, according to their +master’s desire, and then marry the girl to some decent +man. I have left her in Mustapha’s hareem till I +go.</p> +<p>I enjoyed Nubia immensely, and long to go and live with the +descendants of a great <i>Ras</i> (head, chief,) who entertained +me at Ibreem, and who said, like Ravenswood, ‘Thou art come +to a fallen house, and there is none to serve thee left save +me.’ It was a paradise of a place, and the Nubian had +the grand manners of a very old, proud nobleman. I had a +letter to him from Sheykh Yussuf.</p> +<p>Since I wrote the above it has turned quite chilly again, so +we agreed to stay till the heat really begins. Maurice is +so charmed with Luxor that he does not want to go, and we mean to +let the boat and live here next winter. I think another +week will see us start down stream. Janet talks of coming +up the Nile with me next year, which would be pleasant. I +am a little better than I have been the last two months. I +was best in Nubia but I got a cold at Esneh, second hand from +Maurice, which made me very seedy. I cannot go about at all +for want of breath. Could you send me a chair such as +people are carried in by two men? A common chair is awkward +for the men when the banks are steep, and I am nervous, so I +never go out. I wish you could see your son bare-legged and +footed, in a shirt and a pair of white Arab drawers, rushing +about with the fellaheen. He is everybody’s +‘brother’ or ‘son.’</p> +<h3>May, 1868: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Minieh</span>,<br /> +<i>May</i>, 1868.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>We are just arriving at Minieh whence the railway will take +letters quickly. We dined at Keneh and at Siout with some +friends, and had fantasia at Keneh. Omar desires his +dutiful salaams to you and hopes you will be satisfied with the +care he has taken of ‘the child.’ How you would +have been amused to hear the girl who came to dance for us at +Esneh lecture Maurice about evil ways, but she was an old friend +of mine, and gave good and sound advice.</p> +<p>Everyone is delighted about Abyssinia. ‘Thank God +our Pasha will fear the English more than before, and the Sultan +also,’ and when I lamented the expense, they all exclaimed, +‘Never mind the expense, it is worth more than ten millions +to you; your faces are whitened and your power enlarged before +all the world; but why don’t you take us on your way +back.’</p> +<p>I saw a very interesting man at Keneh, one Faam, a Copt, who +has turned Presbyterian, and has induced a hundred others at Koos +to do likewise: an American missionary is their minister. +Faam was sent off to the Soudan by the Patriarch, but brought +back. He is a splendid old fellow, and I felt I looked on +the face of a Christian martyr, a curious sight in the nineteenth +century: the calm, fearless, rapt expression was like what you +see in noble old Italian pictures, and he had the perfect absence +of ‘doing pious’ which shows the undoubting +faith. He and the Mufti, also a noble fellow, sparred about +religion in a jocose and friendly tone which would be quite +unintelligible in Exeter Hall. When he was gone the Mufti +said, ‘Ah! we thank them, for though they know not the +truth of Islam, they are good men, and walk straight, and would +die for their religion: their example is excellent; praise be to +God for them.’</p> +<h3>June 14, 1868: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>June</i> 14, 1868.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>The climate has been odious for Egypt—to shiver in cold +winds of June on the Nile seems hard. Maurice inherits my +faculty for getting on with ‘d------d niggers’; all +the crew kissed him on both cheeks and swore to come back again +in the winter; and up the country he was hand and glove with all +the fellaheen, eating a good deal of what he called +‘muck’ with great enjoyment, walking arm in arm with +a crazy derweesh, fetching home a bride at night and swearing +lustily by the Prophet. The good manners of the Arab +<i>canaille</i>, have rubbed off the very disagreeable varnish +which he got at Brussels.</p> +<p>Dr. Patterson wants me to go to Beyrout or one of the Greek +isles for a change. I am very feeble and short of +breath—but I will try the experiment. Would you be +shocked if a nigger taught Maurice? One Hajjee Daboos I +know to be a capital Arabic scholar and he speaks French like a +Parisian, and Italian also, only he is a real nigger and so is +the best music-master in Cairo. <i>Que faire</i>? +it’s not catching, as Lady Morley said, and I won’t +present you with a young mulatto any more than with a young +<i>brave Belge</i>. I may however find someone at +Beyrout. Cairo is in such a state of beggary that all +educated young men have fled. Maurice has no sort of idea +why a nigger should not be as good as anyone else, but thinks +perhaps you might not approve.</p> +<p>You would have stared to see old Achmet Agha Abd el-Sadig, a +very good friend of ours at Assouan, coaxing and patting the +<i>weled</i> (boy) when he dined here the other day, and laughing +immoderately at Maurice’s nonsense. He is one of the +M.P.’s for Assouan, and a wealthy and much respected man in +the Saeed. The Abyssinian affair is an awful disappointment +to the Pasha; he had laid his calculations for something +altogether different, and is furious. The Coptic clergy are +ready to murder us. The Arabs are all in raptures. +‘God bless the English general, he has frightened our +Pasha.’</p> +<p>Giafar Pasha backsheeshed me an <i>abbayeh</i> of crimson silk +and gold, also a basket of coffee. I was obliged to accept +them as he sent his son with them, and to refuse would have been +an insult, and as he is the one Turk I do think highly of I did +not wish to affront him. It was at Luxor on his way to +Khartoum. He also invited Maurice to Khartoum, and proposed +to send a party to fetch him from Korosko, on the Nile. +Giafar is Viceroy of the Soudan, and a very quiet man, who does +not ‘eat the people.’</p> +<p>My best love to Janet, I’ll write soon to her, but I am +<i>lazy</i> and Maurice is worse. Omar nearly cried when +Maurice went to Alexandria for a week. ‘I seem to +feel how dull we shall be without him when he goes away for +good,’ said he, and Darfour expresses his intention of +going with Maurice. ‘Thou must give me to the young +man backsheesh,’ as he puts it, ‘because I have +plenty of sense and shall tell him what to do.’ That +is the little rascal’s sauce. Terence’s slaves +are true to the life here.</p> +<h3>October 22, 1868: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>October</i> 22, 1868.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>The unlucky journey to Syria almost cost me my life. The +climate is absolute poison to consumptive people. In ten +days after I arrived the doctor told me to settle my affairs, for +I had probably only a few days to live, and certainly should +never recover. However I got better, and was carried on +board the steamer, but am too weak for anything. We were +nearly shipwrecked coming back owing to the Russian captain +having his bride on board and not minding his ship. We +bumped and scraped and rolled very unpleasantly. At Beyrout +the Sisters of Charity wouldn’t nurse a Protestant, nor the +Prussians a non-Lutheran. But Omar and Darfour nursed me +better than Europeans ever do. Little Blackie was as sharp +about the physic as a born doctor’s boy when Omar was +taking his turn of sleep. I did not like the few Syrians I +saw at all.</p> +<h3>November 6, 1868: Alick</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>November</i> 6, 1868.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>I am sure you will rejoice to hear that I am really +better. I now feel so much like living on a bit longer that +I will ask you to send me a cargo of medicines. I +didn’t think it worth while before to ask for anything to +be sent to me that could not be forwarded to Hades, but my old +body seems very tough and I fancy I have still one or two of my +nine lives left.</p> +<p>I hope to sail in a very few days, Maurice is going up to +Cairo so I send this by him. Yesterday was little +Rainie’s birthday, and I thought very longingly of +her. The photo, of Leighton’s sketch of Janet I like +very much.</p> +<h3>January 25, 1869: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Assouan</span>,<br /> +<i>January</i> 25, 1869.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>We have been here ten days, and I find the air quite the best +for me. I cough much less, only I am weak and short of +breath. I have got a most excellent young Reis for my boat, +and a sailor who sings like a nightingale, indeed he is not a +sailor at all, but a professional Cairo singer who came up with +me for fun. He draws crowds to hear him, and at Esneh the +congregation prayed for me in the mosque that God might reward me +for the pleasure I had provided for them. Fancy desiring +the prayers of this congregation for the welfare of the lady who +gave me her opera-box last Saturday. If prayers could avail +to cure I ought to get well rapidly. At Luxor Omar killed +the sheep he had vowed, and Mustapha and Mohammed each killed +two, as thank-offerings for my life, and all the derweeshes held +two great <i>Zikrs</i> in a tent pitched behind the boat, and +drummed and chanted and called on the Lord for two whole nights; +and every man in my boat fasted Ramadan severely, from Omar and +the crew to the little boys. I think Darfour was the most +meritorious of all, because he has such a Gargantuan appetite, +but he fasted his thirty days bravely and rubbed his little nose +in the dust energetically in prayer.</p> +<p>On Christmas day I was at Esneh, it was warm and fine, and I +made fantasia and had the girls to dance. Zeyneb and +Hillaleah claim to be my own special <i>Ghazawee</i>, so to speak +my <i>Ballerine da camera</i>, and they did their best. How +I did long to transport the whole scene before your +eyes—Ramadan warbling intense lovesongs, and beating on a +tiny tambourine, while Zeyneb danced before him and gave the +pantomime to his song; and the sailors, and girls, and +respectable merchants sat <i>pêle-mêle</i> all round +on the deck, and the player on the rabab drew from it a wail like +that of Isis for dead Osiris. I never quite know whether it +is now or four thousand years ago, or even ten thousand, when I +am in the dreamy intoxication of a real Egyptian fantasia; +nothing is so antique as the Ghazawee—the <i>real</i> +dancing girls. They are still subject to religious +ecstasies of a very curious kind, no doubt inherited from the +remotest antiquity. Ask any learned pundit to explain to +you the <i>Zar</i>—it is really curious.</p> +<p>Now that I am too ill to write I feel sorry that I did not +persist and write on the beliefs of Egypt in spite of your fear +that the learned would cut me up, for I honestly believe that +knowledge will die with me which few others possess. You +must recollect that the learned know books, and I know men, and +what is still more difficult, women.</p> +<p>The Cataract is very bad this year, owing to want of water in +the Nile, and to the shameful conduct of the Maohn here. +The cataract men came to me, and prayed me to ‘give them my +voice’ before the Mudir, which I will do. Allah +ed-deen Bey seems a decent man and will perhaps remove the +rascal, whose robberies on travellers are notorious, and his +oppression of the poor savages who pull the boats up +odious. Two boats have been severely damaged, and my friend +the Reis of the Cataract (the one I threatened to shoot last +year, and who has believed in me ever since) does not advise me +to go up, though he would take me for nothing, he swears, if I +wished. So as the air is good here and Maurice is happy +with his companions, I will stay here.</p> +<p>I meant to have discharged my men, but I have grown so fond of +them (having so good a set), that I can’t bring myself to +save £20 by turning them adrift when we are all so happy +and comfortable, and the poor fellows are just marrying new wives +with their wages. Good-bye dearest Alick, forgive a scrawl, +for I am very weak all over, fingers and all. Best love to +my darling Rainie. Three boats have little girls of five to +eight on board, and I do envy them so. I think Maurice had +better go home to you, when we get to Cairo. He ought to be +doing something.</p> +<h3>June 15, 1869: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulak</span>,<br /> +<i>June</i> 15, 1869.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>Do not think of coming here. Indeed it would be almost +too painful to me to part from you again; and as it is, I can +patiently wait for the end among people who are kind and loving +enough to be comfortable, without too much feeling of the pain of +parting. The leaving Luxor was rather a distressing scene, +as they did not think to see me again.</p> +<p>The kindness of all the people was really touching, from the +Kadee who made ready my tomb among his own family, to the poorest +fellaheen. Omar sends you his most heartfelt thanks, and +begs that the boat may remain registered at the Consulate in your +name for his use and benefit. The Prince has appointed him +his own dragoman. But he is sad enough, poor fellow, all +his prosperity does not console him for the loss of ‘the +mother he found in the world.’ Mohammed at Luxor wept +bitterly and said, ‘poor I, my poor children, poor all the +people,’ and kissed my hand passionately, and the people at +Esneh, asked leave to touch me ‘for a blessing,’ and +everyone sent delicate bread, and their best butter, and +vegetables and lambs. They are kinder than ever now that I +can no longer be of any use to them.</p> +<p>If I live till September I will go up to Esneh, where the air +is softest and I cough less. I would rather die among my +own people in the Saeed than here.</p> +<p>You must forgive this scrawl, dearest. Don’t think +please of sending Maurice out again, he must begin to work now or +he will never be good for anything.</p> +<p>Can you thank the Prince of Wales for Omar, or shall I +write? He was most pleasant and kind, and the Princess +too. She is the most perfectly simple-mannered girl I ever +saw. She does not even try to be civil like other great +people, but asks blunt questions, and looks at one so heartily +with her clear, honest eyes, that she must win all hearts. +They were more considerate than any people I have seen, and the +Prince, instead of being gracious, was, if I may say so, quite +respectful in his manner: he is very well bred and pleasant, and +has the honest eyes that makes one sure he has a kind heart.</p> +<p>My sailors were so proud at having the honour of rowing him +<i>in our own boat</i>, and of singing to him. I had a very +good singer in the boat. Please send some little present +for my Reis: he is such a good man; he will be pleased at some +little thing from you. He is half Turk, and seems like +whole one. Maurice will have told you all about us. +Good-bye for the present, dearest Alick.</p> +<h3>July 9, 1869: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>To Sir Alexander Duff +Gordon</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Helwan</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Opposite Bedreshayn</span>,<br /> +<i>July</i> 9, 1869.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Alick</span>,</p> +<p>Don’t make yourself unhappy, and don’t send out a +nurse. And above all don’t think of coming. I +am nursed as well as possible. My two Reises, Ramadan and +Yussuf, are strong and tender and Omar is admirable as +ever. The worst is I am so strong.</p> +<p>I repeat I could not be better cared for anywhere than by my +good and loving crew. Tell Maurice how they all cried and +how Abd el-Haleem forswore drink and hasheesh. He is very +good too. But my Reises are incomparable. God bless +you. I wish I had seen your dear face once more—but +not now. I would not have you here now on any account.</p> +<h2>Footnotes:</h2> +<p><a name="footnote1"></a><a href="#citation1" +class="footnote">[1]</a> See my ‘Three Generations of +English Women.’</p> +<p><a name="footnote4"></a><a href="#citation4" +class="footnote">[4]</a> See ‘Three Generations of +English Women.’</p> +<p><a name="footnote48"></a><a href="#citation48" +class="footnote">[48]</a> A smoker or eater of +<i>hasheeshs</i> (hemp).</p> +<p><a name="footnote55"></a><a href="#citation55" +class="footnote">[55]</a> Lady Mary and Lord Jesus.</p> +<p><a name="footnote188"></a><a href="#citation188" +class="footnote">[188]</a> About 7½ bushels.</p> +<p><a name="footnote293"></a><a href="#citation293" +class="footnote">[293]</a> Now, I believe, abolished. +The Sheykh of the Saadeeyeh darweeshes, passing part of the night +in solitude, reciting prayers and passages of the Koran, went to +the mosque, preached and said the noonday prayer; then, mounting +his horse, proceeded to the Ezbekeeyeh. Many darweeshes +with flags accompanied him to the house of the Sheykh of all the +darweeshes where he stayed for some time, whilst his followers +were engaged in packing the bodies of those who wished to be +trampled under the hoofs of the Sheykh’s horse as closely +together as they could in the middle of the road. Some +eighty or a hundred, or more men lay side by side flat on the +ground on their stomachs muttering, Allah Allah! and to try if +they were packed close enough about twenty darweeshes ran over +their backs, beating little drums and shouting Allah! and now and +then stopping to arrange an arm or leg. Then appeared the +Sheykh, his horse led by two grooms, while two more rested their +hands on his croup. By much pulling and pushing they at +last induced the snorting, frightened beast to amble quickly over +the row of prostrate men. The moment the horse had passed +the men sprang up, and followed the Sheykh over the bodies of the +others. It was said that on the day before the Dóseh +they, and the Sheykh, repeated certain prayers which prevented +the horse’s hoofs from hurting them, and that sometimes a +man, overcome by religious enthusiasm, had thrown himself down +with the rest and been seriously hurt, or even killed.</p> +<p><a name="footnote315"></a><a href="#citation315" +class="footnote">[315]</a> Mohammed Ali Pasha, who was an +illiterate coffee-house keeper in Salonica, first came to Egypt +at the head of a body of Albanians and co-operated with the +English against the French. By his extraordinary vigour and +intelligence he became the ruler of Lower Egypt, and succeeded in +attaching the Mameluke Beys to his person. But finding that +they were beginning to chafe under his firm rule, he invited +them, in 1811, to a grand dinner in the Citadel of Cairo. +The gates were closed, and suddenly fire was opened upon them +from every side. Only one man, Elfy Bey, spurred his horse +and jumped over the battlements into the square below (some 80 or +90 feet). His horse was killed and he broke his leg, but +managed to crawl to a friend’s house and was saved. +This same Elfy Bey, on the death of Abbas Pasha, held the Citadel +for his son, El Hamy, against his uncle, Said Pasha, and it was +only by the intervention of the English Consul-General, who rode +up to the Citadel, that Elfy was induced to acknowledge Said as +Viceroy of Egypt.</p> +<p><a name="footnote334"></a><a href="#citation334" +class="footnote">[334]</a> Alexis was a clair-voyant who +created some sensation in London about fifty years ago. One +evening at Lansdowne House he was reading people’s thoughts +and describing their houses from the lines in their hands, and a +few leading questions. The old Marquess asked my mother to +let Alexis read her thoughts, and, I suppose, impressed by her +<i>grand air</i> and statuesque beauty, imagining that she would +think about some great hero of ancient days, he said, after +careful inspection of her hand, ‘Madame vous pensez a Jules +Cesar.’ She shook her head and told him to try +again. His next guess was Alexander the Great. She +smiled and said, ‘Non, Monsieur, je pensais a mon +fidèle domestique nègre, Hassan.’ He +then described her house as something akin to Lansdowne +House—vast rooms, splendid pictures, etc. She laughed +and told him she lived in ‘une maison fort modeste et tant +soi peu bourgeois,’ which elicited his angry exclamation +that she had not faith enough, <i>i.e.</i> that she did not help +him.</p> +<p><a name="footnote336"></a><a href="#citation336" +class="footnote">[336]</a> See Introduction, p. 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote350"></a><a href="#citation350" +class="footnote">[350]</a> According to tradition, the +first Christian church in Egypt was built by St. Mark the +Evangelist at Baucalis near Alexandria, and Christianity was +introduced into Abyssinia under Athanasius Patriarch of +Alexandria from 236 to 273. The authority of the Egyptian +Coptic Patriarch is still paramount in Abyssinia, where he counts +his adherents by the million.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM EGYPT***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 17816-h.htm or 17816-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/1/17816 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +</pre></body> +</html> diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill101b.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill101b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddffa5f --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill101b.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill101s.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill101s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7b5ddc --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill101s.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill174b.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill174b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4631e95 --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill174b.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill174s.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill174s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bacb73 --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill174s.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill1b.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill1b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4a776c --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill1b.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill1s.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill1s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f216083 --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill1s.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill231b.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill231b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc2dd0d --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill231b.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill231s.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill231s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6cc663f --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill231s.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill328b.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill328b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d1658b --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill328b.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill328s.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill328s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..29ec406 --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill328s.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill4b.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill4b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0022276 --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill4b.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/ill4s.jpg b/17816-h/images/ill4s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..80bf56d --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/ill4s.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/p0b.jpg b/17816-h/images/p0b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6201d24 --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/p0b.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/p0s.jpg b/17816-h/images/p0s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca94eb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/p0s.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/p1b.jpg b/17816-h/images/p1b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..153e5ac --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/p1b.jpg diff --git a/17816-h/images/p1s.jpg b/17816-h/images/p1s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..92d3ca3 --- /dev/null +++ b/17816-h/images/p1s.jpg |
