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 Maohn (he is _not_ 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.e._, the _mastabah_
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 _patois_ is broad and doubles the difficulty, or I would send you a
Theban police report; but the Maohn is very pleasant in his manner to
them, and they don't seem frightened. We have appointed a very small boy
our _bowab_, 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 _tableaux vivants_ from Murillo
with a plate of broken victuals. The children of this place have become
so insufferable about _backsheesh_ that I have complained to the Maohn,
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.
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 _Geschmeidigkeit_ 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, _Er ist so gemuthlich_.
There is a German here deciphering hieroglyphics, Herr Dummichen, 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.
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 _en route_ in a boat from
El-Moutaneh--he will cost me between 4 pounds and 5 pounds 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.
_February_ 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.