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 _beau monde_ of Thebes _would_ 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 _is_
celebrated for soothing headaches and other nervous pains, and I daresay
is an unconscious mesmeriser. The other day our poor Maohn 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
Maohn went his way rejoicing, in that 'the words of the Englishwoman'
would utterly defeat Ali Bey. The truth was that the worthy Maohn 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.
_June_ 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. _Alhamdulillah_!
for I rather dreaded the _muzeyinn_ (barber) with his _tongs_, who is the
sole dentist here. I was amused the other day by the entrance of my
friend the Maohn, 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.e._, 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--'_he_ 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 Maohn's quiver in Cairo and will be exactly as
well looked on and have equal rights if he is as black as a coal.
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.
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.'
_June_ 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 Maohn 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 _below_ 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.