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.
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.
'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?
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 pounds by the sale of old wood and nails, and
also gave me 2000 piastres, nearly 12 pounds, which the workmen had given
him as a sort of backsheesh. They all pay one, two or three piastres
daily to any _wakeel_ (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 _chez vous_. 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.
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 _gulleh_ (water-jar) behind him as he leaves
the house, and sweep away his footsteps.
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.e._ oppressed, class will teach it;
however intimate a man may be with the rulers he will never fully take it
in. I am _a l'index_ 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.
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.