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woman) as myself. As he acts as clerk to Mustafa, our consular agent, and wears a shabby 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 manuscript, and consulted M. de Ronge 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 book, 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 แ favoured your family with understand"ing and knowledge. I wish I could "kiss the sheykhah, your mother's "hand. May God favour her."

M'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, sotto voce, for "el gaddar, el gemeel" (the youth, the beautiful), in the words of the Fathah, "Oh, give him guidance, and "let him not stray in the paths of "the rejected!" Altogether something in Sheykh Yussuf reminds me of Worsley. There is the same look of Seelenreinheit, with far less thought and intelligence (indeed, little thought), of course, and an additional child-like innocence. I suppose some mediæval monks may have had the same look, but no Catholic I have ever seen looks so peaceful or so unpretending. I see in him, as in all people who don't know what doubt means, an 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

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Philip Stanhope Worsley, the translator of the "Odyssey."

describe manner, which produces so much of the impression of novelty.

Luxor, March 10th.-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 hallooed, Ramadan Mat! Ramadan Mat! "Ramadan is 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?" &c. &c. What, then, O Muslims, will 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 his person, nor in his family, nor in his possessions. Cease then to cheat one another, O men! 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 mosques. 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!

Of course the sermon 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 Islam, and every man will be judged upon his actions. "Even unbelievers God will not defraud," says the Koran. Of course, the belief in meritorious works leads to the same sort of superstition as it does among Catho

lics the endeavour to "make one's soul," by alms, fastings, endowments, &c.; 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 Yussuf 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. Yussuf 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.

The kitchen is full of cakes, ringshaped, which all my friends have sent me, just such as we see offered to the gods in the temples and tombs. I went and called on the Maōhn in the evening, and found a number 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 cawass 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.

March 12th.-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 lurk 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 (two, Arab time), to investigate the affair, and to desire him to apprehend the men. Next morning Seleem fetched me, and Mustafa came to represent English interests, and as

we rode out of Luxor, the Sheykh el Ababdeh joined us with some of his tribe, with their long guns, and many more with lances; he was a volunteer, 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. Every one was peculiarly savage that it should have happened to me, a person well known to be friendly to "El Muslimeen."

When we arrived we went into a square inclosure, with a sort of cloister on one side, spread with carpets, where we sat, and the wretched fellows were brought in in chains. To my horror, I found they had been beaten already; I remonstrated; "What if you have beaten the wrong men?" "Malesh, we will beat the whole village until your purse is found." I said to Mustafa, "This won't do; you must stop this." So Mustafa ordained, with the concurrence of the Maōhn, that the Sheykh el Beled and the "Gefieh," (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 (3 napoleons). The Sheykh el Ababdeh harangued the people on their ill-behaviour to "Hareemat," and called them "Haramee" (rascals), and was very high and mighty to the Sheykh el Beled. Hereupon, I went away on a visit to a Turkish lady in the village, leaving Mustafa to settle. After I was gone they beat eight or ten of the boys who had mobbed me and begged with the two men; Mustafa, 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 mauvais sujets.

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 any one punished, evidently they would have half killed the two men. Mustafa behaved extremely well; he showed sense, decision, and more feelings of humanity than I at all expected of him.

Pray do try to get him paid. The English consuls at Cairo are not nearly so civil, and old Mustafa has all the trouble and work of the Nile boats (eighty-five this winter), and he is boundlessly kind and useful to the English, and a real protection against cheating. When Mustafa was appointed, there were about five or six boats a year, now there are always from seventy to one hundred and twenty, and he does not get a farthing, and is really out of pocket. Pray do not fail to represent all these things to Mr. Layard.

April 6th.-I told you how my purse had been stolen, and the proceedings thereanent. Well! Mustafa 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; 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 Fazogl for life, No. 65.-VOL. XI.

out of civility to me. There was no alternative between my forgiving him. "for the love of God," or sending him to certain death by a climate insupportable to these people. Mustafa 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 procés-verbal to show me. Fancy my dismay. I went to Seleem Effendi and to the Cadi with Sheykh Yussuf, and begged the man might be let go, and not be 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 Sebeel, which was also applauded. I then said, "Shall we send the money to the Bishop?" but a respectable elderly Copt said, "Malesh, malesh (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 Ameereh (lady), 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

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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 en règle;—another trait of Egypt.

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The other day we found all our waterjars empty, and our house unsprinkled; on inquiry, it turned out that the Sakkas 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," or one, a Turkish cawass (policeman), having forced them to fetch water for building purposes at so low a price that they could not bear it. My poor Sakka is gone without a whole month's pay-two shillings, the highest pay by far given in Luxor.

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I am interested in another story. hear that a plucky woman here has been to Keneh, and threatened the Moodir 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 will walk in this heat all the way, unless she succeeds in frightening the Moodir, which, as she is of the more spirited sex in this country, she may possibly do. You see these Sacedees are a bit less patient than the people in Lower Egypt; the Sakkas can strike, and a woman can face a Moodir.

Some one tried to put it into Omar's head that it was "Haran" 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 "Ragul Ameen," the highest praise for fidelity,--the

sobriquet of the Prophet. Omar kisses the hands of his Sidi el Keeber (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 Scander 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. 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 us by our men was our veil, 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, "Thou shalt love thy brother as thyself, and never act towards him but as thou wouldst he should act towards thee." I forget the chapter and verse, but it seems he took the bull by the horns, and declared all men 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 (ie. He only knows the heart), and if they saw aught amiss, to remember that the best man needs say "Astalfer Allah" (I beg pardon of God) seven times a day.

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."

"THE RASH VOW."

A BED, four walls, and a swart crucifix

Nought else, save my own brain and four small words!
Four scorpions! which, instead of cloistered death,
Have stung me into life! How long may't be

Since silver censers flung their incense up,

And in full choir a sound of voices rose,
Chaunting their even-song, and praising God-
"In that our brother here was dead, and lives?"
Then came the organ's surging symphony,
And I, a unit 'midst the tonsured crowd,

Passed on, a monk; while in my ear there rung

Those four short, burning words, "She was not false !"
Oh! fiend incarnate, that could urge me on,
E'en to the very brink and see me plunge-
Then, seeing, whisper what would else have saved
A life-long misery.

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They brought me here

To pray, and keep the Vigil of St. John;
To make thanksgiving-What was it he said,
The reverend preacher who discoursed to-day?
Many indeed are called, but chosen few."
Chosen and this the Vigil of St. John,
When trembling maidens to the fountain come
To view their future husbands mirrored there:
She, too, perhaps, may be amidst the throng?
Ah! me, I shall go mad. How long is it
Since I have grovelled here? It seems to me
Well nigh a life-time since they came and brought
The dim oil-lamp, that flickers near my head.
How heavily their flabby, naked feet
Came whilom flapping through the corridor!
"Our brother prays," quoth one; the other said,
(Poking the lamp's wick with his finger-tip)
"In truth I marvel not that he is moved;
An angel's self might have been stirred to hear
My Lord the Bishop as he preached to-day."
Poor souls! if they could but have read my heart,
It would have seared even their inert gross flesh
Into a flame of fear. I recollect,

On my young sister Isa's wedding day,

Our mother smiled, and said it brought to her

Again the freshness of her buried youth.

Great God! see! here is my own youth, unspent,
Living a death. Alas! no more for me
The silvery laughter of fair mirthful girls,
Like distant bells across the breezy downs;
No more the soft hands' thrilling touch, that sends
The young hot life-blood rushing through the veins;

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