c offices in glorious confusion, looking with their
glaring whitewashed faces upon a central court, where a few leafless
wind-wrung trees seem struggling for the breath of life in an eternal
atmosphere of clay, dust, and sun-blaze.

The first person I addressed was a Kawwas or police officer, who, coiled
comfortably up in a bit of shade fitting his person like a robe, was in
full enjoyment of the Asiatic "Kaif." Having presented the consular
certificate and briefly stated the nature of my business, I ventured to
inquire what was the right course to pursue for a visa.

They have little respect for Dervishes, it appears, at Alexandria!
"M'adri" (Don't know), growled the man of authority, without moving
anything but the quantity of tongue necessary for articulation.

Now there are three ways of treating Asiatic officials,--by bribe, by
bullying, or by bothering them with a dogged perseverance into
attending to you and your concerns. The latter is the peculiar province
of the poor; moreover, this time I resolved for other reasons to be
patient. I repeated my question in almost the same words. "Ruh!" (Be
off) was what I obtained for all reply. By this time the questioned went
so far as to open his eyes. Still I stood twirling the paper in my
hands, and looking very humble and very persevering, till a loud "Ruh ya
Kalb!" (Go, O dog!) converted into a responsive curse the little speech
I was preparing about the brotherhood of El-Islam and the mutual duties
obligatory on true believers. I then turned away slowly and fiercely,
for the next thing might have been a cut with the Kurbaj [bastinado],
and by the hammer of Thor! British flesh and blood could never have
stood that.

After which satisfactory scene,--for satisfactory it was in one sense,
proving the complete fitness of the Dervish's dress,--I tried a dozen
other promiscuous sources of information,--policemen, grooms, scribes,
donkey-boys, and idlers in general. At length, wearied of patience, I
offered a soldier some pinches of tobacco and promised him an Oriental
sixpence if he would manage the business for me. The man was interested
by the tobacco and the pence; he took my hand, and inquiring the while
he went along, led me from place to place till, mounting a grand
staircase, I stood in the presence of Abbas Effendi, the governor's Naib
or deputy.

It was a little whey-faced black-bearded Turk, coiled up in the usual
conglomerate posture upon a calico-covered diva