d Italian, to the advertisement. I pleaded inability to read or
write, whereupon he testily cried "Alle nove! alle nove!" (At nine! at
nine!) Still appearing uncertain, I drove him out of his chair, when he
rose with a curse and read "8 A.M." An unhappy Eastern, depending upon
what he said, would have been precisely one hour too late.

Thus were we lapsing into the real good old Indian style of doing
business. Thus Indicus orders his first clerk to execute some
commission; the senior, having "work" upon his hands, sends a junior;
the junior finds the sun hot, and passes on the word to a "peon"; the
peon charges a porter with the errand; and the porter quietly sits or
dozes in his place, trusting that fate will bring him out of the scrape,
but firmly resolved, though the shattered globe fall, not to stir an
inch.

The reader, I must again express a hope, will pardon the egotism of
these descriptions: my object is to show him how business is carried on
in these hot countries--business generally. For had I, instead of being
Abdullah the Dervish, been a rich native merchant, it would have been
the same. How many complaints of similar treatment have I heard in
different parts of the Eastern world! and how little can one realize
them without having actually experienced the evil! For the future I
shall never see a "nigger" squatting away half a dozen mortal hours in a
broiling sun, patiently waiting for something or for some one, without a
lively remembrance of my own cooling of the _calces_ at the custom-house
of Alexandria.

At length, about the end of May, all was ready. Not without a feeling of
regret I left my little room among the white myrtle blossoms and the
oleander flowers. I kissed with humble ostentation my kind host's hand
in presence of his servants, bade adieu to my patients, who now amounted
to about fifty, shaking hands with all meekly and with religious
equality of attention, and, mounted in a "trap" which looked like a
cross between a wheel-barrow and dog-cart, drawn by a kicking, jibbing,
and biting mule, I set out for the steamer.

EN ROUTE

From 'A Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah'

At 3 P.M. we left El Zaribah, traveling towards the S.W., and a
wondrously picturesque scene met the eye. Crowds hurried along, habited
in the pilgrim garb, whose whiteness contrasted strangely with their
black skins, their newly shaven heads glistening in the sun, and
their long black hair streaming in the wind. T