on their way to Jeddah. These men
were dressed in a somewhat European costume, some of them with the
Queen's medal on their breasts. There was a hareem, in a sort of
omnibus, with them, containing the establishment of one of the
officers. One of the ladies dropped her veil for a moment, and I saw
rather a pretty face; almost the only Mahommedan female face I have
seen since I have reached this continent. They are much more rigorous,
it appears, with the ladies in Egypt than at Constantinople. There
they wear a veil which is quite transparent and go about shopping: but
in Egypt they seem to go very little out, and their veil completely
hides everything but the eyes. In the palace which I visited near
Cairo (and which the Pacha offered, if we had chosen to take it), I
looked through some of the grated windows allowed in the hareems, and
I suppose that it must require a good deal of practice to see
comfortably out of them. It appears that the persons who ascend to the
top of the minarets to call to prayer at the appointed hours are blind
men, and that the blind are selected for this office, lest they should
be able to look down into the hareems. That is certainly carrying
caution very far.

[Sidenote: Aden.]

_Steamship 'Bentinck,' off Socotra.--May 19th_.--I left my last
letter at Aden. We landed there at about four P.M., under a salute
from an Indian man-of-war sloop and the fort, to which latter place I
was conveyed in a carriage which the Governor sent for me. It was most
fearfully hot. The hills are rugged and grand, but wholly barren; not
a sign of vegetation, and the vertical rays of a tropical sun beating
upon them. The whole place is comprised in a drive around the hills of
some three or four miles, beyond which the inhabitants cannot stray
without the risk of being seized by the Arabs. I cannot conceive a
more dreary spot to dwell in, though the Governor assured me that the
troops are healthy. He received me very civilly, and insisted that I
should remain with him until the steamer sailed, which involved
leaving his abode (the cantonment) at about half-past three in the
morning. He took me to see some most extraordinary tanks which he has
recently discovered, and which must have been constructed with great
care and at great expense, at some remote period, in order to collect