h_ or a pair of baggy trousers and sash; and it was curious to
observe how the wearers of these garments had acquired a loaferish,
_farniente_ air worthy of a native. Our officers and men did what they
could toward assisting these poor people with spare clothing and a
little cash. They seemed, however, to move about in a kind of daze,
receiving the contributions properly enough, but in a quiet,
undemonstrative kind of way; so different from the usual _backsheesh_
transactions to which we were accustomed in this part of the world that
the contrast of itself would have proclaimed them a foreign race. In
one or two cases the women, as soon as they found out what was going on,
made a private request that any cash intended for them might be put into
their own hands, "their men bein' kind of shiftless-like, you see."

A quiet run of thirty hours brought us to the busy port of Alexandria,
where the crowded harbor and the rush and bustle of the Overland traffic
and travel caused a turmoil to which we had been for months
unaccustomed. It must have been fairly bewildering to our passengers,
fresh from their humdrum existence. The arrangements on their behalf
were made in a few hours, and our poor fellow-countrymen were soon off
for England in the steerage of a huge cotton-loaded freight-steamer,
having a new experience in the companionship of Bengalese, Maltese,
Arabs, English navvies and riff-raff of all tongues and complexions. In
fact, the Overland route, at that time especially, afforded about the
most curious aggregation of nationalities and costumes that the world
has ever seen since the Crusades.

"It is an ill wind which blows nobody good." We had earnestly desired,
during two terms of service in the Levant, to visit Egypt, but some
untoward event had always prevented us from doing so. A threatened
massacre at Damascus, some consul's squabble at Sidon or Haiffa, or some
fresh atrocity reported in the course of the Cretan insurrection, or the
desire on the part of our minister to have "the flag shown" at
Constantinople, had invariably barred us from getting to the south. But
here we were at last within sight of Pompey's Pillar, and we felt sure
that we should not leave the East again, as we had done once before,
without a peep at the Pyramids, and at least a glance at the wonderful
work of M. de Lesseps, then approaching completion.

On the day after our arrival, while dining with our consul-general, the
great fair then