ssed in the
official costume--a single-breasted black coat such as some of our
Episcopal clergymen wear, black trousers, patent-leather boots, and of
course the red fez. The reception-room into which he led us was a large
one--cool by comparison with the outside air, and somewhat dirty and
shabby, as such places are apt to be, according to my experience.
Seating ourselves according to rank on the rather greasy divan which ran
round three sides of the apartment, we were offered cooling drinks and
cigarettes. (Chibouks are things of the past for all ordinary occasions.
It's a pity, for they are better smoking than cigarettes, and certainly
more picturesque.) Compliments were exchanged in bad French, and the
ordinary topics discussed, but nothing was said as to the weather except
that it was warm--a self-evident proposition. The weather is not a
fruitful topic in Egypt. After a little time some officials came in with
a whole pile of papers for signature, and we took the opportunity to
terminate our mutual discomfort, the pasha with a perfunctory grin
shaking hands with everybody, at the same time ordering some of his own
cavasses to join ours as a special bodyguard to clear the way for us
through the narrow, crowded streets.

Having attended to the _bienseances_, we sallied out for sightseeing,
going first to the principal mosque, as it was in our way and evidently
considered by our guides one of the "lions." Whether it was owing to
the rank of some of our party or to the presence of the pasha's cavasses
I don't know, but we walked straight into this mosque, without taking
off our boots or putting papooshes over them--the first and last time,
in my experience of the East, in which such a thing was done. There was
suppressed grumbling on the part of some dervishes and some
old-fashioned turbaned individuals grouped in the arcaded porch, but
nobody seemed to care much about them. There was nothing particular to
see inside the mosque after we got there. It had not the grand
proportions or elaborate decoration of some of the Cairene mosques,
neither was the pulpit as handsomely carved or the hanging lamps and
ostrich-shells as numerous. The coolness of the thick-walled, domed
building was, however, most grateful, for the heat in the streets was by
this time almost insufferable, and the smells awful.

But we had no time for coolness or comfort on this day. We were to dine
with the vice-consul at two o'clock, and we had not yet