heir vocation in Northern Egypt, but have been banished away
up the Nile. I presume their presence at the fair was winked at by the
authorities, and they were probably not the best of their class. Some of
the women were by no means bad-looking, and they danced with a sway of
figure and a grace and abandon perfect in their way. It is the same
dance, with the same steps and gestures, which is painted on the walls
of many an ancient Egyptian tomb, and transmitted from the time of
Osortasen and the Pharaoh who knew Joseph. A tremendous crowd at once
collected on the prospect of a dance at the expense of the strangers,
and, gaping over each other's shoulders, divided their stares between
our party and the almehs. The sun, all this time, was beating down upon
the scene with power sufficient, one would have thought, to bake the
unprotected brains of most of the company. One of our party became
fairly ill from this cause, and we were all glad to escape from the
reeking markets and streets, and to take refuge once more in the cool
and spacious house of our vice-consul.

Here we managed to cool off a little, and in due time were ushered into
the dining-room, where was a table handsomely decked and furnished in
the European style. Our host took his place at the head of the table,
but during the whole dinner never touched a morsel, occupying himself in
superintending the movements of the numerous servants and in smiling
blandly on each of us as we caught his eye, and evidently inviting us by
his gestures to "go in and win." When we had had eight or ten courses of
the usual soups, fish and roast and boiled, accompanied by wine of
several sorts, we began to feel that there was a limit to our capacity.
But there appeared to be none to the resources of our host's larder and
kitchen, for course after course of native dishes was now brought on,
and we were pressed to try one after another of strange-looking and
still stranger-tasting concoctions. Finally, the list of these seemed to
be exhausted, and the roasts began over again, until, on the appearance
of a huge turkey stuffed with pistachios, my right-hand neighbor, who
had a statistical mind, announced that this formed the twentieth course.
At this point the consul-general interfered, and informed our host, with
many thanks and compliments, that we could positively eat no more. With
a gratified smile and the air of a general who had won a victory he
turned to his servants and ordered t