e quite young, seen (that
is the Eastern phrase) in your whole life?' The Englishman could not
count--of course not. 'Well, young man, I am old, and was married at
twelve, and I have seen in all my life seven women; four are dead, and
three are happy and comfortable in my house. _Where are all yours_?'
Hassaneyn Effendi heard the conversation, which passed in French, and was
amused at the question.

I find that the criminal convicted of calumny accused, together with
twenty-nine others not in custody, the Sheykh-el-Beled of his place of
murdering his servant, and produced a basket full of bones as proof, but
the Sheykh-el-Beled produced the living man, and his detractor gets hard
labour for life. The proceeding is characteristic of the childish
_ruses_ of this country. I inquired whether the thief who was dragged in
chains through the streets would be able to find work, and was told, 'Oh,
certainly; is he not a poor man? For the sake of God everyone will be
ready to help him.' An absolute uncertainty of justice naturally leads
to this result. Our captain was quite shocked to hear that in my country
we did not like to employ a returned convict.

LUXOR,
_January_ 13, 1864.

We spent all the afternoon of Saturday at Keneh, where I dined with the
English Consul, a worthy old Arab, who also invited our captain, and we
all sat round his copper tray on the floor and ate with our fingers, the
captain, who sat next me, picking out the best bits and feeding me and
Sally with them. After dinner the French Consul, a Copt, one Jesus
Buktor, sent to invite me to a fantasia at his house, where I found the
Mouniers, the Moudir, and some other Turks, and a disagreeable Italian,
who stared at me as if I had been young and pretty, and put Omar into a
great fury. I was glad to see the dancing-girls, but I liked old Seyyid
Achmet's patriarchal ways much better than the tone of the Frenchified
Copt. At first I thought the dancing queer and dull. One girl was very
handsome, but cold and uninteresting; one who sang was also very pretty
and engaging, and a dear little thing. But the dancing was contortions,
more or less graceful, _very_ wonderful as gymnastic feats, and no more.
But the captain called out to one Latifeh, an ugly, clumsy-looking wench,
to show the Sitt what she could do. And then it was reveal