ttled into quite warm weather ways, no more going out at
mid-day. It is now broiling, and I have been watching eight tall fine
blacks swimming and capering about, their skins shining like otters' fur
when wet. They belong to a _gellaab_--a slave-dealer's boat. The
beautiful thing is to see the men and boys at work among the green corn,
the men half naked and the boys wholly so; in the sun their brown skins
look just like dark clouded amber--semi-transparent, so fine are they.

I rejoice to say that on Wednesday is Bairam, and to-morrow Ramadan
'dies.' Omar is very thin and yellow and headachy, and everyone is
cross. How I wish I were going, instead of my letter, to see you all,
but it is evident that this heat is the thing that does me good, if
anything will.

March 7, 1864: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.

LUXOR,
_March_ 7, 1864.

DEAREST ALICK,

The real hot weather (speaking after the manner of the English) has
begun, and the fine sun and clear air are delicious and reviving. My
cough fades away, and my strength increases slowly. One can no longer go
out in the middle of the day, and I mount my donkey early and late, with
little Achmet trotting beside me. In the evenings comes my dear Sheykh
Yussuf, and I blunder through an hour's dictation, and reading of the
story of the Barber's fifth brother (he with the basket of glass). I
presume that Yussuf likes me too, for I am constantly greeted with
immense cordiality by graceful men in green turbans, belonging, like him,
to the holy family of Sheykh Abu-'l-Hajjaj. They inquire tenderly after
my health, and pray for me, and hope I am going to stay among them.

You would be much struck here with the resemblance to Spain, I think.
'Cosas de Espana' is exactly the '_Shogl-el-Arab_,' and Don Fulano is the
Arabic word _foolan_ (such a one), as _Ojala_ is _Inshallah_ (please
God). The music and dancing here, too, are Spanish, only 'more so' and
much more.

_March_ 10, 1864.--Yesterday was Bairam, and on Tuesday evening everybody
who possessed a gun or a pistol banged away, every drum and taraboukeh
was thumped, and all the children holloaed, _Ramadan Mat_, _Ramadan Mat_
(Ramadan's dead) about the streets. At daybreak Omar went to the early
prayer, a special ceremony of the day. The