dvice, and would have given
more,' etc. No use at all. He is the Government doctor, and they had
rather die, and will swallow anything from _el-Sittee Noor-ala-Noor_.
Here is a pretty state of things.

I gave Sheykh Yussuf 4 pounds for three months' daily lessons last night,
and had quite a contest to force it upon him. 'It is not for money, oh
Lady;' and he coloured crimson. He had been about with Ali Effendi, but
could not get the people to see him. The Copts, I find, _have_ a
religious prejudice against him, and, indeed, against all heretics. They
consider themselves and the Abyssinians as the only true believers. If
they acknowledge _us_ as brethren, it is for money. I speak only of the
low class, and of the priests; of course the educated merchants are very
different. I had two priests and two deacons, and the mother of one,
here to-day for physic for the woman. She was very pretty and pleasing;
miserably reduced and weak from the long fast. I told her she must eat
meat and drink a little wine, and take cold baths, and gave her quinine.
She will take the wine and the quinine, but neither eat nor wash. The
Bishop tells them they will die if they break the fast, and half the
Christians are ill from it. One of the priests spoke a little English;
he fabricates false antiques very cleverly, and is tolerably sharp; but,
Oh _mon Dieu_, it is enough to make one turn Muslim to compare these
greasy rogues with such high-minded charitable _shurafa_ (noblemen) as
Abd-el-Waris and Sheykh Yussuf. A sweet little Copt boy who is very ill
will be killed by the stupid bigotry about the fast. My friend Suleyman
is much put out, and backs my exhortations to the sick to break it. He
is a capital fellow, and very intelligent, and he and Omar are like
brothers; it is the priests who do all they can to keep alive religious
prejudice. _Alhamdulillah_, they are only partially successful.
Mohammed has just heard that seventy-five head of cattle are dead at
El-Moutaneh. Here only a few have died as yet, and Ali Effendi thinks
the disease less virulent than in Lower Egypt. I hope he is right; but
dead beasts float down the river all day long.

To turn to something more amusing--but please don't tell it--such a joke
against my gray hairs. I have had a proposal, or at least an attempt at
one. A very handsome Sheykh-el-Arab (_Bedawee_) was here for a bit, and
asked Omar whether I were a widow or divorced, as in either case he