here you have to
rub your nose in the dust at the King's feet. Then we went out with
lanterns and torches and the Abab'deh did the sword dance for us. Two
men with round shields and great straight swords do it. One dances a
_pas seul_ of challenge and defiance with prodigious leaps and pirouettes
and Hah! Hahs! Then the other comes and a grand fight ensues. When the
handsome Sheykh Hassan (whom you saw in Cairo) bounded out it really was
heroic. All his attitudes were alike grand and graceful. They all
wanted Sheykh Yussuf to play _el-Neboot_ (single stick) and said he was
the best man here at it, but his sister was not long dead and he could
not. Hassan looks forward to Maurice's coming here to teach him 'the
fighting of the English.' How Maurice would pound him!

On the fourth night I went to tea in Lord Hopetoun's boat and their
sailors gave a grand _fantasia_ excessively like a Christmas pantomime.
One danced like a woman, and there was a regular pantaloon only 'more
so,' and a sort of clown in sheepskin and a pink mask who was duly
tumbled about, and who distributed _claques_ freely with a huge wooden
spoon. It was very good fun indeed, though it was quite as well that the
ladies did not understand the dialogue, or that part of the dance which
made the Maohn roar with laughter. The Hopetouns had two handsome boats
and were living like in May Fair. I am so used now to our poor shabby
life that it makes quite a strange impression on me to see all that
splendour--splendour which a year or two ago I should not even have
remarked--and thus out of 'my inward consciousness' (as Germans say),
many of the peculiarities and faults of the people of Egypt are explained
to me and accounted for.

_April_ 2.--It is so dreadfully hot and dusty that I shall rather hasten
my departure if I can. The winds seem to have begun, and as all the land
which last year was green is now desert and dry the dust is four times as
bad. If I hear that Ross has bought and sent up a dahabieh I will wait
for that, if not I will go in three weeks if I can.

April 3, 1865: Mrs. Austin

_To Mrs. Austin_.

LUXOR,
_April_ 3, 1865.

DEAREST MUTTER,

I have just finished a letter to Alick to go by a steamer to-day. You
will see it, so I will go on with the stories about the riots