eremus_. I must I suppose go to the Nazir at the
Canal--a Turk--and beg off my donkey boy.

[Picture: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon, from sketch by G. F. Watts, R.A.]

I saw Hassan Sheykh-el-Abab'deh yesterday, who was loud in praise of your
good looks and gracious manners. 'Mashallah, thy master is a sweet man,
O Lady!'

Yesterday was Bairam, and lots of Hareem came in their best clothes to
wish me a happy year and enjoyed themselves much with sweet cakes,
coffee, and pipes. Kursheed's wife (whom I cured completely) looked very
handsome. Kursheed is a Circassian, a fine young fellow much shot and
hacked about and with a Crimean medal. He is cawass here and a great
friend of mine. He says if I ever want a servant he will go with me
anywhere and fight anybody--which I don't doubt in the least. He was a
Turkish memlook and his condescension in wishing to serve a Christian
woman is astounding. His fair face and clear blue eyes, and brisk, neat,
soldier-like air contrast curiously with the brown fellaheen. He is like
an Englishman only fairer and like them too fond of the courbash. What
would you say if I appeared in Germany attended by a memlook with
pistols, sword, dagger, carbine and courbash, and with a decided and
imperious manner the very reverse of the Arab softness--and such a Muslim
too--prays five times a day and extra fasts besides Ramadan. 'I beat my
wife' said Kursheed, 'oh! I beat her well! she talked so, and I am like
the English, I don't like too many words.' He was quite surprised that I
said I was glad _my_ master didn't dislike talking so much.

I was talking the other day with Yussuf about people trying to make
converts and I said that eternal betise, 'Oh they mean well.' 'True, oh
Lady! perhaps they do mean well, but God says in the Noble Koran that he
who injures or torments those Christians whose conduct is not evil,
merely on account of religion, shall never smell the fragrance of the
Garden (paradise). Now when men begin to want to make others change
their faith it is extremely hard for them _not_ to injure or torment them
and therefore I think it better to abstain altogether and to wish rather
to see a Christian a good Christian and a Muslim a good Muslim.'

No wonder a most pious old Scotchman told me that the truth which
undeniably existed in the Mussulman faith was the work of Satan and the
Ulema his _meenesters_. My dear saint of a Yussuf a _meenester_ of
Satan! I really thin