ss witty
than we fancy them to have been--thanks to Shakespeare, I suppose. Each
district has one who attends all _moolids_ and other gatherings of the
people, and picks up a living. He tells me that the Turkish Nazir of
Zeneea has begun some business against our Kadee, Sheykh Ibraheem, and
Sheykh Yussuf, accused them of something--he does not know what--_perhaps
of being friends of Hajjee Sultan, or of stealing wood_!! If all the
friends of Hajjee Sultan are to be prosecuted that will include the whole
Saeed.

Of course I am anxious about my friends. All Haleem Pasha Oghdee's
villages have been confiscated (those tributary to him for work) _sous
pretexte_ that he ill-used the people, _n.b._ he alone paid them--a bad
example. Pharoah is indeed laying intolerable burthens--not on the
Israelites--but on the fellaheen.

Omar said of the great dinner to-day, 'I think all the food will taste of
blood, it is the blood of the poor, and more _haram_ than any pork or
wine or blood of beasts.' Of course such sentiments are not to be
repeated--but they are general. The _meneggets_ who picked and made ten
mattrasses and fourteen cushions for me in half a day, were laughing and
saying, 'for the Pasha's boat we work also, at so much a day and we
should have done it in four days.' 'And for me if I paid by the day
instead of by the piece, how long?' 'One day instead of half, O Lady,
for fear thou shouldest say to us, you have finished in half a day and
half the wages is enough for you.' That is the way in which all the work
is done for _Effendeena_--no wonder his steamers don't pay.

I saw Ross yesterday--he tells me the Shereef of Mecca has sent him a
horse.

December 25, 1865: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.

THEBES,
_From December_ 25, 1865, _to January_ 3, 1866.

DEAREST ALICK,

I wish you all, 'may the year be good to thee' as we say here--and now
for my history. We left Cairo on the 5th Decr. I was not well. No wind
as usual, and we were a week getting to Benisonef where the Stamboolee
Greek lady who was so kind to me last summer in my illness came on board
with a very well-bred Arab lady. I was in bed, and only stayed a few
hours. On to Minieh another five or six days--walked about and saw the
preparations for the Pasha's arrival. Nothing so flat as these aff