airs
here. Not a creature went near the landing-place but his own servants,
soldiers, and officials. I thought of the arrival of the smallest of
German princes, which makes ten times the noise. Next on to Siout. Ill
again, and did not land or see anyone. On to Girgeh, where we only
stayed long enough to deliver money and presents which I had been begged
to take for some old sailors of mine to their mothers and wives there.

Between Siout and Girgeh an Abyssinian slave lad came and wanted me to
steal him; he said his master was a Copt and ill-used him, and the lady
beat him. But Omar sagely observed to the sailors, who were very anxious
to take him, that a bad master did not give his slave such good clothes
and even a pair of shoes--_quel luxe_!--and that he made too much of his
master being a Copt; no doubt he was a lazy fellow, and perhaps had run
away with other property besides himself. Soon after I was sitting on
the pointed prow of the boat with the Reis, who was sounding with his
painted pole (_vide_ antique sculptures and paintings), and the men
towing, when suddenly something rose to the surface close to us: the men
cried out _Beni Adam_! and the Reis prayed for the dead. It was a woman:
the silver bracelets glittered on the arms raised and stiffened in the
agony of death, the knees up and the beautiful Egyptian breasts floated
above the water. I shall never forget the horrid sight. 'God have mercy
on her,' prayed my men, and the Reis added to me, 'let us also pray for
her father, poor man: you see, no robber has done this (on account of the
bracelets). We are in the Saeed now, and most likely she has blackened
her father's face, and he has been forced to strangle her, poor man.' I
said 'Alas!' and the Reis continued, 'ah, yes, it is a heavy thing, but a
man must whiten his face, poor man, poor man. God have mercy on him.'
Such is Saeedee _point d'honneur_. However, it turned out she was
drowned bathing.

Above Girgeh we stopped awhile at Dishne, a large village. I strolled up
alone, _les mains dans les poches_, '_sicut meus est mos_:' and was soon
accosted with an invitation to coffee and pipes in the strangers' place,
a sort of room open on one side with a column in the middle, like two
arches of a cloister, and which in all the villages is close to the
mosque: two or three cloaks were pulled off and spread on the ground for
me to sit on, and the milk which I asked for, instead of the village
c