man from beyond Khartoom, offers to
take me up to Khartoom and back with a Takhterawan (camel litter) in
company with Mustapha A'gha, Sheykh Yussuf and a troop of his own
Abab'deh. It is a terrible temptation--but it would cost 50 pounds--so I
refused. Sheykh Alee is so clever and well-bred that I should enjoy it
much, and the climate at this season is delightful. He has been in the
Denka country where the men are a cubit taller than Sheykh Hassan whom
you know, and who enquires tenderly after you.

Now let me describe the state of things. From the Moudeeriat of Keneh
only, 25,000 men are taken to work for sixty days without food or pay;
each man must take his own basket, and each third man a hoe, not a
basket. If you want to pay a substitute for a beloved or delicate son,
it costs 1,000 piastres--600 at the lowest; and about 300 to 400 for his
food. From Luxor only, 220 men are gone; of whom a third will very
likely die of exposure to the cold and misery (the weather is unusually
cold). That is to say that this little village, of at most 2,000 souls
male and female (we don't usually count women, from decorum), will pay in
labour at least 1,320 pounds in sixty days. We have also already had
eleven camels seized to go up to the Soudan; a camel is worth from 18 to
40 pounds.

Last year Mariette Bey made excavations at Gourneh forcing the people to
work but promising payment at the rate of--Well, when he was gone the
four Sheykhs of the village at Gourneh came to Mustapha and begged him to
advance the money due from Government, for the people were starving.
Mustapha agrees and gives above 300 purses--about 1,000 pounds in
_current_ piastres on the understanding that he is to get the money from
Government in _tariff_--and to keep the difference as his profit. If he
cannot get it at all the fellaheen are to pay him back without interest.
Of course at the rate at which money is here, his profit would be but
small interest on the money unless he could get the money directly, and
he has now waited six months in vain.

Abdallah the son of el-Habbeshee of Damankoor went up the river in chains
to Fazoghlou a fortnight ago and Osman Bey ditto last week--El-Bedrawee
is dead there, of course.

Shall I tell you what became of the hundred prisoners who were sent away
after the Gau business? As they marched through the desert the Greek
memlook looked at his list each morning, and said, 'Hoseyn, Achmet,
Foolan (like the Spa