nish Don Fulano, Mr. so and so), you are free; take
off his chains.' Well, the three or four men drop behind, where some
arnouts strangle them out of sight. This is banishment to Fazoghlou. Do
you remember _le citoyen est elargi_ of the September massacres of Paris?
Curious coincidence, is it not? Everyone is exasperated--the very Hareem
talk of the government. It is in the air. I had not been five minutes
in Keneh before I knew all this and much more. Of the end of Hajjee
Sultan I will not speak till I have absolute certainty, but, I believe
the proceeding was as I have described--set free in the desert and
murdered by the way. I wish you to publish these facts, it is no secret
to any but to those Europeans whose interests keep their eyes tightly
shut, and they will soon have them opened. The blind rapacity of the
present ruler will make him astonish the Franks some day, I think.

Wheat is now 400 piastres the ardeb up here; the little loaf, not quite
so big as our penny roll, costs a piastre--about three-half-pence--and
all in proportion. I need not say what the misery is. Remember that
this is the second levy of 220 men within six months, each for sixty
days, as well as the second seizure of camels; besides the conscription,
which serves the same purpose, as the soldiers work on the Pasha's works.
But in Cairo they are paid--and well paid.

It is curious how news travels here. The Luxor people knew the day I
left Alexandria, and the day I left Cairo, long before I came. They say
here that Abu-l-Hajjaj gave me his hand from Keneh, because he would not
finish his moolid without me. I am supposed to be specially protected by
him, as is proved by my health being so far better here than anywhere
else.

By the bye, Sheykh Alee Abab'deh told me that all the villages _close_ on
the Nile escaped the cholera almost completely, whilst those who were
half or a quarter of a mile inland were ravaged. At Keneh 250 a day
died; at Luxor one child was supposed to have died of it, but I know he
had diseased liver for a year or more. In the desert the Bishareen and
Abab'deh suffered more than the people at Cairo, and you know the desert
is usually the place of perfect health; but fresh Nile water seems to be
_the_ antidote. Sheykh Yussuf laid the mortality at Keneh to the canal
water, which the poor people drink there. I believe the fact is as
Sheykh Alee told me.

Now I will say good-bye, for I am tired, and will w