e one evening, unexpectedly, and there was only a bit of
meat, she killed a sheep and cooked it for them with her own hands. And
this is a Cairene lady, and quite a lady too, in manners and appearance.
The day I dined there she was dressed in very ragged, old cotton clothes,
but spotlessly clean; and she waited on me with a kind, motherly
pleasure, that quite took away the awkwardness I felt at sitting down
while she stood. In a few days she and her husband are to dine with me,
a thing which no Arab couple ever did before (I mean dine out together),
and the old lady was immensely amused at the idea. Omar will cook and
all male visitors will be sent to the kitchen. Now that I understand all
that is said to me, and a great deal of the general conversation, it is
much more amusing. Seleem Effendi jokes me a great deal about my
blunders, especially my lack of _politikeh_, the Greek word for what we
should call flummery; and my saying _lazim_ (you must, or rather _il
faut_), instead of humble entreaties. I told him to teach me better, but
he laughed heartily, and said, 'No, no, when you say _lazim_, it is
_lazim_, and nobody wants the stick to force him to say _Hadr_ (ready) O
Sheykh-el-Arab, O Emeereh.'

Fancy my surprise the other day just when I was dictating letters to
Sheykh Yussuf (letters of introduction for Ross's inspecting agent) with
three or four other people here, in walked Miss North (Pop) whom I have
not seen since she was a child. She and her father were going up the
second cataract. She has done some sketches which, though rather
unskilful, were absolutely true in colour and effect, and are the very
first that I have seen that are so. I shall see something of them on
their return. She seemed very pleasant. Mr. North looked rather
horrified at the turbaned society in which he found himself. I suppose
it did look odd to English eyes.

We have had three days of the south wind, which the 'Saturday Review'
says I am not to call Samoom; and I was poorly, and kept in bed two days
with a cold. Apropos, I will give you the Luxor contribution towards the
further confusion of the Samoom (or Simoom) controversy. I told Sheykh
Yussuf that an English newspaper, written by particularly clever people,
said that I was wrong to call the bad wind here 'Samoom,' (it was in an
article on Palgrave's book, I think). Sheykh Yussuf said, 'True, oh
lady, no doubt those learned gentlemen' (politely saluting them with hi