old, so he takes
off all his clothes, rolls them up and lays them under his head, and the
cold keeps him quite lively. I never saw so powerful, active and healthy
an animal. He was full of stories how he had had 1,000 stripes of the
courbash on his feet and 500 on his loins at one go. 'Why?' I asked.
'Why, I stuck a knife into a cawass who ordered me to carry water-melons;
I said I was not his donkey; he called me worse: my blood got up, and
so!--and the Pasha to whom the cawass belonged beat me. Oh, it was all
right, and I did not say "ach" once, did I?' (addressing another). He
clearly bore no malice, as he felt no shame. He has a grand romance
about a city two days' journey from here, in the desert, which no one
finds but by chance, after losing his way; and where the ground is
strewed with valuable _anteekehs_ (antiquities). I laughed, and said,
'Your father would have seen gold and jewels.' 'True,' said he, 'when I
was young, men spit on a statue or the like, when they turned it up in
digging, and now it is a fortune to find one.'

March 31, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.

_March_ 31, 1866.

DEAREST ALICK,

As for me I am much better again; the cough has subsided, I really think
the Arab specific, camel's milk, has done me great good. I have mended
ever since I took it. It has the merit of being quite delicious.
Yesterday I was much amused when I went for my afternoon's drink, to find
Sheriff in a great taking at having been robbed by a woman, under his
very nose. He saw her gathering hummuz from a field under his charge,
and went to order her off, whereupon she coolly dropped the end of her
_boordeh_ which covered the head and shoulders, effectually preventing
him from going near her; made up her bundle and walked off. His respect
for the Hareem did not, however, induce him to refrain from strong
language.

M. Brune has made very pretty drawings of the mosque here, both outside
and in; it is a very good specimen of modern Arab architecture; and he
won't believe it could be built without ground plan, elevations, etc.,
which amuses the people here, who build without any such inventions.

The harvest here is splendid this year, such beans and wheat, and prices
have fallen considerably in both: but meat, butter, etc., remain very
dear. My fame as a Hakeemeh has become far too great,