erses of fortune, and that she might suit me. Sheykh Yussuf is to
negotiate the affair and to see if the woman herself likes me for a
mistress, and I am to have her on trial for a time, and if I like her and
she me, Sheykh Yussuf will buy her with my money in his name. I own I
have very little scruple about the matter, as I should consider her price
as an advance of two or three years' wages and tear the paper of sale as
soon as she had worked her price out, which I think would be a fair
bargain. But I must see first whether Feltass (the Copt) really wants to
sell her or only to get a larger price than is fair, in which case I will
wait till I go to Cairo. Anything is better than importing a European
who at once thinks one is at her mercy on account of the expense of the
journey back.

I went out this morning to the early prayer of Bairam day, held in the
burial-place. Mahmoud ibn-Mustapha preached, but the boys and the Hareem
made such a noise behind us that I could not hear the sermon. The
weather has set in hot these last days, and I am much the better. It
seems strange that what makes others languid seems to strengthen me. I
have been very weak and languid all the time, but the camel's milk has
fattened me prodigiously, to Sherayeff's great delight; and the last hot
days have begun to take away the miserable feeling of fatigue and
languor.

Palgrave is not well at all, and his little black boy he fears will die,
and several people in the steamer are ill, but in Luxor there is no
sickness to speak of, only chronic old women, so old and ugly and _achy_,
that I don't know what to do with them, except listen to their
complaints, which begin, '_Ya ragleh_.' _Ragel_ is man, so _ragleh_ is
the old German _Mannin_, and is the civil way of addressing a Saeedee
woman. To one old body I gave a powder wrapped up in a fragment of a
_Saturday Review_. She came again and declared Mashallah! the _hegab_
(charm) was a powerful one, for though she had not been able to wash off
all the fine writing from the paper, even that little had done her a deal
of good. I regret that I am unable to inform you what the subject of the
article in the _Saturday_ which had so drastic an effect.

Good-bye, dearest Mutter, I must go and take a sleep before the time of
receiving the visits of to-day (the great festival). I was up before
sunrise to see the prayer, so must have a siesta in a cool place.
To-morrow morning early this will go.