e, I would die a
hundred times rather than leave them for an hour,' another envied me the
power of going into the street and seeing the _Doseh_. She had never
seen it, and never would.

To-morrow Olagnier will dine and spend the night here, to see the cutting
of the canal, and the 'Bride of the Nile' on Monday morning. We shall
sail up to old Cairo in the evening with the Bride's boat; also Hajjee
Hannah is coming for the fantasia; after the high Nile we shall take the
boat out and caulk her and then, if the excessive heat continues, I
rather think of a month's jaunt to Beyrout just to freshen me up. Hajjee
Ali is there, with all his travelling materials and tents, so I need only
take Omar and a bath and carpet-bag. If the weather gets cool I shall
stay in my boat. The heat is far more oppressive here than it was at
Luxor two years ago; it is not so dry. The Viceroy is afraid of cholera,
and worried the poor Hajjees this year with most useless quarantine. The
_Mahmal_ was smuggled into Cairo before sunrise, without the usual
honours, and all sightseers and holiday makers disappointed, and all good
Muslims deeply offended. The idea that the Pasha has turned Christian or
even Jew is spreading fast; I hear it on all sides. The new firman
illegitimatising so many of his children is of course just as agreeable
to a sincere Moslem as a law sanctioning polygamy for our royal family
would be with us.

August 20, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.

OFF BOULAK,
_August_ 20, 1866.

DEAREST ALICK,

Since I wrote I have had a bad bilious attack, which has of course
aggravated my cough. Everyone has had the same, and most far worse than
I, but I was very wretched and most shamefully cross. Omar said, 'That
is not you but the sickness,' when I found fault with everything, and it
was very true. I am still seedy. Also I am beyond measure exasperated
about my boat. I went up to the _Ata el-Khalig_ (cutting of the canal)
to see the great sight of the 'Bride of the Nile,' a lovely spectacle;
and on returning we all but sank. I got out into a boat of Zubeydeh's
with all my goods, and we hauled up my boat, and found her bottom rotten
from stem to stern. So here I am in the midst of wood merchants,
sawyers, etc., etc., rebuilding her bottom. My Re