ace again.' If you don't want to see your
visitor again you break a _gulleh_ (water-jar) behind him as he leaves
the house, and sweep away his footsteps.

What a canard your papers have in Europe about a constitution here. I
won't write any politics, it is all too dreary; and Cairo gossip is
odious, as you may judge by the productions of Mesdames Odouard and Lott.
Only remember this, there is no law nor justice but the will, or rather
the caprice, of one man. It is nearly impossible for any European to
conceive such a state of things as really exists. Nothing but perfect
familiarity with the governed, _i.e._ oppressed, class will teach it;
however intimate a man may be with the rulers he will never fully take it
in. I am _a l'index_ here, and none of the people I know dare come to
see me; Arab I mean. It was whispered in my ear in the street by a
friend I met. Ismael Pasha's chief pleasure is gossip, and a certain
number of persons, chiefly Europeans, furnish him with it daily, true or
false. If the farce of the constitution ever should be acted here it
will be superb. Something like the Consul going in state to ask the
fellaheen what wages they got. I could tell you a little of the value of
consular information; but what is the use? Europe is enchanted with the
enlightened Pasha who has ruined this fine country.

I long so to see you and Rainie! I don't like to hope too much, but
Inshallah, next year I shall see you all.

October 19, 1866: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.

OFF BOULAK,
_October_ 19, 1866.

I shall soon sail up the river. Yesterday Seyd Mustapha arrived, who
says that the Greeks are all gone, and the poor Austrian at Thebes is
dead, so I shall represent Europe in my single person from Siout to, I
suppose, Khartoum.

You would delight in Mabrook; a man asked him the other day after his
flogging, if he would not run away, to see what he would say as he
alleged, I suspect he meant to steal and sell him. 'I run away, to eat
lentils like you? when _my_ Effendi gives me meat and bread every day,
and _I eat such a lot_.' Is not that a delicious practical view of
liberty? The creature's enjoyment of life is quite a pleasure to
witness, and he really works very well and with great alacrity. If
Palgrave claims him I think