tted about this, and so
he said he could not refrain from trying to convince me that God was not
so cruel and unjust as the Nazarene priests represented Him, and that all
infants whatsoever, as well as all ignorant persons, were to be saved.
'Would that I could take the cruel error out of the minds of all the
hundreds and thousands of poor Christian mothers who must be tortured by
it,' said he, 'and let them understand that their dead babies are with
Him who sent and who took them.' I own I did not resent this
interference with my orthodoxy, especially as it is the only one I ever
knew Yussuf attempt.

Dr. Osman is a lecturer in the Cairo school of medicine, a Shereef, and
eminently a gentleman. He came up in the passenger steamer and called on
me and spent all his spare time with me. I liked him better than the
bewitching derweesh Seleem; he is so like my old love Don Quixote. He
was amazed and delighted at what he heard here about me. '_Ah Madame, on
vous aime comme une soeur, et on vous respecte comme une reine; cela
rejouit le coeur des honnetes gens de voir tous les prejuges oublies et
detruits a ce point_.' We had no end of talk. Osman is the only Arab I
know who has read a good deal of European literature and history and is
able to draw comparisons. He said, '_Vous seule dans toute l'Egypte
connaissez le peuple et comprenez ce qui se passe, tous les autres
Europeens ne savent absolument rien que les dehors; il n'y a que vous qui
ayez inspire la confiance qu'il faut pour connaitre la vente_.' Of
course this is between ourselves, I tell you, but I don't want to boast
of the kind thoughts people have of me, simply because I am decently
civil to them.

In Egypt we are eaten up with taxes; there is not a penny left to anyone.
The taxes for the whole year _eight months in advance_ have been levied,
as far as they can be beaten out of the miserable people. I saw one of
the poor dancing girls the other day, (there are three in Luxor) and she
told me how cruel the new tax on them is. It is left to the discretion
of the official who farms it to make each woman pay according to her
presumed gains, _i.e._ her good looks, and thus the poor women are
exposed to all the caprices and extortions of the police. This last new
tax has excited more disgust than any. 'We now know the name of our
ruler,' said a fellah who had just heard of it, 'he is _Mawas_ Pasha.' I
won't translate--but it is a terrible epithet when ut