I went on with Henry and Janet in the steamer,
and had a very pleasant time to Assouan and back, and they stayed another
day here, and I hired a little dahabieh which they towed down to Keneh
where they stayed a day; after which Sheykh Yussuf and I sailed back
again to Luxor. As bad luck would have it we had hot weather just the
week they were up here: since then it has been quite cool.

Janet has left me her little black and tan terrier, a very nice little
dog, but I can't hope to rival Omar in his affections. He sleeps in
Omar's bosom, and Omar spoils and pets him all day, and boasts to the
people how the dog drinks tea and coffee and eats dainty food, and the
people say Mashallah! whereas I should have expected them to curse the
dog's father. The other day a scrupulous person drew back with an air of
alarm from Bob's approach, whereupon the dog stared at him, and forthwith
plunged into Sheykh Yussuf's lap, from which stronghold he 'yapped'
defiance at whoever should object to him. I never laughed more heartily,
and Yussuf went into _fou rire_. The mouth of the dog only is unclean,
and Yussuf declares he is a very well-educated dog, and does not attempt
to lick; he pets him accordingly, and gives him tea in his own saucer,
only _not_ in the cup.

I am to inherit another little blackie from Ross's agency at Keneh: the
funniest little chap. I cannot think why I go on expecting so-called
savages to be different from other people. Mabrook's simple talk about
his village, and the animals and the victuals; and how the men of a
neighbouring village stole him in order to sell him for a gun (the price
of a gun is a boy), but were prevented by a razzia of Turks, etc. who
killed the first aggressors and took all the children--all this he tells
just as an English boy might tell of bird-nesting--delights me. He has
the same general notion of right and wrong; and yet his tribe know
neither bread nor any sort of clothes, nor cheese nor butter, nor even
drink milk, nor the African beer; and it always rains there, and is
always deadly cold at night, so that without a fire they would die. They
have two products of civilization--guns and tobacco, for which they pay
in boys and girls, whom they steal. I wonder where the country is, it is
called Sowaghli, and the next people are Mueseh, on the sea-coast, and it
is not so hot as Egypt. It must be in the southern hemisphere. The new
_negrillon_ is from Darfoor. Won't Maurice b