l classes are
suffering terribly under the fearful taxation, the total ruin of the
fellaheen, and the destruction of trade brought about by this much
extolled Pasha. My grocer is half ruined by the 'improvements' made a
_l'instar de Paris_--long military straight roads cut through the heart
of Cairo. The owners are expropriated, and there is an end of it. Only
those who have half a house left are to be pitied, because they are
forced to build a new front to the street on a Frankish model which
renders it uninhabitable to them and unsaleable.

The river men are excited about the crews gone to Paris, for fear they
should be forcibly detained by the _Sultaneh Franzaweeh_, I assured them
that they will all come home safe and happy, with a good backsheesh.
Many of them think it a sort of degradation to be taken for the Parisians
to stare at like an anteeka, a word which here means what our people call
a 'curiosity.'

I go on very well with my two boys. Mabrook washes very well and acts as
_marmiton_. Darfour is housemaid and waiter in his very tiny way. He is
only troublesome as being given to dirty his clothes in an incredibly
short time. His account of the school system of Darfour is curious. How
when the little boy has achieved excellence he is carried home in triumph
to his father's house, who makes a festival for the master and boys. I
suppose you will be surprised to hear that the Darfour 'niggers' can
nearly all read and write. Poor little Darfour apologised to me for his
ignorance, he was stolen he said, when he had only just begun to go to
school. I wish an English or French servant could hear the instructions
given by an Alim here to serving men. How he would resent them! 'When
thou hast tired out thy back do not put thy hand behind it (do not shirk
the burden). Remember that thou art not only to obey, but to please thy
master, whose bread thou eatest;' and much more of the like. In short, a
standard of religious obedience and fidelity fit for the highest Catholic
idea of the 'religious life.' Upon the few who seek instruction it does
have an effect (I am sure that Omar looks on his service as a religious
duty), but of course they are few; and those who don't seek it themselves
get none. It is curious how all children here are left utterly without
any religious instruction. I don't know whether it is in consequence of
this that they grow up so very devout.

July 29, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff