if he were forced.

At last my boat is finished, so to-morrow Omar will clean the windows,
and on Saturday move in the cushions, etc. and me, and on Sunday go to
Alexandria. I hear the dreadful voice of Hajj' Alee, the painter,
outside, and will retire before he gets to the cabin door, for fear he
should want to bore me again. I do hope Maurice will enjoy his journey;
everyone is anxious to please him. The Sheykh of the Hawara sent his
brother to remind me to stop at his 'palace' near Girgeh, that he might
make a fantasia for my son. So Maurice will see real Arab riding, and
jereed, and sheep roasted whole and all the rest of it. The Sheykh is
the last of the great Arab chieftains of Egypt, and has thousands of
fellaheen and a large income. He did it for Lord Spencer and for the
Duke of Rutland and I shall get as good a fantasia, I have no doubt.
Perhaps at Keneh Maurice had better not see the dancing, for Zeyneb and
Latefeeh are terribly fascinating, they are such pleasant jolly girls as
well as pretty and graceful, but old Oum ez-Zeyn (mother of beauty),
so-called on account of his hideousness, will want us to eat his good
dinner.

October 21, 1867: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.

_URANIA_, BOULAK,
_October_ 21, 1867.

DEAREST ALICK,

So many thanks for the boxes and their contents. My slaves are enchanted
with all that the 'great master' has sent. Darfour hugged the horsecloth
in ecstasy that he should never again be cold at night. The waistcoats
of printed stuff, and the red flannel shirts are gone to be made up, so
my boys will be like Pashas this winter, as they told the Reis. He is
awfully perturbed about the evil eye. 'Thy boat, _Mashallah_, is such as
to cause envy from all beholders; and now when they see a son with thee,
_Bismillah_! _Mashallah_! like a flower, verily. I fear, I fear greatly
from the eye of the people.' We have bought a tambourine and a
tarabouka, and are on the look-out for a man who can sing well, so as to
have fantasia on board.

_October_ 22.--I hear to-day that the Pasha sent a telegram _hochst
eigenhandig_ to Koos, in consequence whereof one Stefanos, an old Copt of
high character, many years in Government employ, was put in chains and
hurried off within twenty minutes to Fazoghlou with two of his frie