to consider his clothes such a grievance as they were to him at first, and takes kindly to a rough capote for the night.  I have just been interrupted by my Reis and one of my men, who came in to display the gorgeous printed calico they have bought; one for his Luxor wife and the other for his betrothed up near Assouan. (The latter is about eight years old, and Hosein has dressed her and paid her expenses these five years, as is the custom up in that district.) The Reis has bought a silk head-kerchief for nine shillings, but that was in the marriage contract.  So I must see, admire and wish good luck to the finery, and to the girls who are to wear it.  Then we had a little talk about the prospects of letting the boat, and, Inshallah, making some money for el gamma, i.e., ‘all our company,’ or ‘all of us together.’  The Reis hopes that the Howagat will not be too outrageous in their ways or given to use the stick, as the solution of every difficulty.

The young Shurafa of Abu-l-Hajjaj came from Gama’l Azhar to-day to bid me goodbye and bring their letters for Luxor.  I asked them about the rumours that the Ulema are preaching against the Franks (which is always being said), but they had heard nothing of the sort, and said they had not heard of anything the Franks had done lately which would signify to the Muslims at all.  It is not the Franks who press so many soldiers, or levy such heavy taxes three months in advance!  I will soon write again.  I feel rather like the wandering Jew and long for home and rest, without being dissatisfied with what I have and enjoy, God knows.  If I could get better and come home next summer.

November 21, 1866:  Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon.  LUXOR, November 21, 1866

Dearest Alick,

I arrived here on the morning of the 11th.  I am a beast not to have written, but I caught cold after four days and have really not been well, so forgive me, and I will narrate and not apologize.  We came up best pace, as the boat is a flyer now, only fourteen days to Thebes, and to Keneh only eleven.  Then we had bad winds, and my men pulled away at the rope, and sang about the Reis el-Arousa (bridegroom) going to his bride, and even Omar went and pulled the rope.  We were all very merry, and played practical jokes on a rascal who wanted a pound to guide me to the tombs:  we made him run miles, fetch innumerable donkeys, and then laughed at his beard.  Such is boatmen fun.  On arriving at Luxor I heard a charivari of voices, and knew I was ‘at home,’ by the shrill pipe of the little children, el Sitt, el Sitt.  Visitors all day of course, at night comes up another dahabieh, great commotion, as it had been telegraphed from Cairo (which I knew before I left, and was to be stopped).  So I coolly said, ’Oh Mustapha, the Indian saint