The passage under the railway-bridge at Tantah (which is only opened once in two days) was most exciting and pretty.  Such a scramble and dash of boats—­two or three hundred at least.  Old Zedan, the steersman, slid under the noses of the big boats with my little Cangia and through the gates before they were well open, and we saw the rush and confusion behind us at our ease, and headed the whole fleet for a few miles.  Then we stuck, and Zedan raged; but we got off in an hour and again overtook and passed all.  And then we saw the spectacle of devastation—­whole villages gone, submerged and melted, mud to mud, and the people with their animals encamped on spits of sand or on the dykes in long rows of ragged makeshift tents, while we sailed over where they had lived.  Cotton rotting in all directions and the dry tops crackling under the bows of the boat.  When we stopped to buy milk, the poor woman exclaimed:  ’Milk! from where?  Do you want it out of my breasts?’ However, she took our saucepan and went to get some from another family.  No one refuses it if they have a drop left, for they all believe the murrain to be a punishment for churlishness to strangers—­by whom committed no one can say.  Nor would they fix a price, or take more than the old rate.  But here everything has doubled in price.

Never did a present give such pleasure as Mme. De Leo’s bracelet.  De Leo came quite overflowing with gratitude at my having remembered such a trifle as his attending me and coming three times a day!  He thinks me looking better, and advises me to stay on here till I feel it cold.  Mr. Thayer’s underling has been doing Levantine rogueries, selling the American protege’s claims to the Egyptian Government, and I witnessed a curious phase of Eastern life.  Omar, when he found him in my house, went and ordered him out.  I was ill in bed, and knew nothing till it was done, and when I asked Omar how he came to do it, he told me to be civil to him if I saw him as it was not for me to know what he was; that was his (Omar’s) business.  At the same time Mr. Thayer’s servant sent him a telegram so insolent that it amounted to a kicking.  Such is the Nemesis for being a rogue here.  The servants know you, and let you feel it.  I was quite ‘flabbergasted’ at Omar, who is so reverential to me and to the Rosses, and who I fancied trembled before every European, taking such a tone to a man in the position of a ‘gentleman.’  It is a fresh proof of the feeling of actual equality among men that lies at the bottom of such great inequality of position.  Hekekian Bey has seen a Turkish Pasha’s shins kicked by his own servants, who were cognizant of his misdeeds.  Finally, on Thursday we got the keys of the house, and Omar came with two ferashes and shovelled out the Levantine dirt, and scoured and scrubbed; and on Friday afternoon (yesterday) we came in.  Zeyneb has been very good ever since she has been with us, she will soon