farce was repeated. Though neither
slave nor cat was a sufferer, the effect must have been equally bad on the
mind of the child. Alas! for the slaves and cats when he is big enough to
make them feel!"

The children, however, occasionally fare no better than the slaves; and Mr
Lane was not seldom obliged, by the screams of the sufferers, to interfere
to stop the cruelty practised in his neighbourhood, when "the answer
usually returned was of the most civil kind, assuring us, with many
salutations, that _for our sakes_ the offender shall be forgiven." On one
occasion an old woman, to punish her little grandson for a trifling theft,
had employed the services of a professional _beater_, who had tied the
child's legs and arms, and was beating him with a ponderous stick, while
his grandmother cried, "again!" and only desisted on a peremptory
remonstrance from Mr Lane; yet the same woman disturbed the neighbourhood
with her lamentations every alternate Monday for the loss of her son, the
little boy's father! It is perhaps hardly fair to cite instances of
brutality like this, to which our own police-offices afford abundance of
parallels, as examples of the national manners of Egypt; and Mrs Poole
does full justice to the spirit of mutual aid which prevails among the
poor in all Moslem countries, and teaches them "to bear each other's
burdens." The women, especially those of the higher class, are admitted to
be the "most affectionate of mothers." They are so possessed, however, by
terror of the "evil eye," which they firmly believe may be cast on their
children by an admiring word or glance, that the smallest allusion to them
is hazardous. Mrs Poole was much amused by the agitation of an Arab lady,
in conversation with whom she had congratulated herself that the strength
of her eldest boy's constitution had preserved him from the ill effects of
the heat. "In an instant she vociferated, 'Bless the Prophet! bless the
Prophet!' and coloured deeply." And it was with difficulty that Mrs Poole
could calm her, or convince her that the English apprehended no danger
from the expression of their satisfaction in the welfare of those they
love.

It is not easy for even the most experienced to avoid _contretemps_ of
this kind in the East, where even the ordinary observances of life seem to
have been arranged on a system diametrically opposite to our own; and some
amusing anecdotes are given of the _gaucheries_ unconsciously committed by
ra