antiquaries and geographers,
mostly run to nose, spectacles, and forehead, arrived on the scene;
with the result of infinite laughter, in which Burton and Cameron joined
heartily; and henceforward Mrs. Burton answered to no name but "Nursey."
Burton, however, was justly indignant on account of his not having been
invited to the conference, and his revenge took the shape of a pungent
squib which he wrote on his card and left in the Congress Room. Next
day, while Burton and Cameron were strolling in front of St. Mark's, a
Portuguese gentleman came up and saluted them. To Burton's delight it
was his old friend Da Cunha, the Camoens enthusiast; and then ensued a
long argument, conducted in Portuguese, concerning Burton's rendering of
one of Camoens' sonnets, Burton in the end convincing his friend of its
correctness. Having parted from Da Cunha, they ran against an Egyptian
officer who had just visited Mecca and brought back a series of
photographs. The conversation this time was conducted in Arabic, and
Burton explained to the Egyptian the meaning of much of the ritual of
the pilgrimage. "As a cicerone," says Cameron, "Burton was invaluable.
His inexhaustible stock of historical and legendary lore furnished
him with something to relate about even the meanest and commonest
buildings." [339] There were trips about the green canals in a long
black gondola on the day and night of the regatta, when the Grand Canal
and St. Mark's were illuminated, all of which Burton enjoyed thoroughly,
for round him had gathered the elite of Venice, and his brilliant
personality, as usual, dazzled and dominated all who listened to him.

104. John Payne, November 1881.

We now come to that absorbing period of Burton's life which is connected
principally with The Arabian Nights. Amazing as the statement may seem,
we feel ourselves compelled to say at once, though regretfully, that
Burton's own account of the history of the translation, given in his
Translator's Foreword to the Arabian Nights, and Lady Burton's account,
given in her life of her husband, do not tally with the facts as
revealed in his letters. In matters relating to his own history Burton
often spoke with amazing recklessness, [340] and perhaps he considered
he was justified in stating that his translation of The Arabian Nights
was well advanced by November 1881, seeing that it had for thirty years
intermittently occupied his thoughts. As regards Lady Burton, no doubt,
of