Like another famous
traveller, he had been "in perils of waters, in perils of robbers,
in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in weariness and
painfullness." In the words of his beloved Camoens, he had done

"Deeds that deserve, like gods, a deathless name." [645]

He had lived almost his three score and ten, but, says one of his
friends, "in the vigour, the vehemence indeed with which he vented his
indignation over any meanness or wrong, or littleness, he was to the
last as youthful as when he visited Mecca and Harar. If, however,
the work he did, the hardships he endured, and the amazing amount of
learning which he acquired and gave forth to the world are to be taken
as any measure of his life, he lived double the term of most ordinary
men." Like Ovid, for the parallelism preserved itself to the end, he
died in the land of his exile.

"It has been said of him that he was the greatest Oriental scholar
England ever had and neglected." He was a mighty writer of books--some
fifty works, to say nothing of multitudinous articles in the journals of
the learned societies, having proceeded from his pen. If it be conceded
that he was wanting in the literary faculty and that no one of his
books is entirely satisfactory, it should be borne in mind that he added
enormously to the sum of human knowledge. We go to him, not for style,
but for facts. Again, if his books are not works of art, they contain,
nevertheless, many passages that cling to the memory. Take him as
linguist, traveller and anthropologist, he was certainly one of the
greatest men that modern England has produced.

Chapter XXXVIII. 20th October 1890-December 1890, The Fate of "The
Scented Garden"

173. The Fate of The Scented Garden.

Burton wad dead. All that was mortal of him lay cold and motionless in
the chapelle ardente. But his spirit? The spirits of the departed, can
they revive us? The Roman poet Propertius answers:

"Yes; there are ghosts: death ends not all, I ween."

and Lady Burton was just as thoroughly imbued with that belief. Hereby
hangs a curious story, now to be told as regards its essentials for the
first time; and we may add that Lady Burton particularly wished these
essentials to be made public after her decease. [646]

For sixteen days after her husband's death Lady Burton shut herself up
in the house in order to examine and classify his manuscripts, pack
up books, &c., ready for the journey to Englan