_To Mrs. Austin_.

MASR EL-KAHIRA, CAIRO,
_May_ 21, 1863.

DEAREST MUTTER,

I came here on Saturday night. To-day is Wednesday, and I am already
much better. I have attached an excellent donkey and his master, a
delightful youth called Hassan, to my household for fifteen piastres
(under two shillings) a day. They live at the door, and Hassan cleans
the stairs and goes errands during the heat of the day, and I ride out
very early, at six or seven, and again at five. The air is delicious
now. It is very hot for a few hours, but not stifling, and the breeze
does not chill one as it does at Alexandria. I live all day and all
night with open windows, and plenty of fresh warm air is the best of
remedies. I can do no better than stay here till the heat becomes too
great. I left little Zeyneb at Alexandria with Janet's maid Ellen who
quite loves her, and begged to keep her 'for company,' and also to help
in their removal to the new house. She clung about me and made me
promise to come back to her, but was content to stop with Ellen, whose
affection she of course returns. It was pleasant to see her so happy,
and how she relished being 'put to bed' with a kiss by Ellen or Sally.
Her Turkish master, whom she pronounces to have been _batal_ (bad),
called her Salaam es-Sidi (the Peace of her Master); but she said that in
her own village she used to be Zeyneb, and so we call her. She has grown
fatter and, if possible, blacker. Mahbrooka (Good Fortune), the elder
wife of Hegab, the confectioner, was much interested in her, as her fate
had been the same. She was bought by an Italian who lived with her till
his death, when she married Hegab. She is a pious Muslimeh, and invoked
the intercession of Seyidna Mohammad for me when I told her I had no
intention of baptizing Zeyneb by force, as had been done to her.

The fault of my lodging here is the noise. We are on the road from the
railway and there is no quiet except in the few hot hours, when nothing
is heard but the cool tinkle of the Sakka's brass cup as he sells water
in the street, or perchance _erksoos_ (liquorice-water), or caroub or
raisin sherbet. The _erksoos_ is rather bitter and very good. I drink
it a good deal, for drink one must; a gulleh of water is soon gone. A
gulleh is a wide-mouthed porous jar, and Nile water drunk out of it
without t