wn and very
active and intelligent, but a little louder and bolder than she was owing
to the maids here wanting to christianize her, and taking her out
unveiled, and letting her be among the men. However, she is as
affectionate as ever, and delighted at the prospect of going with me. I
have replaced the veil, and Sally has checked her tongue and scolded her
sister Ellen for want of decorum, to the amazement of the latter. Janet
has a darling Nubian boy. Oh dear! what an elegant person Omar seemed
after the French 'gentleman,' and how noble was old Hamees's (Janet's
doorkeeper) paternal but reverential blessing! It is a real comfort to
live in a nation of truly well-bred people and to encounter kindness
after the savage incivility of France.

_Tuesday_, _October_ 20.

Omar has got a boat for 13 pounds, which is not more than the railway
would cost now that half must be done by steamer and a bit on donkeys or
on foot. Poor Hajjee Hannah was quite knocked up by the journey down; I
shall take her up in my boat. Two and a half hours to sit grilling at
noonday on the banks, and two miles to walk carrying one's own baggage is
hard lines for a fat old woman. Everything is almost double in price
owing to the cattle murrain and the high Nile. Such an inundation as
this year was never known before. Does the blue God resent Speke's
intrusion on his privacy? It will be a glorious sight, but the damage to
crops, and even to the last year's stacks of grain and beans, is
frightful. One sails among the palm-trees and over the submerged
cotton-fields. Ismail Pasha has been very active, but, alas! his 'eye is
bad,' and there have been as many calamities as under Pharaoh in his
short reign. The cattle murrain is fearful, and is now beginning in
Cairo and Upper Egypt. Ross reckons the loss at twelve millions sterling
in cattle. The gazelles in the desert have it too, but not horses, asses
or goats.

October 26, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.

ALEXANDRIA,
_October_ 26, 1863.

DEAREST ALICK,

I went to two hareems the other day with a little boy of Mustapha Aga's,
and was much pleased. A very pleasant Turkish lady put out all her
splendid bedding and dresses for me, and was most amiable. At an