ungs guarantee our international virtue; or will someone
ask the Pater when he means to divorce me? Would it be considered that
Yankeedoodle had 'stuck a feather in his cap' by leading a British matron
and grandmother astray?

December 2, 1863: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.

CAIRO,
_December_ 2, 1863.

DEAREST ALICK,

It is beginning to be cold here, and I only await the results of my
inquiries about possible houses at Thebes to hire a boat and depart.
Yesterday I saw a camel go through the eye of a needle--_i.e._, the low
arched door of an enclosure; he must kneel and bow his head to creep
through--and thus the rich man must humble himself. See how a false
translation spoils a good metaphor, and turns a familiar simile into a
ferociously communist sentiment. I expect Henry and Janet here in four
or five days when her ancle allows her to travel. If I get a house at
Thebes, I will only hire a boat up and dismiss it, and trust to Allah for
my return. There are rumours of troubles at Jeddah, and a sort of
expectation of fighting somewhere next spring; even here people are
buying arms to a great extent, I think the gunsmiths' bazaar looks
unusually lively. I do look forward to next November and your coming
here; I know you would donkey-ride all day in a state of ecstasy. I
never saw so good a servant as Omar and such a nice creature, so pleasant
and good. When I hear and see what other people spend here in travelling
and in living, and what bother they have, I say: 'May God favour Omar and
his descendants.'

I stayed in bed yesterday for a cold, and my next-door neighbour, a
Coptic merchant, kept me awake all night by auditing his accounts with
his clerk. How would you like to chant your rows of figures? He had
just bought lots of cotton, and I had to get into my door on Monday over
a camel's back, the street being filled with bales.

* * * * *

[The house at Thebes of which my mother speaks in the following letter
was built about 1815, over the ancient temple of Khem, by Mr. Salt,
English Consul-General in Egypt. He was an archaeologist and a student
of hieroglyphics, and when Belzoni landed at Alexandria was struck by his
ability, and sent him up to Thebes to superintend the removal of the
great