s than half Cairo prices even now; in summer it will be half
that. Mustapha urges me to stay, and proposes a picnic of a few days
over in the tombs with his Hareem as a diversion. I have got a photo,
for a stereoscope, which I send you, of my two beloved, lovely palm-trees
on the river-bank just above and looking over Philae.

Hitherto my right side has been the bad one, but now one side is uneasy
and the other impossible to lie on. It does not make one sleep
pleasantly, and the loss of my good, sound sleep tries me, and so I don't
seem well. We shall see what hot weather will do; if that fails I will
give up the contest, and come home to see as much as I shall have time
for of you and my chicks.

February 7, 1864: Mrs. Austin

_To Mrs. Austin_.

_Sunday_, _February_ 7, 1864

DEAREST MUTTER,

We have had our winter pretty sharp for three weeks, and everybody has
had violent colds and coughs--the Arabs, I mean.

I have been a good deal ailing, but have escaped any violent cold
altogether, and now the thermometer is up to 64 degrees, and it feels
very pleasant. In the sun it is always very hot, but that does not
prevent the air from being keen, and chapping lips and noses, and even
hands; it is curious how a temperature, which would be summer in England,
makes one shiver at Thebes--_Alhamdulillah_! it is over now.

My poor Sheykh Yussuf is in great distress about his brother, also a
young Sheykh (_i.e._, one learned in theology and competent to preach in
the mosque). Sheykh Mohammed is come home from studying in 'El-Azhar' at
Cairo--I fear to die. I went with Sheykh Yussuf, at his desire, to see
if I could help him, and found him gasping for breath and very, very ill.
I gave him a little soothing medicine, and put mustard plasters on him,
and as it relieved him, I went again and repeated them. All the family
and a lot of neighbours crowded in to look on. There he lay in a dark
little den with bare mud walls, worse off, to our ideas, than any pauper;
but these people do not feel the want of comforts, and one learns to
think it quite natural to sit with perfect gentlemen in places inferior
to our cattle-sheds. I pulled some blankets up against the wall, and put
my arm behind Sheykh Mohammed's back to make him rest while the poultices
were on him, whereupon he laid his green turban on my shoulder, and
presently held up his delic