he news. And how
often I have been advised not to meddle with sick Arabs, because they are
sure to suspect a Christian of poisoning those who die! I do grieve for
the graceful, handsome young creature and his old father. Omar was vexed
at not knowing of his death, because he would have liked to help to carry
him to the grave.

I have at last learned the alphabet in Arabic, and can write it quite
tidily, but now I am in a fix for want of a dictionary, and have written
to Hekekian Bey to buy me one in Cairo. Sheykh Yussuf knows not a word
of English, and Omar can't read or write, and has no notion of grammar or
of _word for word_ interpretation, and it is very slow work. When I walk
through the court of the mosque I give the customary coppers to the
little boys who are spelling away loudly under the arcade, _Abba sheddeh
o nusbeyteen_, _Ibbi sheddeh o heftedeen_, etc., with a keen sympathy
with their difficulties and well-smudged tin slates. An additional evil
is that the Arabic books printed in England, and at English presses here,
require a 40-horse power microscope to distinguish a letter. The
ciphering is like ours, but with other figures, and I felt very stupid
when I discovered how I had reckoned Arab fashion from right to left all
my life and never observed the fact. However, they 'cast down' a column
of figures from top to bottom.

I am just called away by some poor men who want me to speak to the
English travellers about shooting their pigeons. It is very thoughtless,
but it is in great measure the fault of the servants and dragomans who
think they must not venture to tell their masters that pigeons are
private property. I have a great mind to put a notice on the wall of my
house about it. Here, where there are never less than eight or ten boats
lying for full three months, the loss to the _fellaheen_ is serious, and
our Consul Mustapha A'gha is afraid to say anything. I have given my
neighbours permission to call the pigeons mine, as they roost in flocks
on my roof, and to go out and say that the Sitt objects to her poultry
being shot, especially as I have had them shot off my balcony as they sat
there.

I got a note from M. Mounier yesterday, inviting me to go and stay at
El-Moutaneh, Halim Pasha's great estate, near Edfoo, and offering to send
his dahabieh for me. I certainly will go as soon as the weather is
decidedly hot. It is now very warm and pleasant. If I find Thebes too
hot as summer