re were crowds of people, so,
as it was useless to pray and preach in the mosque, Sheykh Yussuf went
out upon a hillock in the burying-ground, where they all prayed and he
preached. Omar reported the sermon to me, as follows (it is all
extempore): First Yussuf pointed to the graves, 'Where are all those
people?' and to the ancient temples, 'Where are those who built them? Do
not strangers from a far country take away their very corpses to wonder
at? What did their splendour avail them? etc., etc. What then, O
Muslims, _will_ avail that you may be happy when that comes which will
come for all? Truly God is just and will defraud no man, and He will
reward you if you do what is right; and that is, to wrong no man, neither
in person, nor in his family, nor in his possessions. _Cease then to
cheat one another, O men_, and to be greedy, and do not think that you
can make amends by afterwards giving alms, or praying, or fasting, or
giving gifts to the servants of the mosque. _Benefits come from God; it
is enough for you if you do no injury to any man, and above all to any
woman or little one_.' Of course it was much longer, but this was the
substance, Omar tells me, and pretty sound morality too, methinks, and
might be preached with advantage to a meeting of philanthropists in
Exeter Hall. There is no predestination in _Islam_, and every man will
be judged upon his actions. 'Even unbelievers God will not defraud,'
says the Koran. Of course, a belief in meritorious works leads to the
same sort of superstition as among Catholics, the endeavour to 'make
one's soul' by alms, fastings, endowments, etc.; therefore Yussuf's
stress upon doing no evil seems to me very remarkable, and really
profound. After the sermon, all the company assembled rushed on him to
kiss his head, and his hands and his feet, and mobbed him so fearfully
that he had to lay about him with the wooden sword which is carried by
the officiating Alim. He came to wish me the customary good wishes soon
after, and looked very hot and tumbled, and laughed heartily about the
awful kissing he had undergone. All the men embrace on meeting on the
festival of Bairam.

The kitchen is full of cakes (ring-shaped) which my friends have sent me,
just such as we see offered to the gods in the temples and tombs. I went
to call on the Maohn in the evening, and found a lot of people all
dressed in their best. Half were Copts, among them a very pleasing young
priest wh