his countenance,
but quite English in his bearing and costume, keeps a vigilant eye on
everything--would never suffer, for example, that an eleventh donkey
should dare to take a place in a stand for ten, which was already full.

Certain people, inclined to be critical, might consider, perhaps,
that these policemen were a little too ready to chide their
fellow-countrymen; whereas on the contrary they showed themselves very
respectful and obliging whenever they were addressed by a traveler in
a cork helmet. But that is in virtue of an equitable and logical
principle, derived by them from the high places of the new
administration--namely, that the Egypt of to-day belongs far less to the
Egyptians than to the noble foreigners who have come to brandish there
the torch of civilisation.

In the evening, after dark, the really respectable travellers do not
quit the brilliant dining saloons of the hotels, and the quay is left
quite solitary beneath the stars. It is at such a time that one is able
to realise how extremely hospitable certain of the natives are become.
If, in an hour of melancholy, you walk alone on the bank of the Nile,
smoking a cigarette, you will not fail to be accosted by one of these
good people, who misunderstanding the cause of the unrest in your soul,
offers eagerly, and with a touching frankness, to introduce you to the
gayest of the young ladies of the country.

In the other towns, which still remain purely Egyptian, the people would
never practise such an excess of affability and good manners, which have
been learnt, beyond all question from our beneficent contact.

Assouan possesses also its little Oriental bazaar--a little improvised,
a little new perhaps; but then one, at least, was needed, and that
as quickly as possible, in order that nothing might be wanting to the
tourists.

The shopkeepers have contrived to provision themselves (in the leading
shops, under the arcades of the Rue de Rivoli) with as much tact as good
taste, and the Cook ladies have the innocent illusion of making bargains
every day. One may even buy there, hung up by the tail, stuffed with
straw and looking extremely real, the last crocodiles of Egypt, which,
particularly at the end of the season, may be had at very advantageous
prices.

Even the old Nile has allowed itself to be fretted and brought up to
date in the progress of evolution.

First, the women, draped in black veils, who come daily to draw the
precious water