piece of narrow riband. Her costume is completed by trousers of silk
gauze, and yellow morocco boots, which reach a considerable way up the
legs. How any human being can bear such a heap of clothing, especially
under the fiery sun and hot winds of Egypt, is to us inconceivable. It
must melt all vigour out of the body, and all life out of the soul; but
it is the fashion, and fashion works its wonders in Egypt as well as
elsewhere. The veil across the mouth, in a climate where every breath of
fresh air is precious, must be but a slower kind of strangulation. But
the preparative for a public appearance is not yet complete. Women of
condition never walk. They ride upon a donkey handsomely caparisoned,
sitting astride upon a high and broad saddle, covered with a rich Turkey
carpet. They ride with stirrups, but they never hold the reins; their
hands are busy in keeping down their cloaks. A servant leads the donkey
by the bridle. Their figures, when thus in motion, are the most
preposterous things imaginable. Huge as they are, the wind, which has no
respect for persons, gets under their cloaks, and blows them up to three
times their natural size. Those are the ladies of Egypt; the lower
orders imitate this absurdity and extravagance as far as they can, and
with their face veils, the most frightful things possible, shuffle
through the streets like strings of spectres. Poverty and labour may by
possibility keep the lower ranks in health; but how the higher among the
females can retain health, between their want of exercise, their full
feeding, their hot baths, and this perpetual hot bath of clothing,
defies all rational conjecture. The Egyptians of all ranks are terribly
afraid of what they call the evil eye, and stifle themselves and
children in all kinds of rags to avoid being bewitched. The peasants are
a fine-looking, strong-bodied race of men; but many of them are met
blind of an eye. This is attributed to the reluctance to be soldiers for
the glory of the Pasha. But Mohammed Ali was not to be thus tricked, and
he raised a regiment of one-eyed men. In other instances they are said
to have knocked out the fore-teeth to avoid biting a cartridge, or to
have cut off a joint of the first finger to prevent their drawing a
trigger. Even thus they are not able to escape the cunning Pasha. But
this shows the natural horror of the conscription; and we are not
surprised that men should adopt any expedient to escape so great a curse
an