l, and gold braids for the
hair. It is nearly half a mile long. The odour, or the mixture of
odours, may well be presumed to be overpowering, when every other shop
is devoted to scented bottles--the intervening ones, containing perfumed
head-dresses, formed of braids of ribands and gold lace, which descend
to the ground. A warehouse of Turkish tables exhibited the luxurious
ingenuity of the workers in mother-of-pearl. They were richly wrought in
gold and silver ornaments. Within seven miles of Cairo, there still
exists a wonder of the old time, which must have made a great figure in
the Arab legends--a petrified forest lying in the desert, and which, to
complete the wonder, it is evident must have been petrified while still
standing. The trees are now lying on the ground, many of the trunks
forty feet long, with their branches beside them, all of stone, and
evidently shattered by the fall. Cairo, too, has its hospital for
lunatics; but this is a terrible scene. The unfortunate inmates are
chained and caged, and look like wild beasts, with just enough of the
human aspect left to make the scene terrible. A reform here would be
well worth the interference of European humanity. We wish that the
Hanwell Asylum would send a deputation with Dr Connolly at its head to
the Pasha. No man is more open to reason than Mohammed Ali, and the
European treatment of lunatics, transferred to an Egyptian dungeon,
would be one of the best triumphs of active humanity.

The travellers at length left Cairo, and embarked on board Mills and
Company's steam-boat, named the Jack o' Lantern. It seemed to be merely
one of the common boats that ply on the river, with the addition of a
boiler and paddles, and is probably the smallest steamer extant.
However, when they entered the cabin upon the deck, they found every
thing nicely arranged and began to think better of their little vessel.
They had another advantage in its smallness, as the Nile was now so low
that numbers of vessels lay aground, and a large steamer would probably
have been unable to make the passage. The river seemed quite alive with
many-formed and many-coloured boats. Their picturesque sails, crossing
each other, made them at a distance look almost like butterflies
skimming over the water. The little steamer drew only two feet and a
half of water. She is jestingly described as of two and a half Cairo
donkey power. About six miles from Boulac, they passed under the walls
of Shoobra pa