Letters from Egypt Part 18

I will go down to Alexandria in the boat and Omar will work at her. She wants a great deal of repairing I find, and his superintendence will save much money-besides he will do one man's work as he is a much better carpenter than most here having learnt of the English workmen on the railroad-but the Reis says the boat must come out of the water as her bottom is unsound. She is a splendid sailer I hear and remarkably comfortable. The beds in the _kasneh_ would do for Jacob Omnium. So when you 'honour our house' you will be happy. The saloon is small, and the berths as usual. Also she is a very handsome shape-but she wants no end of repairs. So Omar is consoled at being left because he will 'save our money' a great deal by piecing sails, and cutting and contriving, and sc.r.a.ping and painting himself. Only he is afraid for me. However, _Allah Kereem_.

I have a very good Reis I think. The usual tight little black fellow from near a.s.souan-very neat and active and good tempered-the same cross steersman that we had up to Bedreshayn-but he knows his work well. We had contrary gales the whole way. My men worked all they possibly could, and pulled the rope all day and rowed all night, day after day-but we were twenty-eight days getting down.

I can't write any more.

October 28, 1865: Mrs. Austin

_To Mrs. Austin_.

ALEXANDRIA, _October_ 28, 1865.

I am truly grieved to hear of your wrist and to see your writing look cramped. I arrived here on Thursday after a splendid pa.s.sage and was very comfortable on board. I found M. Olagnier waiting for me, and Omar, of course, and am _installe_ at Ross's till my boat gets done which I am told will be in six days. She will be remarkably comfortable. Omar had caused a sort of divan with a roof and back to be constructed just outside the cabin-door where I always sat every evening, which will be the most delightful little nest one can conceive. I shall sit like a Pasha there.

My cough is still very hara.s.sing, but my chest less tight and painful, and I feel less utterly knocked down. The weather is beautiful here just now-warm and not nearly so damp as usual.

Lord Edward St. Maur was on board, he has much of his aunt's pleasantness. Also a very young Bombay Merchant-a Muslim who uttered not one syllable to any one but to me. His talk was just like that of a well-bred and intelligent young Englishman. I am glad to say that his views of the state of India were very encouraging-he seemed convinced that the natives were gradually working their way up to more influence, and said 'We shall have to thank you for a better form of government by far than any native one ever would have been'-he added, 'We Muslims have this advantage over the Hindus-that our religion is no barrier at all, socially or politically-between us and you-as theirs is. I mean it ought not to be when both faiths are cleared of superst.i.tion and fanaticism.'

He spoke very highly of Sir Bartle Frere but said 'I wish it were possible for more English _gentlemen_ to come out to India.' He had been two years in England on mercantile business and was going back to his brother Ala-ed-deen much pleased with the English in England. It is one of the most comforting _Erscheinungen_ I have seen coming from India-if that sort of good sense is pretty common among the very young men they certainly will work their way up.

I should like to see Bayley's article though I am quite sick of my book-it is very ungracious of me, but I can't help it.

November 2, 1865: Mrs. Austin

_To Mrs. Austin_.

ALEXANDRIA, _November_ 2, 1865.

DEAREST MUTTER,

The boat like all other things goes but slowly-however the weather here is unusually dry and fine.

I have just been to see my poor friend Sittee Zubeydeh, widow of Ha.s.saneyn Effendi who died in England-and I am filled with admiration at her good sense and courage. She has determined to carry on her husband's business of letting boats herself, and to educate her children to the best of her power in habits of independence. I hope she will be successful, and receive the respect such rare conduct in a Turkish woman deserves from the English. I was much gratified to hear from her how kindly she had been treated in Glasgow. She said that nothing that could be done for her was left undone. She arrived this morning and I went to see her directly and was really astonished at all she said about her plans for herself and her children. Poor thing! it is a sad blow-for she and Ha.s.saneyn were as thoroughly united as any Europeans could be.

I went afterwards to my boat, which I hope will be done in five or six days. I am extremely impatient to be off. She will be a most charming boat-both comfortable and pretty. The boom for the big sail is new-and I exclaimed, 'why you have broken the new boom and mended it with leather!'

Omar had put on a _sham splice_ to avert the evil eye from such a fine new piece of wood! Of course I dare not have the blemish renewed or _gare_ the first puff of wind-besides it is too characteristic.

There is some cholera about again, I hear-ten deaths yesterday-so Olagnier tells me. I fancy the rush of Europeans back again, each bringing 'seven other devils worse than himself' is the cause of it.

I think I am beginning to improve a little; my cough has been terribly hara.s.sing especially at night-but the weather is very good, cool, and not damp.

November 27, 1865: Mrs. Austin

_To Mrs. Austin_.

CAIRO, _Monday_, _November_ 27, 1865.

DEAREST MUTTER,

I arrived here last night and found a whole heap of letters-and yours I will answer first. I had no heart to write any more from Alexandria where I was worried out of all courage and strength. At last after endless delays and vexations the dahabieh was _tant bien que mal_ ready.

Talk of Arab dawdle! after what I went through-and now I have to wait here for fresh repairs, as we came up baling all the way and I fear cursing the Christian workmen who had bungled so shamefully.

However that is over, and I am much better as to my cough-indeed it is all but gone. Omar was very ill having had dysentery for two months, but he too is well again. He is very grateful for your kind mention of him and says, 'Send the Great Mother my best Salaam, and tell her her daughter's people are my people, and where she goes I will go too, and please G.o.d I will serve her rich or poor till "He who separates us" shall take me from her.' The words of Ruth came after all these centuries quite fresh from the soft Egyptian lips.

The 'He who separated us' I must explain to you. It is one of the attributes of G.o.d, _The Separator of Religions_ implies toleration and friends.h.i.+p by attributing the two religions alike to G.o.d-and is never used towards one whose religion is not to be respected.

I have got a levee of former reis's, sailors, etc. some sick-but most come to talk.

The climate changes quite suddenly as one leaves the Delta, and here I sit at eight in the evening with open doors and windows.

I am so glad to hear of the great success of my dear Father's book, and to think of your courage in working at it still.

I suppose I shall be here a week longer as I have several jobs to do to my boat, and I shall try to get towed up so as to send back the boat as soon as possible in order to let her. Ali will give 80 a month for her if he gets a party of four to take up. I pay my Reis five napoleons a month while travelling and three while lying still. He is a good, active little fellow.

We were nearly smashed under the railway bridge by an iron barge-and _Wallah_! how the Reis of the bridge did whack the Reis of the barge. I thought it a sad loss of time, but Reis Ali and my Reis Mohammed seemed to look on the stick as the most effective way of extricating my anchor from the Pasha's rudder. My crew can't say 'Urania' so they sing 'go along, oh darling bride' _Arooset er-ralee_, as the little Sitt's best description, and 'Arooset er-ralee' will be the dahabieh's exoteric name-as '_El Beshoosheeh_, is my popular name.

December 5, 1865: Mrs. Austin

_To Mrs. Austin_.

CAIRO, _December_ 5, 1865.

DEAREST MUTTER,

_Alhamdulillah_-now I am at rest. I have got all the boat in order. My captain, Reis Mohammed, is very satisfactory, and to-day we sail as soon as Omar comes back with the meat, etc. from market.

I received Meadow's review; I wish he had not said so much about me in it.

Mohammed Gazowee begs to give his best Salaam to Sheykh Stanley whom he longs to see again. He says that all the people said he was not a Christian, for he was not proud ever towards them as Christians are, but a real Sheykh, and that the Bedaween still talk of Sheykh Stanley and of his piety. The old half-witted jester of Luxor has found me out-he has wandered down here to see his eldest son who is serving in the army. He had brought a little boy with him, but is 'afraid for him' here, I don't know why, and has begged me to take the child up to his mother. These licensed _possenreisser_ are like our fools in old times-but less witty than we fancy them to have been-thanks to Shakespeare, I suppose. Each district has one who attends all _moolids_ and other gatherings of the people, and picks up a living. He tells me that the Turkish n.a.z.ir of Zeneea has begun some business against our Kadee, Sheykh Ibraheem, and Sheykh Yussuf, accused them of something-he does not know what-_perhaps of being friends of Hajjee Sultan, or of stealing wood_!! If all the friends of Hajjee Sultan are to be prosecuted that will include the whole Saeed.

Of course I am anxious about my friends. All Haleem Pasha Oghdee's villages have been confiscated (those tributary to him for work) _sous pretexte_ that he ill-used the people, _n.b._ he alone paid them-a bad example. Pharoah is indeed laying intolerable burthens-not on the Israelites-but on the fellaheen.

Omar said of the great dinner to-day, 'I think all the food will taste of blood, it is the blood of the poor, and more _haram_ than any pork or wine or blood of beasts.' Of course such sentiments are not to be repeated-but they are general. The _meneggets_ who picked and made ten mattra.s.ses and fourteen cus.h.i.+ons for me in half a day, were laughing and saying, 'for the Pasha's boat we work also, at so much a day and we should have done it in four days.' 'And for me if I paid by the day instead of by the piece, how long?' 'One day instead of half, O Lady, for fear thou shouldest say to us, you have finished in half a day and half the wages is enough for you.' That is the way in which all the work is done for _Effendeena_-no wonder his steamers don't pay.

I saw Ross yesterday-he tells me the Shereef of Mecca has sent him a horse.