course you can’t deal with such people as you would with others.  So when we landed, the Little Corporal said to us:  “Boys!  The country that you are going to conquer worships a lot of gods that must be respected.  Frenchmen should keep on good terms with everybody, and fight people without hurting their feelings.  So let everything alone at first, and by and by we’ll get all there is.”

Now there was a prediction among the Egyptians down there that Napoleon would come; and the name they had for him was Kebir Bonaberdis, which means, in their lingo, “The Sultan strikes fire.”  They were as much afraid of him as they were of the Devil; so the Grand Turk, Asia, and Africa resorted to magic, and sent against us a demon named Mody [the Mahdi], who was supposed to have come down from heaven on a white horse.  This horse was incombustible to bullets, and so was the Mody, and the two of ’em lived on weather and air.  There are people who have seen ’em; but I haven’t any reason, myself, to say positively that the things told about ’em were true.  Anyhow, they were the great powers in Arabia; and the Mamelukes wanted to make the Egyptian soldiers think that the Mody could keep them from being killed in battle, and that he was an angel sent down from heaven to fight Napoleon and get back Solomon’s seal—­a part of their equipment which they pretended to believe our general had stolen.  But we made ’em laugh on the wrong side of their mouths, in spite of their Mody!

They thought Napoleon could command the genii, and that he had power to go from one place to another in an instant, like a bird; and, indeed, it’s a fact that he was everywhere.  But how did they know that he had an agreement with God?  Was it natural that they should get such an idea as that?

It so happened, finally, that he carried off one of their queens—­a woman beautiful as the sunshine.  He tried, at first, to buy her, and offered to give for her all his treasure, and a lot of diamonds as big as pigeons’ eggs; but although the Mameluke to whom she particularly belonged had several others, he wouldn’t agree to the bargain; so Napoleon had to carry her off.  Of course, when things came to such a pass as that, they couldn’t be settled without a lot of fighting; and if there weren’t blows enough to satisfy all, it wasn’t anybody’s fault.  We formed in battle line at Alexandria, at Gizeh, and in front of the Pyramids.  We marched in hot sunshine and through deep sand, where some got so bedazzled that they saw water which they couldn’t drink, and shade that made them sweat; but we generally chewed up the Mamelukes, and all the rest gave in when they heard Napoleon’s voice.

He took possession of Upper and Lower Egypt, Arabia, and the capitals of kingdoms that perished long ago, where there were thousands of statues of all the evil things in creation, especially lizards—­a thundering big country, where one could get acres of land for as little as he pleased.