’Then the Pasha turned to the woman and said, “Woe to thee O woman, art thou a Muslimeh and doest such wickedness?” And the woman spoke and told all that had happened and how she sought money and finding gold had kept it.  So the Pasha said, “Wait oh Ma-allim, and we will discover the truth of this matter,” and he sent for the three Ulema who had desired that the tomb should be opened at the end of three days and told them the case; and they said, “Open now the tomb of the Christian damsel.”  And the Pasha sent his men to do so, and when they opened it behold it was full of fire, and within it lay the body of the wicked and avaricious Mussulman.’  Thus it was manifest to all that on the night of terror the angels of God had done this thing, and had laid the innocent girl of the Christians among those who have received direction, and the evil Muslim among the rejected.  Admire how rapidly legends arise here.  This story which everybody declared was quite true is placed no longer ago than in Mahommed Ali Pasha’s time.

There are hardly any travellers this year, instead of a hundred and fifty or more boats, perhaps twenty.  A son of one of the Rothschilds, a boy of fourteen, has just gone up like a royal prince in one of the Pasha’s steamers—­all his expenses paid and crowds of attendants.  ’All that honour to the money of the Jew,’ said an old fellah to me with a tone of scorn which I could not but echo in my heart.  He has turned out his dragoman—­a respectable elderly man, very sick, and paid him his bare wages and the munificent sum of 5 pounds to take him back to Cairo.  On board there was a doctor and plenty of servants, and yet he abandons the man here on Mustapha’s hands.  I have brought Er-Rasheedee here (the sick man) as poor Mustapha is already overloaded with strangers.  I am sorry the name of Yahoodee (Jew) should be made to stink yet more in the nostrils of the Arabs.  I am very well, indeed my cough is almost gone and I can walk quite briskly and enjoy it.  I think, dear Mutter, I am really better.  I never felt the cold so little as this winter since my illness, the chilly mornings and nights don’t seem to signify at all now, and the climate feels more delicious than ever.

Mr. Herbert, the painter, went back to Cairo from Farshoot below Keneh; so I have no ‘Frangee’ society at all.  But Sheykh Yussuf and the Kadee drop in to tea very often and as they are agreeable men I am quite content with my company.

Bye the bye I will tell you about the tenure of land in Egypt which people are always disputing about, as the Kadee laid it down for me.  The whole land belongs to the Sultan of Turkey, the Pasha being his vakeel (representative), nominally of course as we know.  Thus there are no owners, only tenants paying from one hundred piastres tariff (1 pound) down to thirty piastres yearly per feddan (about an acre) according to the quality of the land, or the favour of the Pasha when granting it.  This tenancy