My pretty neighbour has gone back into the town.  She was a nice little woman, and amused me a good deal.  I see that a good respectable Turkish hareem is an excellent school of useful accomplishments—­needlework, cookery, etc.  But I observed that she did not care a bit for the Pasha, by whom she had a child, but was extremely fond of ‘her lady,’ as she politely called her, also that like every Circassian I ever knew, she regarded being sold as quite a desirable fate, and did not seem sorry for her parents, as the negroes always are.

The heat has been prodigious, but I am a good deal better.  Yesterday the Nile had risen above ten cubits, and the cutting of the Kalig took place.  The river is pretty full now, but they say it will go down fast this year.  I don’t know why.  It looks very beautiful, blood-red and tossed into waves by the north wind fighting the rapid stream.

Good-bye dear Alick, I hope to hear a better account of your health soon.

August 8, 1867:  Mrs. Austin

To Mrs. Austin.  BOULAK, August 8, 1867.

Dearest Mutter,

Two of my sailors were in Paris and have just come home.  I hear they are dreadfully shocked by the dancing, and by the French women of the lower class generally.  They sit in the coffee-shops like shaers (poets), and tell of the wonders of Paris to admiring crowds.  They are enthusiastic about the courtesy of the French police, who actually did not beat them when they got into a quarrel, but scolded the Frankish man instead, and accompanied them back to the boat quite politely.  The novelty and triumph of not being beaten was quite intoxicating.  There is such a curious sight of a crowd of men carrying huge blocks of stone up out of a boat.  One sees exactly how the stones were carried in ancient times; they sway their bodies all together like one great lithe animal with many legs, and hum a low chant to keep time.  It is quite unlike any carrying heavy weights in Europe.

It is getting dusk and too windy for candles, so I must say goodnight and eat the dinner which Darfour has pressed upon me two or three times, he is a pleasant little creature, so lively and so gentle.  It is washing day.  I wish you could see Mabrook squatting out there, lathering away at the clothes with his superb black arms.  He is a capital washer and a fair cook, but an utter savage.

[The foregoing letter reached England the day after the death of my grandmother, Mrs. Austin, which was a great shock to my mother and made her ill and unhappy; so it was settled that my brother Maurice should go out and spend the winter with her on the Nile.]

September 7, 1867:  Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon.  BOULAK, September 7, 1867.

Dearest Alick,