If you have any power over any artists, send them to paint here.  No words can describe either the picturesque beauty of Cairo or the splendid forms of the people in Upper Egypt, and above all in Nubia.  I was in raptures at seeing how superb an animal man (and woman) really is.  My donkey-girl at Thebes, dressed like a Greek statue—­Ward es-Sham (the Rose of Syria)—­was a feast to the eyes; and here, too, what grace and sweetness, and how good is a drink of Nile water out of an amphora held to your lips by a woman as graceful as she is kindly.  ’May it benefit thee,’ she says, smiling with all her beautiful teeth and eyes. ‘Alhamdulillah,’ you reply; and it is worth thanking God for.  The days of the beauty of Cairo are numbered.  The mosques are falling to decay, the exquisite lattice windows rotting away and replaced by European glass and jalousies.  Only the people and the Government remain unchanged.  Read all the pretty paragraphs about civilisation here, and then say, Bosh!

If you know anyone coming here and wanting a good servant and dragoman, recommend my dear Omar Abou el-Halaweh of Alexandria.  He has been my friend and companion, as well as my cook and general servant, now for six months, and we are very sad at our approaching separation.  I am to spend a day in his house with his young wife at Alexandria, and to eat his bread.  He sadly wants to go with me to Europe and to see my children.  Sally, I think, is almost as fond of the Arabs as I am, and very popular.  My poor ragged crew were for ever calling out ‘Yah Sara’ for some assistance or other, hurt fingers or such calamities; and the quantity of doctoring I did was fearful.  Sally was constantly wishing for you to see all manner of things and to sketch.  What a yarn I have made!

May 12, 1863:  Mrs. Austin

To Mrs. Austin.  ALEXANDRIA, May 12, 1863.

Dearest Mutter,

I have been here a fortnight, but the climate disagrees so much with me that I am going back to Cairo at once by the advice of the doctor of the Suez Canal.  I cannot shake off my cough here.  Mr. Thayer kindly lends me his nice little bachelor house, and I take Omar back again for the job.  It is very hot here, but with a sea-breeze which strikes me like ice; strong people enjoy it, but it gives even Janet cold in the head.  She is very well, I think, and seems very happy.  She is Times correspondent and does it very well.

I am terribly disappointed at not being as materially better as I had hoped I should be while in Upper Egypt.  I cannot express the longing I have for home and my children, and how much I feel the sort of suspense it all causes to you and to Alick, and my desire to be with you.