Through ignorance which might have cost me dear but for friend Larking’s weight with the local authorities, I had neglected to provide myself with a passport in England, and it was not without difficulty, involving much unclean dressing and an unlimited expenditure of broken English, that I obtained from H.B.M’s Consul at Alexandria a certificate, declaring me to be an Indo-British subject named Abdullah, by profession a doctor, aged thirty, and not distinguished-at least so the frequent blanks seemed to denote-by any remarkable conformation of eyes, nose, or cheek.  For this I disbursed a dollar.  And here let me record the indignation with which I did it.  That mighty Britain-the mistress of the seas-the ruler of one-sixth of mankind-should charge five shillings to pay for the shadow of her protecting wing!  That I cannot speak my modernised “civis sum Romanus” without putting my hand into my pocket, in order that these officers of the Great Queen may not take too ruinously from a revenue of seventy millions!  O the meanness of our magnificence! the littleness of our greatness!

My new passport would not carry me without the Zabit or Police Magistrate’s counter-signature, said H.B.M.’s Consul.  Next day I went to the Zabit, who referred me to the Muhafiz (Governor) of Alexandria, at whose gate I had the honour of squatting at least three hours, till a more compassionate clerk vouchsafed the information that the proper place to apply to was the Diwan Kharijiyah (the Foreign Office).  Thus a second day was utterly lost.  On the morning of the third I started, as directed, for the Palace, which crowns the Headland of Clay.  It is a huge and couthless shell of building in parallelogrammic form, containing all kinds of public offices in glorious confusion, looking with their glaring

[p.20]white-washed faces upon a central court, where a few leafless wind-wrung trees seem struggling for the breath of life in an eternal atmosphere of clay-dust and sun-blaze.[FN#5]

The first person I addressed was a Kawwas[FN#6] or police officer, who, coiled comfortably up in a bit of shade fitting his person like a robe, was in full enjoyment of the Asiatic “Kayf.”  Having presented the consular certificate and briefly stated the nature of my business, I ventured to inquire what was the right course to pursue for a visa.

They have little respect for Darwayshes, it appears, at Alexandria.

M’adri-"Don’t know,” growled the man of authority, without moving any thing but the quantity of tongue absolutely necessary for articulation.

Now there are three ways of treating Asiatic officials,-by bribe, by bullying, or by bothering them with a dogged perseverance into attending to you and your concerns.  The latter is the peculiar province of the poor; moreover, this time I resolved, for other reasons, to be patient.  I repeated my question in almost the same words.  Ruh!  “Be off,” was what I obtained for all reply.  But this time the questioned went so far as to open his eyes.  Still I stood twirling the paper in my hands, and looking very humble and very persevering, till a loud Ruh ya Kalb!  “Go, O dog!” converted into a responsive curse the little speech I was preparing about