[p.61]better than the servant, or indeed than the poorer orders of freemen.  “The laws of Mahomet enjoin his followers to treat slaves with the greatest mildness, and the Moslems are in general scrupulous observers of the Apostle’s recommendation.  Slaves are considered members of the family, and in houses where free servants are also kept, they seldom do any other work than filling the pipes, presenting the coffee, accompanying their master when going out, rubbing his feet when he takes his nap in the afternoon, and driving away the flies from him.  When a slave is not satisfied, he can legally compel his master to sell him.  He has no care for food, lodging, clothes and washing, and has no taxes to pay; he is exempt from military service and soccage, and in spite of his bondage is freer than the freest Fellah in Egypt.[FN#20]” This is, I believe, a true statement, but of course it in no wise affects the question of slavery in the abstract.  A certain amount of reputation was the consequence of curing the Abyssinian girls:  my friend Haji Wali carefully told the news to all the town, and before fifteen days were over, I found myself obliged to decline extending a practice which threatened me with fame.

Servants are most troublesome things to all Englishmen in Egypt, but especially to one travelling as a respectable native, and therefore expected to have slaves.  After much deliberation, I resolved to take a Berberi,[FN#21]

[p.62]and accordingly summoned a Shaykh-there is a Shaykh for everything down to thieves in “the East,” (in Egypt since the days of Diodorus Siculus), and made known my want.  The list of sine qua nons was necessarily rather an extensive one,-good health and a readiness to travel anywhere, a little skill in cooking, sewing and washing, willingness to fight, and a habit of regular prayers.  After a day’s delay the Shaykh brought me a specimen of his choosing, a broad-shouldered, bandy-legged fellow, with the usual bull-dog expression of the Berberis, in his case rendered doubly expressive by the drooping of an eyelid-an accident brought about with acrid juice in order to avoid conscription.  He responded sturdily to all my questions.  Some Egyptian donkey boys and men were making a noise in the room at the time, and the calm ferocity with which he ejected them commanded my approval.  When a needle, thread, and an unhemmed napkin were handed to him, he sat down, held the edge of the cloth between his big toe and its neighbour, and finished the work in quite a superior style.  Walking out, he armed himself with a Kurbaj, which he used, now lightly, then heavily, upon all laden animals, biped and quadruped, that came in the way.  His conduct proving equally satisfactory in the kitchen, after getting security from him, and having his name registered by the Shaykh,[FN#22] I closed with him for eighty piastres a