which are difficult to us. We have to do with a people who have a past of their own, traditions of their own, and, to some extent, a morality of their own, which, if falling short of the True Ideal, may be as near it as our own nineteenth-century morality. We Anglo-Saxons attach, for instance, a value to Truth, which has grown up in us, and is not as pronounced in other, even European, races. With us it is not only a point of religion, but perhaps more often a point of honour. Do not think that I value it the less on that account; I only say that even the strictest of us have a double incentive. Is the Copt as truthful? Certainly not. For generations it has been his interest, and perhaps his only safeguard from tyranny, to deceive. These inherited predilections are not eradicated in a day, nor by the preaching of a doctrine, however pure. We have to hold high our standard, but we cannot refuse all who fail to reach it. On the other hand, persecution, which has made them untruthful, has encouraged in them the virtues of adversity: they are loving, and tolerant, and generous. These, too, are Christian qualities, which we, as a race, perhaps neglect, and which we can cultivate in them. The men who are of our congregation may be untruthful, and scheming in their business relations; but they are sincere. We have some 1700 families, say eight to ten thousand souls. By joining us they have gained neither worldly rank, social position, nor riches. On the contrary, they are rather despised, and have to answer money calls which they meet and might avoid. Why then do they join us? I have no explanation of it unless it is that they see dimly the truth, and strive as through a glass darkly to realise it."

"Is it not," said the Scribbler, "rather that they recognise a social superiority -a higher moral superiority if you will-in Europeans like yourself and companions, that they attribute this to your religious dogmas, and think to attain it by going through the routine of your Church?"

"And even if it were so," said the other, "would this not be a recognition of some value, that the purer religion gave a higher tone of morality? But it is not a mere going through the routine of our Church; the interest they display in abstruse questions sometimes surprises me. They will ask questions that show they have thought not superficially; and when I preach a sermon, I must expect to be catechised upon it."

"You preach in Arabic of course? Have you no difficulty in explaining yourself?"

"No; I would choose Arabic rather than English to preach in, even if it were not necessary. The language is richer, more full of synonyms and But I am detaining you with an essay on myself," he added,

poetic metaphors.

with a smile, "and you have come to see Asyoot. Will you let me be your guide?"

The four passed through the schools, where clean, bright-faced little children. were receiving instruction from kindly-looking Americans, too much interested in their work of love to do more than acknowledge the presence of strangers. "You begin at the very beginning, I see," said the Scribbler, noticing a boy rising four who was absorbed in a game of letters.

"Yes," replied the Chief; "as your Government should do in Egypt. Eighteen days after the bombardment of Alexandria I was in London, and was asked by Lord Aberdeen to meet Mr. Gladstone. I told him very much what I have told you as to our failure, so long as we attempted to reform by propping up a decayed and corrupt institution; and I added, that England's work in Egypt would be the same, that you could do nothing until you did as we had to do, begin at the foundations."

"Do you mean that we should transplant our English institutions into Egypt ?"

"Excuse me, you are changing my metaphor. You do not transplant foundations, you build them. The foundations are much the same whether you build in one style or another. Make your foundations solid, and then build in accordance with the requirements and possibilities of the country if you will, but solidly always, and in accordance with principles invariable in all solid buildings."

"Scribbler," said the Sketcher, who was following behind with the Nabob, "I detect you talking politics out of keeping with the environments again."

The party were entering the Cemetery, which seemed to occupy more ground than the town itself. Scrupulously clean, with bright white-washed domes, shaded by Acacia Nilotica, it is not ill chosen as the promenade of the town. Here loitered, not sadly yet not boisterously, alike Copt, Jew, and Moslem. There were groups of women seated round a grave, not visibly, at all events, depressed by the "Memento mori." Here, on a fallen column, rested a venerable ulema; and there was a group of children munching dates by a fountain.

Passing across the Cemetery, one finds oneself at the very foot of the Libyan chain, which Pliny wrongly called the boundary of the Thebaid. Here, according to Abu Feyda, is the mountain to which the birds perform an annual pilgrimage, one remaining ever as a sentry until relieved by another. The ascent is steep, but worth the exertion, for it is from them alone you get a fair idea of Asyoot, and what may be called the first view of Egypt. The panorama from

the citadel in Cairo, unequalled as it is, either in Egypt or elsewhere, is hardly one of the country itself. There the imagination is too strongly impressed by the historical aspects of the scene to grasp the scene itself. Here, as you ascend, the view, enlarging at every step, reveals, like a kaleidoscope, new beauties at every turn. At last, creeping through a narrow tunnelled rock, called the "Needle's Eye," you clamber the last few yards across tombs excavated from the mountain side, the bones of antiquity are beneath your feet, and you stand on a Pisgah height, with the Land of Promise beneath, the plain which Amru described as "at once a green undulating meadow and a garden ornamented with the most varied flowers." There, hurrying from far south to north, you see the great river, in innumerable serpent-like curves,

scattering broad-cast to east and west its golden benefits. Asyoot lies like a star at the foot, studded with domes and minarets, embowered in green gardens; still nearer is the Cemetery; and closing round the living and the dead, in one warm embrace, is the brilliant green of the young cornfields. Here and there the mud villages lie "like the marks of a soiled foot on a rich carpet," which the blue flax, the yellow cotton blossom, and the crimson poppy enrich with colours that even Shiraz cannot copy. Rich, too, is the gold of the border; for the hungry desert stretches beyond, and bluest of Egypt's skies is that which looks down on the Stabl Antar.

Even the Sketcher was awed. "This," he said, "is beyond your pencil or mine. I understand now why the Sermon was preached on a Mount."

The Pasha, the Moses of the party, had meanwhile been compelled by the stern call of duty to abstain from the view of the Promised Land, into which, however, he was to be permitted to enter. Escorted by the slimy Yacoub, he had proceeded through the town to the Mudirieh, followed by a motley crowd, who evidently experienced some difficulty in deciding as to the rival merits of the clothing of the pair. There is an air of official dignity attaching to the black Stambouli, which, be it never so ancient, it retains to the last in Arab eyes. Apollo in light tweed, swinging along at a good stride, bore, however, the marks of dignity too. His six feet three impressed the beholders, but then he was certainly less well fed than the Sub-Mudir, and breadth counts for more than height in Oriental eyes. Still, the former was a novelty, and so enjoyed as much respect as was compatible with the fact that they had not felt his kourbash; and the votes were already turning in his favour, when he was seen to enter the Mudirieh, to fling himself unbidden on the divan, and casually order the Mudir to be seated. This decided the matter; he was evidently one in authority, an Ingleez of the highest rank, possibly the English Sultan himself, or his son at least the fame thereof went up the river, and the rest of the party shone in that reflected glory for many days. The Pasha was a conscientious man, and part of the mission for which he had left Cairo was to ascertain on the spot the ruling prices for produce. He asked the Mudir, and that official at once realised the importance of the information required; to be more exact, he would, he said, get very careful information, and let him know in the morning. Then he sent off a telegram to Cairo. "The English Pasha wants to know the prices of produce in Asyoot; what shall I tell him?" The reply came back; the information in accordance with it was handed to Apollo, who remarked subsequently, that there was "nothing like making sure of your facts at the place itself."

Let it be said at once, though, that all the information collected was not of this origin. English Pashas are taken in at times, and detestable is the character of him who is never deceived; but sound common sense is well supported by personal observation, and perhaps Egypt would be more intelligently administered if more of its officials would take the pains to see something of the interior of the country, as well as of the Club Khedivial.

CHAPTER XII.

The Cleopatra-Capuan luxury—Aboutiz-Gow-el-Kebir-Circumstantial allegory -Disgraceful hoax of a Pope-Saint or serpent-Sara's credulous scepticism— Girgeh-Sara on the Turk-Sohag-Rivers all swindles—The Nile at a gallop -Value of official information-Cost of government in Egypt-Priapus v. Sir Gardner-Abydos-Tomb of Osiris-Roman affection for Memnon misleading-A Sunset-Kench-Anxiety of Mudir-Sara's greatness—Dancing-girls—Osiris at Abydos-Egyptologists and myths.

THE

HE next morning's sun had hardly gilded the Libyan hills before the Cleopatra, most æsthetically furnished of dahabeeyahs, had taken on board its living freight. Rightly was she named, for the vainqueur des vainqueurs du monde herself had never travelled in more luxurious comfort. The whole of Apollo's house, itself one of the sights of Cairo, had been ransacked to bedeck the roomy craft. There were carpets from Khiva, silks from Damascus, and embroideries from Broussa; luxurious chairs and pretty little inlaid tables strewed the centre of the deck, surrounded with luxurious eider-down couches, and covered with a gaily coloured awning. The Egyptian flag fluttered in the breeze; the steam-tug twenty yards ahead gave a shrill whistle, and, amid the prostrate salaams of the Mudir and entire population of Asyoot on the banks, the Cleopatra followed in her wake with the stately motion of a swan. The first day on board a dahabeeyah is generally devoted to making a pint-bottle contain a quart; to unpacking one's travelling treasures; to exploring the nooks and crannies into which they may be hid with some possibility of rediscovery, and to