MODE OF EMPLOYING HIS TIME. 61 low, being his Highness's buffoon as well as companion in amusement, always affects to be inconsolable, and makes a sad outcry, when the pieces are taken from him. XXIX. Both the Pasha and his court are very plain at Alexandria; but at Cairo, where, however, he spends but a small portion of the year, things are conducted with more state, though he is every where extremely accessible. Any person who has leisure, and knows no better mode of employing it, may go every evening to the palace, whether he have business there or not; and, if he does not choose to force himself upon the notice of the Pasha, he can enter into any of the other magnificent apartments, which are lighted up as well as the audience chamber, and converse, if he pleases, with some of the numerous company there assembled. To show his Highness's close habits of business, it has been remarked to me, that, when accidentally indisposed at Alexandria, and compelled to take exercise in his carriage instead of on horseback, he is known constantly to take out with him the public despatches. Driving to the banks of the canal, he has his carpet spread upon the ground; and there, while coffee is preparing, he usually sits, reading and sealing his despatches. He will then enjoy his coffee and pipe, and afterwards return directly to the palace. This is one of his recreations. In the harem, he reads, or has books read to him; or amuses himself by con 62 MANNERS AND CHARACTER. versing with the abler part of his eunuchs. At other times he is employed in dictating his history; or in playing at chess, to which, like most other Orientals, he appears to be passionately addicted. In fact, his active restless temper will never suffer him to be unoccupied; and, when not engaged with graver and more important affairs, he descends even to meddling. Nothing is too minute for him. For example, a young Egyptian Turk, educated in the school of Cairo, now professor of the mathematics, and teacher of the young officers at Alexandria, is compelled every week to give him an exact account of the manner in which each of his pupils pursues his studies. During the period in which he was pushing forward the preparations necessary for putting his fleet to sea, a much smaller portion of the day than usual was devoted to his audiences and ordinary business. Indeed, he would frequently give audience in the arsenal, where he spent a considerable part of his time; after which he used to step into his elegant little state barge, and cause himself to be rowed out into the harbour, among his ships, to observe the progress of the naval architects and shipwrights, and urge them forward by his presence; and in these little excursions of business he was sometimes so deeply interested, that he would not return to the palace before twelve o'clock: thus greatly abridging his hours of relaxation. The accidents of the weather never interfere with his resolutions: he will sometimes set out on a journey in the midst of a heavy MANNERS AND CHARACTER. 63 shower of rain or a storm, which has more than once caused him very serious illness. serious illness. His movements are sudden and unexpected: he appears in Cairo or at Alexandria when least looked for, which maintains a certain degree of vigilance among the agents of government; though something of all this may, perhaps, be set down to caprice or affectation. In the gardens of Shoubra there is a small alcove, where the Pasha, during his brief visits to that palace, will frequently sit, about eleven or twelve o'clock at night, and, dismissing from about him all his courtiers and attendants, remain for an hour or two. From this alcove, two long vistas, between cypress, orange, and citron trees, diverge, and extend the whole length of the grounds; and in the calm bright nights of the East, by moon or star light, when the air is perfumed by the faint odours of the most delicate flowers, a more delicious or romantic station could hardly be found. In the affairs of the heart, Mohammed Ali is not altogether without delicacy: during the whole lifetime of his wife, an energetic and superior woman, he invariably treated her with the most profound respect, and she always retained a great influence over him. Even since her death he has never married another woman; though he has not refrained from keeping a number of female slaves in his harem. She lies buried, by her son Toussoun, in a sumptuous tomb near Cairo; and, when I visited the place, some friendly hand had recently been strewing sweet flowers over their graves. 64 MODES OF TRAVELLING TO CAIRO. CHAPTER IV. THE MODES OF TRAVELLING TO CAIRO- DEPARTURE FROM ALEXANDRIA THE MIRAGE SITE OF CANOPUS-BAY OF ABOUKIR-MOUTH OF THE CANOPIC BRANCH OF THE NILE THE FERRY CARAVANSERAI -ROUTE ACROSS THE DESERT- DATE GROVESAPPROACH TO ROSETTA -FIRST VIEW OF THE NILE BEAUTIFUL GARDENS OF ROSETTA- CONVENT OF ABOU-MANDOOR MAGNIFICENT VIEW OF THE DELTA FAMINE OF MDCCCXXIX — DEPARTURE FROM ROSETTA-VEGETATION OF THE DESERT DESERTED MOSQUE DIMINUTIVE LAKES PASS OVER INTO THE DELTA IMMODEST COSTUME OF THE ARAB WOMEN - GREAT FERTILITY OF THE DELTA-ABUNDANCE OF WILD BIRDS-FOUAHTARBOOSH MANUFACTORY CURIOUS ARTICLE OF FEMALE DRESS PICTURESQUE APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY - TOMBS OF MU- DESOOG, A PLACE OF PILGRIMAGE -SITE OF SAIS PROBABLY SULMAN SAINTS ROADS AND BRIDGES SAIS INSCRIPTION ON THE STATUE OF NEITH EL-KOM - TATTOOING SHOUBRA-CAIRO. Thursday, Nov. 22. near Lake Edko. The XXX. THERE are three modes of travelling from Alexandria to Cairo: by the Mahmoodiyah and the Nile, in boats; across the desert, on camels; or by the of Rosetta and the Delta, on asses. way first of these ways is the easiest; the last is the most fatiguing and expensive, and by far the longest; but it is also, without comparison, the most interesting. Several gentlemen, desirous of proceeding to Cairo, agreed to accompany me by this route; and, having DEPARTURE FROM ALEXANDRIA. 65 sent forward our heavy baggage by water, we this day, about one o'clock, left Alexandria, our friends, Captain Cotton, of the Indian army, and Mr. Bartholomew, a missionary, kindly bearing us company for several miles; mounted, like ourselves, on a couple of those swift and sturdy donkeys which constitute the ordinary saddle-animal of both Turks and Christians in Egypt. The character of this route had been represented to me in very false colours. I was told that it would frequently be necessary to dismount, undress, and swim over very broad canals; that we should be impeded in our progress by vast morasses and swamps, in which our animals would sink up to their bellies; that we must often sleep in the open air; and that, in many villages, no kind of food was to be procured for money. As I happened to be labouring at the time under a sharp attack of fever, my selecting this route was characterised as an act of extreme imprudence; as it would undoubtedly have been, had the stories which were related to me been true but as the narrators of these marvels, who had themselves performed the journey, did not appear to me extremely capable of enduring privations or fatigue, I attributed all their wonderful stories to a desire to enhance their own hardihood, which I afterwards found to be the case. XXXI. We quitted Alexandria by the Rosetta or Canopic Gate; our road, at first, lying between high mounds of sand and ruins; which, as we advanced, became smaller and fewer, and at length wholly dis |