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THE ARABIAN DRAGOMAN.

CHAPTER X.

Contemplated Visit to Upper Egypt.- Selim, the Arabian Dragoman. His Qualifications, and a Description of his Person.An Interview with the Consular Agent of the United States. Flattering Expectations. Important Standing of the Consul. - Ride and Reflections among the Tombs.-The Wrinklebottoms at Pompey's Pillar.- Scene in the Graveyard at Alexandria.- Valorous Exploits of the Dragoman with Beggars.-Admiration and Chagrin of the Wrinklebottoms.- Lord Sweepstakes and Sir Jeffrey Windfall. Dinner on the Summit of Pompey's Pillar. Affront to the Pacha.- Imagined Insult to the British Flag. Virtuous Indignation of the Wrinklebottoms. The Pacha's Decree.

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HAVING resolved upon a visit to Upper Egypt, on the strongest recommendation of Mr. Firkins and his vicegerent, Mr. O'Statten, we engaged a person by the name of Selim to accompany us as dragoman, servant, companion, and friend. He was an Arab; and spoke with considerable fluency five different languages, though he could neither read nor write any one of them. This fellow turned out to be a great rascal. We found him lazy, malicious, disobedient, dirty, diseased, and dishonest. These were qualifications not calculated to render our travelling in Egypt the most pleasant thing in the world.

DESCRIPTION OF HIS PERSON.

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For two or three days, however, previously to our leaving Alexandria, Selim made quite an energetic and conspicuous display of himself. He was tolerably clean in his appearance, and seemed, on the whole, to promise pretty fairly for the future. But the doctor was not much pleased with his excessive vanity, or his cruelty to the donkey-boys, from the first; nor was the bad impression, made in the outset upon the doctor's mind, removed by Selim's subsequent conduct. This vain-glorious demonstration on the part of our new dragoman wore away as his clothes became soiled; and from a bustling, bullying, brutal, quarrelsome tyrant at home, he became a tatterdemalion abroad. Selim had on, when he came into our service, a pair of Armenian bagbreeches, red Turkish shoes, without stockings, a Grecian jacket, embroidered with gold lace, and a red Levantine cap, adorned with a long black silk tassel, hanging by its side. He was a tall, attenuated figure, and had a graceless stoop in the shoulders. His face was long, and lantern-jawed, and his eyes and hair were black. He had a good set of teeth, a well-formed mouth; and a nose, though not altogether faultless, yet, when contrasted with his high cheekbones and protruding chin, it looked like a divinelychiselled thing from the hands of a Grecian sculptor.

The next morning after he entered into our service, he was at the hotel at an early hour, and had wound off six or eight regularly pitched battles with the donkey-boys, and some other harmless Egyptians, before we had got through with our breakfast.

134

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE

This we attributed more to a desire on his part to impress us with a proper idea of his cleverness and important standing at home, than to any necessity that there might have been for inflicting such severe chastisement upon his fellow-townsmen. Indeed, some such display of cruelty and petty tyrauny toward inferiors, the helpless and unoffending, is deemed by English travellers, in whose service he had generally been, the highest recommendation that an Egyptian dragoman can produce; and one most likely to procure him employment in the outset, and to sustain him long in the favour and good graces of his master.

The morning was lovely; we were in good spirits; and our new dragoman appeared so blooming, that we thought the time rather propitious for making an acceptable figure in paying our respects to the presiding genius of the consulate of the United States. Accordingly, the doctor and myself mounted donkeys, and set out with Selim, also on a donkey, and three naked muleteers whipping our animals into a gait of most unenviable locomotion.

As we drew up in front of the palace of the consul, the dragoman and muleteers fell by the ears, and made such an uproar, that we felt ashamed of our company.

The doctor mildly admonished the ferocious dragoman, and begged that he would be a little more gentle with the poor donkey-boys, whom this fellow, in red cap and peaked-toed Turkish shoes, seemed to

CONSULAR AGENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 135

be desirous of whipping and banging about in the most cruel manner, every leisure moment.

We entered the vestibule, and ascended the great stair-case conducting to the apartments of the Danish gentleman, then the acting consul of the United States, whom we found writing and busily employed at the moment. He put his quill behind his ear, ordered seats, and treated us with civility and much apparent cordiality. So far as words are an indication, he seemed very desirous of being of service to us in some way or other, during our stay in Alexandria, and hoped that we would have no hesitation in commanding him in any manner we might find convenient to ourselves. This was all a stranger could wish or expect; and, since the gentleman appeared so desirous to serve us in some way or other, we thought it would not be improper to enlist his kind offices in our behalf for the gratification of a wishthe only one, that we knew of, in which he could be of the least use-and that was, in obtaining for us an audience with the Pacha of Egypt.

At that time, Mehemet Ali was the greatest living lion" of the East; and the eyes of the whole world were upon him. We had, therefore, a desire to be introduced to him, that we might have an opportunity, however slight it might be, of seeing him face. to face, and of judging from personal observation, something of that extraordinary individual, more than what we could learn from the published gossip about him in the journals of the day.

Upon making known this wish to the consular

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functionary of the American government, he threw himself back a little more deeply into his capacious arm-chair; and, with increased complacency, and the assurances of his desire to do something for us, said that nothing in the world was easier, than for him to obtain an audience with the Pacha for us. He set his own time for it to take place, even without obtaining leave of the Pacha for such an audience, and declared it would give him the highest gratification to present us to his Highness; with whom he represented himself upon terms of intimacy and cordiality nearly as enviable as the extraordinary favour in which Mr. Firkins was held at the regal palace.

The next day was appointed for the presentation; and after some further conversation of a general nature, we took leave of our new and remarkably polite acquaintance; and, being joined at the hotel by Mrs. C., we rode out to review some of the ground that we had hurried over so rapidly on our arrival in Alexandria.

We passed along by a fine grove of date-trees, then loaded with that luscious fruit, pending beneath the graceful leaves and branches; and directed our course toward Pompey's Pillar.

We discovered, at a considerable distance before us, rather a brilliant party, mounted on donkeys; with a long train of attendants, winding slowly through the Arab burying-ground, up to the elevated spot where stood the object of our excursion. When the party arrived at the base of that noble monument, they dismounted, and threw themselves into the most

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