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they demanded ten times its value, nor would they abate a piastre. Twenty dollars, or even fifty, were not too much for an old kettle in which Pharaoh's chief butler was wont to boil his rice. Their price was a hundred.

Some very handsome, small, genuine scarabei were pro. duced, which, together with a half bushel of porcelain or blue glazed earthen idols, some painted wooden ones, and a few other equally rare articles, were the final result of this great under-ground trade. And glad were the speculators to get off so cheap, and to be returned in safety to the boat.

We made heavy purchases in the dark of papyri, most of which turned out to be bits of old Greek manuscript rolled up secundum artem, and sealed with asphaltum-regular cheats. We, however, procured several genuine and very curious ones.

As soon as we had returned from our visit to the tombs of the kings, we ordered all our men on board, and drew off into the stream, ready for a fair start in the morning, after we had seen the sun rise once more on Luxor's Obe. lisk and Carnac's towers.

I am just now called to make an excursion on shore to revisit the site of Memphis. On my return I will employ my afternoon and evening in fulfilling the promise I made in the commencement of this epistle, and float down with you from Thebes to Memphis. Therefore, au revoir. VOL. I.-U

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LETTER XX.

Return to Cairo.-Preparations for a Journey.-Descent of the Nile.Koum Ombos.-Crocodile Worship.-Quarries of Hadjar Silsili.-Grottoes of Eleithias.-Temple of Dendera.-Egyptian Mysteries.-Waterjars of Genneh.-Nile Water.-Copts.-The Moonlight of Egypt.-Perilous Adventure.-Travelling Comforts.

Grand Cairo,

I Now profit by the first leisure moment I have had since our arrival here, to give you the account of our voyage on the Nile from the Cataracts to Cairo, which I promised the other day, and which circumstances have prevented me from writing until now.

I will first remark, that, so far from finding any plague on our arrival here, we might have brought it with us, and inoculated the whole city, had it not been for the strict quarantine which we kept while passing through infected districts up the river.

On our return we found all our friends in good health. Our kind young consul had not forgotten us; for, during our absence, he has attended to all the matters left by us in his charge, and has made all the arrangements necessary for our journey to the Holy Land by way of the desert. He has caused to be made for us a large and comfortable tent, with two apartments, together with all the necessary apparatus of a caravan expedition. Instead of the usual imperfect and disagreeable arrangement for carrying water by means of bags made of skins, rendered water-tight by asphaltum (taken from the mummies-only think of it!), he has caused to be made several casks of an oval form, two of which, when filled, are a load for one camel. We shall thus be provided with that most essential article in the desert, water

in abundance, pure and sweet. There is nothing to prevent our setting off immediately but the return of Mustafa, who has gone to a fair in the Delta, where he is charged with the purchase of a large Bactrian camel for my particular accommodation. Journeys in the desert are made by men on the back of the dromedary, which is a small, light race of camel, trained expressly for riding. But as its gait is very hard, and somewhat dangerous, females seldom use them, particularly those who are unaccustomed to that mode of conveyance.

As hundreds of pious female pilgrims every year join the great caravan for Mecca, means of conveyance more appropriate to their delicate habits have been invented. A sort of palanquin is placed on the back of a camel, furnished with a bed, on which the lady can either sit up, recline, or lie down at full length. Four upright posts support a canopy, from which on all sides depend curtains, to protect the traveller from the burning sun. As the ordinary Ara. bian camel is too small to support so much weight on a long journey, recourse is had to a larger race, natives of Bactria, in Central Asia. They are not always to be found here. At this moment there are none, all having been taken up for the use of recently departed hadjees. At the fair now being held in the Delta, it is expected that Mustafa may be able to procure one from the Syrians who frequent that market. Should he not be successful, I cannot think of venturing upon the desert on the wooden saddle of the dromedary's mountain back. In the mean time, let us return to the Cataracts, and renavigate the Nile to this place.

We left Assouan (Syene) on the morning of the 17th of March (the thermometer stood at 84 at four P.M.), and arrived here on the 10th of April. Deducting the week passed at Thebes, seventeen days are left for our voyage to this place.

When we returned from Phile we found our boat pre

senting quite a different appearance from what she did when we left her in the morning.

The tall yards were taken down and hung lengthwise (or fore and aft, as the sailor says) above the deck, half way up the short masts. These long sticks formed the ridge-pole of an enormous tent, which covered the whole vessel, made of one of our large lateen sails. Ropes from one shroud to the other served as eaves to our canvass roof. As the prevailing winds at this season are from the north, very strong in the daytime, with calms at night, sails would be of no use, and the great yards in their places an actual hinderance. Hence the dismantled state of our boat. When we moved off in the morning, I was surprised to see ten enormous oars (called sweeps) expand like so many wings from the sides of the vessel, worked by twenty men. At the sight of this manœuvre, I became somewhat con. cerned at the prospect of our being obliged to paddle six hundred miles down to Cairo with only twenty men. soon learned, however, that we were not to depend entirely on oars for our progress. The current was to do the needful, the oars merely serving, by a gentle motion, to give the vessel a little speed beyond that of the current, in order that the rudder might act, and keep her head the right way, out of the eddies and away from shoals.

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All this was very pretty in theory, but how the practical part was sustained we shall see hereafter. By ten o'clock the first day, as the heat of the sun increased, so did the north wind. Current and oars availed us little against the power of Boreas. So we were compelled to cast anchor, and wait for sundown, when the wind usually ceases.

When our bark, in ascending the river, was gayly flaunt. ing before the cool breezes of the north, we were constantly chanting pæans to the victorious Osiris. Now, enraged at his pertinacious resistance to our homeward course, we were ready to hurl anathemas in the face of Egypt's holiest

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god, and throw ourselves upon the tender mercy of the furious Typhon, with his red-hot breath of Hades.

When the first effects of our disappointment began to subside, Patience, that divinity at whose shrine all Orientals pay such homage, came to our relief.

Of all the virtues, none is so essential to a traveller in the East as patience, enduring patience. It is said that a seavoyage is the best test of temper; but wait till you travel in the East, and are for ever at the mercy of indolent Turks and more lazy Arabs (to say nothing of the elements), then judge for yourself.

It is often said that "patience is a jewel," and fuil well have I learned to prize it.

The

After the last prayer to the Prophet, our crew partook of their evening meal; then, as if they had had no rest for the day, they one and all spread themselves over the forward deck, and in a minute were in a profound sleep, where they would have remained till sunrise but for the quickening influence of old Ali, who roused them to their work. anchor was raised and the oars put in motion, when the man at the leading oar took the lead in another part of the ceremony. It was nothing more or less than an Arab chant by the whole crew, which lasted, with little interruption, all the way to Cairo.

I shall not attempt, at this time, to give you a diary of our voyage; for seventeen days' experience of this kind would be too much for your patience or even mine, schooled as it now is in Orientalism. I will confine myself, therefore, to a few general remarks, which I hope may serve to give you some idea of a voyage down the Nile.

However novel and amusing to me was this Arab music at first, and reminding me of the boat-songs of our Cana. dian voyageurs, yet these laboured accents soon palled upon the ear, and I could not help comparing them in my mind to