LETTER XXVII.

TO CHARLES MATHEWS, ESQ.

MY DEAR MATHEWS,

Thebes, Aug. 18, 1826.

YOURS was the " lily hand" which waved my

last adieu, on the beach of Baia, when "

my bark was on the sea, and my boat was on the shore." Years have passed away since the light of your jocund countenance beamed upon me; and the memory of those scenes of humour we have together witnessed, I am anxious to recall, for I fear their repetition is not to be expected.

If a few of my adventures between Siout and Thebes can renew the recollection of our old exploits, I shall esteem the labour of my letter as well bestowed; but should I have curtailed my "after dinner's sleep," to receive only a yawn of reminiscence for my pains, I must play the stoick, and affect to be content. Our voyage, from Siout

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ARAB SHEPHERDS.

to Thebes, was followed by a succession of misfortunes; sometimes, indeed, of the most ludicrous description. Provisions were so scarce that nothing was to be bought at the villages but black bread and dried dates.

In the evening it was our custom to send the crew ashore, to milk the first goats and buffaloes they met with. One night, after doing so, some Arab shepherds, who were tending their flock on the river side, imagined our men had a design on their sheep, and actually pretended there was one missing. My companion, hearing this, unfortunately began to bleat like a sheep, in the chamber of the kangea.

The Arabs, who only made the charge of the theft for the purpose of extorting money, now thought they had lost one in reality. Our Reis and the crew protested their innocence, offering to let them search the boat, but nothing would satisfy them. I lost all patience, and threatened to shoot the man who laid hold of the gunnel of our boat. The crew at last offered to refer the business to the Sheik of the village.

agreed to.

This was

The Reis and myself marched off to the Sheik

COURT OF JUSTICE.

35

el belled's house, surrounded by twenty or thirty Arabs, and there the robbery was gravely stated; half a dozen ragged children were produced as witnesses; they all pointed at me as the person who decoyed the flock to the river side. The name of Frangy was enough to get a thousand witnesses against a Christian.

The thing looked serious: in England a man might be hanged on such testimony; but, nevertheless, I was exceedingly amused; it was the first time I was ever brought before a tribunal of justice; and to appear there on a charge of sheepstealing was so singular that, when I was called on by the Sheik for my defence, I burst into laughter.

No Arab can withstand the influence of good-humour; he can resist reason, but he cannot mirth—— he is proof against rage, but a smile overcomes him; his tympanum is inured to vituperation and his tongue to invective, but the ludicrous triumphs over all. Let his opponent only relax his features, let a bystander only say something ridiculous, the choler of the Arab vanishes into thin air; in short, he cannot resist good humour.

The Sheik el belled, who should have committed

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COURT OF JUSTICE.

me for contempt of court, was the first to catch the contagion of my mirth; his big sides shook again with laughter; my accusers, who preserved their gravity, so long as I did not stare them in the face, exclaimed to one another, "Wallah Magnoon!" " By G he is mad!" and then they laughed even louder than the justice.

At length, when the Sheik recovered his gravity, he again questioned the Reis about the lost sheep; but here I cut the matter short by pulling the Viceroy's firman out of my pocket, in which I was styled "the prince of hakkims, the most learned among the learned, and the friend and hakkim bashi of the English Consul; the friend of his Royal Highness."

The consternation of the Arabs was highly amusing; the Sheik el belled placed the firman on the crown of his head, kissed it, and made many excuses for having detained me a moment on such a foolish charge. I invited him aboard my kangea; he and my accusers followed me, and I regaled them all with pipes and coffee. There the fellows sat on my carpet, all courtesy and politeness, who, a few minutes before, were indicting me on a charge of felony. We parted the best friends in

ABDEN CASHEFF.

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the world, having thoroughly convinced them we had not stolen even a lamb.

At Manfalout, we found then residing the governor of the province, Abden Casheff, a Turk of high rank and excellent character. I had a letter of introduction to him, from Mr. Salt, with whom he was on terms of intimate friendship. He received me with great pomp, in his tent, surrounded by three or four hundred soldiers, principally blacks. He made me smoke out of his own splendid pipe, which is the highest honour a Turk can bestow, and asked me a thousand questions about the usages and manners of the Franks; he was the only Turk I ever met with who seemed totally devoid of fanaticism.

Before I left him, he presented me with a letter, which he begged me to translate for him, as it was in Frank writing: I was not a little astonished to find it was an epistle from Sir Hudson Lowe; the contents I do not deem it necessary to state,

but it was a very long letter, diplomatically tedious. Abden Casheff spoke of Napoleon and Sir Hudson as if he had learned the characters of both from O'Meara's book; and was even acquainted with the attempt which the Frenchman