an agreeable affair. It began with a "night of horrors," at the "delightful hotel of Messrs. Hill and Co.," at Suez, and a torment of flies in the day. The carriage for crossing the Desert is a tilted cart, like a butcher's or baker's, covered with cloth, in which a narrow bench is fixed on each side; this is carried along, at full canter, by four horses, over a road, or rather track, covered with large loose stones, and poor Mrs. Griffith "really thought she should have been driven out of her senses by the jolting, which was incessant." If the bi-monthly overland communication with India does not improve this track long before either railroad or canal be carried into execution in Egypt, we shall be much disappointed.

Mr. Galloway, indeed, in his "Observations on the Overland. Route," thinks the evil incurable by the ordinary means.

He

The present transit, from Cairo to Suez, for passengers and baggage, occupies an average of twenty-four hours. The annoyances and inconveniences of this journey are mainly attributable to the length of time it occupies; and how little can be done to ameliorate them must be obvious, when it is considered that the whole distance of eighty-four miles is an open desert, and every article of food, even to water, has to be conveyed from Cairo. The road is at present bad and irregular, but it would cost many thousands of pounds to improve it, and even if improved, it would not cause an acceleration of more than a mile or two in the hour. The animals employed in the transport, viz. the camel, the horse, and the donkey, have been used for ages, and their powers and habits are well known, and have long been used to their utmost extent. The high temperature of the climate must always prevent rapid travelling by animal transport. These circumstances most clearly demonstrate the great difficulty of making any material improvement as to speed in this mode of conveyance.

A good road, however, will not destroy the flies; so that this evil, which has been a plague of Egypt since the time of the Pharaohs, must be endured.

At length, after running the gauntlet through flies, fleas, and more loathsome persecutors, they beheld “ a silvery stream in the horizon," which was the Nile, and at length came in sight of "a forest of domes and minarets," which was Grand Cairo. This oftdescribed city is again fully described by Mrs. Griffith, and not without some touches of novelty, in the manner at least. join her account of a visit to the slave-market.

We sub

We passed under an archway leading into a large open court, surrounded by buildings appropriated to the different classes of slaves. There are comparatively few men, as the women are in the greatest

request, and fetch three times the price of the males. The Georgians and Circassians, who are the white slaves, are never shewn to Europeans, and, being much more valuable, are kept in separate rooms, and with great care. Those we saw were principally Nubians and Abyssinians; the former inhabit the ground-floor. I entered several of their apartments, consisting of two rooms, opening out of the court, and containing seven or eight women. A net was hung before the open door of each; and every thing looked so clean and well-arranged, and the occupants so well-dressed, that, were it not for the absence of the face-veil, one could not have distinguished them from the women of the country. And yet there was something revolting in their apparent ease and content while thus exposed for sale to the highest bidder. It seemed too degrading to human nature that the minds of these poor wretches should have habituated themselves, even to a state of tolerance, much more of satisfaction, in becoming objects of barter; they, in fact, look forward with delight to being made the inmates of a comfortable hhareém, where they are fed and clothed, and scarcely have any thing to do, but are treated almost as adopted children. This is not all; for if a slave render herself agreeable to her master, he frequently emancipates her, and makes her his wife. On the contrary, if she is not comfortable, she can, by law, oblige her owner (either master or mistress) to take her to the market and sell her, not to the highest bidder, but to any one she chooses, who offers an equivalent to what was originally given for her. In point of fact, the slave in this country is so in name more than in reality: indeed, in some respects, she enjoys more freedom than the free woman who may have purchased her. A man may divorce his wife whenever he chooses, and send her almost adrift upon the world; but his slave he is obliged to provide for until he can find a suitable purchaser.

Most of the Nubian girls I saw were quite young, and many of them as pretty as an olive skin would admit of. Their features were small, and did not at all partake of the negro mould. The hair in most instances was soft, abundant, and glossy. They were dressed with evident care, probably to shew their figures off to the best advantage. In all the apartments, we found the slaves playing about, laughing, and chattering together. Some, however, were sleeping on couches in the inner room. They seemed pleased to see my husband, probably supposing he might prove a customer, and ran round him, shewing their white teeth and sparkling eyes. But when I followed, their surprise was very great; they stared at me, whispered together, walked round me on their tip-toes, and touched my clothes, which gave me an involuntary shudder. They were evidently speculating who and what I was; I could not be a lady, as I wore no khab'arah; and what was more, I could not be a free woman at all, appearing thus in public without my face-veil. I must, they probably thought, be some foreign slave brought by my companion to the market for sale.

As another evidence of the lightness of the slave-chain in Egypt,

Mrs. Griffith mentions the following fact, related by M. Prieste, a French artist at Cairo:

We were all struck by the little slave-boy who handed round the coffee. He appeared about twelve or thirteen years old, and had one of the sweetest and most intelligent countenances I ever saw, notwithstanding he was almost jet black. I could not help inquiring his history, which proved rather an interesting one, as it shews the footing of slaves in this country. Monsieur Prieste said the boy had been with him about three years; and the way he came into his possession was as follows:-Being one day in the slave-market, where the boy was offered for sale amongst many others, he thought he looked so clever and pretty that he took a great fancy to him, and inquired his price, which was equivalent to about 121. of our money. He immediately purchased him, and then wrote a certificate declaring his freedom, which he gave to the boy, telling him he was no longer a slave, that he was at liberty, and might go where he liked.

The boy, instead of appearing pleased, turned round with a most disconsolate countenance, and said, "My father, do I not belong to you? Where am I to go if you abandon me? Let me follow you, and I will do all I can to serve you. I am your slave-do not forsake me." Monsieur Prieste then took him home, and has kept him ever since. He has instructed him in reading and writing, and the boy waits upon him, making his coffee and lighting his pipe.

The interior of a harem is a scene which can only be delineated by a feminine pen. Mrs. Griffith adds the following description of one to which she was admitted by the intervention of a French lady, or rather the daughter of a French lady, born in Egypt. The harem visited was that of Mochtah Bey.

We passed by a door leading out of the court into a room on the ground-floor, lighted by two windows. It was a very spacious, lofty apartment, divided into two parts, called doorcka'ah and leewa'n: the floor of the latter was raised six or seven inches higher than the former. The doorcka'ah, into which the door we entered at opened, was beautifully paved with black and white marble, intersected by complicated patterns of polished red tile. In the centre was a fountain, throwing up its sparkling jets nearly to the ceiling, and then falling into a shallow basin, inlaid with exquisite mosaic-work of pietra dura, spreading a delicious coolness around. The walls of this apartment were cased half-way up with inlaid marbles, of brilliant colours, worked into tasteful designs. On one side were some marble slabs, supported upon arches and light pilasters of the same material, ornamented in a similar style with the basin of the fountain. Several silver vessels were standing upon these costly shelves. The leewa'n, or highest portion of the room, was covered with very fine matting, and surrounded by divans composed of mattresses slightly raised from the ground, and backed with cashions supported against the walls. They were covered with embossed crimson and

yellow satin, giving a very handsome effect to the whole. The walls of the leewa'n were quite plain. The ceilings of both were very singular and beautiful, but that over the doorcka'ah was the most ornamented. The first was composed of carved beams about a foot apart, and richly gilt, the intervening spaces being painted in various colours and patterns, having an exceedingly elegant appearance. But the eye was soon attracted to the richer half, the most striking, though, perhaps, not so chaste. Here, instead of the beams, a number of thin strips of wood were nailed upon the planks, forming the most curious and complicated, although perfectly regular, designs. These strips were gilt, and the intervening spaces painted red, blue, and black. It had altogether a highly ornamental and pleasing effect, and the apartment being lofty, it appeared, at first sight, almost like a basso-relievo of gems.

Having now attempted to give an idea of the room we were received in, and which I had ample leisure to survey during my visit, I must turn to its fair occupants. Seated cross-legged on a pile of violetcoloured satin cushions, that were placed on the pavement close to the fountain, was a beautiful and majestic-looking woman. Although she must have been at least forty, not a wrinkle was to be detected in her fine clear skin. Her features were remarkably handsome, her teeth perfect and very white, while her dark-blue eyes shone forth with benignity. I never saw a countenance so dignified, and, at the same time, so sweet. Her hair was entirely concealed by a rich embroidered handkerchief, or far'oo'dee'yeh, bound round the head-dress, or turboo'sh. She was dressed in a shirt composed of a kind of silk gauze, white as snow, and a pair of very wide trousers, of the same material, fastened round the waist, and confined a little below the knee, but sufficiently long to hang down to the feet. A short vest, called 'an'ter'ee, reaching just below the waist, and provided with loose open sleeves, completed her costume. Her only ornaments were five rows of very large-sized pearls suspended from her neck.

This lady was the widowed mother of Mochtah Bey's wife. Her son (whose name has escaped my memory) is immensely rich and powerful, owning one-third of the houses and gardens in Grand Cairo, and she herself is a relation of the Pasha. She did not rise to receive us (as she was our senior in years), but she touched my hand with her right hand, pressed it on her bosom, and then raised it to her lips and forehead. She would not hear of my taking a seat on the divan, as she said she knew the European custom, but despatched a pretty Georgian slave for a green satin chair (the only one in the house), upon which she made me sit down close to her.

After the first tide of queries, she told me her daughter would soon be there, as she was particularly anxious to make the acquaintance of an English lady. I now had a moment's leisure to look around at the groups of beautiful slaves that were standing about the room in various attitudes, laughing and pointing at my dress. They were principally Georgians and Circassians, many of them exceedingly lovely, with fair

complexions and dark eyes. All were dressed in the most costly materials, generally of gaudy colours; and two or three of the prettiest wore very handsome ornaments of gold filigree and precious stones. Their dresses were much handsomer than those of their mistresses; but I believe it is the delight of the Turkish ladies to deck out their favourite slaves in all their most valuable clothes and trinkets, while they themselves, excepting on particular occasions, dress very simply.

At length the daughter (the mistress of the house) made her appearance, and a lovely creature she was. Her complexion was the whitest and most brilliant that can be conceived; her forehead was lofty and entirely exposed, for her auburn hair, escaping from her "far'oo'dee'yeh," in careless plaits and tresses down her back and shoulders, was, according to the Turkish fashion, cut close round the face. Her teeth, which she constantly displayed through her rosy laughing lips, were beautifully even, and transparently white; while the effect produced by her magnificent eyes, of the deepest and softest blue, was heightened by the coquettish pencilling of khol with which both the upper and under lids and eyebrows were stained. This gives a depth and shadow to the intensity of their beauty, in the same way that an appropriate setting enhances the brilliancy of a diamond.

Her dress was nearly similar to her mother's, excepting that her 'an'ter'ce was cut in such a manner as to leave her neck uncovered, save by the slight folds of her low gauze shirt, entirely displaying her shape. Her arms were bare, and perfect models of beauty, both in form and colour, while the small taper fingers of her pretty hands were tipped with the rosy dye of the hhen'na. She advanced towards me with the peculiar waddling walk of all Turkish ladies, and, having saluted me in the same way her mother had done before, squatted herself down on a similar pile of cushions in another part of the room, inviting me to sit close to her. Again I had to answer the same string of questions, to which were added multitudes of others upon England and English customs. "Whether I had ever seen any house so handsome as hers?" "Whether I could read and write?" and a variety of similar things. Having satisfied her curiosity, she told me that her husband, Mochtah Bey, was a very handsome man, and she named his height and the length of his beard; that he was very learned, and that Mohammed Ali had sent him to England, where he remained a year; and that when he came back again he would no longer eat with his fingers, but had tables and chairs made, and used a knife and fork; but as he died a short time ago, she had parted with all these useless incumbrances, and was soon going to marry again. She appeared exceedingly proud of being able to embroider a little this is considered a great accomplishment amongst Eastern ladies.

These extracts will shew the style of the work, as well as the materials of which it consists. The illustrations do credit to the graphic skill and taste of Major Griffith.

Asiat.Journ.N.S. VOL.IV.No.20.

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