_April_ 15.--I continue to get better slowly, and in a few days will go
down to Alexandria. Omar is gone to Boulak to inquire the cost of a
boat, as I am not fond of the railroad, and have a good deal of heavy
baggage, cooking utensils, etc., which the railway charges enormously
for. The black slave girl, sent as a present to the American
Consul-General, is as happy as possible, and sings quaint, soft little
Kordofan songs all day. I hope you won't object to my bringing her home.
She wails so terribly when Omar tells her she is not my slave, for fear I
should leave her, and insists on being my slave. She wants to be a
present to Rainie, the little Sitt, and laughs out so heartily at the
thought of her. She is very quiet and gentle, poor little savage, and
the utter slavishness of the poor little soul quite upsets me; she has no
will of her own. Now she has taken to talking, and tells all her woes
and how _batal_ (bad) everyone was at Khartoum; and then she rubs her
little black nose on my hand, and laughs so merrily, and says all is
_quyis keteer_ (very good) here, and she hugs herself with delight. I
think Rainie will like her very much.

I am going to visit an old Muslim French painter's family. He has an
Arab wife and grown-up daughters, and is a very agreeable old man with a
store of Arab legends; I am going to persuade him to write them and let
me translate them into English. The Sultan goes away to-day. Even water
to drink has been brought from Constantinople; I heard that from Hekekian
Bey, who formerly owned the eunuch who is now Kislar Aghasy to the Sultan
himself. Hekekian had the honour of kissing his old slave's hand. If
anyone tries to make you believe any bosh about civilization in Egypt,
laugh at it. The real life and the real people are exactly as described
in the most veracious of books, the 'Thousand and One Nights'; the
tyranny is the same, the people are not altered--and very charming people
they are. If I could but speak the language I could get into Arab