over, Omar insists on my going to see the tree and the well where Sittina
Mariam rested with Seyidna Issa {55} in her arms during the flight into
Egypt. It is venerated by Christian and Muslim alike, and is a great
place for feasting and holiday-making out of doors, which the Arabs so
dearly love. Do write and tell me what you wish me to do. If it were
not that I cannot endure not to see you and the children, I would stay
here and take a house at the Abbassieh in the desert; but I could not
endure it. Nor can I endure this wandering life much longer. I must
come home and die in peace if I don't get really better. Write to
Alexandria next.



April 18, 1863: Mr. Tom Taylor


_To Mr. Tom Taylor_.
CAIRO,
_April_ 18, 1863.

My dear Tom,

Your letter and Laura's were a great pleasure to me in this distant land.
I could not answer before, as I have been very ill. But Samaritans came
with oil and wine and comforted me. It had an odd, dreary effect to hear
my friend Hekekian Bey, a learned old Armenian, and De Leo Bey, my
doctor, discoursing Turkish at my bedside, while my faithful Omar cried
and prayed _Yah Robbeena_! _Yah Saatir_! (O Lord! O Preserver!) 'don't
let her die.'