government in Moslem lands, as Afghanistan in times past and
Egypt at present, she fails after a fashion which scandalises her
few (very few) friends; and her crass ignorance concerning the
Oriental peoples which should most interest her, exposes her to
the contempt of Europe as well as of the Eastern world. When the
regrettable raids of 1883-84, culminating in the miserable
affairs of Tokar, Teb and Tamasi, were made upon the gallant
Sudani negroids, the Bisharin outlying Sawakin, who were battling
for the holy cause of liberty and religion and for escape from
Turkish task-masters and Egyptian tax-gatherers, not an English
official in camp, after the death of the gallant and lamented
Major Morice, was capable of speaking Arabic. Now Moslems are not
to be ruled by raw youths who should be at school and college
instead of holding positions of trust and emolument. He who would
deal with them successfully must be, firstly, honest and truthful
and, secondly, familiar with and favourably inclined to their
manners and customs if not to their law and religion. We may,
perhaps, find it hard to restore to England those pristine
virtues, that tone and temper, which made her what she is; but at
any rate we (myself and a host of others) can offer her the means
of dispelling her ignorance concerning the Eastern races with
whom she is continually in contact.

In conclusion I must not forget to notice that the Arabic
ornamentations of these volumes were designed by my excellent
friend Yacoub Artin Pasha, of the Ministry of Instruction, Cairo,
with the aid of the well-known writing artist, Shayth Mohammed
Muunis the Cairene. My name, Al-Hajj Abdullah ( = the Pilgrim
Abdallah) was written by an English calligrapher, the lamented
Professor Palmer who found a premature death almost within sight