Kadhy. He entertained a notion, suggested to him by some of his Frank
counsellors at Cairo, that, in some future account of my travels, I
might perhaps boast of having imposed upon him, like Aly Bey el Abassi,
whose work had just been received at Cairo, and who declares that he
deceived not only the Pasha, but all the olemas, or learned men, of
Cairo. To Mohammed Aly it was of more consequence not to be thought a
fool than a bad muselman.

Notwithstanding these declarations of the Pasha to the English
gentlemen, which were made in private, and certainly were not occasioned
by any imprudent speeches of mine, I continued to live, after my return
to Cairo, without molestation, as a Moslem, in the Turkish quarter. I
have to thank him for his polite reception of me at Tayf, and for his
having thrown no obstacles in the way of my travels through the Hedjaz.

I was at Mekka in December, and at Medina in the April following, when
the Pasha was at both places; but I did not think it necessary or
advisable to wait upon him at either place, where I was otherwise wholly
unknown. My practice in travelling has been to live as retired as
possible; and, except during my short visit to Tayf, where circumstances
forced me to appear somewhat conspicuously, I was known only in the
Hedjaz as a hadjy, or pilgrim, a private gentleman from Egypt, one with
whom no person was acquainted but the few officers of the Pasha whom I
had seen at Tayf.

My information respecting Tayf is very scanty, and was not

[p.84] committed to paper until after I had left the town. I was never
suffered to be alone during my stay there. I had no acquaintances from
whom much could be learned; and during the fast of Ramadhan, few