EXCITEMENT OF THE CROWD. 225 excavation; but for this, even in more tranquil times a military escort would, perhaps, be necessary. On returning to the caravanserai, we found a mob collected round the Bedouin horseman at the gateway; but, with what intentions, it was impossible to ascertain. Though it was evident, from their looks, that they regarded us with no kindly eye, yet, on our approach, they made way, and allowed us to take peaceable possession of our room. The agitation now prevailing among this savage populace had an aspect altogether revolutionary: deserting their homes, and putting off those domestic habits, to which, under ordinary circumstances, they are attached, they seemed to be in momentary expectation of some exciting event, which might apparently justify them in taking up arms, and plunging into exOur apartment, situated on the ground-floor, close to the gate, having no door, exposed us to the perpetual gaze of the multitude, continually passing and repassing. By day the wretched place received light through several holes in the roof and walls, which now admitted the cold evening air; while overhead, a goat was running to and fro, shaking down upon our heads showers of dirt and straw, with which it was fortunate that no scorpions were mingled. Dinner being ready, we sat down on the beds, and placing the plates upon our knees, despatched our meal thus, by the light of a small lamp stuck in the floor; while the insolent crowd, wholly different from the peasants in the Valley of the Nile, filled the doorway, staring and laughing in the rudest manner. cesses. 226 FIDELITY OF OUR GUIDE. At this moment a number of soldiers, who had just traversed the desert, arrived at the caravanserai ; upon which the Bedouin sentinel disappeared, as if by magic; and the mob slinking away from about the entrance, tranquillity was for the time restored. However, it was possible that the place might still be assaulted during the night, in order, as at Sanhoor, to cut off the soldiers; and therefore, when the great gate of the caravanserai had been shut, and we lay down to sleep, our brave and faithful Atouni guide, wakeful and vigilant, as accustomed to the sudden surprises and night attacks of a desert life, placed himself across the doorway, that, should any attempt be made upon us, the assailants might have to pass, in the first instance, over his body. Fatigued and drowsy, it was not long before we fell asleep; and no disturbance occurred during the night to interrupt our slumbers. EGYPTIAN MERCHANTS. 227 CHAPTER IX. EGYPTIAN MERCHANTS - HABIT OF EARLY RISING RICHNESS OF THE SOIL BEAUTY OF LAKE MERIS PHYSICAL ENJOYMENT ARRIVE AT SENOORIS CURIOSITY AND SUPERSTITION OF THE INHABITANTS -HIDDEN TREASURES- GHOULS AND VAMPIRESPOVERTY AND MISERY HATRED OF THE PASHA -VIEWS OF THE WESTERN BEDOUINS — HIRE AN ADDITIONAL GUIDE ADVANCE ALONG THE SHORES OF THE LAKE- RECONNOITRED BY THE BEDOUINS-FEUDS OF THE ARABS-INTRICACY OF THE CAMEL TRACKS REBEL TOWN OF SANHOOR- NEW GUIDES DESCEND TO THE LAKE SOLITUDE AND GRANDEUR OF THE SCENE - FABLE OF CHARON AQUATIC BIRDS-PRODIGIOUS QUANTITIES OF DEAD FISHWATER OF THE LAKE RETURN TOWARDS SANHOORARE PURSUED BY THE BEDOUINS A PARLEY EFFECT OUR ESCAPE FEATURES OF THE LANDSCAPE OLIVE PLANTATIONS— FEDMIN ARE OVERTAKEN BY THE NIGHT- NUMEROUS CANALS EXTENSIVE WATER-WORKS - ARRIVAL AT MEDINET - THE CARAVANSERAI. Thursday, March 8. Medinet. DLI. HAD the Moggrebyns stormed the okella that night, they would have acquired considerable booty, it being filled with merchants, chiefly inhabitants of the province, returning with the goods they had purchased at Cairo. Most of these persons, as is the custom in the East, were stirring and preparing to depart at an extremely early hour; and when, shortly after dawn, the gates were opened, recommenced their journey. Our Atouni guide, whose " green 228 VICINITY OF TAMEIA. old age" had left him all the vigour and activity of youth, was on foot with the earliest of them, and engaged in saddling and loading the dromedaries. Nothing so much contributes, I imagine, to the habit of early rising, so universal in the East, as their custom of lying on the ground, and never undressing when they go to rest; for it requires no effort to rise early, when you have only to put on your slippers, and adjust your turban,-if you happen to wear one,-in order to be ready for a journey; and where, besides, the air is so pleasant that it is a luxury to be abroad. All things being ready, we departed from Tameia immediately after sunrise; and our dromedaries fresh, and naturally swift-paced, soon overtook the long strings of laden camels and asses, proceeding towards the interior, which had quitted the caravanserai so much earlier. Their road lying towards Medinet, we very quickly left them behind, and struck off into a different track, in the direction of Senooris and the lake. The country in the immediate neighbourhood of Tameia consists of a rich alluvial soil, which would repay the labours of the husbandman with abundant harvests, but it seems to have been long abandoned, and was now in an entirely uncultivated state. We very soon entered, however, upon a plain smiling and fertile, intersected by innumerable small canals, along the banks of which ran high causeways, serving as roads, and forming the only links of communication between the village during the time of the inundation. In many places, the water still remained in small pools, bordered with MAGNIFICENT LANDSCAPE. 229 pre rushes and tufted reeds, constituting an interesting feature in a plain of matchless beauty, clothed with vegetation; -tender young corn, wheat in the ear, lupines, clover, beans, all in flower, enamelling the fields, and impregnating the whole air with fragrance. Towards the right, through breaks in the date forests, and the thick undergrowth of tamarisks and mimosas, we occasionally, in riding along, caught hasty glimpses of the calm shining surface of the lake, with the sterile crags and wide wastes of sand which form its northern shore. Never, at any period of my life, —except, perhaps, on the day that saw me wandering among the barren mountains of Messenia in the Peloponnesus, did I derive, from the sence of mere inanimate objects, a delight so perfect, so capable of absorbing the thoughts and filling the whole mind, so replete with poetical enjoyment, so intense and rapturous, as I experienced during this morning's ride. The landscape appeared to comprehend every element of interest and beauty: a plain of unrivalled richness and fertility, exhibiting each various shade of verdure, intersected by streams of water, sprinkled with tufted groves, disclosing between their foliage the rural village, and the towering minaret; beyond these the artificial sea of Moris, quivering and glittering in the sun; and, in the distance, forming the majestic back-ground of the picture, a range of rocky mountains, of commanding elevation, arid, frowning, desolate, but invested with an air of gloomy grandeur highly congenial to the state of mind in which I viewed them. To these |