CHAPTER XIV.

DEPARTURE FROM EGYPT.

I HAD still work to do before leaving Egypt. The literary City of the Arabs, par excellence, appeared to me the best place for investigating the origin of that mysterious alphabet known in Syria as ElMushajjar, the tree-shaped, the branchy, in fact, the "palm-runes" of the Icelandic Edda. Of late it has gained great interest by its evident connection with the Ogham, Ogam, or Ogmic, and with even older characters. Despite the novelty of the subject, however, I must defer publication, as the researches are not yet in a fit state to appear before the world.

After paying my last respects to His Highness, I left Cairo on April 27th, and greatly enjoyed the cool Etesian gales of Alexandria, after the khamsín of the capital, whose glare and reflected heat were rapidly converting the lively perron of Shepheard's Hôtel into an Arabia Deserta. On May 2nd, the Institut Égyptien was pleased to confer upon me its honorary membership; and on the same day I de

livered a short lecture, which was duly reported in the Phase d'Alexandrie (May 4th).*

*"Mercredi dernier avait lieu à l'Institut Egyptien une séance d'un haut intérêt.

"Monsieur le Capitaine Burton, l'intrépide et savant voyageur, dont les travaux ont eu un si grand retentissement, devait y rendre compte de ses dernières découvertes.

"La séance a été ouverte par S. E. Colucci Pacha, Président de l'Institut, qui a rappelé les services éminents rendus à la science par M. le Capitaine Burton, ses voyages à la Mecque et dans l'Afrique Centrale où il a, un des premiers, fait connaître l'existence des grands lacs équatoriaux.

"M. le Capitaine Burton a ensuite pris la parole, pour exposer les résultats de son dernier voyage; l'importante découverte des anciennes mines d'or, situées sur la côte arabique, en face de Suez, et l'exploration du pays biblique de Midian.

"M. Burton a raconté, comment un de ses amis, un brave Turc, nommé Hadj Valy, l'avait informé de l'existence de sables aurifères du côté de l'Akaba, lui offrant de le faire conduire sur les lieux, habillé en Bedouin.

"S. A. le Khédive, à qui M. Burton fit part de ces indications, mit à la disposition du Capitaine une frégate à vapeur, avec le nombre d'hommes nécessaires, et lui adjoignit trois officiers du génie, et le minéralogiste M. George Marie.

"M. Burton, ainsi accompagné, se rendit de Suez à Moila, et parcourut les diverses localités qui lui avaient été signalées.

"Il retrouva en quatre endroits différents, les traces des mines exploitées par les anciens; les anciennes carrières; les ouvrages exécutés, tels qu'aqueducs et barrages, des scories et des instruments de travail.

"Les mines fournissaient des turquoises, du quartz ou des sables aurifères, et de l'argent combiné avec une forte proportion de plomb ou d'étain.

"L'expédition a rapporté plusieurs spécimens de ces matières que MM. Gastinel Bey et Marie s'occupent d'analyser.

'Les lieux où se trouvent ces anciennes mines sont GebelAbiad par 28 degrés de latitude, Beit-el-Nessara, et les Quadis. Einuneh, Shermá et Tiriam.

At the Anglo-Egyptian Colony of Ramleh, which will some day become a suburb of the New City, I passed a week with my friend Mr. Charles (alias Charley) Grace, whose familiar petit nom shows the full measure of his well-merited popularity. If, during that pleasant time, I attempted any evil pleasantries concerning the sand-heaps of Rumlay," and the ice-plants, and the broken bottles, and the crushed provision-tins which seem to represent its normal growth, I take this opportunity of expressing my repentance, and of promising more reverence for the future.

H.M.'s Foreign Office had kindly granted me leave of absence till the end of May; but the Russo-Turkish war was declared on April 24th; and, "Consuls, to your posts!" was the order of the day. So, resisting the temptation to make the grand tour, via Jáffá, Bayrút and Constantinople, I em

"Le voyage au pays de Midian, sous un autre point de vue offre également un grand intérêt.

"Le Capitaine Burton a pu retrouver les vestiges de la capitale de Midianites, Makná, que les Arabes appellent encore aujourd'hui Madian. Il a rapporté une inscription Midianite dont il offre une photographie à l'Institut.

"Nous ne pouvons suivre M. le Capitaine Burton dans les détails géographiques et géologiques où il est entré, mais nous annoncerons qu'il se propose de reprendre bientôt ses études dont les fruits ont déjà été si heureux et qu'il s'appliquera à résoudre les importantes questions soulevées par son voyage sur l'archéologie et la topographie biblique et à étudier tout ce qui concerne l'exploitation des mines découvertes par lui."

barked (May 6th) on board the Austrian Lloyd's S.S. Flora, Captain Pietro Radaglia.

The ship was not A1.

She was small and slow, her engines not having been cleaned; her first-class passengers numbered thirty bodies to twenty-four berths; and her second, and even her third class, were allowed to encumber her quarter-deck, which was always washed too late; and furtively to kiss unclean hands to the ladies. It is incredible how little good is done to the public by large postal subventions. The last steamer, despatched at a comparatively dead season, was large and roomy enough to accommodate sixty passengers: the Flora, and the S.S. Vesta, which followed her, were uncomfortably crowded, besides having to refuse about a dozen passengers. Indeed, but for the extreme civility and courtesy of the Austrian Lloyd's captains, officers, and men, complaints would be as many as travellers would be few.

Among the little knot going north was H.E. Sefér Pasha (Count Kossielsky), returning for the summer to his Château of Bertholdsstein, near Styrian Graz; and he brought with him a little fright who had been captured by the Deuka tribe, and released by the soldiers under Colonel Gordon (Pasha), lately made Governor-General of the Provinces of the Equator-Súdan and its dependencies.

About the nationality of this specimen

there are many doubts. M. Gessi declares that the individual is a dwarf, belonging to the Shilluk tribe, on the Sobut River; that he has known him, together with his father and family, for two years; and that he passed into the hands of an Austrian sea-captain, who forthwith declared him to be an "Áká." The first "Pygmies" brought to Europe were, it will be remembered, the two lads from the Country of Munzá, King of the Monbuttoo (Monbótú), who reached Khartúm in the boats belonging to the late M. Miani. It was the only success that ever befell the poor old Venetian traveller; and he did not live to enjoy its fruits. He died, like Dr. Livingstone, of hardship and fatigue, attended by his two dwarf negroes, and by a negroid sergeant, who afterwards escorted the dwarfs to Italy.

I could not repress a laugh when the Pygmy, Monsieur Rustam, so called after the giant-hero of Persia, came on board the Flora. His huge little head was clad in a new and long tasselled Tarbúsh, whilst a small great-coat, a European paletôt made in Alexandria, invested his squat, square fat body, falling like a sack upon his heels. A pair of bagbreeches, whose tail almost touched the ground, and Parisian bottines with elastic bands, completed the couthless, fitless attire. He sat the image of pompous dignity a yard and a bittock high, monopolising the place of honour before the cockswain, in