256 DR. HOOKER’S MISSION TO INDIA. 
he, without any notice, threw at the pit of my stomach, causing me 
to spring back, slip, and measure my length on the marble floor. 
When recovered, I was shaved, without soap or lather: “Crossing 
the Line” is nothing to it; for a razor is scraped along the face 
and pressed hard against it at right angles to your visage, as you 
scratch a written word out of a letter. When the barber came to 
my throat, I felt very uneasy, and but for shame would have run 
away. The shave, after all, was an exceedingly bad one, which 
I repeated at the inn an hour later in the day. After ducking, 
dry-rubbing, and polishing, we were dressed à /a Ture, with 
turbans, and deposited in a tolerably clean bed, side by side, like 
herrings in a barrel, where pipes and coffee were brought to 
us. This we enjoyed till a Shampooer (or Lampooner, as our 
friend in Ireland has it) came and kneaded my limbs with his 
knuckles, cracking all the arm, finger, and toe-joints. He then 
put his knee in the small of my back, and screwed my body round, 
as you wring a fowl’s neck, till I heard the gristle of my back- 
bone crack, and concluded by giving my head a wrench on 
my shoulders which left mea crick in the neck. After, and during 
dressing, we were stunned with repeated prayers for “ Backsheesh” 
from all those officiating in the ceremonies, and with difficulty we 
got away minus 3s. a head, and plus a good many fleas, which we 
had not before. 
Lord Dalhousie having asked me to call for him in the morning, 
I repaired on the back of a jackass to the Palace his Lordship occu- 
pied, about two miles from Cairo. The road led through an avenue of 
Acacias, but was otherwise dusty and disagreeable, till I reached 
the Palace gardens. These are very pretty but uniform, formed 
of hedges of clipped Myrtle, Geranium, Hibiscus Rosa Sinensis, 
and groves of Orange, Lemon, Citron, Bananas, and Olive. 
Occasionally, Jessamines were trained over head; and the effect of 
the evergreen foliage which predominated, was always agreeable 
and bright. At the door of the Palace I found Fane and 
Courtenay smoking long pipes, after the manner of the Faithful. 
Upstairs were Lord and Lady Dalhousie, and a party of official — 
gentlemen, including the Honourable Capt. Murray, of Pembroke - 
