. 58.] TO JOHN TORREY. 583 



the same way that he was " all right." Eye-wash I 

 dispensed in profuse abundance ; and among the men 

 cured several cases of ophthalmia which looked seri- 

 ous ; and many a petty surgical operation did the 

 " Hakim-Pacha ' - as he came to be called per- 

 form. I cannot tell you how much attached we got 

 to our crews and their officers, and before we parted 

 I made sure that many tears should flow in my be- 

 half, by acceding to requests for eye-lotions, which 

 were most copiously used,- -by those who needed it, 

 for cure, by those who did not, for prevention. Two 

 sorts of creatures with which I formerly had little 

 sympathy, I have learned to appreciate and respect,- 

 donkeys and people of color, Arabs and Nubians 

 especially. All idea of anything disagreeable or 

 inferior in color of skin disappeared, or rather the 

 darker fellows seemed the finer. As I remember 

 sundry dark Arabs, they seem to me among the best- 

 looking and best-behaved men I ever knew. But this 

 digression will never do. . . . At sunset reached Edfou. 



February 15. Whole day at the temple, which 

 is all but entire, and large as well as complete, and 

 the acres of sculpture and hieroglyph in excellent 

 preservation, all recently excavated under the care of 

 Mariette and placed under a custodian. If I could 

 be dropped down in Egypt for one morning only, to 

 see only one thing, it should be this temple at Ed- 

 fou, though only of Ptolemaic date. I cannot stop 

 for a single detail about it. ... 



February 22.- -Luxor : across river, tombs, Medinet 

 el Bahree, Ramaseum, again, etc. I and some others 

 dined in the evening on boat with our English friends 

 (Legge, Eaton, and Baird), and celebrated Washing- 

 ton's Birthday. 



. 



