1889] "/ am only a Wild Man" 17 



" Zebehr Pasha is a really charming man who entertained us with 

 the greatest honour at breakfast. He is lodged in the Ghizeh palace 

 where he is a State prisoner, though allowed to go about to a certain 

 extent in Cairo, under the charge of a certain Cashmiri Abderrahman 

 Effendi. Zebehr is a tall, slight man, with long cMle hands, and a face 

 of the profoundest melancholy. His complexion is brown, and his 

 features show a cross between the Arab and the Berberi, the Arab 

 predominating, and a smile of great beauty. He was dressed in 

 Egyptian uniform loosely made, shivered much, though it was a bright 

 sunny day, and complained of the cold. He has a bad cough, and I 

 should think would not live long. State prisoners have a way of dying 

 in Egypt. We talked on most political subjects, but he avoided giving 

 an opinion on the actual position in the Soudan ; perhaps he was afraid 

 of the Cashmiri. ' It is the Government's affair not ours,' he said. 

 Of Gordon he spoke with hearty respect, and of Sir John Adye, and 

 of several other English officers he had known, but he had no good 

 word for Baring, who was a financier, he had heard, not a politician. 

 He told us Emin's history and Osman Digna's. He spoke highly of 

 Arabi, said that he had been present at a conversation between him 

 and Dervish Pasha in which Dervish had offered Arabi £250 a month 

 if he would go to Constantinople, but Arabi had replied that even if he 

 were willing, there were 10,000 men would stand between him and the 

 sea. He said that he had been very much misrepresented about this 

 conversation in the English papers, and had never spoken a word but 

 what was honourable to Arabi. He could not advise Arabi to come 

 back to Egypt except as Minister; this, however, Tewfik would never 

 have. All our conversation was in Arabic, which he speaks purely, 

 being easy to understand. When I told him the English Occupation 

 would not last for ever he smiled incredulously. 



" He took us round the garden, an uninteresting French garden laid 

 out in pebbled walks and rockeries, and imitation lawns. It and the 

 palace cost Ismail, they say, several millions, and the building is in 

 ruins already. Then we had breakfast and Zebehr was delighted be- 

 cause I ate with my hands ; he would have nothing to do himself with 

 knives and forks. ' I am only a wild man,' he said, ' and use the 

 instruments God gave me.' And he turned angrily upon the Cashmiri, 

 who was pretending that he could not manage without European ways. 

 Before going I asked him if I could do anything for him, and he 

 said : ' No, we two are in the same position, the Government does 

 not regard us favourably. We cannot help each other,' and he laid his 

 hand affectionately on my arm. He complained, however, how badly 

 he had been treated in money matters, and I said that the day might 

 come when I could do something for him. Our visit was, I fancy, the 



