374 Beauty of the Delta [1900 



and came on by special train to Cairo, arriving at sunset, a light wind 

 blowing from the north, which puts one in the gayest of spirits. There 

 are few things more beautiful than the Delta at this time of year, or 

 where one sees more life from a railway carriage window. The ap- 

 pearance of plenty and happiness does one good after the squalor of 

 Europe. The country districts are still quite untouched by our Western 

 ugliness. On the whole journey from Alexandria I did not see a 

 European or a European dress, yet the fields were full of people, with 

 their buffaloes and donkeys and camels crowding the country roads, 

 men, women, and children gathering cotton in manifest enjoyment of 

 their lives. How different from our own agricultural England, where 

 one may travel for miles without seeing a living being and where all 

 labour is done silently, except at hay and harvest times. The splendid 

 wealth, too, of the crops, especially the maize, delights one. Then there 

 are the birds, I counted nine kingfishers, some blue, some pied, and as 

 many hoopoes, besides numbers of spur-winged plovers, which are far 

 more brilliant than our English ones, and kestrels, kites, hen harriers 

 and other large birds, to say nothing of the flocks of smaller ones. I 

 was met by my mare and Mutlak at the station, and rode through the 

 moonlit garden, which was alive with cicalas and so enjoyed its whole 

 beauty. Then, after a drink of fresh milk with Mutlak and a cup of his 

 scented coffee, we got on our mares again, and rode out into the desert. 

 It was as light as day with the full moon, and we were able to canter 

 our mares with their unshod feet noiselessly on for some miles till we 

 came in hearing of dogs barking, which showed us where Suliman's 

 tent was. It was set behind a little hillock surrounded by sheep and 

 camels, and we had some difficulty in waking them, but Aida (his fav- 

 ourite wife) heard us, and looked out and then Suliman. Here, too, 

 seemed an abode of happiness as good as is to be found in the world. 

 It was eleven before we got back to Sheykh Obeyd, and we must have 

 ridden ten miles. 



" There are three bits of news. Aared has revolted from Ibn Rashid 

 in Nejd; the Sultan is building a railway from Damascus to Medina, 

 and a French company has bought up a tract of land beyond Kafr 

 Jamus to build a new town near us like Helwan, Heaven forbid ! There 

 are three fox earths in our stable yard, and I heard the jackals cry out- 

 side my window between one and two. 



" gth Nov. — Mohammed Abdu called to-day. He has seen the 

 Khedive, who came back from England highly pleased with the civility 

 shown him by the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and the Government, 

 but as I had told him would be the case, there had been no talk of 

 Egyptian politics, though those at Constantinople had been mentioned. 

 He sent me messages of thanks through Abdu, and said he had in- 

 tended going to Crabbet according to my invitation, if his illness had 



