40 Hamouda Bey's Adventure [ l 9°3 



with either our Government or the Sultan's, your own is better than 

 either. You have liberty at Hail and you are happy under it, and may 

 it last a hundred years.' I enforced this advice with a present of 

 five pounds as a proof of my sincerity, and he seemed much im- 

 pressed. I feel sure that he will deliver my message to Abdul Aziz, 

 whether his master follows my advice or not." [This incident is 

 of interest as fixing the date of the beginning of the rival intrigues 

 on the one hand of the Ottoman Government, and on the other of 

 the Government of India in Peninsula Arabia with large distribu- 

 tions of firearms to the rival tribes, and the stirring up of strife, lead- 

 ing to the larger results we have seen within the last years in the 

 Hedjaz.] 



" 30th Jan. — To-day Mahmud Pasha Sami came to see me with 

 the Mufti. I had not seen him since we were in Ceylon nineteen 

 years ago, a very distinguished gentleman now in his old age, a poet 

 and a man of letters, nearly blind, who has to be led by the hand. 



" Also later one Abdul Kerim Murad of Medina, whose brother 

 had given Anne her first Arabic lessons in 1880. He has since 

 been travelling round a large part of the Mohammedan world dur- 

 ing the last few years, including Nigeria and Senegal, of which he 

 gave a most interesting account. [Especially of Sokoto in Nigeria, 

 describing the great wealth and industry of that city and its honour- 

 able government since overthrown by the English.] 



" 8th Feb.— Hamouda Bey, the Mufti's brother, was here to-day 

 He has been seriously ill of late through overwork at his legal busi- 

 ness. He has been recently given the rank of Bey, and in virtue 

 of his new title was invited the other night to the Khedive's ball, as 

 to which he gave us a naive and amusing account. ' I went,' he 

 said, ' with two friends, men like myself in the legal profession, and 

 we arived among the first, none of us having ever been at such an 

 entertainment before. As we were depositing our coats and um- 

 brellas, for it had rained, at the vestiary, suddenly I saw in a mirror 

 a sight reflected such as I had never in my life beheld, two women 

 who were standing behind me, naked nearly to the waist. I thought 

 it must have been some illusion connected with my illness and I 

 was very much frightened. Their faces and arms and everything 

 were displayed without any covering, and I thought I should have 

 fallen to the ground. I asked what it meant and whether perhaps 

 we had not come to the right house, but my friends took me on 

 into the ball-room, where they showed me a number more women in 

 the like condition. "Who are they?" I inquired, and they told me, 

 " These are the wives of some of our English officials." " And 

 their husbands," I asked, " do they permit them to go out at night 

 like this?" "Their husbands," they answered, "are here," and they 



