1903] At a Ball at Cairo 41 



pointed out to me Mr. Royle, the Judge of Appeal, before whom I 

 had often pleaded, a serious man and very stern, as the husband of 

 one of them. This judge I saw dancing with one of these naked 

 ladies, gay and smiling and shameless, like a young man. " And he 

 is here," I said, "to see his wife thus unclothed? and he dances 

 with her publicly." "That," they answered, "is not his wife, it is 

 the wife of another." I was dumbfounded with shame for our pro- 

 fession. Just then I saw Lord Cromer pass by. His coat was un- 

 buttoned and showed his shirt down to here (pointing to his stomach). 

 I did not see Lord Cromer dance, because as I was looking the 

 Khedive entered the room leading another of these ladies, and there 

 was a crush of those near me to look at him. I found myself jammed 

 close to two of the naked ones, their shoulders and bosoms pressed 

 against me. I was terribly ashamed. As soon as I could free myself, 

 I called to my companions, " Come away, my dear friends, this is no 

 proper place for us," and I took them with me home. We would 

 not stop for the refreshments which were being served and where 

 wine was being poured. The Khedive calls himself a good Moslem. 

 He says he never drinks wine and leads a respectable life, but this 

 entertainment of his was not respectable, and he himself was there, 

 and thev tell me that the ladies of his household are allowed bv 

 him to look from behind a screen at all these abominations.' Such 

 was Hamouda's naive account of his adventure. ' My dear fellow,' 

 I said, ' you do not understand that this is our work of civilizing 

 the East, wait another twenty years and you will see all the Cadi's 

 of Egypt with your brother the Mufti among them, dancing with 

 ladies even more naked than these, and who knows, going with their 

 own heads bare.' ' I can understand everything,' he said, ' except 

 this, that the husbands of these ladies were there, actually there, in 

 the dancing room, and did not send them home.' 



" igth Feb. — Mr. Bourke Cockran called, having been introduced 

 to me by John Redmond as the most prominent Irishman in America. 

 I found him an intelligent, old-fashioned Irishman, and altogether 

 worthy. He told me he had been one of the strongest opponents 

 of the Philippine policy of the American Government, and that he 

 hoped yet the Philippines would get their Home Rule. He had seen 

 George Wyndham in Ireland, and had talked to him, and was confi- 

 dent he meant well with his Irish Land Bill. 



" 25/A Feb. — To Cairo for the first time this winter tr> see the 

 Khedive. I found him grown older and less fat and gay, with a 

 rather harassed look, like a man who had been worried and bullied, 

 but whether by Cromer or by his new Hungarian mistress I do not 

 know, but a new lady he certainly has, for we met him out camel 

 riding last week with her, attended by an eunuch and with a soldier 



