JOURNEY TO SUEZ. 29 



sovereign of Khyrpoor ; and now let us accom- 

 pany His Highness on the journey to Suez. 



The train reached tlie terminus tent at about 

 midnight, and tliere we found great part of the 

 passengers who had the preceding day arrived 

 at Suez. Some few were sick officers from 

 India, but the greater number were ladies and 

 children, who in many instances had barely 

 escaped with their lives. The supper provided 

 for us was not of a sumptuous quality, and, in- 

 deed, barely sufficient for such a host of hungry 

 travellers, for Egyptian fowls are the leanest 

 and toughest in the universe, thougli whether 

 this arises from the peculiarity of their educa- 

 tion in early chickenhood, whilst inmates of the 

 hatching establishment of Cairo, I cannot take 

 on myself to say. The vans to carry us on the 

 remaining eight-and-twenty miles to Suez were 

 announced at about three in the morning. The 

 first stages were accomplished propitiously, but 

 the last set of mules proved restive, and after a 

 severe fight between the coachman and his 

 team, the former at length gave in, and leaving 

 the van and its passengers to their fate, re- 

 turned to the station-house for more tractable 

 animals. Patience is not amongst the virtues 



