78 MEMOIR OF BRUCE, 



features and appearance were so totally changed, 

 that nobody in Cairo recognised him. lie had not 

 been master of a shirt for fourteen months; his 

 waistcoat and trowsers were made of a hit of coarse 

 brown woollen blanket; and another of the same 

 description was wrapt round him. He wore enor- 

 mous moustachios, but had parted with his long 

 Abyssinian beard at Furshoot. On his head was a 

 thin white muslin cloth tied round a red Turkish 

 cap ; he had neither stockings nor shoes ; his coarse 

 woollen girdle was wrapt eight or ten times round 

 his waist ; in the left side were stuck two English 

 pistols mounted with silver, and in the right a 

 common crooked Abyssinian knife with a handle of 

 thinoceros horn. 



After a short stay Bruce proceeded to Alexandria ; 

 and embarking in a small vessel, he landed safely 

 at Marseilles, after a tedious passage of three weeks. 

 His fame, however, had travelled before him ; and no 

 sooner had he reached the soil of France, than the 

 Count de Buifon, M. Guys, and many other literati 

 who had taken a particular interest in his journey, 

 came to congratulate him on his return, and to 

 listen to the recital of his adventures and discoveries. 

 His reception at Paris was equally flattering; his 

 travels became the subject of general conversation, 

 and his society was courted by people of learning 

 and rank. In July he repaired to Italy, being 

 anxious on account of his health to try the baths of 

 Poretta. 



Here he made a discovery that annoyed him 



