DANGEROUS PASTIME. 



self in the company of a young fellow-countryman 

 by learning to make what might be called finger- 

 work courtship. He soon mastered the art of 

 signals, which in that country is an expressive 

 language ; and having, between the narrow open- 

 ings of a wooden lattice, some sixty yards distant 

 from his room, caught sight of a female figure, 

 commenced making trial of his skill. His signals 

 were returned, and he continued his foolish pas- 

 time. But one evening, as his telegraph was in 

 full action, Sonnini was alarmed by the sudden 

 whizzing of a musket ball close to his head 1 a sig- 

 nificant warning that such proceedings would nut 

 be unpunished in Cairo. 



Happily, the expedition was soon in readiness to 

 proceed, and preparations were made for departure. 

 Sonnini exchanged his European dress for the cos- 

 tume of a Turk. " My hair," he exclaims, " was 

 sacrificed [it is the only time our adventurous 

 traveller uses the word] an enormous turban, of 

 the kind worn by the Druses, enveloped with 

 several turns my shorn head, and protected it from 

 the burning heat of the sun ; long and ample gar- 

 ments, which were partly kept together by a silk 

 sash, covered my body without pressing it, leaving 

 it at perfect liberty. There is no confinement in 

 the oriental habit, and after an European has worn 

 it some time, he finds the inconvenience of our 



