248 TRAVELS IN UPPEK 



CHAP. LI. 



Co^pht of Kous — Sheep of Yemen — Sheep of Egypt — 

 Goats — Hogs — Motives which have induced the 

 Egyptians to exclude these animals from heing a 

 part of their food — Crocodile — Lizard — Frag' 

 merits of a7icient stones and glasses — Stones anti- 

 dotes to poison. 



I HAD scarcely returned to the apartment which 

 I had already occupied at Kous when MatlUm Foe- 

 tor called to see me with all the show of friend- 

 ship, and to congratulate me on my good fortune 

 in having given up the journey to Cosseir^ because, 

 as he told me, the Turkish merchant, to whom he 

 thought he might have trusted, had laid a plan to 

 have me robbed upon the road. I did not pay 

 much attention to the conversation of a man with 

 whose treachery I was so well acquainted. The 

 Turkish merchant was no longer at Kous, and I 

 was very sure that if he had been there, and Foctor 

 absent, he would have told me the self-same story 

 of the other with a view to extract some fresh pre- 

 sent out of me. But the Copht introduced one 

 very probable circumstance into his tale, namely, 

 that my Christian interpreter had engaged in the 

 plot contrived by the Turk, and Poctor might 



have 



