AND LOWER EGYPT. 297 



speaking of virtue and of honour^ and where, in 

 fact, they do not |exi?t, that the price of corrup- 

 tion is an effect of a considerable commerce to 

 which few people can attain ; but it is moderate 

 in those places where honour not being in com- 

 mon use, it is unnecessary to distribute gold to 

 purchase silence. I had just experienced a signal 

 act of justice, which, considering the manners of 

 the people of Egypt, and the circumstances under 

 which I had obtained it, might have passed for 

 injustice. A single minute \had proved sufficient 

 to appease the most furious anger, and to make 

 its effects recoil on those who had provoked it ; 

 and, nevertheless, it had only cost me from seven 

 to eight chequins. 



Whatever protection I had received from the 

 Kiaschef'xn public, I did not conceive it prudent to 

 place myself again at the mercy of the rabble on 

 board the boat. The four runaways who had occa- 

 sioned the disturbance and made the greatest up- 

 roar, in truth were no lor.gcr in the vessel ; the 

 Kuis chef h2i(\. arrested them. Nevertheless there still 

 remainedthc /tt/Vand several othersentirely devoted 

 to him, who might have assisted him in taking ven- 

 geance for the well-meritedchastisementhehadjust 

 received. I had accordingly made my arrange- 

 ments for quitting so vile a society, and for wait- 

 ing another opportunity. The Kiaschefio whom 



Ihad 



