Characterisation, especially by Letters 455 



and pronounced a virgin. We are expecting a large fete and rejoicing in one of the Jewish 

 families, and I hope I shall get invited. I have made acquaintance with Mile Hanoum of 

 singing celebrity. Don't tell the Colonel. There has been one of the regular Damascus pieces 

 of tittle tattle about the French doctor, who was living here and whom I take to be no great 

 things. I don't know anything about the rights and wrongs of the accusations against him, but 

 von know how the people here must have talked about a little bit of scandal, which is their 

 greatest treat. I staid at Eden some days, and made great friends with all the people there 

 especially your acquaintances the well-whipped Welleds, one of whom offered for sale a cake 

 of chrome yellow that I suspect has been in your paint box before this. I staid too a clay or two 

 at the Cedars. I must bring this scrawl to an end, but before so doing 1 must assure you, my 

 dear fellow, of my best and hearty wishes for all possible health and good luck in all your future 

 peregrinations, whether homeward or outward bound. If you return to England pray give my 

 remembrances to any of my friends you may happen to come across. With the same once more 

 to yourself, believe me to remain, Ever sincerely yours, 



There are so few records of the " Fallow Years " that I gladly note here 

 what contributed to their termination. 



The d! Arnaud Bey Incident. 

 Life, Vol. I, p. 200. 



" However, we got on very well and made him talk of his travels and tell us of the country 

 ahead, we had then no map and knew nothing hardly. He said : ' Why do you follow the English 

 routine of just going to the 2nd cataract and returning 1 Cross the desert and go to Khartoum.' 

 Thai S( nl> iic was a division of the ways in my subsequent life." 



Memories of my Life, p. 96. 



"That chance meeting with Arnaud Bey had important after-results for me by suggesting 

 scientific objects for my future wanderings. I often thought of writing to him in order to bring 

 myself to bis remembrance, and to sincerely thank him, but no sufficiently appropriate occasion 

 arose, and it, is now too late. 



" In the winter of 1900-1901 I visited Egypt again and, calling at the Geographical Society 

 there, learnt how important and honoured a place d'Arnaud Be)' had occupied in its history. 

 He bad died not many months previously, and I looked at his portrait with regret and kindly 

 remembrance. Being asked to communicate a brief memoir to the Society at its approaching 

 uniting, I selected for my subject a comparison between Egypt then and fifty years previously. 



ik that opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to Arnaud, which posthumous tribute 

 was all I had the power to pay." 



March 20, 1900. 



Dear Sir, I am happy to present you hereby M. Bouda's letter with the interesting 

 photograph. Mr Somers Clarke will come with us to-morrow. I send the carriage at S\ to your 

 Hotel. Yours sincerely, G. Sciiweinfurth. 



A photograph of d'Arnaud was enclosed and from this our sketch was made. 



"II habitait dans uno petite hutte de terre, entouree par one legere palissade de roseaux et 

 que son genie avait transformed en quelque sorte en un sanctuaire de philosophe an milieu d'un 

 pays presque barbare. La distribution artistique de sa petite collection d'instruments scienti- 

 fiques, livres et curiosites, donnait un air singulicrement recueilli et studieux a cette modeste 

 demeure. J'etais enchante de sa conversation et des nombreuses anecdotes qu'il nous racontait 

 des pays du sud." 



" Je n'ai plus eu l'occasion, depuis lors, de voir ou d'etre encore en rapport avee d'Arnaud 

 Hey, mais je l'ai toujours considerc dans mon cceur comme un bienfaiteur, car e'est lui qui m'a 

 donm- l'idee des voyages serieux que j'ai faits plus tard en explorant la terre des Damara dans 

 le sud-ouest de l'Afrique; e'est lui qui a dirige mon gout et mon energie vers la geographic et 

 !es sciences; j'ai su employer mon temps utilement au lieu de le eonsacrer a de frivoles amuse- 

 ments." 



From Galton's "Souvenirs d'Egypte." Bulletin de la Societe Khediviale de Geographie, No. 7, 

 Mai, 1900. 



