Alfred Russel Wallace 



by their tails while I was struggling between them, and 

 another, forcing together their heads, would thus hope 

 to compel me to mount upon one or both of them ; and one 

 fellow more impudent than the rest I laid flat upon the 

 ground, and sending the donkey staggering after him, I 

 escaped a moment midst hideous yells and most unearthly 

 cries. I now beckoned to a fellow more sensible-looking 

 than the rest, and told him that I wished to walk and 

 would take him for a guide, and hoped now to be at rest; 

 but vain thought! I was in the hands of the Philistines, 

 and getting us up against a wall, they formed an impene- 

 trable phalanx of men and brutes thoroughly determined 

 that I should only get away from the spot on the legs of 

 a donkey. Bethinking myself now that donkey-riding was 

 a national institution, and seeing a fat Yankee (very like 

 my Paris friend) mounted, being like myself hopeless of 

 any other means of escape, I seized upon a bridle in hopes 

 that I should then be left in peace. But this was the signal 

 for a more furious onset, for, seeing that I would at length 

 ride, each one was determined that he alone should profit 

 by the transaction, and a dozen animals were forced suddenly 

 upon me and a dozen hands tried to lift me .upon their re- 

 spective beasts. But now my patience was exhausted, so, 

 keeping firm hold of the bridle I had first taken with one 

 hand, I hit right and left with the other, and calling upon 

 my guide to do the same, we succeeded in clearing a little 

 space around us. Now then behold your friend mounted 

 upon a jackass in the streets of Alexandria, a boy behind 

 holding by his tail and whipping him up, Charles (who 

 had been lost sight of in the crowd) upon another, and my 

 guide upon a third, and off we go among a crowd of Jews 

 and Greeks, Turks and Arabs, and veiled women and yell- 

 ing donkey-boys to see the city. We saw the bazaars and 

 the slave market, where I was again nearly pulled to pieces 



46 



