CHAPTER XIII 



LIFE ON THE NILE 



I GIVE now a few notes made on board the 

 Rameses the Great, as we went up the Nile : 



S.S. " Rameses the Great," off Luxor, 



January 27, 1903. 



** Yes, Lady Meux, she got that mummy. She 

 speak strong to the museum, and she got him. 

 Lady Meux — oh, she beautiful lady ! — I know 

 her well ; she come out here with her dogs and 

 all, and she Hke Egypt ! '' 



The speaker was Mohammed, the famous Drago- 

 man who has been with Messrs. T. Cook & Son, 

 Ltd., since their beginning in 1872, and he is a 

 great character, full of humour, and never at a 

 loss for a ready answer, even when one might 

 think him fairly cornered. Thus, when he dropped 

 an American lady's cloak on the dusty hill-side, 

 as we were returning from the tomb of King 

 Meri-ka-ra, he anticipated her reproaches by saying, 

 *• Ah ! but, Madame, it is the sacred dust ! '■* 



Mohammed has credentials from all manner of 



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