8 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



father's time, and are incapable of firing a single 

 shot. 7 



" The Viceroy then declared that he intended to 

 send all the Turkish functionaries back to Egypt; 

 that he should leave them to govern themselves ; and 

 that he intended to establish among them munici- 

 palities, which had from the beginning of the world 

 been the principal element of all organised society. 



" I was instructed to remain a few days at Shendy 

 to assist his Highness' s Ministers in the creation of 

 the municipalities, which were formed by election 

 from among the heads of families. 



" Boats were got ready to take us up to Khartoum, 

 where we arrived on the evening of January 10th. The 

 name Khartoum signifies the two branches of the ele- 

 phant's trunk, because the town is situated between 

 two tusks, as it were the Blue and the "White Nile. 

 I am met on arrival by the Viceroy, who is waiting 

 for me at the entrance to the audience chamber in the 

 palace of the Governor-General of the Soudan. He 

 tells me that he had been greeted, as mentioned by 

 me in a previous chapter, on his arrival by a band 

 of music such as he had never heard before, the 

 wind instruments in which, dating from the time of 

 Mehemet Ali, had been mended with soap plaster 

 borrowed from the regimental chemist. 



" I embarked upon my voyage up the White Nile 

 with Arakel Bey, a very amiable and intelligent 

 young man, who had been brought up in Erance at the 



