SAIL FOR SYRIA. 5 



we bade farewell to the little steamer in which we had 

 spent three very pleasant weeks on the Mle, and returned 

 to our old quarters in Shepherd's Hotel at Cairo. 



We witnessed the departure of the Haj caravan for 

 Mecca, admired the holy camel, draped with cloth of gold, 

 carrying the annually renewed covering of Mahomet's 

 tomb, and laughed heartily at a sheikh of extraordinary 

 sanctity and obesity, who, strij)ped to the waist and shining 

 w^ith oil, swayed himself backwards and forwards on his 

 camel with the air of a tipsy FalstafF. A few hours later 

 we bade adieu to Cairo and our Nile friends, and on the 

 next day embarked at Alexandria for Syria. 



We had been asked to take out from England a Ions: 

 box, labelled ' Delicate instruments — with care,' for the 

 use of Lieutenant Warren, the officer engaged in super- 

 intending the excavations lately undertaken by the ' Pales- 

 tine Exploration Committee.' On our leaving Alexandria 

 the custom-house officer wanted to examine the box, and 

 it was only by loud protests and threats of official ven- 

 geance that we saved the instruments from the risk of 

 being spoiled by the Egyptians. This was the beginning 

 of woes to these 'delicate instruments,' which became 

 celebrated characters with us during the next fortnight. 



We spent a day at Port Said, an utterly uninteresting 

 town of third-class villa residences, and wide streets lined 

 with hastily-run-up stores, built upon a sandspit. It is 

 probably destined to future importance as the Mediter- 

 ranean port of the Suez Canal. We had not time to 

 see much of the works now in progress there, but enjoyed 

 a ramble on the beach, which is entirely formed of lovely 

 little shells of the most delicate shapes and colours. We 

 re-embarked on Tuesday the 1 7th, and in the evening the 

 sea became very rough. At midnight half the passengers 

 were pitched out of their berths by some terrible rolls j 



