ET. 58.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 573 
morning we were off by rail for Cairo, where we 
joined the main body, awaiting our arrival, and I had 
time for the English service in the afternoon, a bare 
dozen of people; but Mrs. L. said the congregation 
was very much larger in the morning. Monday to 
Friday we lived “ Arabian Nights” in Cairo. If I 
let my pen run on my story might be only shorter 
than the thousand and one of the volume aforesaid. 
On Friday, all being ready, we took to our boats, 
in which we have now been domiciled so long, seem- 
ingly, that events of October and November in Eng- 
land are dimly remembered, as if they belonged to 
another “dynasty.” There are nine of us, in two 
boats. The first and larger one, in which our table is 
spread, the Ibis, accommodates all the ladies and my- 
self, the only married man of the company. . . . The 
bow is oceupied by the crew, and at the very prow a 
simple cooking-affair, from which excellent dinners of 
four courses, breakfasts, etc., are produced in some 
wonderful way by our Arab cook and his assistant. 
The smaller boat, the Undine, gives ample quarters to 
the three single men, also our dragoman, the younger 
Sapienza, a Maltese, whose time, however, is mostly 
passed on our boat. 
An independent party, but arranged to keep in 
company, consists of Mr. and Mrs. Howland of New 
York, very nice people, with their servant and dra- 
goman, in the Heron. But I must cut short these 
details, or I shall never come to an end. On Friday 
and Saturday the wind was dead ahead, and, tracking 
being impossible until we get out of Cairo, we were 
stationary, and on Saturday some of us visited the in- 
teresting museum at Boulak, made by Mariette. Sun- 
day, wind still unfavorable, until nearly sunset, when 
