^T. 58.J 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 occupied 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 



