334 MY LIFE 



myself in the midst of a vast crowd of donkeys and their 

 drivers, all thoroughly determined to appropriate my person 

 to their own use and interest, without in the least consulting 

 my inclinations. In vain with rapid strides and waving arms 

 I endeavoured to clear a way and move forward, arms and 

 legs were seized upon, and even the Christian coat-tails were 

 not sacred from the profane hands of the Mahometan crowd. 

 One would hold together two donkeys by their tails whilst I 

 was struggling between them, and another, forcing their heads 

 together, hoped to compel me to mount one or both of them. 

 One fellow, more impudent than the rest, I laid flat upon the 

 ground, and, sending the little donkey staggering after him, I 

 escaped for a moment midst hideous yells and most unearthly 

 cries. I now beckoned to a fellow more sensible-looking 

 than the rest, and told him that I wished to walk, and would 

 take him as a guide, and now hoped that I might be left at 

 peace. But vain thought! I was in the hands of the Philis- 

 tines, who, getting me up against a wall, formed around 

 me an impenetrable phalanx of men and brutes, thoroughly 

 determined that I should only escape from the spot upon the 

 four legs of a donkey. So, bethinking myself that donkey- 

 riding was a national institution of venerable antiquity, and 

 seeing a fat Yankee (very like our Paris friend) already 

 mounted, being like myself, hopeless of any other means of 

 escape, I seized upon a bridle in hopes that I should then be 

 left by the remainder of the crowd. But seeing that I was at 

 last going to ride, each one was determined that he alone 

 should profit by the transaction, and a dozen animals were 

 forced suddenly upon me, and a dozen pair of hands tried to 

 lift me upon their respective beasts. But now my patience 

 was exhausted, so, keeping firm hold of the bridle I had first 

 taken with one hand, I hit right and left with the other, and 

 calling upon my guide to do the same, we succeeded in clear- 

 ing a little space around us. Now, then, behold your long- 

 legged friend mounted upon a jackass in the streets of 

 Alexandria; a boy behind, holding by his tail and whipping 

 him up ; Charles, who had been lost sight of in the crowd, 

 upon another ; and my guide upon a third ; and off we go 



