CAIRO 
379 
to lend him, that he might endeavour to translate it. One of his 
attendants read a great part of it with facility. Mr. Salt again went 
to the Citadel, and sketched a proportion of the view, in defiance 
of a high wind, which raised clouds of dust among the ruins. 
February ^3.-1 went to the mass of the Franciscans of Jerusa- 
lem. As it was Lent, the organ did not play. The voices were fine. 
Afterwards we accompanied the Superior to the Refectory, where, 
according to their constant custom, coffee, liqueurs and ginger- 
bread were served round. The custom of taking hqueurs is very 
general. 
February 24, — Signor Filippo Agnelli, who is employed by the 
Emperor of Germany to preserve animals, and collect other curiosi- 
ties in this country, arrived to-day from Damietta at Mr. Macardle's, 
and immediately waited on me. As I knew that his Imperial Majesty 
was much attached to natural history, I gave Signor Agnelli a very 
large collection of shells, which I had found in the Red Sea, and 
every duplicate in my possession, either from India, Arabia, or 
Abyssinia, to be presented, in my name, to his master. The skins 
of the Abyssinian birds, which Mr. Salt had brought from Tigre, 
being infested with vermin, I was fearful that they would never reach 
England in a state to be described: anxious to preserve them for 
the public, as many specimens were perfectly new, I thought it of 
lit tie consequence whether they were in my own cabinet or another's, 
and therefore gave thewhole, amounting to one hundred specimens, 
to Signor Agnelli, who promised that he would immediately begin 
to put them in order. He was extremely delighted, as, with all his 
assiduity, he had been able in three years to make no very large 
collection. At Suez, in particular, during a residence of three 
