1872-82 
THIRD VISIT TO EGYPT 
221 
and decorations. I was the only person without 
any, and did not explain to His Highness that 
Mrs. O. kept my museum of such specimens at 
home carefully locked up. I was placed at dinner 
considerately near a Minister of the Khedive, who 
had accompanied him two years ago to London, 
whom I had met at the Athenaeum, and who spoke 
English. . . . After dinner the guests went to 
billiards, coffee, and cigars, and then there was 
the most splendid display of fireworks I ever saw.’ 
Then there follows a long account of the pro- 
cession of Prince Hassan’s bride, which Owen 
witnessed on the 13th. ‘ A lady friend,’ he says, 
‘ gave me an account of her presentation at the 
H arem. The bride, in white, about fourteen or 
fifteen, was led, looking much abashed, and 
attended by six bridesmaids in green, to a chair 
of state between those occupied by her grand- 
mother-in-law and her mother-in-law. After re- 
freshments had been handed round, the two old 
ladies showered handfuls of small gold coins upon 
their guests. The grandmamma-in-law threw a 
large handful over my friend, who said she shook 
forty or fifty out of her dress when she got home. 
A valuable shawl was presented to each guest 
‘ I have had two days in the Desert, doing my 
twenty miles on donkey-back at each. One to 
the Petrified Forest (of which I have sent an 
account to the “Garden”), and the next to the 
Southern Necropolis of Memphis.’ 
