280 FROM GRAND CAIRO 
CHAP, quence of having been married to, or having 
i been with Frenchmen. In order to avoid being 
searched, or giving rise to suspicion, we had 
chosen the most public time of the day for 
passing the canal. Our ^rah boatmen had 
promised their assistance, and they were very 
faithful. When we entered the boat, we be- 
heved, from their appearance, that our passen- 
gers were old women. They sat muffled up, 
and completely concealed by coarse and thick 
veils, which covered not only their faces but 
their persons. When we had cleared the 
canal, and reached the open channel of the 
river, they took off their veils, and we were 
surprised to find that they were all young. 
One of them was very beautiful ; she had been 
married about four years before ; but her husband 
dying of the plague, during the last summer, 
had left her a widow. They accompanied us as 
far as Bulac; when meeting with two of the Pro- 
pagandists who had assisted their escape from 
Cairo, and being unable, from the small size of 
our djerm, to offer them suitable means of con- 
veyance for their passage to Rosetta, we engaged 
the cabin of a large barge preparing to descend 
the Nile, where, secluded from the observation 
of the other passengers, they might have secure 
and convenient accommodation, 
