DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5295#0173
140 TRAVELS IN EGYPT, NUBIA,
surprise at seeing me—he had not room for me—had just
turned off the cook—I should be much better off at the vice-
consul's, where all travellers went.—With this reception I was
quite happy to find I was still pressed by the son of the vice-
consul, in the name of his father, to return to his house. On
my return there, after passing through the same groupes of
Jews I had before seen, I ascended a narrow staircase to a
terrace, which was also covered with Jews and their families,
and was shown into a small comfortable apartment leading
from the terrace; airy, overlooking the sea, and was tolerably
clean. The furniture had been once good, but now in tatters.
The ceiling was partly arched into a dome, and part with a
Gothic drop. The British arms, in one part of the room,
showed the owner was in the service of England; and a
swallow's nest in the dome, that he was kind and gentle-
hearted.
The vice-consul was happy to receive me; he said he had
offered me his house, because he knew I should not be well
received at the Hospitium. His manner, blunt and simple.
He had been in France in former days, had suffered much
from the French, and afterwards from the Turks; that, in
spite of a firman of protection from Constantinople, he was
daily exposed to the oppression and rapacity of the aga.
A summons from the aga called us away. The Grand
Signor's firman was carried in state by the consul's servant;
surprise at seeing me—he had not room for me—had just
turned off the cook—I should be much better off at the vice-
consul's, where all travellers went.—With this reception I was
quite happy to find I was still pressed by the son of the vice-
consul, in the name of his father, to return to his house. On
my return there, after passing through the same groupes of
Jews I had before seen, I ascended a narrow staircase to a
terrace, which was also covered with Jews and their families,
and was shown into a small comfortable apartment leading
from the terrace; airy, overlooking the sea, and was tolerably
clean. The furniture had been once good, but now in tatters.
The ceiling was partly arched into a dome, and part with a
Gothic drop. The British arms, in one part of the room,
showed the owner was in the service of England; and a
swallow's nest in the dome, that he was kind and gentle-
hearted.
The vice-consul was happy to receive me; he said he had
offered me his house, because he knew I should not be well
received at the Hospitium. His manner, blunt and simple.
He had been in France in former days, had suffered much
from the French, and afterwards from the Turks; that, in
spite of a firman of protection from Constantinople, he was
daily exposed to the oppression and rapacity of the aga.
A summons from the aga called us away. The Grand
Signor's firman was carried in state by the consul's servant;