DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0202
A MELANCHOLY GREETING.
191
tioned (one of them being sixty feet square and
forty feet high), and adorned with paintings, repre-
senting principally scenes of domestic life. Among
them Mr. S. and myself made out one, which is
constantly to be seen at the present day, namely,
a half-naked Egyptian with a skin of water across
his back, precisely like the modern Arab in the
streets of Cairo.
We returned to our boat, and being now within
two days of Cairo, and having different places to
stop at below, after dinner I said farewell to my
kind friends, and returned to my own boat. My
crew received me with three cheers, I was going to
say, but they do not understand or practise that
noisy mode of civilized welcome, and gave me the
grave and quiet salutation of their country, all
rising as soon as I touched the deck, and one after
the other taking my hand in his, and touching it to
his forehead and lips. My poor rais gave me a
melancholy greeting. He had been unwell during
the whole voyage, but since we parted he had been
growing worse. He told me that our stars were
the same, and that misfortune had happened to us
both as soon as we separated. I could but hope
that our stars were not inseparably connected, for
Hooked upon him as a doomed man. I had saved
him at Cairo from being pressed into the pacha's
service ; and again in descending, when he stopped
at Kenneh, he and his whole crew had been seized
in the bazars, and in spite of their protestations
that they were in the service of an American, the
iron bands were put around their wrists, and the
191
tioned (one of them being sixty feet square and
forty feet high), and adorned with paintings, repre-
senting principally scenes of domestic life. Among
them Mr. S. and myself made out one, which is
constantly to be seen at the present day, namely,
a half-naked Egyptian with a skin of water across
his back, precisely like the modern Arab in the
streets of Cairo.
We returned to our boat, and being now within
two days of Cairo, and having different places to
stop at below, after dinner I said farewell to my
kind friends, and returned to my own boat. My
crew received me with three cheers, I was going to
say, but they do not understand or practise that
noisy mode of civilized welcome, and gave me the
grave and quiet salutation of their country, all
rising as soon as I touched the deck, and one after
the other taking my hand in his, and touching it to
his forehead and lips. My poor rais gave me a
melancholy greeting. He had been unwell during
the whole voyage, but since we parted he had been
growing worse. He told me that our stars were
the same, and that misfortune had happened to us
both as soon as we separated. I could but hope
that our stars were not inseparably connected, for
Hooked upon him as a doomed man. I had saved
him at Cairo from being pressed into the pacha's
service ; and again in descending, when he stopped
at Kenneh, he and his whole crew had been seized
in the bazars, and in spite of their protestations
that they were in the service of an American, the
iron bands were put around their wrists, and the