activity of a young roe, he disappeared
through the canvas doorway, and was lost
in the maze of small cafés and Arab singing-rooms
clustered near. The Egyptian
cavasse, who came up directly afterwards,
was extremely anxious that I should follow
the matter up, and would, I believe, on the
least encouragement, have taken every
Greek in the place before the kadi, there to
answer for the sins of the intruder who had
favoured me with a visit. But I had neither
time nor inclination for a protracted inquiry,
or for being bound over to appear, so I
compromised matters by asking for an extra
guard, and had the satisfaction of hearing
arms grounded and rattled within a few
inches of me all the following night. Some
days later I heard that the day after this
adventure the bastinado was applied publicly
to a man who partly answered to the description
of my visitor. As my friendly cavasse
never saw the Greek, however, and as, from
the exigencies of language, my explanations
were given principally in signs, I have
painful doubts as to whether the authorities
pitched upon the right man.

My next experience under canvas was in
the Holy Land. It was after a severe tossing
off the jagged rocks which form the
only entrance to the port of Jaffa, and as
we were picking our way in single file
through the thick and heavy mud which
covers the plain and burying-ground
between the town-gate and the Jerusalem
hotel, that we made the acquaintance of
Alee Sulyman. He introduced himself, and
we did not like him. We were out of temper
with the horde of backsheesh-hunters
who had fastened on us before we landed,
who had laid violent hands upon our
persons and our property, and who were now
following and swooping round us—a flock
of noisy and ill-conditioned birds of prey.
Alee laboured under the disadvantage of
being first seen with these surroundings,
and I am afraid his card was dashed rudely
aside when proffered. He knew his own
moral weight, however, and he respected
himself. Silently, and with a certain mournful
dignity, he withdrew his outstretched
hand, and waited until we should find
ourselves in a difficulty, and require his help.
The chief of the Jaffa custom-house had
discharged his official duties with our
baggage; that is, he had spoken out at once,
and prevented the possibility of our
misunderstanding him. " I not want you to
open anything," said the honest fellow,
"if you give me small something for
myself;" thus confirming what one of our
shrieking captors had informed us, but
which we could not believe, that " Customs
only want little backsheesh, and never
troubles peoples at all." It is the landing
in small boats, and the frequent impossibility
of landing at all, that makes Jaffa
an undesirable port to try for; and that
led us into trusting to the resources of the
country for our tents. You leave Alexandria
or Port Saïd profoundly uncertain as
to whether or no you will be carried on to
Beyrout against your will. Should this
happen, your twenty-four hours' journey
will be multiplied by four, and you will
find yourself nearly as many days' journey
from Jerusalem as you hoped to be hours.
Travellers have been known to pass
backwards and forwards for weeks, changing
their steamers at the nearest stopping-places,
in the vain hope of the weather
changing and their being able to land at
Jaffa; and only a fortnight before our
arrival, the Emperor of Austria, in his
determination to be in Egypt in time for
the opening of the Suez Canal, ran
considerable risk by insisting upon the
boatmen taking him through the narrow
passage between the rocks to his steamer lying
in the roadstead beyond. His Majesty's
suite remained behind, as the Jaffa boatmen
were never tired of telling us, not liking the
danger, and the great emperor's personal
bravery, and the munificence of his
backsheesh, were extolled in an Arab chorus.
But this talk, though interesting, scarcely
bore upon our needs; and as in the East
directly you admit a want, some incompetent
person starts up who is embarrassingly
eager to minister to it with profit to
himself, we all held our tongues and
followed silently in the footsteps of our Sheik.
This ruler, who was, it must be understood,
one of our own party of four, had
been elected by acclamation by his fellow-travellers,
who had volunteered to abide
by his decrees; and each of whom had
begged him tenderly, and in private, to
assert and exercise his absolute authority
over the other two. We all knew what
the Sheik had on his mind, and that how
we were to be provided for in Palestine,
and whether we had done wisely in
deciding against bringing a dragoman with
tents and bedding from Egypt, were
subjects weighing heavily with him now. For
his position of authority, look you, had, like
landed property, its duties as well as its
rights. We left ourselves in his hands
joyously, we accepted his propositions with
grateful submission, but we looked at the