We
Also Carried With Us Some Bottles Of Filtered Water.
The baggage of
the party was conveyed upon three camels and a donkey, and we formed a
curious-looking cavalcade as we left the hotel.
In the first place, the native Indian servant bestrode a donkey,
carrying at the same time our beautiful baby in his arms, who wore a
pink silk bonnet, and had a parasol over her head. All the assistance
he required from others was to urge on his beast, and by the
application of sundry whacks and thumps, he soon got a-head. The
ladies, in coloured muslin dresses, and black silk shawls, rode in
a cluster, attended by the janissary, and two Arab servants also on
donkey-back; a gentleman, who volunteered his escort, and the owners
of the donkeys, who walked by our sides. As I had never rode any
animal, excepting an elephant, until I landed at Alexandria, I did not
feel perfectly at home on the back of a donkey, and therefore desired
Mohammed, our new servant, to give directions to my attendant to
take especial care of me. These injunctions he obeyed to the letter,
keeping close at my side, and at every rough piece of road putting
one hand on the donkey and the other in front of my waist. I could
not help shrinking from such close contact with a class of persons not
remarkable for cleanliness, either of garment or of skin; but the poor
fellow meant well, and as I had really some occasion for his services,
and his appearance was respectable, I thought it no time to be
fastidious, and could not help laughing at the ridiculous figure I
made.
We passed some fine buildings and baths; the latter very tempting in
their external appearance, and, according to general repute, excellent
of their kind. When we came to the gate of the wall of Alexandria, we
encountered a funeral procession returning from the cemetery close to
Pompey's Pillar. They were a large party, accompanied by many women,
who, notwithstanding their grief, stopped to gratify their curiosity,
by a minute inspection of our strange persons, and still stranger
garb. We were all huddled together in the gateway, which, the walls
being thick, took a few minutes to pass through, and thus had an
opportunity of a very close examination of each other; the veils of
the women, however, prevented us from scanning their countenances very
distinctly; and as we passed on, we encountered a herd of buffaloes,
animals quite new to Miss E., who had never seen one even as a
zoological specimen. We passed the base of Pompey's Pillar, and
through the burying-grounds; and in another quarter of an hour came
to the banks of the canal, and got on board the boat, which had been
engaged to take us to Atfee.
In the whole course of my travels, I had never seen any thing so
forlorn and uncomfortable as this boat. The accommodation destined for
us consisted of two cabins, or rather cribs, opening into each other,
and so low in the roof as not to permit a full-grown person to stand
upright in either.
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