Our Boat Was Moored In Front Of A Narrow Strip Of Ground Between The
River And A Large Dilapidated Mansion,
Having, however, glass windows
in it, which bore the ostentatious title of Hotel du Mahmoudie.
This circumscribed space was crowded
With camels and their drivers;
great men and their retainers passing to and fro; market people
endeavouring to sell their various commodities, together with a
multitudinous collection of men, dogs, and donkeys. I observed that
all the people surveyed the baby as she was carried through them, in
her native servant's arms, with peculiar benignity. She was certainly
a beautiful specimen of an English infant, and in her pretty white
frock, lace cap, and drawn pink silk bonnet, would have attracted
attention anywhere; such an apparition the people now assembled
at Atfee had probably never seen before, and they were evidently
delighted to look at her. She was equally pleased, crowing and
spreading out her little arms to all who approached her.
The smallness of the boat rendered it necessary that I should open
one of my portmanteaus, and take out a supply of clothes before it was
sent away; while thus occupied, I found myself overlooked by two or
three respectably-clad women, who were in a boat, with several men,
alongside. I did not, of course, understand what they said, but by
their gestures guessed that they were asking for some of the strange
things which they saw. I had nothing that I could well spare, or that
I thought would be useful to them, excepting a paper of needles, which
I put into one of their hands, through the window of the cabin.
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