Some Silent Italians, With
Noisy Interpreters, Sat Staidly Upon The Benches.
It was soon found
out, through the communicative dragoman, that their business was to buy
horses for H. M. of Sardinia:
They were exposed to a volley of
questions delivered by a party of French tradesmen returning to Cairo,
but they shielded themselves and fought shy with Machiavellian
dexterity. Besides these was a German, a "beer-bottle in the morning
and a bottle of beer in the evening," to borrow a simile from his own
nation; a Syrian merchant, the richest and ugliest of Alexandria; and a
few French house-painters going to decorate the Pasha's palace at
Shubra. These last were the happiest of our voyagers,-veritable
children of Paris, Montagnards, Voltaireans, and thoroughbred
Sans-Soucis. All day they sat upon deck chattering as only their lively
nation can chatter, indulging in ultra-gallic maxims, such as "on ne
vieillit jamais a table;" now playing ecarte for love or nothing, then
composing "des ponches un peu chiques;" now reciting adventures of the
category "Mirabolant," then singing, then dancing, then sleeping, and
rising to play, to drink, talk, dance, and sing again. One chaunted:
"Je n'ai pas connu mon pere
Ce respectable vieillard.
Je suis ne trois ans trop tard," &.;
Whilst another trolled out:
"Qu'est ce que je vois?
Un canard en robe de chambre!"
[p.34]They being new comers, free from the western morgue so soon
caught by Oriental Europeans, were particularly civil to me, even
wishing to mix me a strong draught; but I was not so fortunate with all
on board. A large shopkeeper threatened to "briser" my "figure" for
putting my pipe near his pantaloons; but seeing me finger my dagger
curiously, though I did not shift my pipe, he forgot to remember his
threat. I had taken charge of a parcel for one M. P-, a student of
Coptic, and remitted it to him on board; of this little service the
only acknowledgment was a stare and a petulant inquiry why I had not
given it to him before. And one of the Englishmen, half publicly, half
privily, as though communing with himself, condemned my organs of
vision because I happened to touch his elbow. He was a man in my own
service; I pardoned him in consideration of the compliment paid to my
disguise.
Two fellow-passengers were destined to play an important part in my
comedy of Cairo. Just after we had started, a little event afforded us
some amusement. On the bank appeared a short, crummy, pursy kind of
man, whose efforts to board the steamer were notably ridiculous. With
attention divided between the vessel and a carpet-bag carried by his
donkey boy, he ran along the sides of the canal, now stumbling into
hollows, then climbing heights, then standing shouting upon the
projections with the fierce sun upon his back, till everyone thought
his breath was completely gone. But no! game to the backbone, he would
have perished miserably rather than lose his fare:
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