It Varies, However, Perpetually, And In 1863 May Be Totally Different. [FN#18] The Reason Of This Will Be Explained In A Future Chapter. [FN#19] The Consular Dragoman Is One Of The Greatest Abuses I Know.

The tribe is, for the most part, Levantine and Christian, and its connections are extensive.

The father will perhaps be interpreter to the English, the son to the French Consulate. By this means the most privy affairs will become known to every member of the department, except the head, and eventually to that best of spy-trainers, the Turkish government. This explains how a subordinate, whose pay is L200 per annum, and who spends double that sum, can afford, after twelve or thirteen years' service, to purchase a house for L2,000 and to furnish it for as much more. Besides which, the condition, the ideas, and the very nature of these dragomans are completely Oriental. The most timid and cringing of men, they dare not take the proper tone with a government to which, in case of the expulsion of a Consul, they and their families would become subject. And their prepossessions are utterly Oriental. Hanna Massara, dragoman to the Consul-General at Cairo, in my presence and before others, advocated the secret murder of a Moslem girl who had fled with a Greek, on the grounds that an adulteress must always be put to death, either publicly or under the rose. Yet this man is an "old and tried servant" of the State. Such evils might be in part mitigated by employing English youths, of whom an ample supply, if there were any demand, would soon be forthcoming. This measure has been advocated by the best authorities, but without success. Most probably, the reason of the neglect is the difficulty how to begin, or where to end, the Augean labour of Consular reform. [FN#20] In a previous chapter I have alluded to the species of protection formerly common in the East. Europe, it is to be feared, is not yet immaculate in this respect, and men say that were a list of "protected" furnished by the different Consulates at Cairo, it would be a curious document. As no one, Egyptian or foreigner, would, if he could possibly help it, be subject to the Egyptian government, large sums might be raised by the simple process of naturalising strangers. At the Persian Consulate 110 dollars-the century for the Consul, and the decade for his dragoman-have been paid for protection. A stern fact this for those who advocate the self-government of the childish East. [FN#21] Khan is a title assumed in India and other countries by all Afghans, and Pathans, their descendants, simple as well as gentle. [FN#22] A theologian, a learned man. [FN#23] The stiff, white, plaited kilt worn by Albanians. [FN#24] Those curious about the manners of these desperadoes may consult the pages of Giovanni Finati (Murray, London, 1830), and I will be answerable that he exaggerates nothing. [FN#25] Vulgarly Raki, the cognac of Egypt and Turkey.

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