personal character, his government is more favourable to free trade, and more beneficial to his country than that of any preceding ruler; and as long as he follows the advice of his present friends, it is to be hoped that they will uphold the independence of Egypt, now becoming a most important country, and to no portion of the world more so than to England.

The result of these banishments is, that the provinces are very well governed : Khartoum, Berber, Dongola, Fazokl, &c., being all under the direction of intelligent men, who have travelled much, and been careful observers.

CHAPTER VI.

The illustrious strangers-Something about costume -Houses at Khartoum-Mahometans, Christians, and Jews-Trade and Commerce-Scheme for colonizing the White Nile, latitude 4o-MoralsThe rainy season-Superstition-Military.

We

IT is evident that we are considered somebodies in this good town of Khartoum. have astonished the natives more than can

very well be conceived. What they think of us, we cannot exactly ascertain but it is

:

clear enough that they think a good deal

of us. They are a little puzzled when they speculate upon what brought us to their remote corner of the world; and to add to their mystification, they cannot for certain reasons avoid regarding us with a considerable amount of respect mingled with a slight addition of awe. The fact is, it has got abroad that our firman contained denunciations unusually stringent against all, and sundry, who wanted to eat dirt by exhibiting the slightest degree of neglect or remissness in looking after our safety, comfort, and pleasure. Every one argues that such commands from such a source mean something, and the upshot is that we were immediately set down as illustrious strangers of a most illustrious generation.

Long before our arrival, rumours were in circulation respecting us that increased in extravagance every hour. Among other

veracious statements, it was affirmed that a gentleman, with his hareem, was known to be on the road, who was a Pasha with three tails; that he was adorned with three diamond stars on each breast and neck, and prodigious gold epaulettes on each shoulder. One of our friends who knew something of us, was asked if the great man about to visit them, really was greater than any Pasha of their acquaintance. Our friend set the matter at rest, by assuring his eager questioner that all Pashas were as nothing to the least of us, for they were obliged to do the bidding of their master-but that we were our own masters, and did exactly as we pleased. There was a fervent exclamation respecting the goodness of Allah, and the querist walked away, as an Irishman would phrase it, "bothered intirely."

I have never seen a country of such

extreme cleanliness. Though the drapery of the people is often of the scantiest-in this there is nothing offensive. The Bedouins are satisfied with only a cloth round their loins during the heat of the daythe girls and children often have not even this very small wardrobe to boast of-nevertheless, they are so perfectly modest that no one thinks of their deficiencies. The costume of the elder females often assumes a classical character and is likely to afford immense satisfaction to sketchers, and those who fancy that they are gifted with a taste for the artistic.

But while I am discussing other people's toilets, it may be thought scarcely fair that I have ventured to say nothing about my own. I have said nothing on this interesting subject, for the very simple reason that I

have nothing to say. But merely in com