these should disappointed? if her charms should be only imaginary, and her loveliness an invention of his mother's? With eager steps he approaches her, and throwing off her veil, for the first time beholds his bride!

As I was not present at this interesting moment, it cannot be expected that I should be able to state what the gentleman said. As a conscientious traveller, I feel myself obliged to have recourse to that extremely

original phrase the scene may be more

easily imagined than described.

VOL. I.

E

CHAPTER IV.

The water-carriers of Cairo-An Egyptian bath— The bazaars-Turkish gallantry-Shopping in the East-The slave market-The Court of the Cadis -Turkish justice.

THE water-carriers of Cairo, who rejoice in the not very flattering appellation of beasties, form a large section of the population, there being one attached to every house. An abundance of water, everywhere so desirable, is here an absolute necessary, and, at the same time, is made the means of

the most luxuriant enjoyment. Who has not heard of the cool fountains of the East, and of the value which is set upon them by Oriental nations? Those of Cairo, with the ever-flowing Nile, furnish a lavish supply of the precious element, which is carried in the goat-skin buckets of the beasties to every house, and poured in floods into the baths.

The baths are a feature in Eastern life, with which every European is impatient to be acquainted, and I had been but a short time in Cairo, ere I made my way to one-not, I must confess, without some dread of the severe handling of the attendants for which I had been warned to prepare. On entering, I found myself in a large octagonal room, encircled by a raised divan, several feet wide, and covered with matting. Here I resigned myself to a valet, who, after fulfilling the duties of his office, conducted

me into a narrow passage of white marble, having a stream of tepid water, about an inch deep, running through it, leading to a small room, where the water, now quite warm, covered my feet, and ran over a marble slab on which I sat, enveloping me in vapour. I was then taken along another marble passage, where the water was warmer, into a second room, where it was still hotter, and so, through another passage and another room, in which the temperature gradually increased, to a large marble chamber, where the water was very hot, forming a complete vapour bath. This prepared me for the Arcanum, a room about nine feet square, as hot as a furnace, where the water, at scalding heat, was continually running over the floor, which sloped downwards, and was very slippery. There I was rubbed with a horsehair glove, then plunged into a bath of the hissing water, about five feet deep, and,

being dragged out, was well soaped and scrubbed, drenched with cold water, turned on my back, and treated in the most violent manner. This process was followed by a second immersion, when I was again pulled out, and shaved-a difficult operation in a dark room, filled with steam; but which was happily accomplished, and all traces of it effaced by a third and final plunge in the bath which completed the course.

I had yet to undergo the severe operation of shampooing, for which I was led back through the various passages, with the graduated scale of water-heat, to the octagonal room, where beds had been laid out, and every other preparation made. Reclining on one of the beds, I gave myself up to the Philistines, and was shampooed till I seemed almost at the last gasp, when, to my great relief, I learnt that all was over. Coffee and pipes were then brought, and,