"But, my dear Emily, I have just awoke to the consciousness—a little late in the day, you will say—that you do not in the least understand this long tirade against the bayaderes of MM. de Morin, Périères and Delange. You are asking, in astonishment, where I am. You are on the verge of the belief that I am on my way to Calcutta, instead of being bound for the centre of Africa. A thousand pardons—I had let my pen and my ever vivid imagination run on, and had forgotten that when I left you last I was at Cairo.
"I must tell you, then, that I am steaming along the Red Sea, but please excuse my entering in detail into the reason why this route has been chosen. The words, Red Sea, or Arabian gulf, if you prefer it, will, however, explain how it happens that I mention Africa and Asia indiscriminately. In reality, I am on neutral ground, equidistant from the two continents. If I stretch out my arm to the left towards the East, I am in Arabia; if to the right towards the West, I am in Nubia. Now you see the position; a very convenient one, is it not?
"At this moment I am on the left, that is to say on the Asiatic side, for our steamer has just called in at Djiddah, which may be regarded as the port of Mecca, that famous resort of pilgrims, whither every true follower of the Prophet should betake himself at least once in his life. Our bales and boxes have been sent on by the Nile to Khartoum; they will not arrive until after us, but quite soon enough, because if we are on the spot, we shall avoid a considerable expense in Customs charges. The Egyptians are adepts in the art of living at the expense of travellers; and, not content with making them pay duty at Suez, levy other contributions on entering and leaving Souakim.
"Our personnel is as yet not very numerous, and consequently gives us no trouble. It is composed of three female Nubians and two male Arabs, who were very strongly recommended to us, and whom we have engaged as attendants and interpreters. These men are named Omar and Ali, besides a string of other appellations which I suppress, purely out of consideration for you. At Souakim we shall secure an escort and a supply of bearers for the indispensable part of our baggage. Not until we reach Khartoum, if we get so far into the interior of Africa, shall we form our caravan.
"The trip along the Red Sea is most interesting. On the morning following our departure from Suez, in magnificent weather, we saw the Sinai ranges and the Holy Mountain standing out in bold and clear relief. We passed, without stopping, by the little town of Tûr, inhabited by the Copts, those descendants of the primitive denizens of Egypt, and, twenty-four hours afterwards, we touched at Cosseir, on the western shore of the gulf.
"From the last-mentioned place we crossed the Red Sea once more for the purpose of putting in for a few moments at Yambo, in Arabian territory, a species of holy land, where Mussulman fanaticism reigns supreme in full force, for, alas! holy land in these parts is only another name for a spot given over entirely to every description of intolerance and barbarism.
"From Yambo we followed the coast as far Djiddah, where, as I have already told you, I am at this moment writing to you. Djiddah, the tour of which place I have just made, consists of an immense street filled with bazaars, where are displayed the products of our own manufacture side by side with samples of Eastern taste. The markets, specially devoted to satisfying the appetite or voracity of the pilgrims to Mecca, are exceedingly curious. In them you see piled up together the fruits and vegetables gathered in Africa and Asia, and conveyed hither by ships or caravans; heaps of water melons, cocoa-nuts, dates, yams, sweet potatoes and chick-peas. On long tables are also ranged pyramids of honey-combs and bowls of couscoussoo, the favourite dish of Arabia.
"These market-halls and places, and the bazaars are crowded with Turks, Egyptians, Indians and Africans, to say nothing of dogs, horses and camels, the latter appearing quite dazed in the midst of all the coming and going, the babel of sounds, and the multitude of things, and picking their steps as if they were afraid of breaking something. Women ventured fearlessly into this crowd, and young Arab girls, very pretty, though often very thin—I mean to say very pretty, because they were so slender—walked to and fro gravely, with uncovered faces, shoulder to shoulder with the hermetically-veiled Turkish women, whose large slippers of yellow leather gave them a shuffling gait. Other Turkish women, of a higher class, passed by here and there, attended by eunuchs and mounted on donkeys.
* * * * *
"Oh! my dear Emily, what an awful calamity, what a terrible misfortune, has befallen us! M. de Morin is lost to us—M. de Morin, the life and soul of our party, has fallen a victim to his own temerity.