“Petitioner, Mohammed Ahmed, your slave, begs to state that he has served the Government in Cairo twenty years, and thanks God his has done his duties most energetically. Born in a tropical country and having spent thirty years in Egypt my body has become damp and now I am very anxious to return to my own place. As you have done me so many kindnesses in the past I shall be obliged if you will recommend me for employment there, as I am poor and am well convinced that the most beloved thing to you is my welfare.”
The correct address on the envelope often puzzles the native greatly. Lord Cromer once received a letter addressed simply to “The Lord, Cairo.” Sir Eldon Gorst was on one occasion addressed as “His Majesty Gorst.” Lord Edward Cecil was once the recipient of a letter addressed to “Sessel the Substitute,” he being then an Under-Secretary of State, an office which is called in Arabic “El Wakil”—i.e. “Deputy.”
The native stable-boy in charge of our hospital for sick animals desired a rise in his wages, and wrote me the following petition:
“We respectfully beg to lay before your kind notice. I am Abdullah Ahmed of the animals. I beg to acquainted your Excellency I had been appointed to that place according to your noble order. I beg to inform you Sir from the time in which I worked I got a great tired because I feed buffaloes, camels, she goats, cows, he horses, asses, all these animals with out sickness neither wounds. Although I say to the police officer increase my wages he say No, fool. I beg you to increase my wages and I implore God to grant you a happy life.”
The above letters have been written either by the professional scribes who are generally to be found seated outside the government offices in any provincial town, or by friends of the petitioners who had learnt to write while employed as dragomans or servants in European households. Sometimes, too, a minor clerk in a Government office will not be above writing such a letter in return for a basket of vegetables, let us say, or a couple of pigeons. Such people pride themselves on their knowledge of English, and often display a keen desire to converse or correspond with one another in our language however slight their acquaintance with its intricacies may be.
An example of the ludicrous results of this affectation is shown upon a sheet of paper which I have before me. At the head of the paper is my Egyptian secretary’s note to a certain station-master, reading, “Kindly reserve three sleeping baths (berths) on the train to-night.” The station-master sent the note on to the wagon-lit inspector with the words, “Please make the needful and write and obliged.” The inspector forwarded the note to the superintendent with the endorsement, “Please command”; and that official returned it after adding the words, “Yours truly, are reserved.” The station-master then received the note and forwarded it to my secretary, with the message: “Dear. You find your require and oblige”; and my secretary sent it on to me with the final endorsement: “Sir, the baths are ready.”
There is another class of correspondence of which a few specimens lie before me. These are letters, petitions, and reports of minor native officials, who, although belonging to the lower classes by birth, have received a good education and speak English with some fluency. Writers of this class generally use language which is somewhat Biblical in character, as will be seen in the following petition:
“Sir, one, only one Kind word from you will go a great way off and do a great deal of good, therefore, I write these lines in the hope of getting that good word. I have already been tried in the furnace. Poverty, mortification, and disappointment have done their work upon me, and my soul and body are now sufficiently sick. Will you therefore, have compassion upon me and approve my reinstatement in the office from which I was dismissed as a last chance?”
Here are two short letters of a different type. The first was written by a sporting Egyptian employed in my department, whose pony I had ridden with enjoyment on two occasions. It reads: