volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

352 A Journey to Suez.
for the purpose, and paper, and packed all between
two thin deal boards, about 20 inches long and 12 inches
wide, and these I tied up in the gaudy coloured paper
which the Cairo shopkeepers used for wrapping up the
purchases of customers. I sent for a certain Ahmad,
who lived in Fustat (Old Cairo), and who was as useful to
me in Cairo as " Hasan " was in Baghdad, and when he
arrived I arranged with him to see me off by the P. & O.
steamer which was due at Suez the following night.
That same day he took my heavy baggage to the station
and registered it, and despatched it to a friend in Port
Sa'id. The next morning he went early to the station
and bought two tickets for Suez, and when he returned
we went to the market, and having purchased a small
crate of 200 Yusuf Effendi oranges, we drove together
to the station. Ahmad went into one compartment
with the oranges and I into another, carrying the
boards with the papyrus between them and my heavy
ulster. Just before the train started two officials came
into my compartment, saying they had come to take
my luggage to the van at the end of the train, and when
I said that I had sent my luggage to Port Sa'id the day
before, they looked under the seats suspiciously and
left me. They then went into Ahmad's compartment
and searched the crate of oranges. In due course we
reached Isma'iliyah, where passengers for Port Sa'id
left the Suez train and continued their journey by the
Suez Canal Company's steam tramway. The friendly
" commissary " of the Suez train took my ulster and the
boards with the papyrus to Ahmad's compartment, and
I walked to the car of the steam tramway and sat down
as if I were going to Port Sa'id. I watched my opportunity,
and just before the tram started I left it, saying
to the " commissary " that I wanted to buy some food,
and after I had got a supply of bread-cakes, hardboiled
eggs, dates, pistachio nuts, etc., I walked across
the line to the platform of the Suez train, and got into
one of its end coaches, among the fourth-class passengers.
There I sat down on the floor, and opening my large
paper parcel of food, invited my neighbours to eat with