A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

THE NILE. 41
individuals, an exceedingly fat Greek gentleman,
who, we were told, is one of the wealthiest
merchants in Egypt, contrived with happy ego-
tism to appropriate to his own use the places
of three persons, and stretching himself out at
his ease, while he cast a satisfied look about
him at the rueful faces of some among us who
could not find even a place to sit down, he
exclaimed with a long aspiration, " Ah—h !
maintenant je suis bien — je suis parfaitement
bien !
" Having established that point to his
perfect satisfaction, he presently looked about
him with a benign expression, and addressing
himself more especially to the ladies present,
he added, " Mais mettez-vous done a vos aises 1
and then burying himself between two large
pillows, he soon gave audible proofs of having
been quickly transported to the Land of Nod.
As to putting ourselves at our ease, that was
out of the question ; very uneasily indeed passed
the night ; and the first streak of dawn, for
which I had been eagerly watching, brought
me to the deck, where seating myself upon a
trunk, I saw the sun rise over the broad and
turbid waters of the Nile.
The Nile !
now,
then, for the first time T felt
that I was in the land of Egypt ; and oh !
"
what