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

4G EGYPTIAN DONKEYS.
ing of nine persons) ; and each of us attended by
a donkey driver armed with a stick, which he
uses right and left, not only to urge on his
charge, but to ward off tlie too close approxima-
tion of the populace, with whom a near contact
never fails to entail piquants souvenirs, and pre-
ceded by ]\Iohammed, who cleared the way with
his courhash (a whip made of Hippopotamus hide),
our cavalcade set out upon a first expedition
through the streets of Cairo.
The delight of riding upon an Egyptian ass is
not to be described, and you must not imagine
that its paces resemble in any manner those of
European donkeys; the Egyptian animal is as
sprightly and vivacious as the European is dull
and sluggish, and its elastic ambling equals, if not
surpasses, the cantering of the best trained horse.
Everybody here, with the exception of the
Turkish dignitaries, rides upon donkeys, and the
manner in which they thread their way at full
speed through the narrow streets of Cairo, which
are encumbered with loaded camels, water-car-
riers, and a throng of foot-passengers such as I
never encountered in any other place, is quite
marvellous. At first I proceeded in fear and
trembling, fully expecting at every corner to be
thrown off and trampled upon by some huge