BACKSHEESH.

Waikato Times, Volume XLII, Issue 3391, 24 March 1894, Page 12

BACKSHEESH.

"We had lunch in the mutilated last court of the temple of Medinet-Hapu, the guardians looking on with their guns slung o.'er their shoulders squatting, and smokring cigarettes; sharp Arab children were •crouched in ambush behind the broken pillars, waiting to dart upon us with their rgoolahs for washing our hands after the •meal; when there rose the wail of a cry•ins child, the most sorrowful and K piercing I looked out, and there, perched among stlie heapwl-up rubbish that only last year they cleared nut of the court for the ; Khedive's visit sat, Fatmeh, her head wrapped in her dingy little shawl, sobbing and wailing l enough to break her heart, and the heart of any listeuer. She -wailed whole; sentences. /What is it she •sayi*?' I asked 7 the-draaoman. 'She rsiiys,' replied he, plunging his white teeth lUinong the chicken bones and looking up gravely with his goitgle eyes,' she say« -she lose her sjoolah and she sure she die.' :So I told him to call her, and down came; a little creature with a Mooed chin and a funny wet snub nose with enormous freckles, and'«her frightened eyes all .heavy and swimming with tears. She ■ drew her shawl tightly round her like a ■very small refractory child, and,blinking, -sadly took the orange l.'gave her. ''She looked away one moment, put her goolah down and someone take it, and her .mother'kill her and: she ;«nre to'die.' \ So '■with the cheap charity.of old Lidy Cork, 1 borrowed two piastres and gave them to Ujer to buy, another water-bottle. And -when we inouuted our donkeys again, surrounded by 1 ('ci'eaming- ohilpreh,' You nice gentleman, I like yon; I your girl; 4jive me one half-piastre,' Fatmeh came -solemnly forward as though she'd never .seen me,before in her life pulled, my Grouser leg and demanded backsheesh. Though, to be sure, when I looked at!her somewhat reproachfully she had sufficient -grace to pull her shawl; oyer jher mouth •and laugh outright.' In the evening I went to a soiree at a native gentleman's ifeouse, and a very 'coldewarry' it was, too, seeing it was held in the hall and we ml there with our great, coats on. The native gentleman has a soft hand,'a .fashionable smile, and proclaims it ** awfullee cold.' There were present I -.some twelve or fourteen guests, natives. {Russians, Germans, and English, and two gaunt limestone American lidics in I -pince• nez and Cotton gloves. Dissipated'booking servants attended us with coffee van' egg-cups and handsful of cigarettes, -while a native orchestra thumbed and vwailed on thsir haunches and a couple of •girls danced. ' One was rather goodlooking, in the dark fatigued style: the <ather was squat and forbidding in a long ,<ctetonne bedgown. They waggled and •wobbled, and when they got down to our the room threw us languishing glances and whispered' bachsheesh' over their shoulders. I gave the good-looking <sne a cigatette, which she stuckcquetiishly behind her ear. When I came -jway with many thanks (and a whisky ..•and soda) for a most interesting evening, I found Cook's people throwing a search* 'Sight from' their steamer among the <rains.of the temple as though they ••were looking for Rameses. They had -.die to dog me with it: Achuvt cirrying the lintern. I

think the startling white light rather frightened him J |at least,! If heard him talking to himself and: breathing heavily—Nile Notes,' in the Cornhill Magazine,