glasses. What care we took of him when he was going down-hill, and through difficult passages! What mistaken ideas he must have entertained respecting the origin of his importance! How many statesmen are there who impute to themselves all the merit of the glass they carry! Don't let the globe fall! That is the foundation of the enthusiasm which they inspire.

In these desert countries the affections fix themselves with intensity upon the simplest necessaries, which one has never previously believed to have any importance. Next to the camel who was laden with our photographic treasures, we cared for one on whose hump our pot au feu cooked itself, all day in a marvellous Swedish stewpan. Aladdin's lamp would have been valueless to us in comparison.

This admirable invention of Swedish genius deserves a detailed description. It was simply a wooden case strongly lined with woollen stuff, and hermetically closed, containing a simple stewpan, which fitted it as a jewel fits its box. In this simple stewpan you put all the ingredients of the pot au feu, with the proper quantity of boiling water (which can always be ready before the start); then the box being carefully shut, the ebullition will be kept up indefinitely; indeed it

MAGIC COOKERY.

193

would last, were such an experiment necessary, until the water should be entirely evaporated. In a carriage, on horse, ass, or camel back, the pot au feu cooks itself, and when, having begun your journey in the morning, you arrive at your destination worn out with fatigue and hunger, you find a hot and delicious soup ready

for you.

The Arabs were so astonished at this simple physical phenomenon, that they believed it was the result of sorcery on our part, and the marvellous stewpan caused them as much terror as admiration. Every time the camel-drivers passed before the pot-bearing camel, they gave him a wide berth, and crossed themselves after their fashion. Our cook only—a great amateur of his art-had conquered his religious scruples, and he declared that he would renounce the Mahometan paradise, if it did not include a Swedish stewpan. Let me sketch a few of our people. Our dragoman, a Syrian, was very intelligent, but, like all Arabs, endowed with assurance beyond belief. The labours of Hercules were child's play in comparison with the feats of his performance, which he would narrate, and illustrate by the most wonderful gestures. 'When you come to France,' we told him, 'we shall present you to Lord Longbow, and he will imme

diately take you for his dragoman.' He quite believed us, and awaits the event with impatience.

Our other two servants were Egyptians, much more silent and respectful than the dragoman. They were very gentle and intelligent, and they told us they were preparing themselves to be hereafter leaders of caravans. One of them, a native of Upper Egypt, was named Ibrahim; his face was thin and beardless, his gestures were graceful, and, together with his long blue gown, gave him the look of a timid girl. We He and his fellow-servant

called him Miss Ibrahim. Michael were exemplarily clean, a virtue of extreme rarity among Arabs, and which made the dirty habits of our dragoman and his acolytes all the more conspicuous. Another type among our servants was our cook's assistant, a little African negro, whose name we never knew, and who was of course called Snowball.

He was always laughing, and his dazzling white teeth shone like gas jets at the entrance of a cavern. His unwearying, unvarying gaiety contrasted with the dramatic side of his functions; for he was the great sacrificer: he it was who killed the doomed sheep and fowls, but he also was charged with the feeding of them. The fowls were very fond of him; they