party had not to pass through any of the queer old narrow streets of
the true Cairo--Cairo the Oriental. They all lay behind them as they
went down by the back of the hotel, by the barracks of the Pasha and
the College of the Dervishes, to the village of old Cairo and the banks
of the Nile.

Here they were kept half an hour while their dragomans made a bargain
with the ferryman, a stately reis, or captain of a boat, who declared
with much dignity that he could not carry them over for a sum less than
six times the amount to which he was justly entitled; while the
dragomans, with great energy on behalf of their masters, offered him
only five times that sum.

As far as the reis was concerned, the contest might soon have been at
an end, for the man was not without a conscience; and would have been
content with five times and a half; but then the three dragomans
quarrelled among themselves as to which should have the paying of the
money, and the affair became very tedious.

"What horrid, odious men!" said Miss Dawkins, appealing to Mr. Damer.
"Do you think they will let us go over at all?"

"Well, I suppose they will; people do get over generally, I believe.
Abdallah! Abdallah! why don't you pay the man? That fellow is always
striving to save half a piastre for me."

"I wish he wasn't quite so particular," said Mrs. Damer, who was
already becoming rather tired; "but I'm sure he's a very honest man in
trying to protect us from being robbed."