140 AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

only 600 piastres, makes in this way, by selling to the soldiers clothing, soap, &c. at the most usurious prices, some ten purses monthly. To extract money is the only thing these rascals of Turks, who stream into Egypt from all the countries round— Circassia, Kurdistan, Rumelia, &c. &c. — think of or attend to.

The lot of the Mograbins here is, therefore, not very much to be envied. Moreover, often for a couple of years they do not see their wives or children, so well does the Pascha keep them employed; and, ere loner, most of them will be swept away by the diseases of the unhealthy climate. As a solitary instance among them of one man of really good character whom we have known, must be mentioned Mohammed Aga, of the family of Ladjam. He is a leader of some 400 men, and this dignity is hereditary in liis family. Of the guidance of money he is, indeed, no great master ; for, besides liis monthly pay of live purses, and his other revenues of nearly as much, he has already got rid of some 2000 purses, although he is not yet twenty-seven years old. And in this expenditure he has bad little pleasure, for the Turks do not understand how to expend money worthily. As usual;, the brave but not too wise Ladjam has been ably assisted by many friends in this labour. His mother, who lives in Cairo, will now no longer send him money, and he therefore often finds himself in the saddest dilemma, as he supports in his household some 140 persons.* In his potations, Ladjam has now become very moderate, since his brother drank himself to death by pouring daily down six or eight bottles of brandy, and wine in i)roportion to allay the thirst the brandy caused. In earlier days, in Cairo, Mohammed Aga could hold his own with him. He does not stand high with the Pascha, as he is neither flatterer nor soldier, and he some two years ago caused some hundred blows to be given Ladjam. The case was tliis : Larljam had fallen desperately in love with a beautiful lady of Cairo, and * His mother lias licrsclf alone to Llame, that her son in his youth indulged in all kinds of excess. When Ladjam was only twelve years old she gave him a young female Abyssinian slave as a playfellov.-, and on his entering his fourteenth year she presented him \\'ith a Circassian gu-1, by way of change. At this moment, the son of Omar Kaschif, who is only twelve years old, lives with a wife of the same age. It is frightful to see how sucli young children are almost forced into vice, and how their parents look on it as a sigu of stoutness they may be proud of.