THE COPT MALLEM CIIALLILL. lijy and coflfiec, taken four or five times, does not succeed in soothing him, some thought will come perchance into his head, and the unfortunate secretary is at once sent for to write it down. Often during our journey have we pitied him ; for hardly had we, all worn out, dismounted at mid-day, or late in the evening, from our dromedaries or horses, fit for nothing but repose, when the unhappy Mallem was summoned to the Pascha, and often kept up the whole niglit tlirough, writing and arranging letters and papers.

Pity, a Turk knows not. From all this, Challill is silent, melancholy, and drinks, in the evening (his day's work over), to keep up his strength, six or eight fingan, or small coffee cups, of araki, as this, he fancies, more quickly cheers him tlian wine. Often have we warned him to mind what he did, and for his health's sake to take fewer of these destructive drams ; but he ever replies, that for his health's sake he dare not give them up, as he has been used to them from his youth, and were it not for them, he would not feel he was alive; nay, more, that now he had discovered it was impossible for him, once he commenced, to cease drinking as long as there was anything in the bottle. After such potations, Challill becomes somewhat more communicative, and tells us stories in answer to our questions as to the customs of his race, of whom we have heard much from him. He, indeed, often ventures to call the Turks an evil set, but no one will or can get out of him the smallest hint as to the Pascha's affairs, be the matter ever so trifling, although he possesses his master's full confidence, and knows every thing. He has now been seven years absent from Cairo, all the time with the Pascha, and his wife and children are still in that city, as the Pascha Avill not permit her to join him, that his secrets may be better kept.

Challill is well acquainted Avith the old Coptish language and writing, which are no longer in use, and are only to be met with in the church books. These books used to be read by the stupid priests (chassies), though neither they nor the hearers understood them. The present service in the churches is in Arabic, as it is • now the prevailing language among them. The alphabet of the old Coptic language is the Greek o, /3, y, &c., and is written from h'ft to right. It dates from the times of the Ptolemys, and this evident Grecian alphabet could only have been forced on them by