FRANKS AND COPTS. 293 eors, and it was no doubt the design of Abbas Pasha to relieve himself of all of them by the same means. When I heard this story, the truth of which Dr. Hertz confirmed, I could readily account for the bitterness of the curses which the venerable old Bey heaped upon the head of his tyrannical ruler.

The Frank population of Khartoum was not large, consisting, besides Dr. Reitz and the priests of the Catholic Mission, of Dr. Peney, a French physician, Dr. Vierthaler, a Grerman, and an Italian apothecary, the two former of whom were in the Egyptian service. Dr. Peney had been ten years in Soudan, and knew the whole country, from the mountains of Fazogl to the plains of Takka, on the Atbara River, and the Shangalla forests on the Abyssinian frontier. He was an exceedingly intelligent and courteous person, and gave me much interesting information, concerning the regions he had visited and the habits of the different tribes of Soudan. I had afterwards personal opportunity of verifying the correctness of many of his statements. There were a few Coptic merchants in the place, and on the second day after my arrival I had an opportunity of witnessing the New- Year ceremonies of their Church, which, like the Greek, still retains the old style. The service, which was very similar to a Catholic mass, was chanted in musical Arabic, and at its close we were presented with small cakes of unleavened flour, stamped with a cross. At the conclusion of the ceremonies coffee was given to us in an outer court, with the cordial " Haneean ! " (a wish equivalent to the Latin prosit, or "may it benefit you! ") — to which we replied: " Allah Haneek J '" (may Grod give you benefit !) Dr. Reitz took me one day to visit the celebrated Sitteh (Lady) Nasra, the daughter of the last King of Sennaar and