EVENING ON THE CANAL. 23

ways foremost in the everlasting refrain of " haylee-sah ! " and

uya salaam!'''' with which the Egyptian sailors row and tow and pole their boats against the current. Before we left the

boat we had acquired a kind of affection for these three men,

while the rais, with his grim face and croaking voice, grew more

repulsive every day.

We spread a mat on the deck, lighted our lantern and sat

down to supper, while a gentle north wind slowly carried our

boat along through shadows of palms and clear spaces of moon-

light. Ibrahim filled the shebooks, and for four hours we sat

in the open air, which seemed to grow sweeter and purer with

every breath we inhaled. "We were a triad — the sacred num-

ber— and it would have been difficult to find another triad so

harmonious and yet differing so strongly in its parts. One

was a Landwirth from Saxe-Coburg, a man of forty-five, tall,

yet portly in person, and accustomed to the most comfortable

living and the best society in Germany. Another was a Smyr-

niote merchant, a young man of thirty, to whom all parts of Europe were familiar, who spoke eight languages, and who

within four months had visited Ispahan and the Caucasus. Of

the third it behooves me not to speak, save that he was from

the New "World, and that he differed entirely from his friends in stature, features, station in life, and every thing else but mu-

tual goodfellowship. " Ah," said the German in the fulness

of his heart, as we basked in the moonlight, " what a heavenly air ! what beautiful palms ! and this wonderful repose in all

Nature, which I never felt before !" " It is better than the

gardens of Ispahan," added the Smyrniote. Nor did I deceive them when I said that for many months past I had known no

mood of mind so peaceful and grateful.