FROM CAIRO TO THE ATBARA 13

Egyptian Pasha to dine with him. I dressed and drove off to his house, thinking, of course,

that I should merely share a ¢é¢e-d-téte meal with His Excellency. What was my surprise

to meet in a kind. of drawing-room the Pasha’s wife and three charming daughters, who all spoke English, French, German, and Arabic

with fluency! An excellent dinner was served, towards the end of which a strange compound made its appearance in a large tureen. I was

on the point of declining this delicacy, when it flashed upon me that the mess of pottage must be meant for plum- pudding, and had been prepared expressly in my honour. It was even

so. As I ladled some of the pudding into a soup plate I expressed my keen satisfaction at the appearance of this British dish; and I

think that my enthusiastic remarks led the family to believe that the staple article of diet in English households was plum - pudding, served at all meals all the year round. After dinner we returned to the drawing-room, where the Misses Pasha played admirably a variety of selections from Grieg and Brahms, and

finally, ‘‘God Save the Queen,” at the close of

a very pleasant evening, which gave me a