10 AFKICAX WANDERINGS.

comfortable position, viz., that of the well-known Turkish fashion,

comfortable enough to them indeed, but far from it to Europeans.

At one of these meetings at the Treasurer's, we heard from him

that the Pascha had said that a German sultan was coming to Chartum, and ordered him to have the kandschia (row boats)

ready to send out to meet him. How the word sultan, or sultana, was now used here, though properly only designating a prince of

the reigning family, we well knew, from its being bestowed on

Prince Puckler Muscau, who figured here as Sultan belal Moscow, and had even been taken, by some wise persons, to be the Tzar of

Muscovy, although he here, as in other places, tried to avoid giving

the everlasting and indispensable Bakschish, that men might not

suppose that gold was to be had in Germany for the gathering.

However, we proceeded to pay our respects to the Pascha, and

learn from him the name of this expected and noble guest ; he

drew from under the carpet he sat on, the letters of introduction

from Cairo, though rather, as it seemed, annoyed at our asking. The name was not given, but the guest was a German.*

The Pascha sent us a message, " the German was come, "—

nothing more. It was evening, but our curiosity was too highly

excited to rest contented, for the messenger knew no more than

that he was a fat handsome sultan (semmin keweiss). The great

curtain of the divan door was down, a sign that public business

was over, and entrance forbidden the profane ; so we reached the

saloon by a side entrance, and here I at once recognised one of the

Janissaries of the Russian Consulate in Alexandria, by his large

silver badge. On my "Chi?" I heard "Principe di Wurtemberg,"

and the secret was out. The stout gentleman was delighted when

he heard himself saluted in German. For the first time we beheld

the Pascha seated on a chair ; he was in full uniform, a red jacket

covered with gold, the large crescent richly set with diamonds,

* Ncnizani plur. Nimza, borrowed into the Turkish language from the Scla-

vonic, in which Niemetz means a silent fellow, and per ahxsum, a German, as he cannot speak their language, and having the same meaning as Deutscher among the Sclaves, where this word is still used as a term of reproach, arising from the bad blood left by the old Sclavonic wars, though the Turks, as I am

fully convinced, use the word without any bad meaning. In Europe, on the

contrary, the word Sclave (slave) is no title of honour, and even the Greeks

sneer at ^KKaSos.