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Bayesian Econometrics Siddhartha Chib Digital Instant
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Author(s): Siddhartha Chib, William Griffiths
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ADVANCES IN ECONOMETRICS
Series Editors: Thomas B. Fomby and R. Carter Hill
Recent Volumes:

Volume 15: Nonstationary Panels, Panel Cointegration,

and Dynamic Panels, Edited by Badi Baltagi
Volume 16: Econometric Models in Marketing, Edited
by P. H. Franses and A. L. Montgomery
Volume 17: Maximum Likelihood Estimation of
Misspecified Models: Twenty Years Later,
Edited by Thomas B. Fomby and
R. Carter Hill
Volume 18: Spatial and Spatiotemporal Econometrics,
Edited by J. P. LeSage and R. Kelley Pace
Volume 19: Applications of Artificial Intelligence in
Finance and Economics, Edited by
J. M. Binner, G. Kendall and S. H. Chen
Volume 20A: Econometric Analysis of Financial and
Economic Time Series, Edited by
Dek Terrell and Thomas B. Fomby
Volume 20B: Econometric Analysis of Financial and
Economic Time Series, Edited by
Thomas B. Fomby and Dek Terrell
Volume 21: Modelling and Evaluating Treatment Effects
in Econometrics, Edited by Daniel L. Milli-
met, Jeffrey A. Smith and Edward J. Vytlacil
Volume 22: Econometrics and Risk Management,
Edited by Thomas B. Fomby, Knut Solna
and Jean-Pierre Fouque
 ADVANCES IN ECONOMETRICS VOLUME 23

BAYESIAN
ECONOMETRICS
EDITED BY

SIDDHARTHA CHIB
Olin Business School, Washington University

WILLIAM GRIFFITHS
Department of Economics, University of Melbourne

GARY KOOP
Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde

DEK TERRELL
Department of Economics, Louisiana State University

United Kingdom – North America – Japan

India – Malaysia – China
JAI Press is an imprint of Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2008

Copyright r 2008 Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Reprints and permission service

Contact: [email protected]

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any
form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise
without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting
restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA
by The Copyright Clearance Center. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of
information contained in the text, illustrations or advertisements. The opinions expressed
in these chapters are not necessarily those of the Editor or the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-84855-308-8
ISSN: 0731-9053 (Series)

Awarded in recognition of
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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Michael K. Andersson Sveriges Riksbank, Stockholm, Sweden

Veni Arakelian Department of Economics, University of
Crete, Rethymno, Greece
Chun-man Chan Hong Kong Community College,
Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Cathy W. S. Chen Department of Statistics, Feng Chia
University, Taiwan
Siddhartha Chib Olin Business School, Washington
University, St. Louis, MO
S. T. Boris Choy Discipline of Operations Management
and Econometrics, University of Sydney,
NSW, Australia
Michiel de Pooter Division of International Finance,
Financial Markets, Board of Governors
of the Federal Reserve System,
Washington, DC
Dipak K. Dey Department of Statistics, University of
Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Deborah Gefang Department of Economics, University of
Leicester, Leicester, UK
Richard Gerlach Discipline of Operations Management
and Econometrics, University of Sydney,
NSW, Australia
Paolo Giordani Research Department, Sveriges
Riksbank, Stockholm, Sweden
Jennifer Graves Department of Economics, University of
California, Irvine, CA
ix
x LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

William Griffiths Department of Economics, University of

Melbourne, Vic., Australia
Ariun Ishdorj Department of Economics, Iowa State
University, Ames, IA
Liana Jacobi Department of Economics, University of
Melbourne, Vic., Australia
Ivan Jeliazkov Department of Economics, University of
California, Irvine, CA
Helen H. Jensen Department of Economics, Iowa State
University, Ames, IA
Sune Karlsson Swedish Business School, Örebo
University, Örebo, Sweden
Robert Kohn Department of Economics,
Australian School of Business,
University of New South Wales,
Sydney, Australia
Gary Koop Department of Economics, University of
Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Dimitris Korobilis Department of Economics, University of
Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Subal C. Kumbhakar Department of Economics, State
University of New York, Binghamton,
NY
Mark Kutzbach Department of Economics, University of
California, Irvine, CA
Roberto Leon-Gonzalez National Graduate Institute for Policy
Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo, Japan
Brahim Lgui Département de Sciences Économiques,
Université de Montréal, CIREQ,
Canada
Arto Luoma Department of Mathematics and
Statistics, University of Tampere,
Tampere, Finland
List of Contributors xi

Jani Luoto School of Business and Economics,

University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä,
Finland
William J. McCausland Département de Sciences Économiques,
Université de Montréal, CIREQ and
CIRANO, Montréal, QC, Canada
Nadine McCloud Department of Economics, The
University of the West Indies, Mona,
Kingston, Jamaica
Murat K. Munkin Department of Economics, University of
South Florida, Tampa, FL
Christopher J. O’Donnell School of Economics, University of
Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Francesco Ravazzolo Norges Bank, Oslo, Norway
Vanessa Rayner School of Economics, University of
Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Rene Segers Tinbergen Institute and Econometric
Institute, Erasmus University
Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The
Netherlands
Mike K. P. So Department of ISOM, Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology,
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Rodney Strachan School of Economics, The University of
Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Sylvie Tchumtchoua Department of Statistics, University of
Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Dek Terrell Department of Economics, Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Justin Tobias Department of Economics, Purdue
University, West Lafayette, IN
Pravin K. Trivedi Department of Economics, Wylie Hall,
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
xii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Efthymios G. Tsionas Department of Economics, Athens

University of Economics and Business,
Athens, Greece
Herman K. van Dijk Tinbergen Institute and Econometric
Institute, Erasmus University
Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The
Netherlands
Wai-yin Wan School of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
Arnold Zellner Graduate School of Business, University
of Chicago, Chicago, IL
BAYESIAN ECONOMETRICS: AN
INTRODUCTION

Siddhartha Chib, William Griffiths, Gary Koop and

Dek Terrell

ABSTRACT

Bayesian Econometrics is a volume in the series Advances in Econometrics

that illustrates the scope and diversity of modern Bayesian econometric
applications, reviews some recent advances in Bayesian econometrics, and
highlights many of the characteristics of Bayesian inference and
computations. This first paper in the volume is the Editors’ introduction
in which we summarize the contributions of each of the papers.

1. INTRODUCTION

In 1996 two volumes of Advances in Econometrics were devoted to Bayesian

econometrics. One was on computational methods and applications and the
other on time-series applications. This was a time when Markov chain Monte
Carlo (MCMC) techniques, which have revolutionized applications of
Bayesian econometrics, had started to take hold. The adaptability of MCMC
to problems previously considered too difficult was generating a revival of
interest in the Bayesian paradigm. Now, 12 years later, it is time for another
Advances volume on Bayesian econometrics. Use of Bayesian techniques has

Bayesian Econometrics
Advances in Econometrics, Volume 23, 3–9
Copyright r 2008 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 0731-9053/doi:10.1016/S0731-9053(08)23021-5
3
4 SIDDHARTHA CHIB ET AL.

become widespread across all areas of empirical economics. Previously

intractable problems are being solved and more flexible models are being
introduced. The purpose of this volume is to illustrate today’s scope and
diversity of Bayesian econometric applications, to review some of the recent
advances, and to highlight various aspects of Bayesian inference and
computations.
The book is divided into three parts. In addition to this introduction, Part I
contains papers by Arnold Zellner, and by Paolo Giordani and Robert Kohn.
In his paper ‘‘Bayesian Econometrics: Past, Present, and Future,’’ Arnold
Zellner reviews problems faced by the Federal Reserve System, as described
by its former chairman, Alan Greenspan, and links these problems to a
summary of past and current Bayesian activity. Some key contributions to the
development of Bayesian econometrics are highlighted. Future research
directions are discussed with a view to improving current econometric
models, methods, and applications of them.
The other paper in Part I is a general one on a computational strategy for
improving MCMC. Under the title ‘‘Bayesian Inference using Adaptive
Sampling,’’ Paolo Giordani and Robert Kohn discuss simulation-based
Bayesian inference methods that draw on information from previous samples
to build the proposal distributions in a given family of distributions. The
article covers approaches along these lines and the intuition behind some of
the theory for proving that the procedures work. They also discuss strategies
for making adaptive sampling more effective and provide illustrations for
variable selection in the linear regression model and for time-series models
subject to interventions.

2. MICROECONOMETRIC MODELING
Part II of the book, entitled ‘‘Microeconometric Modeling’’ contains
applications that use cross-section or panel data. The paper by Murat K.
Munkin and Pravin K. Trivedi, ‘‘A Bayesian Analysis of the OPES Model
with a Nonparametric Component: An Application to Dental Insurance and
Dental Care,’’ is a good example of how Bayesian methods are increasingly
being used in important empirical work. The empirical focus is on the impact
of dental insurance on the use of dental services. Addressing this issue is
complicated by the potential endogeneity of insurance uptake and the fact
that insurance uptake may depend on explanatory variables in a nonlinear
fashion. The authors develop an appropriate model which addresses both
these issues and carry out an empirical analysis which finds strong evidence
Bayesian Econometrics: An Introduction 5

that having dental insurance encourages use of dentists, but also of adverse
selection into the insured state.
MCMC simulation techniques are particularly powerful in discrete-data
models with latent variable representations. In their paper ‘‘Fitting and
Comparison of Models for Multivariate Ordinal Outcomes,’’ Ivan Jeliazkov,
Jennifer Graves, and Mark Kutzbach review several alternative modeling
and identification schemes for ordinal data models and evaluate how each
aids or hampers estimation using MCMC. Model comparison via marginal
likelihoods and an analysis of the effects of covariates on category probabili-
ties is considered for each parameterization. The methods are applied to
examples in educational attainment, voter opinions, and consumers’ reliance
on alternative sources of medical information.
In ‘‘Intra-Household Allocation and Consumption of WIC-Approved
Foods: A Bayesian Approach,’’ Ariun Ishdorj, Helen H. Jensen, and Justin
Tobias consider the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
Infants, and Children (WIC) that aims to provide food, nutrition education,
and other services to at-risk, low-income children and pregnant, breastfeed-
ing, and postpartum women. They assess the extent to which the WIC
program improves the nutritional outcomes of WIC families as a whole,
including the targeted and nontargeted individuals within the household.
This question is considered under the possibility that participation in the
program (which is voluntary) is endogenous. They develop an appropriate
treatment–response model and conclude that WIC participation does not
lead to increased levels of calcium intake from milk.
A second paper that illustrates the use of Bayesian techniques for analyzing
treatment–response problems is that by Siddhartha Chib and Liana Jacobi.
In their paper ‘‘Causal Effects from Panel Data in Randomized Experiments
with Partial Compliance,’’ the authors describe how to calculate the causal
impacts from a training program when noncompliance exists in the training
arm. Two primary models are considered, with one model including a
random effects specification. Prior elicitation is carefully done by simulating
from a prior predictive density on outcomes, using a hold out sample.
Estimation and model comparison are considered in detail. The methods are
employed to assess the impact of a job training program on mental health
scores.
Basic equilibrium job search models often yield wage densities that do not
accord well with empirical regularities. When extensions to basic models are
made and analyzed using kernel-smoothed nonparametric forms, it is difficult
to assess these extensions via model comparisons. In ‘‘Parametric and
Nonparametric Inference in Equilibrium Job Search Models,’’ Gary Koop
6 SIDDHARTHA CHIB ET AL.

develops Bayesian parametric and nonparametric methods that are compar-

able to those in the existing non-Bayesian literature. He then shows how
Bayesian methods can be used to compare the different parametric and
nonparametric equilibrium search models in a statistically rigorous sense.
In the paper ‘‘Do Subsidies Drive Productivity? A Cross-Country Analysis
of Nordic Dairy Farms,’’ Nadine McCloud and Subal C. Kumbhakar
develop a Bayesian hierarchical model of farm production which allows for
the calculation of input productivity, efficiency, and technical change. The
key research questions relate to whether and how these are influenced by
subsidies. Using a large panel of Nordic dairy farms, they find that subsidies
drive productivity through technical efficiency and input elasticities,
although the magnitude of these effects differs across countries.
The richness of available data and the scope for building flexible models
makes marketing a popular area for Bayesian applications. In ‘‘Semipara-
metric Bayesian Estimation of Random Coefficients Discrete Choice
Models,’’ Sylvie Tchumtchoua and Dipak K. Dey propose a semiparametric
Bayesian framework for the analysis of random coefficients discrete choice
models that can be applied to both individual as well as aggregate data.
Heterogeneity is modeled using a Dirichlet process prior which (importantly)
varies with consumer characteristics through covariates. The authors employ
a MCMC algorithm for fitting their model, and illustrate the methodology
using a household level panel dataset of peanut butter purchases, and
supermarket chain level data for 31 ready-to-eat breakfast cereals brands.
When diffuse priors are used to estimate simultaneous equation models,
the resulting posterior density can possess infinite asymptotes at points of
local nonidentification. Kleibergen and Zivot (2003) introduced a prior to
overcome this problem in the context of a restricted reduced form
specification, and investigated the relationship between the resulting
Bayesian estimators and their classical counterparts. Arto Luoma and Jani
Luoto, in their paper ‘‘Bayesian Two-Stage Regression with Parametric
Heteroscedasticity,’’ extend the analysis of Kleibergen and Zivot to a
simultaneous equation model with unequal error variances. They apply their
techniques to a cross-country Cobb–Douglas production function.

3. TIME-SERIES MODELING
Part III of the volume is devoted to models and applications that use time-
series data. The first paper in this part is ‘‘Bayesian Near-Boundary Analysis
in Basic Macroeconomic Time-Series Models’’ by Michiel D. de Pooter,
Bayesian Econometrics: An Introduction 7

Francesco Ravazzolo, Rene Segers, and Herman K. van Dijk. The boundary
issues considered by these authors are similar to that encountered by Arto
Luoma and Jani Luoto in their paper. There are a number of models where
the use of particular types of noninformative priors can lead to improper
posterior densities with estimation breaking down at boundary values of
parameters. The circumstances under which such problems arise, and how
the problems can be solved using regularizing or truncated priors, are
examined in detail by de Pooter et al. in the context of dynamic linear
regression models, autoregressive and error correction models, instrumental
variable models, variance component models, and state space models.
Analytical, graphical, and empirical results using U.S. macroeconomic data
are presented.
In his paper ‘‘Forecasting in Vector Autoregressions with Many
Predictors,’’ Dimitris Korobilis introduces Bayesian model selection methods
in a VAR setting, focusing on the problem of drawing inferences from a
dataset with a very large number of potential predictors. A stochastic search
variable selection algorithm is used to implement Bayesian model selection.
An empirical application using 124 potential predictors to forecast eight U.S.
macroeconomic variables is included to demonstrate the methodology.
Results indicate an improvement in forecasting accuracy over model
selection based on the Bayesian Information Criteria.
In ‘‘Bayesian Inference in a Cointegrating Panel Data Model,’’ Gary
Koop, Robert Leon-Gonzalez, and Rodney Strachan focus on cointegration
in the context of a cointegrating panel data model. Their approach allows
both short-run dynamics and the cointegrating rank to vary across cross-
sectional units. In addition to an uninformative prior, they propose an
informative prior with ‘‘soft homogeneity’’ restrictions. This informative
prior can be used to include information from economic theory that cross-
sectional units are likely to share the same cointegrating rank without forcing
that assumption on the data. Empirical applications using simulated data
and a long-run model for bilateral exchange rates are used to demonstrate
the methodology.
Cointegration is also considered by Deborah Gefang who develops tests of
purchasing power parity (PPP) within an exponential smooth transition
(ESVECM) framework. The Bayesian approach offers a substantial
methodological advantage in this application because the Gibbs sampling
scheme is not affected by the multi-mode problem created by nuisance
parameters. Results based on Bayesian model averaging and Bayesian model
selection find evidence that PPP holds between the United States and each of
the remaining G7 countries.
8 SIDDHARTHA CHIB ET AL.

‘‘Bayesian Forecast Combination for VAR Models’’ by Michael K.

Andersson and Sune Karlsson addresses the issue of how to forecast a
variable (or variables) of interest (e.g., GDP) when there is uncertainty about
the dimension of the VAR and uncertainty about which set of explanatory
variables should be used. This uncertainty leads to a huge set of models. The
authors do model averaging over the resulting high-dimensional model space
using predictive likelihoods as weights. For forecast horizons greater than
one, the predictive likelihoods will not have analytical forms and the authors
develop a simulation method for estimating them. An empirical analysis
involving U.S. GDP shows the benefits of their approach.
In ‘‘Bayesian Inference on Time-Varying Proportions,’’ William J.
McCausland and Brahim Lgui derive a highly efficient algorithm for
simulating the states in state space models where the dependent variables are
proportions. The authors argue in favor of a model which is parameterized
such that the measurement equation has the proportions (conditional on the
states) following a Dirichlet distribution, but the state equation is a standard
linear Gaussian one. The authors develop a Metropolis–Hastings algorithm
which draws states as a block from a multivariate Gaussian proposal
distribution. Extensive empirical evidence indicates that their approach
works well and, in particular, is very efficient.
Christopher J. O’Donnell and Vanessa Rayner use Bayesian methodology
to impose inequality restrictions on ARCH and GARCH models in their
paper ‘‘Imposing Stationarity Constraints on the Parameters of ARCH and
GARCH Models.’’ Bayesian model averaging is used to resolve uncertainty
with regard to model selection. The authors apply the methodology to data
from the London Metals Exchange and find that results are generally
insensitive to the imposition of inequality restrictions.
In ‘‘Bayesian Model Selection for Heteroskedastic Models,’’ Cathy W. S.
Chen, Richard Gerlach, and Mike K. P. So discuss Bayesian model selection
for a wide variety of financial volatility models that exhibit asymmetries (e.g.,
threshold GARCH models). Model selection problems are complicated by
the fact that there are many contending models and marginal likelihood
calculation can be difficult. They discuss this problem in an empirical
application involving daily data from three Asian stock markets and
calculate the empirical support for their competing models.
Using a scale mixture of uniform densities representation of the Student-t
density, S. T. Boris Choy, Wai-yin Wan, and Chun-man Chan provide a
Bayesian analysis of a Student-t stochastic volatility model in ‘‘Bayesian
Student-t Stochastic Volatility Models via Scale Mixtures.’’ They develop a
Gibbs sampler for their model and show how their approach can be extended
Bayesian Econometrics: An Introduction 9

to the important class of Student-t stochastic volatility models with leverage.

The different models are fit to returns on exchange rates of the Australian
dollar against 10 currencies.
In ‘‘Bayesian Analysis of the Consumption CAPM,’’ Veni Arakelian and
Efthymios G. Tsionas show that Labadie’s (1989) solution to the CAPM can
be applied to obtain a closed form solution and to provide a traditional
econometric interpretation. They then apply Bayesian inference to both
simulated data and the Mehra and Prescott (1985) dataset. Results generally
conform to theory, but also reveal asymmetric marginal densities for key
parameters. The asymmetry suggests that techniques such as generalized
method of moments, which rely on asymptotical approximations, may be
unreliable.

REFERENCES
Kleibergen, F., & Zivot, E. (2003). Bayesian and classical approaches to instrumental variable
regression. Journal of Econometrics, 114, 29–72.
Labadie, P. (1989). Stochastic inflation and the equity premium. Journal of Monetary
Economics, 24, 195–205.
Mehra, R., & Prescott, E. C. (1985). The equity premium: A puzzle. Journal of Monetary
Economics, 15, 145–162.
BAYESIAN ECONOMETRICS: PAST,
PRESENT, AND FUTURE

Arnold Zellner

ABSTRACT
After briefly reviewing the past history of Bayesian econometrics and Alan
Greenspan’s (2004) recent description of his use of Bayesian methods in
managing policy-making risk, some of the issues and needs that he
mentions are discussed and linked to past and present Bayesian
econometric research. Then a review of some recent Bayesian econometric
research and needs is presented. Finally, some thoughts are presented that
relate to the future of Bayesian econometrics.

1. INTRODUCTION

In the first two sentences of her paper, ‘‘Bayesian Econometrics, The First
Twenty Years,’’ Qin (1996) wrote, ‘‘Bayesian econometrics has been a
controversial area in the development of econometric methodology. Although
the Bayesian approach has been constantly dismissed by many mainstream
econometricians for its subjectivism, Bayesian methods have been adopted
widely in current econometric research’’ (p. 500). This was written more than
10 years ago. Now more mainstream econometricians and many others have
adopted the Bayesian approach and are using it to solve a broad range of

Bayesian Econometrics
Advances in Econometrics, Volume 23, 11–60
Copyright r 2008 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 0731-9053/doi:10.1016/S0731-9053(08)23001-X
11
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
if possible to send the person up to Cairo, where his services are
much required. Now, Hassan, as you had the chief trouble and merit
of that purchase, I propose to send you to Delì Pasha on this matter.
It may open you a way to fortune.”
“You are my uncle,”[28] replied Hassan; “and I am ready to go
where you wish, and my fortune is in the hand of Allah.”
“Nay, my son,” said the good merchant; “it is bitter to my heart to
part with you, but you know that it is not consistent with the
circumstances of your birth and early youth that you should remain
always in this town: you do not wish to go to Cairo? Perhaps, by the
blessing of Allah, you may learn things there which concern your
happiness?”
Hassan saw at once that his foster-father had communicated to
the Hadji some of the mysterious circumstances attending his early
childhood, so he replied—
“It is true that I have a weight on my heart, and if I could remove
it by a journey to Cairo, it would be a blessed journey indeed.”
“You would seek for a father; is it not so?” said the Hadji.
“It is so,” replied Hassan. “I have made search and inquiry in
Alexandria without success; but I am sure I shall find him, for I have
taken a fal in the Koran,[29] and the words that I found were, ‘The
faithful who seek shall not be disappointed in their hope.’”
“Inshallah! your hope will be fulfilled!” replied the merchant. “Have
you anything with you by which a parent, if found, could recognise
you?”
Hassan undid his long girdle, and from its inmost folds produced
the relics given him by his foster-mother. The merchant examined
them attentively.
“These would be sufficient,” he said, “to identify you; but, Hassan,
if you go to Cairo, remember that there are many accidents by water
and by land; you might be robbed, and could never replace them.
You had better leave some of them with me; I will keep them for
you in my iron chest; whenever you require them, you can send for
them.”
Hassan acquiesced in the proposal of his kind patron, and
reserving only the quaintly devised amulet, he gave up the
remainder, receiving from the merchant a paper describing them
accurately and bearing the merchant’s seal.
The worthy Hadji was grieved to part with his protégé, for whom
he entertained an affection almost paternal; but having resolved to
do so for the youth’s own advantage, his chief anxiety now was to
furnish him well for the journey. For this purpose he desired
Mohammed Aga to procure a pair of stout saddlebags, into which he
put two complete suits of clothes, and also two small Cashmere
shawls; with respect to these last the Hadji whispered, “You need
not wear these unless you find a father in some great man, but they
may be useful to you as presents.” He gave him also a sword of
excellent temper, a slight but beautifully worked Persian dagger, and
a pair of English pistols: to these he added a well-filled purse; but
observing some hesitation in Hassan’s countenance, the kind-
hearted Hadji added with a smile, “Nay, it is almost all due to you for
past services; but I shall write to Delì Pasha and inform him that
your salary is prepaid for three months from this date.” Hassan
kissed the hand of his benefactor, his heart was too full for speech,
and he could only utter—
“If I find a father, may he be like Hadji Ismael.”
Of personal vanity Hassan was as free as from the foibles which
usually attend it; but it cannot be denied that when he walked out in
the full dress and equipment proper to a young Bedouin Sheik, it
was with a prouder step, and the day-dreams concerning his future
destiny took a firmer hold of his imagination.
“Whither bound, my brother?” called out to him Demetri, on
meeting him near the door of the merchant’s house. “Mashallah! you
have the air and costume of a bridegroom! Who is the moon-faced
one whom you have chosen? By our head, Hassan, it is not well to
keep these things secret from your friends. When is the wedding to
take place?”
“Nay, there is no wedding in the case,” said Hassan, laughing.
“The Hadji is going to send me on a commission to Cairo, and he
has given me this dress and these arms.”
“May Allah reward him!” said the merry Greek. “To Cairo, said
you? Why, the Fates are propitious. We are going there likewise.
Inshallah! we will go together.”
“How may that be?” demanded Hassan. “You are going with that
rich Frank family, and I hear that your boat will be so crowded with
luggage and people that there will not be room for a sparrow on
board.”
“Nonsense,” replied the Greek. “There is always room for a friend.
The English servant and I can do as we please, for the old
Englishman troubles himself about nothing so long as he has his
books and a few old bricks and tiles to look at.”
“Bricks and tiles!” said Hassan. “Why, is he going to build a house
in Upper Egypt?”
“No; but by my father’s head, he is mad about old bricks. The
other day he made me go with him all round the mounds near
Pompey’s Pillar, and he brought back with him nearly an ass-load of
fragments of stone, bricks, and pottery.”
“Wonderful!” said Hassan. “But why do you think the English
servant would be willing to give me a passage in the boat?”
“Why,” replied Demetri, “because ever since the day that you
threw down the Moghrebi bully who had kicked his seat from under
him, he does nothing but talk of you. Never fear; he will be
delighted to have your company; and we will tell the old gentleman
that if we have you on board, all the thieves and robbers within
twenty miles of the bank will disappear as by magic.”
“Nay,” said Hassan, laughing; “do not tell him anything that might
lead him to think me a boasting fool. But you certainly may tell him
that if he gives me a passage, and any danger or trouble occurs, I
shall be ready to tender the best service in my power.”
On this they parted, and Demetri communicated the plan the
same day to the valet, who relished it extremely, being well satisfied
to have by him in case of need a stouter heart and arm than that
with which Providence had blessed the Greek interpreter. They
proceeded together to Mr Thorpe, and explained to him the
advantages to be derived from the proposed addition to their party.
“But,” said Mr Thorpe, “I fear we have no cabin vacant.”
“Cabin!” echoed Demetri. “Does your excellency think that a son
of the desert like him would go into a cabin? No, no. With his
bornoos [cloak] over him, and his khordj [saddle-bags] under his
head, he will sleep like a prince on any part of the deck.”
Mr Thorpe having no other objection to make, and the ladies
being curious to see the hero of Foyster’s narrative, no further
persuasion was requisite, and Hadji Ismael, on his part, was heartily
glad that his young protégé had found so convenient and easy a
conveyance to Cairo.
It was with sincere and mutual regret that Hassan parted with
Mohammed Aga and his son Ahmed, who had shown him such
invariable kindness during the three or four years that he had spent
in Alexandria. But “destiny had written it,” and it is wonderful to see
the composure with which good Mussulmans resign themselves even
to the heaviest misfortunes with that phrase on their tongue.
The chief clerk, in bidding adieu to Hassan, put a letter into his
hand. “Take this, my son,” he said. “It is addressed to Ahmed Aga,
the mirakhor[30], and favourite Mameluke of Delì Pasha. I have
known him long, and I trust he will be a good friend to you.”
Hassan in quitting the merchant’s house left universal regret
behind him. Even the old Berber bowàb [porter] said, “Allah preserve
him. He was a good youth. Every Bairam he gave me a dollar, and if
I was half asleep and kept him at the door, he never cursed my
father.”
 On a fine autumnal day, about the middle of October, the Thorpe
party embarked on the dahabiahs destined to convey them on their
Nile expedition. The boats were moored to the banks of the
Mahmoudiah canal, just opposite the pleasant and shady garden
then occupied by Moharrem Bey, a relation of the Viceroy’s by
marriage.
As donkey followed donkey, and porter followed porter to the
place of embarkation, the active Greek distributed the packages in
their several places; but the space and his patience were wellnigh
exhausted by their variety and multitude. There were Mr Thorpe’s
clothes and books and measuring instruments, and a box of tools for
excavation. Then endless boxes and books and other sundries, the
greater part of which Demetri considered as useless, were all to be
added to the well-filled hampers of wine, spirits, tea, sugar,
preserves, pickles, and a thousand other things with which his
assiduity and Mr Thorpe’s guineas had filled every available bunker
and corner of the boats.
Hassan had gone down early to the place of embarkation, not
knowing the hour at which the start was to take place; so Demetri
availed himself of this circumstance to make him his lieutenant, in
urging the porters and the sailors to hasten the stowage of the
multifarious baggage.
“By your head, Hassan, you are welcome!” cried the busy Greek;
“had you not come, we should not have finished this work to-day, for
these fellows are asses and the sons and grandsons of asses. Here—
here, you blind dog!” shouted he to a sturdy fellow who was carrying
a hamper into the smaller dahabiah, “did I not tell you to put that in
the large boat?”
Here he paused, and said in an undertone to Hassan—
“Mr Foyster and I keep the wine-store in this boat, to have it
under our own eye. The tutor and the young gentleman are in the
small boat, and they cannot require wine.”
“If they are to study,” replied Hassan, smiling, “I doubt not that
Nile water would be better for them; but you should know better
than I, who am not a student or a drinker of wine.”
 “That is the only fault you have, my lad,” said Demetri; “there is
nothing like wine to open the heart and brighten the eye. Oh! you
pig,” shouted he to another burly fellow going towards the cabin
door; “are you going to carry that kafass full of fowls into the ladies’
sleeping cabin?” So saying, he jumped upon the luckless porter, and
with a few smart blows of his courbatch sent him forward with his
chicken-load.
With the assistance of Hassan, Demetri contrived to get the
multifarious boxes into something like order and arrangement by the
time that a cloud of dust and the braying of half-a-dozen donkeys
announced the approach of the Thorpe party.
Once fairly embarked, the boats, sometimes under easy sail,
sometimes tracked from the shore, wound their slow way along the
waters of the Mahmoudiah.
The voyage from Alexandria to Atfeh, the point at which the canal
joins the Nile, is of itself dull, and is so familiar, either by experience
or description, to the world in general, that it scarcely merits a
separate notice. Still, as Emily Thorpe kept a journal, as many girls
are in the habit of doing, a few pages therefrom may be transcribed,
to give a further account of the voyage in the dahabiah:—
“I am surprised to hear that the Mahmoudiah canal, although cut
by the present Viceroy at an enormous cost of money and of human
life, through a country perfectly flat, is as winding in its course as a
path through a labyrinth. On asking Demetri, our dragoman, if he
could explain the cause of this, he answered me by a story—for he
has a story ready for almost every occasion. The very same
question, he says, was lately put to Mohammed Ali by a French
engineer travelling through Egypt. The Pasha said to the engineer—
“‘Have you ever seen rivers in Europe?’
“‘Yes, sir, many.’
“‘Are they straight or crooked in their course?’
“‘They are generally crooked, sir.’
“‘Who made the rivers?’ inquired the Pasha.
“‘They were made by Allah,’ said the astonished engineer.
“‘Then, sir,’ concluded the Pasha triumphantly, ‘do you expect me
to know and to do better than Allah?’
 “The poor engineer had no reply to make to this strange
argument, so he took his leave and went his way.
“I hope we shall soon see this extraordinary man, who has raised
himself from the position of a subaltern to the viceroyalty of Egypt.
He is now staying at a small country-house that he has built on the
banks of the Nile, about fifty miles above this place.
“On the first day we had mostly contrary winds, and the tracking a
boat of this size is slower than a snail’s gallop. Hassan having seen
some wild ducks flying over a marsh at no great distance, went in
search of them. In the evening he brought back five or six. But
yesterday was our first adventure.
“We were sailing up the canal, the breeze being favourable,
though very slight, when at a bend or sharp turn we came suddenly
upon a large boat like our own, coming from Atfeh to Alexandria.
Whether owing to a sudden change of course, or to some
mismanagement on the part of one of the pilots, I know not, but the
two boats came together with a fearful crash. The rigging of both
was damaged, and for some minutes the vessels were locked to
each other near the prow, the men being unable to extricate them.
It seemed that the crew of the other boat was far more numerous
than ours, and amongst others I noticed a man dressed in a military
blue frock, who, Demetri told me afterwards, was a kawàss of the
Viceroy.
“The noise, the yells that ensued, and the volumes of (to me
unintelligible) abuse that were interchanged, baffle all description;
but as no one seemed to think of disengaging the vessels, but all
were bent upon gesticulations which became every minute more
hostile, I felt seriously alarmed. Hassan, who had been sitting in his
usual place behind our divan, seeing my alarm, came up to me and
said with a smile (for he speaks English tolerably well)—
“‘Do not be afraid, lady; these fellahs make a great deal of noise,
but there is no danger.’
“Even as he was speaking, the man in the blue coat, who seemed
to be in a perfect fury, and to be urging his men to board our boat
and beat our crew, caught up a stone or brick, which happened to
come within his reach. Whether he aimed it at Hassan, or the rais,
or me, I know not, but it just grazed my head, drawing a little blood
from the upper part of my cheek.
“Hassan’s countenance changed in a moment; his eyes shone like
lightning; it was terrible to see such concentrated fury in that young
face, so gentle in its habitual expression. Calling the rais to hold up
his large cloak before me to shield me from further harm, he sprang
to the lower deck, and ran forward to the prow where the boat had
been entangled. Before he reached the spot they had become
disengaged, I know not how, and ours was beginning slowly to
resume its course; clearing the intervening space at a bound, he
leapt alone upon the deck of the other boat. There he was met and
attacked by a man with what they call here a naboot, a thick heavy
stick. Hassan wrenched it from the man’s grasp, and whirling it
round his head, and calling on the others to stand back, he forced
his way to the spot where stood the kawàss who had thrown the
stone; the latter drew his sword, but Hassan’s blow fell with such
terrific force that the sword was shivered, and the man fell senseless
on the deck.
“We could see that four or five of the boat’s crew struck at Hassan
and grappled with him, endeavouring to throw him down and bind
him, but he shook them off by the exertion of his tremendous
strength, and plunging overboard into the canal swam to the
opposite bank; two of the boat’s crew jumped in and swam after
him, but he reached the shore before them. He then ran along the
bank till he overtook our boat, which was now going steadily
through the water with a fair wind, and plunging into the canal
again, caught a rope thrown to him by our rais, and in a minute was
safely on board.”
 The two dahabiahs had passed through the locks of Atfeh, and
were just about to commence their course up the broad stream of
the Nile when a kawàss from the Governor of the town came to the
water’s edge and desired the rais of the larger boat to stay a few
minutes, as he had a message to deliver to the English traveller.
On being presented to Mr Thorpe, at whose side stood Demetri as
interpreter, the kawàss said he was instructed by the Governor to
desire that an Arab on board, charged with assaulting and beating
one of the servants of the Viceroy, might be given up to him.
Mr Thorpe, whose experience of Eastern travel was small, but who
was at the same time too humane to think of giving up Hassan to
the tender mercies of the Atfeh authorities, consulted apart with
Demetri, and then replied—
“Tell the Governor that I have a complaint to make against the
captain and crew of the boat which ran into and damaged mine; and
also against that servant of the Viceroy who, without any right or
provocation, threw a brick at my daughter, which struck her, and
might have killed her. I am now on my way to Cairo, where the
rights of the case will be examined by the English Consul and the
Egyptian Government: then if any person in this boat shall be judged
to be in fault he can be punished.”
The kawàss, not having any reply ready to meet this reasonable
proposal, permitted the boats to proceed on their way, and retired to
deliver the message to his principal.
Unlike the Rhine, the Rhone, and other great rivers in Europe,
which are, as it were, merely beneficial accidents in the countries
through which they flow, the Nile is the creator and perpetuator, as
well as the fertiliser, of the whole soil of Egypt. Wherever its prolific
waters annually irrigate and subside, there spring up in exuberant
abundance the grains and herbs of the field, the flowers and fruits of
the garden, the almond and pomegranate, the fruitful palm, the
fragrant orange and lemon, the cotton-plant and the sugar-cane,
and, more frequent than all, the widespread shade of the sycomore.
[31]
In Egypt it is unnecessary to inquire where vegetation ceases and
the desert begins: from the Cataracts to the Mediterranean the
answer would be always the same—whatever spot or line the waters
of the Nile can reach there is, or may be, cultivation; all beyond that
line is desert. The feelings of the party on attaining the fine view of
this glorious river were various as their habits and characters.
Hassan reclined near the rais, reading snatches of his ‘Arabian
Nights,’ and occasionally casting his eyes over the desert sandhills to
the west, endeavouring to recognise among them some spot which
he had passed in his expeditions with the Oulâd-Ali. The boats glided
swiftly forward through the turbid stream under the impulse of a fair
and fresh breeze, their crews seated lazily round the mast, passing
their pipe from mouth to mouth, when Demetri, to whom everything
like silence or quiet was naturally repugnant, came aft and asked Mr
Thorpe whether he would like to hear the crew sing an Arab boat-
song.
Emily’s reply, “Oh! papa, let us hear it by all means!” anticipated
and ensured the old gentleman’s consent. Demetri acted as leader,
and beat the time with a cane in his hand, which he every now and
then allowed to descend pretty sharply on the shoulders of any
luckless wight who did not open his jaws and his throat to the
utmost extent at the recurrence of the burden or chorus which
terminated every verse.
The orchestra consisted of a miserable apology for a kettle-drum
(called in Egypt a darabooka) played by a fellow who swayed his
head and shoulders backwards and forwards to the time of the song.
The tone was so strange and its vibrations so shrill as the fellow half
shut one eye and threw up his head sideways to strain his voice to
the utmost pitch, that Emily was fain to put up her handkerchief to
her face, to hide the laugh which she could not resist, and shield her
ears from the dissonant shrillness of the sound. When, however, he
came down from these indescribable counter-tenor heights[32] to a
more natural tone, and Emily was able to follow the cadence of the
song, especially of the wild and irregular chorus which terminated
every verse, she began to find it more tolerable, and afterwards
even pleasing in its effect.
Hassan being called upon by Mr Thorpe to explain the words, felt
not a little confused; for independently of the fact that his
knowledge of English was imperfect, it is certain that these songs of
the Nile boatmen are extremely difficult to translate, sometimes from
the elliptical vagueness of their language, sometimes from its plain
and unveiled indecency; he succeeded, however, in giving the
general meaning of the song, which cast roughly into English rhyme
would run as follows:—

“O night! O night! O night! you’re better far than day;

O night! O night! O night! the Eastern sky is grey;
O night! O night! O night! a little longer stay;
To the girls of Damanhour speed on our homeward way.

Chorus.

The girls of Damanhour, like young gazelles at play,

The girls of Damanhour, none half so fair as they.

“O night! O night! O night! my love is far away,

O night! O night! O night! her form’s a willow spray;[33]
O night! O night! O night! my heart is fallen a prey
To Damanhour eyes, like those of fawn at play.

Chorus.

Oh the girls of Damanhour, like young gazelles at play;

The girls of Damanhour, none half so fair as they.”

“Are the ladies of Damanhour so fair as they are described?”

inquired Emily.
“I know not,” replied Hassan, smiling, “for I was never there
excepting once or twice, and then only for a day or two; but I doubt
their beauty, lady, for what are they but fellahs? Doubtless the song
was written by some Damanhour rhymer, and we have a proverb in
Arabic, ‘My children are fairer than yours,’ said the crow to the
parrot.”
“Do you despise the fellahs, Hassan?” said Mr Thorpe.
“Despise them! No,” replied the youth (his countenance betraying
the pride which his tongue disavowed); “Allah made them, and they
are good to cultivate the ground—nothing more. The ox and the
donkey are useful animals, but neither is an Arab horse.”
On the following day the dahabiahs continued their course up the
Nile without accident or adventure, when, as they reached a bend in
the river called Zauràt-el-Bahr, the party assembled on their decks
saw before them at the distance of a few miles a number of tents,
horsemen, and other indications of a large encampment.
On interrogating the rais, Mr Thorpe learnt that from these
indications the presence of Mohammed Ali in person might certainly
be inferred, he having built near that spot a small country-house, to
which he occasionally resorted while inspecting the canals and other
improvements which he had recently ordered to be made in the
province of Menoufiah.
As the dahabiahs drew near the encampment, and Mr Thorpe was
doubting whether he could gratify the curiosity he had long felt to
see the celebrated founder of the new Egyptian dynasty, a six-oared
boat, with an officer in the stern-sheets, darted out from the bank
and was alongside in a moment. Stepping on deck with a polite
salute, he said he believed that he had the pleasure of seeing the
English lord who had lately come up from Alexandria on his way to
Cairo.[34]
Demetri having been desired to reply in the affirmative, the officer
continued—
“The Viceroy has heard of your coming, and orders me to say that
he hopes you will not find it inconvenient to remain here to-night,
and to breakfast with his Highness to-morrow morning, with all your
party.”
Mr Thorpe having desired Demetri to accept the invitation on his
part with due acknowledgments of the Viceroy’s courtesy, the Greek
made a most flowery speech upon the occasion, the half of which, at
least, was of his own invention. It conveyed, however, the required
acceptance; and the officer having withdrawn, the boats were made
fast to the shore, a few hundred yards from the garden attached to
the Viceroy’s villa. Guards were sent down to protect them from
thieves during the night, and half-a-dozen sheep, fifty fowls, and
several baskets of fruit were sent on board by his Highness’s order.
Mr Thorpe and all his party were pleasantly surprised at the
agreeable opportunity thus offered by the Viceroy’s unexpected
courtesy of seeing one whom they justly considered as a celebrity of
his time. Mr Thorpe, though believing that the Viceroy’s invitation
had been specially intended to include the ladies, sent Demetri on
shore, desiring him to ascertain the point from one of the
chamberlains. Demetri returned with a message that, as Mr Thorpe
was accompanied by his wife and daughter, the Viceroy hoped to be
honoured by their presence at breakfast.
On the following morning, at the appointed hour, an officer and
several servants of the Viceroy’s household came down to the boats
to conduct the party to his Highness’s presence, Demetri
accompanying them in his capacity of dragoman. Mrs Thorpe and
Emily had not omitted to follow the advice given them by the British
Consul in Alexandria, and on landing from their boat they each wore
a thick green veil over their face. The precaution was not
unnecessary, for they had to pass through a great crowd of soldiers,
Mamelukes, and attendants, all of whom stared with eager curiosity
at the Frank ladies, whose dress and appearance presented a
novelty to Egyptian eyes.
On reaching the villa, after passing through an antechamber, at
the door of which were two sentries with musket and bayonet, they
came to a silk curtain fringed with gold. The conductor raised it, and
they found themselves in the presence of Mohammed Ali.
 At the period of our tale Mohammed Ali was at the high tide of his
personal and political career. Though upwards of fifty-five years—the
latter half of them spent in constant warfare or intrigue—had passed
over his head, they had not impaired either the energy of his mind
or the activity of his frame.
All opposition to his government had been subdued: the scattered
remnants of the Mameluke beys whom he had overthrown were
fugitives in remote parts of the Soudan. The Divan at Constantinople
had found itself compelled to treat him rather like an independent
ally than a powerful vassal. Nubia, and the countries fertilised by the
White and the Blue Nile, had submitted to his arms. He had restored
the holy cities, Mecca and Medina, to the dominion of the Sultan,
and had brought under subjection the warlike and independent
tribes of Arabia—the sands of whose desert fastnesses had never
before been trodden by the foot of a foreign invader. Even the
dreaded Wahabees, the terror of whose fanatic arms extended
across the Arabian peninsula from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf,
had been unable to oppose any effectual resistance to his well-
disciplined troops. Their great chief, Souhoud, had fallen. Deraiah,
his capital, in the wild recesses of the Nejd, had been taken and
plundered, and his son and successor, Abdallah, with all his family,
had graced as captives the conqueror’s triumph in Cairo.
After all these successes in foreign and domestic warfare, he
turned his attention to the improvement and development of his
acquired dominions; and in these pursuits evinced the same energy,
if not always the same sagacity, that had marked his military career.
His first object was to free the valley of the Nile from the
depredations of the Bedouins on the bordering deserts; and having
learnt from experience the difficulty, not to say the impossibility, of
chastising the incursions of their flying squadrons with his regular
troops, he adopted the plan of weakening them by division among
themselves. With this view he cultivated the friendship of the chiefs
of several of the more powerful tribes, whom he gained over to his
interest by timely donations of money, dresses of honour, and land
for the pasturage of their flocks; in return for which favours they
were ready at his call to pour forth their numerous horsemen in
pursuit of any predatory bands of other Bedouin tribes who ventured
to make hostile incursions into his territory. By this prudent adoption
of the well-known principle of “divide et impera,” he had succeeded
in so far weakening their general power that the cultivated provinces
in Egypt already enjoyed a state of comparative tranquillity.
This object attained, he turned the energies of his active mind to
the increase of his revenue; and not satisfied with those resources of
agriculture which nature has indicated to be the chief if not the only
wealth of Egypt, he already thought of rivalling at Boulak the silks of
Lyons, the looms of Manchester, and the foundries of Birmingham. It
was while his head was full of these projects, in the prosecution of
which machinery of every kind was daily pouring into the country,
that he received the visit of Mr Thorpe and his party.
At the time of their entrance he was seated on a divan in the
corner of the room farthest from the door, and beside him stood a
middle-aged man whom they conjectured to be his dragoman. He
rose from his seat and received them with the polite urbanity for
which he was distinguished, and motioned to the ladies to take their
seats on the divan. Chairs having been prepared, the one nearest to
his person was appropriated to Mr Thorpe. While the first
compliments were being exchanged, and the coffee was handed
round in small cups of enamel studded with diamonds, they had full
leisure to examine the features and appearance of the conqueror
and regenerator of the land of the Pharaohs.
Although below the average height, his active and firmly knit form
was well calculated for the endurance of the fatigues and exertions
which his restless mind imposed upon it. On his head he wore a fez
or cap, around which was wound a fine Cashmere shawl in the
shape of a turban; for he had not yet adopted the tarboosh, which
forms at present the unsightly head-dress of Turks and Egyptians.
His forehead was high, bold, and square in its outline, subtended by
shaggy eyebrows, from beneath which peered out a pair of eyes, not
large, but deep-set, bright, and singularly expressive; when in anger,
they shot forth fiery glances which few could withstand, and when
he was in mirthful mood, they twinkled like stars. His nose was
straight, with nostrils rather wide; his mouth well-shaped, though
somewhat broad, while beneath it a massive chin, covered by a
beard slightly grizzled by age, completed a countenance on which
the character of a firm, determined will was indelibly stamped. He
was dressed in a pelisse lined with fur, in the front of which
protruded from his Cashmere belt the diamond-studded hilt of a
dagger. Large loose trousers, and a pair of red slippers, according to
the fashion of the day, completed his costume, whilst on the little
finger of a hand small and delicate as that of a woman shone a
diamond of inestimable value.
After the interchange of the usual complimentary speeches and
inquiries—such as, “Whether Mr Thorpe liked what he had seen of
Egypt”; “Whether they proposed ascending the Nile as far as the
First Cataract,” &c.—which the Viceroy’s interpreter translated into
French, breakfast was announced. On his Highness leading the way
into the adjoining apartment, they were surprised at seeing a table
laid out in the European fashion, with the unexpected luxuries, not
only of knives and forks, but likewise of chairs and snow-white
napkins. The dragoman stood behind his master’s chair, and Emily
was rather confused at finding that the chief part of the conversation
fell to her share—on account of her speaking French much more
fluently than her parents. The Pasha was much pleased at this, for
he was devoted to the fair sex.
With the exception of a pilau, and one or two Turkish dishes of
pastry and sweetmeats, there was nothing to distinguish the
breakfast from one served in Paris. As soon as it was concluded, and
the fingers of the guests had been duly purified by rose-water,
poured from a silver-gilt vase, they returned to the reception-room
and resumed their former places. Scarcely were they seated than
there entered a row of well-dressed young Mamelukes, each bearing
before him a long pipe, with a mouthpiece of amber, ornamented
with diamonds, which they presented to all the guests, as well as to
the Pasha. Of course neither of the ladies had ever held a pipe
between their lips, and Mr Thorpe was as guiltless of tobacco as
they were. The Pasha smiled, and told them, through his interpreter,
that it was intended as a compliment, but the acceptance of it was
optional.
 Mrs Thorpe absolutely declined; but Emily took the pipe, and
putting the pretty amber between her pretty lips, and making believe
to smoke, pouted so prettily that the Viceroy heartily wished she
were a Circassian that he might buy her on the spot. Mr Thorpe,
wishing to be particularly civil, took two or three bonâ-fide puffs at
the pipe, the result of which was that he was nearly choked, and his
eyes filled with tears.
The attendants having retired, the conversation on general topics
was resumed; and the Viceroy explained to Mr Thorpe some of the
projects then floating in his active brain for introducing various
branches of manufacturing industry into Egypt. In reply Mr Thorpe,
who, although by no means a political economist, was a man of plain
good sense, pointed out to his Highness the difficulties that he
would obviously have to encounter from the want of hands (the
agricultural population of Egypt not being sufficient to cultivate the
arable soil), and also from the absence of the two most important
elements of manufacturing industry—iron and coal.
“Ah!” said the Pasha, laughing; “I know all that; I shall have
difficulties; what can be done without difficulty? All my life I have
been contending against them; I have always overcome them, and,
Inshallah, I will do so still! Did you see,” he added, with increased
animation, “a canal that joins the Nile a few miles northward of this
spot?” Mr Thorpe had noticed it, but had not thought of inquiring
whither it led. “Well, then,” continued the Pasha, “that canal leads to
a large village in the middle of the Delta, from which and from the
neighbouring provinces it brings the produce down to the Nile. How
do you think I made that canal? You shall hear. Two years ago I
stopped here on my way to Cairo from Alexandria, and having
determined to make a canal from the Nile to that village, I sent for
the chief engineer of the province, and having given him the length,
breadth, and depth of the canal required, I asked him in what space
of time he would undertake to make it. He took out his pen and his
paper, and having made his calculations, he said that if I gave him
an order on the Governor of the province for the labour he required,
he would undertake to finish it in a year. My reply was a signal to my
servants to throw him down and give him two hundred blows of the
stick on his feet. This ceremony being concluded, I said to him,
‘Here is the order for the number of labourers you may require; I am
going to Upper Egypt, and shall come back in four months; if the
canal is not completed by the day of my return, you shall have three
hundred more.’”
In relating this story the Pasha’s eyes sparkled, and he almost
jumped from his sitting posture with excitement, as he added,
rubbing his hands, “By Allah! the canal was completed when I
returned.”[35]
The Viceroy having enjoyed for a few moments the recollection of
his successful engineering, turned to Mr Thorpe and said, with a
graver air—
“I am sorry to have to speak on a disagreeable subject, but a
letter has been brought to me by a horseman from the Governor of
Atfeh, in which it is stated that a portion of the crew of your boat
attacked the crew of a Government boat on the canal, and that they
were set on and led by a young Arab of gigantic size, who nearly
killed one of my kawàsses.”
Here Demetri, whose office had hitherto been a sinecure, the
translation having all passed through the Viceroy’s interpreter,
thinking it a good opportunity for displaying his descriptive powers,
came forward, and addressing the Viceroy, said—
“May it please your Highness, my friend Hassan——”
“Silence, babbler!” said the Pasha, in an angry voice; “you may
speak when you are spoken to.” So saying, he darted upon the
unfortunate Greek a fiery glance that almost made his heart jump
into his mouth.
“Excuse me,” said the Pasha to Mr Thorpe, recovering himself
immediately, as he observed Demetri steal noiselessly out of the
room; “these servants, especially Smyrniotes, always tell lies, and I
desired to hear the truth of this story from yourself.”
“I was in the cabin,” replied Mr Thorpe; “but my daughter was on
deck the whole time, and saw all that passed; she can give your
Highness a correct report.”
“If the young lady will so far favour me, I shall be obliged,” said
the Viceroy.
 Emily then related what had passed with the utmost accuracy. She
noticed that at the pauses of her narrative the interpreter made
sundry marks on a letter which he held in his hand, and also that
alternate smiles and frowns followed each other on the expressive
countenance of Mohammed Ali. When she had ceased speaking he
thanked her, and after conversing a moment with his interpreter,
proceeded to ask her a few questions connected with the letter
which he held in his hand.
“Do you know whether it was by accident or design that the two
boats ran against each other, and if accident, whose fault was it?”
“I think it was certainly accident, as there had been no quarrel or
cause of quarrel before; whose fault it was I am not able to judge.”
“Are you sure that your crew did not attack the crew of the other
boat first, with sticks or other weapons?”
“I am sure that nothing but words had passed on either side until
the kawàss threw the stone or brick.”
“Did you see him throw it?” said the Pasha, knitting his brows.
“I saw him certainly, and he very nearly hurt me seriously, as your
Highness may see.” While thus speaking, Emily turned her cheek
aside, and lifting up one of the brown curls, she showed the hurt.
“Kàhpe-oghlou pezevènk!” said the Pasha, in an angry tone,
looking towards his interpreter. (The words are untranslatable to
ears polite, although they may fall from a Turk fifty times in a day.
They may be rendered in this case, “The infernal scoundrel!”) “One
more question,” he added, “I would beg to ask the young lady. You
say that the youth you call Hassan jumped alone on the deck of the
other boat; how many men might there be on the deck at the time?”
“I did not count them; there might be eight or ten; some were
pulling at a rope on shore.”
“And how is it they did not drive him back, and prevent him from
striking the kawàss?”
“I cannot tell; I saw them strike at him on all sides, but it seems
they had not power to stop him, for he reached the kawàss, broke
his sword, and beat him down before jumping into the canal.”
“Ajàib!—wonderful!” said the Viceroy, turning to his dragoman.
“What a tale is this; and if it be true, what dirt have these lying dogs
been eating?” As he spoke, he pointed again to the letter he held in
his hand.
“The Viceroy is astonished at your tale,” said the interpreter,
addressing Emily; “it differs so entirely from the report sent to him
by the kawàss.”
“I grant that it seems improbable,” said Emily, slightly colouring;
“but as I own that I was very much frightened, if his Highness thinks
that I have stated anything incorrectly, it is easy to know the truth.
The rais of our boat was close beside me all the time, and saw what
passed; let the Pasha send for him and make him relate what he
saw.”
When this was translated to the Viceroy, his eyes sparkled again,
and he said, turning to Mr Thorpe, “The young lady is fit to be a
cadi; by Allah! with your leave, it shall be as she says.”
“By all means,” replied Mr Thorpe; “let the rais be brought before
his Highness immediately.”
Demetri, having been sent down to the boat, returned in a few
minutes with the rais, whose relation of the circumstances differed in
no essential particular from that made by Emily.
“Mashallah!” said the Viceroy, “it is wonderful; with Mr Thorpe’s
permission I should like to see and question this youth.”
Mr Thorpe having signified his acquiescence, Demetri was again
sent to the boat, and soon returned, accompanied by Hassan.
 During the brief absence of Demetri in search of Hassan, the
Viceroy had made further inquiries concerning the latter, in reply to
which Mr Thorpe informed him that the young man had been in the
employment of Hadji Ismael, and was now on his way to Cairo with
letters for some pasha whose name Mr Thorpe did not remember.
“What, Hadji Ismael, our good Arab merchant?” said the Viceroy.
“The same,” replied Mr Thorpe.
Here the Viceroy spoke apart to the interpreter, by whose order an
attendant brought a small box, containing letters, which he placed
on the divan at his Highness’s side. The interpreter, by the Viceroy’s
desire, ran his eye over two or three letters from Alexandria, till he
found the one of which he was in search. He read a passage from it,
at which Mohammed Ali laughed and chuckled immoderately,
repeating over and over again, “Aferin! aferin!” (bravo! bravo!) He
then turned to Mr Thorpe, saying—
“I wonder whether this can be the same youth as the one
mentioned in this letter, who threw the famous Moghrebi wrestler,
Ebn-el-Ghaizi? It is here written that he was in the employment of
Hadji Ismael.”
“There can be little doubt it is the same youth,” replied Mr Thorpe.
“I have heard the whole story from our English servant. Indeed, it
was in protecting him that Hassan got into a quarrel with the
wrestler.”
“Mashallah!” said the Viceroy, “the youth deserves a reward, for
that vagabond Moghrebi had beaten all the Egyptian wrestlers, and
laughed at our beards.”
At this moment Hassan reached the door of the apartment, and
the Viceroy having given orders that he should be admitted, he
came forward, and having made the usual obeisance and touched
his forehead with the skirt of the Viceroy’s pelisse, retired a few
steps, and drawing himself up to his full height, awaited his prince’s
commands in silence.
Mohammed Ali had been accustomed from his youth to study the
characters of men from their countenance and bearing, and he now
fixed upon Hassan an eye whose piercing gaze few cared to
encounter; but Hassan met it with a calm and untroubled look.
“Mashallah! a noble-looking youth,” muttered he to himself, after
scanning the athletic yet graceful proportions of the figure before
him. He then turned to his dragoman, saying—
“That youth is surely not an Arab. Of what race think you he may
be?”
Before the dragoman could reply, Hassan, addressing the Viceroy,
said—
“It is right that your Highness should know that I understand
Turkish, lest you should say anything not intended for my ear.”[36]
“Ha! ha! I forgot that he had been in Alexandria some years,” said
the Viceroy in a low tone. He then added aloud, “Hassan—for so I
hear you are called—whence do you come?”
“I was bred in the tents of your friends the Oulâd-Ali,” replied the
youth.
“A proud and a stubborn set of rogues they are,” muttered the
Viceroy in an undertone. He then continued aloud, knitting his
shaggy brows as he spoke, “You are accused of having struck and
nearly killed one of my kawàsses. What have you to say to the
charge?”
“It is true, and he deserved it,” replied Hassan.
“Deserved it!” repeated Mohammed Ali, his eye kindling with fire.
“Do you dare, youngster, to laugh at my beard, and to correct my
servants at your pleasure?”
“Mohammed Ali,” said the youth, with manly simplicity, “I have
been taught to venerate and not to laugh at a beard silvered by
time. How, then, should I not honour yours, for I have longed to see
you from my childhood, having heard of your skill and courage in
war and your generosity in peace? But your Highness cannot know
and cannot be answerable for the insolence of all your servants. Had
you been where I was when that cowardly fellow threw a stone at
the head of the young lady beside you, you would not have beaten
him—you would have cut his head off.”
“By the head of my father!” said the Viceroy, pleased rather than
offended at the unusual boldness of Hassan’s speech—“By the head
of my father! I believe the boy is right. I have heard the whole story
from these strangers and from the rais, and though I was prepared
to be angry with you, I now acquit you from blame. Where are you
going to in Cairo, and what commission have you from our good
merchant the Hadji?”
“I am going with a letter from him,” said Hassan, “to Delì Pasha.”
“Delì [mad], well named,” said the Viceroy. “I can guess; it is
about horses. Have you the letter with you? Let me see it.”
Hassan with some hesitation withdrew the letter from a small silk
bag which he carried in the folds of his girdle, and handed it to the
Viceroy, who, without the slightest ceremony, opened it, and gave it
to the interpreter to read to him, which he did in a tone audible only
to the Viceroy himself.
“It is all right,” he said. “Give it back to Hassan, and let him take it
on to Delì Pasha.”
“Pardon me,” said Hassan; “I cannot receive it so. Delì Pasha
might suspect me of having opened it. Let your Highness’s secretary
write in the margin that it was opened by your order, and reseal it
with your seal.”
“By Allah!” said Mohammed Ali, “the youth has brains, as well as
goodly limbs. Call the khaznadâr.”[37] When that officer entered, the
Viceroy, giving him the letter, whispered a few instructions in his ear,
and he left the room.
It had not escaped the Viceroy’s quick eye that Hassan had
evinced some awkwardness or constraint in opening the silk bag
containing the letter and replacing it in his girdle, and he said to him
—
“These Frank travellers tell me that, while you were attacking the
kawàss on that boat, you received some blows and a stab from one
of the crew. Is this so?”
“It is true,” replied Hassan; “but the blows were nothing, and the
stab was of little consequence; the bleeding from it was soon
stopped.”
“Does it hurt you now?” demanded the Pasha.
“A little,” he replied. “But it is not worth your Highness’s notice.”
“You are a madcap,” said the Viceroy; “and young blood thinks
nothing of wounds. Raise up your left arm to your head.”
Hassan tried to obey, but the arm fell powerless at his side.
 “Ha!” said the Pasha, “I knew it was so.” Then turning to his
interpreter, who was also a Doctor, he continued, “Hakim Bashi, take
him into another room and examine his wound, and while you are
away let that Greek come in again to interpret. His tongue will not
run so fast now.”
The Doctor conveyed Hassan to his own apartment, and the
conversation was resumed through the medium of Demetri, who had
been so thoroughly abashed by his first rebuff that he would not risk
a second, but performed his interpreting duties with an accuracy
which surprised himself—for he did not add more than one-third
from his own head.
A quarter of an hour, then half an hour, passed away, and still
neither the Doctor nor his patient returned. Several cups of coffee
had been presented, and nearly an hour had elapsed ere the Hakim
Bashi entered the room alone.
“Come here!” cried out the impatient Viceroy. “By Allah! your
absence has been long. Where is the youth?”
“I left him lying on a divan in my room, your Highness, and he
must not be moved for at least twenty-four hours.”
“Was his hurt, then, so bad?” inquired the Pasha.
“It was such,” said the Doctor, “that if your Highness had not
desired me to examine and dress the wound, in a few days the
amputation of his arm at the shoulder might have been necessary. I
found on the top of the shoulder a large blue circle, which convinced
me that there was something seriously wrong below. I was obliged
to cut it open, and to cut deep, too. Then I took my probes and
began to examine the bottom of the wound. As the inflammation
was great, the pain must have been most acute; but, my lord, I
never saw such a youth. He remained as firm and unmoved as if he
had been made of wood or stone; and in the middle of the operation
he said to me with a smile, ‘Hakim Bashi, Mashallah! what an eye
our Prince has got.’ At last my instrument met with some hard
substance, which, with some trouble, I succeeded in reaching with a
forceps, and I drew it out. It proved to be the point of the dagger
with which he had been stabbed, and which, encountering the bone,
had broken off. Here it is.” So saying, he produced to the Viceroy
about half an inch of the point of a steel dagger.
“Aferin! aferin!” (bravo! bravo!) said the Viceroy. “Well have you
done, my good Hakim Bashi. The young man will recover the use of
his arm now.”
“Yes, if it be the will of Allah. But he must remain at least twenty-
four hours in the position in which I have placed him. I shall dress
the wound once or twice, and at this hour to-morrow I can tell your
Highness whether he is fit to pursue his journey.”
“What do you think?” said Mohammed Ali, addressing Mr Thorpe;
“if I had two or three regiments composed of fellows like this
Hassan, might I not march to—any part of the world?” Another
termination was on his lips, but he checked it, and substituted the
vague phrase. A slight smile might have been noticed on the face of
the medical interpreter, who well knew the word that had nearly
escaped his chief, although the idea was not carried into execution
until many years had passed.
“I have travelled in many countries,” replied Mr Thorpe, “and can
assure your Highness that men of the stature, strength, and
symmetry of Hassan are rare everywhere; but your Highness knows
better than I do, and has proved it to the world, that however
advantageous to the individual may be the possession of these
qualities, in an army there is nothing but discipline among the men,
and skill in their commander, that can ensure success.”
“May your life be long!” said the Viceroy, acknowledging the
compliment; “but now you must tell me what you wish to do, for you
see this Hassan cannot go forward for a day or two. Will you wait for
him, or will you pursue your journey, and I will have him sent on in
the first boat that passes?”
“Nay,” said Mr Thorpe, “we are not so hurried but that we can wait
for a day; and it would be unkind to leave him behind, as he
received his wound in defending us.”
“Be it so,” replied the Pasha; “and there is another advantage in
your staying. The Governor of Damietta has written me word that a
Christian kassis[38] is coming up the river on his way to the South.
They say he is a very learned man, and has been some years in
these countries: perhaps you might like to join him to your party?”
“Willingly,” replied Mr Thorpe, “if he arrives in time. Meanwhile, I
will take my leave, having trespassed too much on your Highness’s
time.” So saying, he arose, but the Viceroy would not let him go until
he had made him promise to come again on the morrow to
breakfast.
The Thorpe party returned to their boat, and spent the remainder
of the day in talking over the occurrences of the morning, and in
discussing the character and qualities of the remarkable man whom
they had seen for the first time.
A few hours later Demetri came into the cabin and stated that the
Viceroy’s interpreter was without, accompanied by a stranger. Orders
having been given for his immediate admission, he came in and said
to Mr Thorpe—
“I have been charged by the Viceroy to present to you Mr Müller,
concerning whom his Highness spoke to you; and I do it with much
pleasure, as he is a friend of mine, and a most worthy person.”
The new-comer was apparently about forty-five years of age. His
countenance was intelligent and benevolent, and his complexion,
from long exposure to sun and weather, was tanned almost to the
hue of an Arab. On his head he wore what had once been a German
cap, but which, from the folds of grey serge wrapped around it,
might almost pass for a turban; and his beard, which was bushy and
slightly grizzled, fell nearly half-way to his waist. His outer dress was
composed of a long robe or gaberdine of dark-grey cloth, with loose
sleeves, and confined at the waist by a leathern girdle, from which
depended a bag, made from the skin of an antelope, and containing
all the sundries which the good missionary most frequently required
in his long excursions in the forest and desert. His sandals were of
undressed hide, and he had made them himself; and he carried in
his hand a stout staff which he had brought from the Abyssinian
woods, and which had been his constant companion in many a
remote peregrination.
The two visitors remained some time, and the conversation turned
on Egypt and the wilder regions to the southward, with all of which
Müller seemed so familiar, and described them with so much truthful
simplicity, that the Thorpe party were delighted with him.
On the following day they returned to breakfast with the Pasha,
and were glad to learn that Hassan had passed a quiet night, and
that the inflammation had so far subsided that he might go on board
without risk.
“I have no fear,” said the medical interpreter, “of any bad
consequences now that you have agreed on going with Müller; he
has had so much experience that he is half a Doctor himself:
indeed,” he added, smiling, “I doubt whether he has not more skill
than many who hold the diploma.”
The breakfast passed as agreeably as that of the preceding day,
and after it Hassan was summoned into the Pasha’s presence. He
came in with his left arm in a sling. His Highness spoke kindly to
him, and after receiving the thanks of the youth for the attention
shown to him by the interpreter, the latter was desired by the chief
to reseal and restore to Hassan the letter from the merchant to Delì
Pasha, adding in the margin that it had been opened by himself,
and, in conclusion, he whispered a few words in his ear, to which the
interpreter only replied by the customary “On my head be it.”
A few minutes sufficed to execute this order, and when the
interpreter returned the letter to Hassan, he at the same time
presented another to Mr Thorpe, informing him that it contained an
order to the Kiahya Pasha[39] to furnish his party with an escort to
the Pyramids, and a guard while remaining there. His Highness also
said that on their return from Upper Egypt he should probably be at
Shoobra,[40] and he hoped they would come to see him there.
Mr Thorpe having duly expressed his thanks for his Highness’s
hospitality and kindness, now rose to take his departure, and Hassan
came forward and touched his forehead with the skirt of the
Viceroy’s pelisse; Mohammed Ali looked at him with a smile, and said
—
“Good fortune attend you, Hassan—a mad follower going to join a
mad lord—but you are a good lad, and I am pleased with you.”
They all retired to their boat, Hassan taking an opportunity before
they left to thank the medical interpreter for the service he had
rendered him in restoring him the use of his arm.
 Our party pursued their way merrily towards Cairo, Mr Thorpe’s
impatience to see his beloved pyramids becoming every hour more
uncontrollable.
Müller’s canjah[41] kept company with them, and it had been
agreed before they started that he should pass the day on board the
large boat and at night sleep on his own; by this means he was
enabled every day to dress Hassan’s shoulder according to the
advice given him by the medical interpreter.
The voyage was slow, and unaccompanied by incidents of interest
to any excepting our friend Demetri, who daily landed at some
village to purchase milk, fowls, and a lamb for the party; and as he
only put them down in his account at one hundred per cent over the
cost price, Mrs Thorpe, instead of complaining of the charges, only
expressed her wonder at the cheapness of provisions. We shall not
be surprised at the good lady’s satisfaction when we remember that
at the period of which we write one hundred eggs were bought for a
piastre,[42] a couple of fowls for the same amount, and a sheep for
five piastres.
We may here insert a few leaves from Emily’s journal:—
“We have found the Missionary Müller a great addition to our
party; he is the best, and the queerest, and the cleverest creature I
ever beheld; he really seems to me to know everything. He has
travelled a great deal in Nubia and the adjoining regions, and speaks
several of those barbarous languages. His most constant companion
on our boat is Hassan. I could not resist asking him the other day,
after a conversation which seemed to me to have lasted above an
hour, what he could find to interest him so much in Hassan’s
conversation, and whether it was about fighting and hunting.
“‘No,’ he replied, with a good-humoured smile, ‘it was about
religion.’
“‘Religion!’ I exclaimed in astonishment; ‘I can understand that he
should listen to you on such a subject, but I observed that he spoke
more and more vehemently than you did yourself.’
“‘True, lady; but I could not blame him, for I attacked, and he
defended, his faith. I had before observed in him so much
unselfishness, modesty, and such a love of truth that I thought it my
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