Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/293

Rh Bible, and began to tell them a story. It was "the old, old story" of the creation of the world, of the fall of man, and of the redemption by Christ, to which, coming in this new dress, they pricked up their ears and listened eagerly, as if listening to a story of the Arabian Nights, often interrupting him with an exclamation of wonder, like the Turkish "Mashallah!" Thus he had held them listening spell-bound till midnight, and in one case till two o'clock in the morning. After this, who shall say that the Gospel, brought in wisdom and in love, may not reach even the descendants of Ishmael, whose hands are against every man, and every man's hand against them?

In the afternoon word came to our tent that the Governor had sent to announce his intention to pay us a visit. An Oriental visit, especially from a high official, is a very formal affair, and it would be the extreme of rudeness to refuse to receive it. Accordingly we repaired to the missionary's house to await his coming. At the appointed hour he appeared, with a number of attendants (the badge of his office) who formed a circle round, but never presumed to utter a word. Coffee was brought and a long narghileh (in which the smoke is inhaled through water) for His Excellency. With an Oriental this is an indispensable preliminary to conversation; and when his lips had closed on the amber mouthpiece, he was in the serenest mood, and the flow of wisdom began. I sat on the sofa beside him, and with an occasional inquiry to draw him out, had little more to do than to listen to what he had to say. But that was full of interest, for the conversation took a wide range. The Effendi spoke with the utmost freedom of political affairs in the East. He appreciated all the difficulties of Turkey, but yet was not without hope for it, and dwelt with relief and pleasure on every redeeming feature in the situation. From Turkey