Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/40

20 standards of white silk, striped with red, were carried before him to the mosque, from whence he went to his own house to receive the compliments of his friends, in the afternoon of that day I went to pay my respects to him, and found him sitting on a large wooden elbow-chair, at the head of two files of naked savages, who made an avenue from his chair to the door. He had nothing upon him but a coarse cotton shirt, so dirty that, it seemed, all pains to clean it again would be thrown away, and so short that it scarcely reached his knees. He was very tall and lean, his colour black, had a large mouth and nose; in place of a beard, a very scanty tuft of grey hairs upon the point of his chin; large, dull, and heavy eyes; a kind of malicious, contemptuous, smile on his countenance; he was altogether of a most stupid and brutal appearance. His character perfectly corresponded with his figure, for he was a man of mean abilities, cruel to excess, avaricious, and a great drunkard.

my firman.—The greatest basha in the Turkish empire would have risen upon seeing it, kissed it, and carried it to his forehead; and I really expected that Omar Aga, for the day he bore that title, and received the caftan, would have shewn this piece of respect to his master. But he did not even receive it into his hand, and pushed it back to me again, saying, "Do you read it all to me word for word."—"I told him it was Turkish; that I had never learned to read a word of that language."—"Nor I either," says he; "and I believe I never shall." I then gave him Metical Aga's letter, the Sherriffe's, Ali Bey's, and the Janizaries letters. He took them all together in both his hands, and laid them unopened beside him, saying, "You should