Evening star., 1933-08-13
Domestic Comedy ON the Nile


peacefully most of the day in the bottom
of the boat moored at my landing stage,
and most of the night on the roof OF
the boat house; and, indeed, he was such
q magnificent sleeper that often he
would row me half way across the river
before consciousness dawned in his eyes.
Then there was another dreamy fellow
with a satchel, who sauntered to and
from the post Office with the mail and
was sent on errands when he could be
found.
His brother was the leisurely and dlga
nified laundry man and shoe cleaner; q
cousin of his was the lamp man, slightly
sooted and smelling family of parafhn.
whose business in the twilight seemed
to be to smear the outside of the lamps
with oil. trim the wicks so that they
would smoke, and touch the furniture
with his oily fingers. In the mornings
he also was the garbage remover, inkpot
filler and window cleaner.
There was night watchman with q
gun, who, from time to time, walked In
his sleep around the house in the black
Egyptian darkness or in the silver moon-
light, and, If he happened to wake up.
sharply challenged anything suspicious,
such as clothes on the line or the new
pump or cats. If he tripped up and
his gun went of, most of his colleagues
crawled out of odd places where they
were sleeping and gathered around him,
loosely gesticulating and whispering,
while dogs barked and the town-guards
called to one another in the distance.
AS say, never quite knew what the
rest of the staff did; but, including
my two native secretaries, there must
have been about 20 persons in the house,
hold.
My personal servant, HaSsan, was the
only one who was not half asleep. What
kept him awake was his pride of office;
for when I first engaged him he was
merely one of crowd of servants in
hotel, and his sudden elevation to po-
sition of dignity and trust aroused in
him very passion to please.
The first time he waited on me at table
In my house I was dumbfounded to hear
the most deafening clatter of knives,
spoons and forks on the sideboard, and,
turning round, saw that he was lifting
up punches of six or more spoons and
deliberately dropping them onto the
forks or knives, and then picking up
the forks and dropping them on the
spoons. asked him what on earth he
was doing, and he replied that he was
making noise like hotel.
In other ways, too, he endeavored to
introduce spirit of good cheer. Once,
in the early days of his service, he placed
before me fiat pie with lump on top
of it like large Easter egg, made of
hard dough; and leaning over me,
breathing heavily with excitement, he
hoped two of the most bedraggled spar.
rows have ever seen; one of them f1uts
tered as far as my plate and there COL
lapsed on its back, and the other zig
Jagged into the sugar bowl and thence
to the floor.
Some weeks later, when was giving
a dinner party, he appeared with broad
belt Of red flannel around his waist upon
which was embroidered In large letters
. of yellow silk the legend, mister
Weigall's Boy" written like that, in Eng
lish, with noughts and crosses all
round it. He had had it made at his
own expense in the bazaar, so that all
should know he was my servant. It
was most embarrassing.
Shortly after this a middle-aged Eng
nsh lady of impeccable character and
high social rank who was on a visit to
Luxor, came to lunch with me; but as
she arrived somewhat early, and was