CHAPTER II.

Alexandria-A well-meant effort at the poetical—An artistic discussion-Perspective and Ru-tew-shan-Odours of Araby-The bombardment-Alexandria of the Ptolemies-Rhacotis-Heptastadium-Museum-Library-The oldest street in the world-The Soma-The Paneum-Theatre-Canopic Gate-Cæsareum— Nineteenth-century Vandals-Pompey's Pillar-Serapeum.

THE

HE next morning at daybreak, the Maris was steaming over the rocky bar into Alexandria harbour. To the Sketcher, with his strongly imaginative temperament, all things alike, old and new, were objects of delight. The low sandy shore to the west; the little villas of Ramleh to the east; the ungainly windmills and hideous palace of Mex; even the dilapidated stuccoed Ras el Tin itself seemed bathed in Oriental splendour. The pilot's "half-a-speed-astern" impressed him. "It had," he said, "precisely that mellifluous guttural sound which he had always associated with Arabic;" and it required some argument from Ulster to convince him that he was mistaken. As for the Scribbler, he had a preoccupied air, as of one who had been wearied with midnight study. It was abstractedly that he answered his companion's eager inquiries; uncontradicted, he allowed the Turtle to point to a factory chimney as Pompey's Pillar, and to expatiate upon the unmistakable grace of what he called "the Monolith;" and even when, later, one of the Doves remarked that the Monolith was smoking, his smile was unusually grave. He submitted with unwonted meekness to the obstreperous appeals of the numerous Alis and Mahomets, as they divided his portmanteau among them and struggled for his person. It was with a sigh of relief that he escaped from the Custom-House, seized the Sketcher by the arm, and, pointing to a Maltese engaged in a scuffle with a Greek, began as follows: "Do you see Abn Hassan at the city gate? and there is Haroun el Raschid quietly coming up in that disguise of a city merchant. There is Sinbad the porter, too, hurrying to Sinbad the sailor; these minarets make the city so beautiful; the heavy mound-like domes".

The Sketcher was disturbed; in the dirty, semi-European faces around him he could recognise none of the wonders described by his ordinarily practical

THE SCRIBBLER'S ATTEMPT.

15 friend; besides, the words sounded familiar to him. "There's something like that in an American book," he said.

"Good heavens! you've read it, then! Why, I sat up all last night learning pages on purpose to please you; and there's lots more of it," he added pathetically; "but what's the use?"

"None whatever, my friend. and become practical. That 97

I too have been striving to change my skin pounds make a piaster,

or 97 piasters a pound, I am convinced, but I cannot remember which. Let us give it up. Keep you to the practical side of this trip, and leave to me the artistic! Is it a bargain ?"

"Agreed," said the other; "I will write fact, and you shall paint pictures."

"Let us hope, at least," said the Fond One, "that the facts will be as true as Art."

"As true as Art! As if Art, or painting, at least, were ever true. Your truest picture is a framed untruth!

"The Scribbler is only happy when indulging in paradoxes," explained his friend.

"Paradox! do you call that a paradox which is selfevident. Take this sketch now," he continued, taking the block from the Sketcher's hands; "what is that but a conventional representation of a street? That house is a hundred yards away, this one is ten yards off, and you represent them on a plane. You call it drawn in perspective; but what is perspective but a term invented to get over the difficulty? Your educated eye, as you call it, recognises its rules; but the Chinese eye is just as educated, only with other rules; so he ignores your perspective, draws in accordance with rules of his own, called Ru-tew-shan, and equally thinks he has got over the difficulty."

"But I see no difficulty to get over," said the Sketcher.

"Of course you don't. Your eyes have been so educated, that to you there is nothing absurd in a European picture drawn in accordance with the rules of perspective, just as to the Chinaman there is nothing absurd in his pictures. drawn according to the rules of Ru-tew-shan. None the less the one and the other is equally untrue to nature, and equally false. If you want a proof, show a child of artistically uneducated parents that porter, and ask what he is. He will say, a man carrying a trunk tied on to his head, and a very shabby bag in

B

16

LAWS OF PERSPECTIVE.

his hand. From such a description you may recognise that it is a porter carrying my modest luggage. Now, show this sketch, which you all doubtless recognise, to the same child, and ask him what it is. He will say it is a white sheet of paper with black marks on it. Turn it right way up or upside down, and he will say the same-a sheet of paper with black marks on it, that's what he would say; and he would be right, for that's precisely what it is;" and he returned it to the disgusted artist.

44

"You seem, sir," said the Turtle, "to have given this subject considerable and lengthy study."

"I have," said the Scribbler; "in fact," he added in an undertone, "ever since that fellow began pulling about my baggage; and now that he's done, we may as well go."

The rest of the party expressed an intention of going in. carriages, but the Sketcher vowed that he could descend to nothing so occidental, and ordered camels. Nothing more resembling them than donkeys could, however, be found; and as the rest stoutly refused this mode of conveyance, a compromise was effected. The least disreputable-looking Mahomet was intrusted with the luggage, to take to the Hotel Abbat, A Native Shayal. and the whole party agreed to walk. The resolution was carried out not without persistent opposition from numerous donkey-boys, who loudly vociferated the excellent qualities of their beasts. Two of them, respectively named "Bradlaugh" and the "Bishop of London," were finally loaded with the luggage, and ambled ahead in genial fellowship, urged thereto with language of a character which even the Sketcher could not conscientiously mistake for Arabic.

worse.

The way from the harbour leads through narrow streets, filled with the offscourings of all nations, and pervaded by an odour to which one becomes rapidly accustomed in Egypt; its basis is unmistakable dirt-rich Nile mud, but adulterated with saturation of garlic, peppermint, arachi, putrid fish, and In different parts of the country, one or other of these extra ingredients predominates over the rest; but they are always all present in a more or less degree, and combine every odour which decomposed animal or vegetable matter is capable of producing. The Scribbler was useful as a guide, and comparatively cheerful; for he explained that he had already gone through all the diseases which were inevitable to first-comers, and so felt personally safe. On the left side of the narrow street up which they passed, he was able to point