An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids | Page 3

Nubia. To this Mr. Damer had answered nothing but "Oh!" which Miss
Dawkins had not found to be encouraging.
But she had not on that account despaired. To a married man there are
always two sides, and in this instance there was Mrs. Damer as well as
Mr. Damer. When Mr. Damer said "Oh!" Miss Dawkins sighed, and
said, "Yes, indeed!" then smiled, and betook herself to Mrs. Damer.
Now Mrs. Damer was soft-hearted, and also somewhat old-fashioned.
She did not conceive any violent affection for Miss Dawkins, but she
told her daughter that "the single lady by herself was a very nice young
woman, and that it was a thousand pities she should have to go about so
much alone like."
Miss Damer had turned up her pretty nose, thinking, perhaps, how
small was the chance that it ever should be her own lot to be an
unprotected female. But Miss Dawkins carried her point at any rate as
regarded the expedition to the Pyramids.
Miss Damer, I have said, had a pretty nose. I may also say that she had
pretty eyes, mouth, and chin, with other necessary appendages, all
pretty. As to the two Master Damers, who were respectively of the ages
of fifteen and sixteen, it may be sufficient to say that they were
conspicuous for red caps and for the constancy with which they raced
their donkeys.
And now the donkeys, and the donkey boys, and the dragomans were

all standing at the steps of Shepheard's Hotel. To each donkey there
was a donkey-boy, and to each gentleman there was a dragoman, so
that a goodly cortege was assembled, and a goodly noise was made. It
may here be remarked, perhaps with some little pride, that not half the
noise is given in Egypt to persons speaking any other language that is
bestowed on those whose vocabulary is English.
This lasted for half an hour. Had the party been French the donkeys
would have arrived only fifteen minutes before the appointed time. And
then out came Damer pere and Damer mere, Damer fille, and Damer
fils. Damer mere was leaning on her husband, as was her wont. She
was not an unprotected female, and had no desire to make any attempts
in that line. Damer fille was attended sedulously by Mr. Ingram, for
whose demolishment, however, Mr. Damer still brought up, in a loud
voice, the fag ends of certain political arguments which he would fain
have poured direct into the ears of his opponent, had not his wife been
so persistent in claiming her privileges. M. Delabordeau should have
followed with Miss Dawkins, but his French politeness, or else his fear
of the unprotected female, taught him to walk on the other side of the
mistress of the party.
Miss Dawkins left the house with an eager young Damer yelling on
each side of her; but nevertheless, though thus neglected by the
gentlemen of the party, she was all smiles and prettiness, and looked so
sweetly on Mr. Ingram when that gentleman stayed a moment to help
her on to her donkey, that his heart almost misgave him for leaving her
as soon as she was in her seat.
And then they were off. In going from the hotel to the Pyramids our
party had not to pass through any of the queer old narrow streets of the
true Cairo--Cairo the Oriental. They all lay behind them as they went
down by the back of the hotel, by the barracks of the Pasha and the
College of the Dervishes, to the village of old Cairo and the banks of
the Nile.
Here they were kept half an hour while their dragomans made a bargain
with the ferryman, a stately reis, or captain of a boat, who declared with
much dignity that he could not carry them over for a sum less than six

times the amount to which he was justly entitled; while the dragomans,
with great energy on behalf of their masters, offered him only five
times that sum.
As far as the reis was concerned, the contest might soon have been at
an end, for the man was not without a conscience; and would have been
content with five times and a half; but then the three dragomans
quarrelled among themselves as to which should have the paying of the
money, and the affair became very tedious.
"What horrid, odious men!" said Miss Dawkins, appealing to Mr.
Damer. "Do you think they will let us go over at all?"
"Well, I suppose they will; people do get over generally, I believe.
Abdallah! Abdallah! why don't you pay the man? That fellow is always
striving to save half a piastre for me."
"I wish he wasn't quite so particular," said Mrs. Damer, who was
already