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                                               "My Life and My Travels"
By Heinrich Brugsch

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                         My Life and My Travels
                                   by
                            Heinrich Brugsch
Reprint of Second Eddition
Berlin 1894

                         TO HIS CHARMING BENEFACTRESS
 Helena Bruson
The Wife of Geheimrat Bruson
in Magdeburg-Buckau
Dedicated with depest respect

The Author
Chapter I.

The Early Years

     These days, whenever I travel on the Berlin streetcar the short
stretch between Friedrichstrasse and the Exchange, I always turn my head
to the left, as soon as the car has left the short Universitatstrasse
behind.  After a few seconds it rattles past an insignificant, but
longdrawnout twostory building that forms the south side of an
extensive barracks laid out in a quadrangle, whose north wing, at the
opposite end, reaches to the banks of the Spree River. My eyes rest each
time on the first story, and I count the fifth window from the right
corner.  In the simple and plain room to which the window belongs, I saw
for the first time, on the 18th of February 1827, the light of the
world, and a soldier family greeted the arrival of its firstborn with
the most ardent wishes for his life and his future. The barracks was at
that time, as it still is at present, allotted to the quartering of
troops, and the foot artillery and the second Uhlan Guard Regiment were
stationed there. Also the officers of the socalled Field Rifle Corps
occupied a small wing on the south side near the Uhlans, quite close to
my birthplace.  A broad, transparent wooden lattice formed the border of
the passage between the riflemen and the Uhlans. The abovementioned
south part of the entire building was designated by the Berliners as the
"White Uhlan Barracks," and the north as the Artillery Barracks.
inner court surrounded by the rectangle stood blue painted cannon with
their glittering brass barrels, while the entire west side of the court
was lined with long stalls for the horses of both troop divisions. The
courtyard in all its length and breadth offered me, in the first years
of my childhood, a splendid playground for my games, and at the same
time afforded me the daily view of military spectacles through the
exercising and parading of the soldiers, in which I found the highest
satisfaction. Of course my complete partiality was directed to the White
Uhlans, among whom my father, a dignified, handsome man, occupied at the
time of birth the post of quartermaster.  I felt a certain uneasiness
about the artillery, because I thought the cannot might be loaded, and
during the exercises might sometime go off.  That, however, did not
prevent me from paying a visit to the displayed cannon during the free
hours, in order to climb up on their wheels, to slide back and forth on
the polished barrels and try to ride them. At my baptism, three officers
of the regiment were invited as witnesses.  Although my father belonged,
according to his faith, to the Catholic Church, he preferred to deliver
me to the community of Evangelical Christians, and thereby fulfill the
request of my Protestant mother, Dorothea.  She was a native of
Domersleben, near Magdeburg, and daughter of the house steward Schramm,
who had performed his royal service
Prince Louis of Prussia until the latter's death in the battle of
Saalfeld. To my Silesianborn and strictly Catholic grandfather, Johann
Karl Brugsch, an old retired soldier who had entered the army under
Frederick the Great, and later had taken part in all the Prussian
campaigns, both unsuccessful and successful, against Napoleon I, my
proposed Evangelical baptism seemed thoroughly improper, and he did
everything possible, although vainly, to dissuade my father from his
intention.  Toward my mother he harbored a particular resentment, since
he held her alone, as the originator of the change of religion in the
cradle, as responsible before God and men.  Up until his death, which
occurred in his 86th year, he could not be prevailed upon to change his
earlier standpoint, and to modify his irate disposition.  This laid the
ground for my later dissensions in the quiet family life. And so the
baptism of the infant was announced in the Evangelical Garrison Church
in Berlin, so that the holy rite might be performed on him, when an
unexpected event occurred, which pushed my Evangelical membership
completely into the background, and all because of the deference toward
a princely personage. During the last campaign against Napoleon I, the
Prince Heinrich von Carolath of Silesia had led a squadron known at that
time as the Vossisch Dragons, in which my grandfather served as
corporal, my own father and his six brothers
as volunteers.  In the course of the
campaigns in which the prince and his corporal had taken part together,
an extremely friendly relationship had grown up between them, which
became all the more deeply rooted when, on the battlefield of Leipzig,
the six brothers of my father sealed their devotion to king and
fatherland with their death, leaving my father as the last surviving
member of his time.  At his discharge from the regiment, after the
conclusion of peace, the deeply religious Prince made my father promise
to invite him as godfather at the baptism of his first child.  He would
in any case appear, and would not shrink from even a long journey. There
were at that time, not yet any comfortable railroad trains, and the
existing stagecoach connection between Berlin and Carolath required,
especially in the bad season, a great length of time.  Moreover, twelve
years had passed since the battle of Leipzig, and it was not to be
expected that the Prince would expose himself to the hardships of a
distant journey in a stagecoach, for the sake of baptism of a soldier's
child.  Nevertheless, my father had the godparent letter sent off
fourteen days before the baptism date, and early one Thursday came the
reply, that the Prince would appear punctually in the Catholic Church of
St. Hedwig in Berlin on the following Sunday in order to carry his
godchild in his arms. That struck me like a bolt out of a clear sky.  My
poor father could do nothing but rush to withdraw the
announcement in the Evangelical Garrison
Church of St. Hedwig, and make all preparations for the worthy reception
of the Prince.  I have the suspicion that a special note from my
grandfather of his princely friend may have furnished the reason for the
sudden change. Upon leaving the house of God, the Prince put a box into
the hand of the midwife who was carrying me, with instructions that its
contents  it was his portrait in miniature painting, on a gold chain 
be put on my small neck and that, thus adorned, I be placed in my
mother's arms.  Not until four years later did chance lead to the
discovery that the faithless midwife had thievishly kept the gem for
herself.  I cannot say whether this could not have been regarded as a
fateful omen for the future course of my life.  Many occasions offered
me ground for such a belief, but here I pass over them in silence. My
first years of childhood I spent, as I said, among White Uhlans.  One
robust soldier, a brave man named Streich, who later ended his days as a
respectable innkeeper in the town of Duben, had the job of nursemaid for
me, and since he had a real affection for me, so was I no less fond of
him, and always used to bewail his occasional absence with loud cries.
As soon as I learned to walk, he was relieved of his job.  The great
barracks courtyard was transformed into my restricted homeland, just as
far as my little legs could carry me around it.
     Gradually, my thirst for action
urged me into the outer world, first of all to the "Katzensteg," as the
presentday George Street was called in old Berlin.  On the south side
of the Uhlan quarters was built a long wooden wall blackened with pitch,
in the middle of which was a gate with a sentry post in front of it.
The wall cut off the Katzensteg on this side. Opposite stood small,
insignificant dwellings, here a house, there a house, also a pub was not
lacking, because of the proximity of the barracks  and in the gaps
between were laid out small gardens, in which green vegetables filled
the plots and yellow sunflowers, with their long stalks, provided the
chief decoration. On the nearby bank of the River Spree the eye fell
upon a small, open smithy.  Situated in close proximity to the water, it
aroused my highest admiration.  A leather bellows puffed into the
charcoal fire on the hearth, so that the sparks flew, at the anvil the
hammer of the smith fell upon the redglowing horseshoes, while the
horses to be shod stood in the middle of the sidewalk.  Since the sooty
fellows who managed the workshop belonged to my friends, the White
Uhlans, the picture seemed doubly homelike to me.  When I had a quarter
of an hour to spare, I stood by the iron railing on the bank of the
Spree near the smithy and admired the long row of "zillen," which were
laden with peat, bricks, or hay and straw, and made their slow wet way
on the inky black water. There was at that time still no thought of the new museum
buildings on the opposite
bank, and the Artem non odit nisi ignarus, or, as a famous
Berliner, known for his satire, read the last word:  Ignatius, did
not yet display its gilded letters under the gable of the later temple
of the Muses. The Katzensteg, like all Berlin at that time, had a rough
pavement, with disgraceful open gutters on both sides of the dam.  A
foulsmelling filth, not uncommonly mixed with the bodies of dead cats
and rats, like additions to the stew, reeked to heaven, and the green
grass, combined with delicate marigolds and sweet buttercups, grew in
abundance between the paving stones.  Among the houses on the street
facing the white Uhlans and my own birthplace was one that was
particularly hateful to me, and I avoided its vicinity for very valid
reasons.  It served as hospital for the regiment of the guard, and had
only a few rooms in which the sick lay, while several orderlies carried
out the instructions of the staff doctor.  One day I suffered from a
violent toothache; my father led me, without much ado, to the small
building, which stood in the middle of a sad little garden.  A sturdy
garde du corps planted me on a wooden stool, held me firmly with his
powerful left arms, while with his right hand he inserted a pair of
forceps into my mouth and tore out the suffering tooth by the roots.
Since then, I never again as a child complained of a toothache, for the
powerful method of cure remained constantly in my memory.
The continuation of the Katzensteg
across the present day Universitats and Stallstrasse showed on both
sides of the lane the sad view of wooden fences, which were only
interrupted by low houses of unattractive appearance.  On the lefthand
corner stood the Diorama of Gropius, a center of attraction of the first
rank for the showloving population of old Berlin in the winter season.
Especially during Christmas week, the attendance was quite
extraordinary.  Landscape panoramas with movable figures in the
foreground, the complete military manoeuvre of Kalisch of the combined
Russian and Prussian troops, comical scenes from daily life, with the
help of wax dolls were represented for the entertainment of the crowd;
musical bands with lifesized musicians composed of painted and clothed
wooden figures, and similar, mostly very harmless creations, formed the
most noteworthy objects next to a small folk theatre which the honored
public viewed with delight. Later the Diorama was removed to the
opposite corner, and the older building was turned into a studio for the
restoration of decorative pieces for the royal theater.  A great clock
in the gable served the neighbors and passersby as an undoubtedly
correct measure of time.  Both buildings came to an end.  The older one
was destroyed by fire; its successor, on the other hand, was torn down
and the free space used for the construction of royal stables.  As for
the founder of the Diorama, "the old Gropius," as he was popularly
called, was during my childhood years, a celebrated person in the eyes
of the Berliners.  I still remember
today his solid figure with its curly gray Goethe head.  Beside the
Diorama there ran a fence, behind which was situated Seeger's riding
school.  The aristocratic sports world of Berlin, at its head the
gentlemen officers, found here a favorite rendezvous, and even the Court
did not disdain to grace with its presence the tournaments and costume
spectacles that took place from time to time. Opposite stretched a long
wooden wall daubed with black pitch, like an outspread dirty towel, in
order to separate a vast, grass grown area from the street side.  The
women dried their washing on it, and the dear youngsters built the
mountains of sand or dug pitfalls of suitable depth.  Toward the left,
directly behind the broad gateway, rose an old barrack with the
headquarters of the Berlin funeral establishment of that time.  The
offices were on the ground floor, and the sinister carriages for bearing
the dead stood under an open shed with a high saddle roof made of wooden
planks nailed together.  The vehicles had the form of ordinary wooden
carriages, over which a black mourning cloth was spread.  At every
funeral, the corpse with its coffin suffered the most frightful shaking
up, but no one was troubled about that, and regarded the thing as
something inevitable or harmless. Concerning this shaking up, I can put
in a little word, since I and my playmates of the male and female sex
used to seize the favorable opportunity, at the departure of the
hearses, of slipping into the vehicle from behind, and having   '
a free ride on the rough pavement.  Our childish
bones were thoroughly jolted by it, but the goal had been reached, and
we felt more than happy. As far as the recollections of my childhood
reach, there still remains today in vivid memory the admiration with
which I used to regard three familiar figures of the old street life;
the lamplighter, the ragman, and the corner jobber. The lamplighter,
with his oildripping cart, passed across the Katzensteg when I went to
school in the early morning.  The greasy tin oil can took up the hind
pat of the rolling box; in the front part an oildipper hung on its
hook, lamp shears, an oil gauge, wicks and dirty rags reposed in a
wooden box provided with a cover that could be closed.  A wooden ladder
rested outside on the right side of the cart. A street lamp dangled from
a shapeless beam that was planted in the earth, and swayed to and fro in
a high wind.  Inside on the bottom rested the lamp, with whose cleaning
and filling the lamp man had to occupy himself.  The work required a
long time, and the phases in the progress of completion gave me material
for deep contemplation on the care of the street lamps of the great city
of Berlin. When there was no moon in the calendar, the same person
appeared in the evening, to fill his role as lamplighter. Then the
ladder rested on his left shoulder.  He climbed up on it to the height
of the lamp, dabbed the sulphur head of a    '
         0*((@@  Ԍmatch in a redpainted flask whose contents
consisted of asbestos and drops of vitriol.  In an instant, the match
caught fire, with which the wick was lighted, unless otherwise hindering
circumstances due to wind and rainy weather interfered. The appearance
of the ragman aroused special delight in us children.  When his whistle
sounded in the street, the young folk rushed into the house, to beg
hastily for linen rags and tatters from the dear mother.  The good man,
who pushed a sack and a longish wooden box before him on his cart, knew
his people well, and quietly awaited the return of the boys and girls.
The business of exchange was conducted with all seriousness, and for the
stuff delivered, the young folk received, according to their wish, a
gailyprinted sheet of pictures, tin rings with colored glass stones,
pins and similar things, handed over as of equal worth. The third street
figure which to my child's eyes seemed like a wondrous creature, was the
"Eckensteher" or corner jobbers of that time.  As his name implies, he
took his stand on the corners of the busiest streets; with particular
preference this serviceable spirit chose his place in the immediate
vicinity of a distillery or "destille," in the jargon of new Berlin, and
his red nose was evidence of the lively participation which he devoted
at intervals to the increase of business.  A shiny brass plate with a
number visible from afar was fastened to a broad band of bright
red   '        0*((@@  cotton on his left arm, and a strong
leather sling rested on his shoulder.  In his philosophical calm he
presented a counterpart to the Oriental dervish, and like the latter, he
was able to hold out in the warm sunshine the livelong day, with the
exception of the pauses in the neighboring schnapsshop, waiting for his
customers.  To the most famous examples of corner jobbers at that time
belonged Nante, with the number 22, who for years maintained his place
on Unter den Linden at the corner House of Grossen Friedreichstrasse,
opposite the Kranzler confectionery, and who, in a popular farce, "The
Corner Jobber Nante on Trial" played a leading role.  When the old
Beckmann, wellknown comedian, appeared in this piece in the
"Konigstadtisch" Theatre on Alexanderplatz, the seats all the way up to
Olympus were filled with joyful spectators.  It was the time in which
the tavernkeeper Drucker had the crazy idea of having his guests served
by waiters riding ponies, when the upperclass world used to gather "at
Kranzlelr's" or in the confectionery shops of Stehely, Josty,
Spargnapanl, or Meier, at the Gendarme Market, and when, at the
Colosseum on Old Jakobstrasse, gay masked balls were celebrated in the
winter season, at which even the Court did not hesitate to take part.
The highest nobility appeared in the midst of the burghers of Berlin,
without fear of being exposed to criticism in the newspapers the next
day.  At that time, to be sure, it was before 1848.
     Also at fires I was never missing.
A sudden conflagration, especially at night, provided the entire youth
of Berlin, from which I in no way excluded myself, with the enjoyment of
a shuddering pleasure.  The night watchmen tooted on their cowhorns, as
soon as a red glimmer flamed up against the sky, slowly the house doors
opened, and neighbor tailor, shoemaker, and other resident members of
the guilds appeared in the costume of firemen.  A peculiar dark tin
helmet with an upwardcurving projection at the back covered their necks
and a loosefitting coat of firm, greenish black cotton enveloped their
limbs.  Some went to the nearest engine house to prepare the
extinguishing apparatus for taking out, others set out for the
cabstalls, in order to remind the owners of their duty, namely, to
harness the wornout nags to the watering engine. Still others took
possession of the fountains, called "Plumpen" in order to have the
little tubs, which were filled with dirty water, set on a wooden sledge
and dragged by other horses through the streets to the scene of the
fire.  Whatever could walk was on its legs, and naturally not the last
were the youngsters, who particularly at night enjoyed the red light of
the dripping torches, and merrily trotted along beside the engines and
fire tubs. At big fires the actual work of quenching them was a
fruitless task, even when the nearest spectators, who stood gaping
about, were forced by the firemen, without distinction of persons, to
set the pumps in motion.  I saw with my own   '
        0*((@@  eyes the frightful burning of the old milldam,
at which nearly 300 people met their death by fire, and later witnessed
the great fire of the Opera House, at which for the first time a steam
hose performed its but slight service, for it lacked the most essential
weapon, namely water, and I need not for my part, assert that at the
time the technique of extinguishing fires was carried out with the most
insufficient means. Berlin, with its 150,000 inhabitants, had remained,
in spite of its renown as a royal residence and as center of an
uncommonly lively intellectual life, a small town, which could be
compared least of all with the worldcities Paris and London.  The old
encircling wall, of which remnants have still remained to the present
day in the neighborhood of the Charity Building, cramped its expansion.
It was an event, when the cab with the number 100 was seen in the
streets for the first time. Beyond the ugly brick girdle with its
crumbling plaster began the open country, although, with the sold
exception of the Tiergarten, is not a very attractive condition.  The
dusty and sandy roads, mostly bordered by hawthorn or hedged in by
thistles and stinging nettles, led to the nearest villages in the
neighborhood.  Onehorse carts, which stopped at certain gates and whose
drivers greeted each new passenger who got on as the last before the
imminent departure, provided the connection with Charlottenburg and
other more distant recreation spots, in which "die Weisse" and
socalled   '        0*((@@  "Bayersches" were served in
very simple gardens.  The region of the gallows was shunned by the
excursionists; only on the days of an execution the curious crowd,
already about midnight, streamed toward the dreadful spot, in order to
get a good place for the coming spectacle.  Men, women, and children,
laden with lunch baskets, poured out of the Rosenthal gate, and one
forgot all weariness in expectation of things to come.  It was a piece
of medieval life, which on such occasions was reflected in and outside
of Berlin. The public peace and order was taken care of by the gendarme
and the police commissioner, for both of whom I had a mighty respect.
The latter took the place of the presentday police lieutenant, and was
in his district, a wellknown personage, whom one met with due courtesy
and respect.  The gendarme performed his duty in the streets, and
directed  his stern eyes on everything unlawful and improper.  Even
smoking pipes and cigars in public was forbidden.  I still remember the
sensation which the notorious Lola Montez, during her short stay in
Berlin, caused at that time.  Accompanied by an English bulldog, the
proud Spaniard promenaded along Unter der Linden with a lighted
cigarette in her mouth and a riding whip in her hand.  The gendarme who
called her to account, she simply lashed with a whip across his bearded
face.  She was arrested and immediately expelled from Berlin.  Her
actions and her life, as is well known, subsequently gave her a bad
reputation.  While I was staying in America as
General   '        0*((@@  Commissioner of the Egyptian
government, the news of her death reached my ears.  She departed this
life in the bitterest misery, in a village in the vicinity of
Philadelphia. I could write a book on old Berlin, as it then was, so
faithfully preserved are my recollections of the city and its witty
inhabitants, my dear countrymen, had not others before me already
performed this task, and with more skillful pens than mine.  Besides, it
is not at all my purpose to tell the reader about the good old times,
but to place myself biographically in the foreground, although I feel
the difficulty of doing justice in a measure even to this task, in order
to awaken, not only among my friends but also those more distant, a
perhaps unmerited interest in my career.  My school years I may thereby
not pass over, for they provide the key to many a phenomenon in the
development of my character for which I would otherwise be able to find
no explanation. h# FIRST DAYS OF SCHOOLă Gradually I grew
into a sevenyearold boy.  Held to a strict military discipline by my
father, I was in no way pampered by mo mother.  In the meantime, there
was a change in the situation of my parents, in that my father was
transferred from the White Uhlans to the longnamed Elite Corps of the
Reserve Guard Army Gendarmerie, in which, as first sergeant major, he
assumed the post of officerincharge.  The troops, 24 in number, had
the rank of adjutants and the breast of each and every one of them was
decorated with war medals from
the   '        0*((@@  campaigns against Napoleon I.  As
for foreign decorations, most of them wore the Russian Medal of St.
Anna, which they had received during the frequent visits in Berlin of
the allpowerful Emperor Nicholas I.  I expressly mention the name of
this Prince, because for him I have to the present day preserved the
feeling of deepest gratitude for the further development of my
education. The Gendarmerie, to which my father belonged as leader until
the end of his life, was intended exclusively for service in the
immediate proximity of King Friedrich Wilhelm III.  Daily my father sent
an ordinance to the royal palace, which later Emperor Friedrich occupied
while still Crown Prince, after the old building of modest, bourgeois
appearance had been enlarged and architecturally ornamented. As soon as
Emperor Nicholas I arrived in Berlin, and this happened almost yearly,
he was put up in the old royal castle, and to my father regularly fell
the distinction of serving as honorary guard in the antechamber of the
Emperor.  My father possessed an extraordinary resemblance to the figure
of the Ruler of all the Russians, only the imperial giant topped him by
about a head, and his sympathetic features instilled in the allpowerful
one an unusual confidence in his Prussian honor guard.  The Emperor
loved to converse with him in the German language, and to inquire about
his family.  One day he expressed the wish to see both wife and child,
and mother and son were actually presented to him in the antechamber.
The   '        0*((@@  Emperor lifted me high with both
hands and kissed me on the forehead with the words "God bless you, my
child!"  Still today his form floats vividly before my eyes. The
magnanimity of the Czar rewarded the repeated services of my father in a
truly imperial manner.  There was a shower of downright precious gold
watches and snuffboxes set with brilliance, the latter not infrequently
filled with gold ducats.  The little treasure formed a solid capital,
which was piecemeal turned into cash when unusual expenditures were
necessary, and to those belonged the growing costs upon my entrance into
school, and other requirements for my further education and development.
I began my career in the school of old Marggraff and there had to live
through the first sorrows and joys of the confined existence outside of
the parental home.  The teachers were, on the whole, satisfied with the
young recruit, and only rarely did the hard ruler strike my outstretched
fingers or the slim cane my back.  I possessed too much sense of honor
to let myself be punished publicly before the assembled forces, and was
as attentive during the school lessons as I was industrious in my
parents' house.  My report cards varied between I and II, and the
majority of the merits offset the impression of the bad marks. My strict
father placed the highest value upon my fine and beautiful handwriting,
since he rightly claimed that it was the best recommendation in the
world, and that a well   '         0*((@@  ԫwritten letter
would find a much more friendly acceptance than a hastily thrown
together, illegible scribble.  I had to take private lessons with old
Heinslus, a kind of lettermaster, and not only learn the form and
arrangement of a letter according to all the rules of the at, but master
the exact distinctions, for example, between "Wohlgeboren," and
"Hochwohlgeboren," "Hochedelgeboren," etc., up to the highest and
loftiest ranks, to impress upon me the customary address and titles of
such, in order to make no serious mistakes in any situation that might
occur. When I visited my grandparents, who had set up their modest home
at Margratenstrasse 63, the same torture began anew.  The old gentleman
set me at the small table in the niche of the left window, drew out the
box with the neatly arranged writing materials, and the writing exercise
was carried on in the usual way.  If I sighed, when my grandfather
disappeared for a few minutes, my dear grandmother slipped a sixpence
into my pocket, and I continued, fortified in my slavish task.  The, as
I thought, honestly earned coin I spent on the purchase, not of sweets,
but of sheets of pictures which I colored, in order to create my own
world in miniature. A particular pleasure afforded me in my
grandparents' house was reading the family Bible, which was decorated
with numerous woodcuts, and before my delighted eyes conjured up the
life and works of the old inhabitants of the East.  I never wearied of
following the pictures to the
smallest   '        0*((@@  details, and even the spirit of
God, which the artist had represented in the form of a hoary, bearded
man with flowing robes, who floated over the waters, captivated me to an
unusual degree. The venerable Book of Books, which is still in my
possession to the present day, fascinated me, and to it I attribute the
first longing for an acquaintance with the peoples and lands of the
East, which gave so definite a direction to my entire later life.  For
that reason, moreover, it happened that a travel report of the Orient,
published at the instigation and expense of an Evangelical Missionary
Society  it was according to the description of a tailor named Borsum 
made an unbelievable impression on me, in spite of, or perhaps just
because of its simple, childlike style. I would have learned tailoring,
if it had offered me the prospect of a similar journey.  From that time
on, I saved all the groschen and pfenige from Grandmother and Aunt Ramm
together, rummaged through the antiquarian books displayed in the
vestibules of certain houses in Berlin, bought for little money a German
translation of Herodotus, and old travel descriptions, likewise
translated into German, of Pococke, Denon and Jorden.  These I read far
into the night, in order to comprehend to the fullest extent, the
wonders of the East according to the reports of those enviable
travelers. What was Berlin and its wonders to me, in comparison?  I
would have surrendered half the city for a single Theban
catacomb.   '        0*((@@  Ԍ     My entrance into the
French Gymnasium, which at that time was situated behind the royal
palace, was to become fateful for my youthful destiny.  Then under the
guidance of its cold director, the Consistorial Councilor Fournier, the
Gymnasium enjoyed a lively attendance, of which the offspring from the
lap of the French colony in Berlin provided the lion's share. I was
assigned to the lowest class of the Gymnasium, the Septima, and placed
under an Ordinarius or room teacher, who certainly is not to blame, that
I still wander in the light of the sun.  The aforesaid Ordinarius, a
Herr Kahlhelm, known from the year 1848 as one of the most zealous
supporters of the "Treubund," had served along with my father as a
soldier in the field, and newly resumed friendly contacts led to
discussions concerning the course of my further studies.  He contrived
to convince my father that only the education at the French Gymnasium
could open up to me a secure future, and so, as an eightyearold boy, I
went into the Septima class. If I had the childish faith, that in the
friend of my father I had indeed won a kind adviser and teacher, I had
reckoned the bill without the host.  In his hard, pinched features and
in his piercing eyes there reigned neither mildness nor benevolence, and
his heart lacked all those qualities that draw a student to the teacher
and win his affection.  My Ordinarius was a school tyrant of the worst
sort, and the stick and slap in the face were his only valid means of
instilling respect in the poor young one, and
of   '        0*((@@  exhorting him to attention and work.
My father had certainly made a mistake in turning me over completely to
the power of this man, and I could not complain at home about the
mistreatment I suffered, without exposing myself to a second course of
punishment.  In the mornings I received my sound thrashing, thorough
midday I was shut up without receiving any nourishment, and in the
afternoon my cruel tormentor threatened me with other cruel punishments.
Powerless against this brutal treatment, I, the eightyearold boy,
swore a sacred oath to myself, neither to write a line in school, nor to
study, and to follow the instruction with deaf ears.  For four years,
even later, after I had left the Gymnasium, I kept the vow, and as a
result, earned the most severe censure.  In the Septima Ordinarius I had
learned, in general, to hate every teacher most thoroughly. Before the
beginning of the Christmas holidays in 1834, I, as the lowest in the
Septima class, received the worst quarterly report, with number IV, but
in addition, from the Ordinarius, a handadministered memorandum of so
grievous a sort that the blood ran from my back and I sank down in
exhaustion.  After that, the class was dismissed, and I was kicked out
of the door. That was too much for me, poor youngster.  In bitter cold
and snow a foot deep, I wandered through the streets of Berlin, took the
road to Schoneberg, with the intention of fleeing to Magdeburg to beg an
uncle on my mother's side, who   '        0*((@@  lived
there, for compassion and shelter.  About 3 o'clock in the afternoon,
shortly before the Christmas festival, I had left Berlin; when I reached
Schoneberg it was already dark night.  I had no money to buy food, in
order to still my increasing hunger, and the icy cold penetrated my
shivering limbs.  But on I went, through snow and cold, across a dismal
heath, until about ten o'clock at night, I saw lights and took my way in
their direction.  I stumbled upon a tavern, in which drivers and
peasants were talking in the loudest voices. Frightened, I set my
shaking legs again in motion, in order to continue my journey.  I
staggered along the driveway, sank down suddenly like one dead, and my
benumbed body lay buried in the snow. What happened to me further, I
myself cannot say.  I only remember that peasants or farm hands who came
that way discovered me by chance, lifted me onto their wagon, and
carried me into the tavern, to warm me and revive me with food and
drink.  I was finally delivered to my deeply distressed parents, and
soon thereafter fell into a severe sickness that kept me in a bed for
long weeks. My tormenter, who was given the news of what happened, felt
so little remorse over it, that he clapped my father on the shoulder,
and with his satanic smile added "Believe me, that young one of yours
will one day decorate the gallows!" That was the amiable teacher to
whom, during a series of    '         0*((@@  Ԍyears, the
fate of the young and the shaping of tender minds were entrusted.  His
own punishment, however, was not to be spared him.  The father of a
Septima student who, according to the usual methods of the fine
Ordinarius which I have described, had been unspeakably mistreated,
conducted complaints to higher and highest places, and Herr K. received,
along with a welldeserved official censure, his dismissal from the
teaching profession. My father, for whom military discipline had entered
his flesh and blood, did not feel justified in making a complaint whose
outcome seemed dubious to him.  Moreover, he had turned me over to my
tormentor unconditionally, in the good faith that the latter, as a
former war comrade, deserved the fullest confidence. Fortunately, for
the education of the young, especially in our present time, such
examples of barbaric teachers are hardly thinkable any more, or they
would immediately be removed by the authorities. The wrath which I had
conceived against the collective teaching body was not to be put to rest
for a long time.  I was taken out of the Gymnasium and put into a public
school on Jagerstrasse which at that time flourished under the
leadership of its director, Gericke.  But what were school and teachers
to me?  Instead, I read the Greek classics in German translation,
steeped myself in travel reports and descriptions of the Levant, without
neglecting my regular
calligraphic   '        0*((@@  exercises under the eyes of
my father and grandfather. Everyone was astonished at my masterly
handwriting, and it afforded me the honor of performing faithful service
to my father as transcriber of his military reports. It was often
rigorous work, especially about the time approaching the New Year; then
it was a question of finishing the military register of the King's
Gendarmerie consisting of 24 men and its horse complement, this to be
laid out in tabulated form and containing a mass of statements,
requiring a considerable assortment of lines and words.  The lists had
to be executed in four copies, and the first copy was laid before the
King.  It was a triumph for my father, when even on the highest
authority the beauty of the handwriting was praised, but despite the
flattering praise from the mouth of my progenitor I could not free
myself from the imbibed poison of hatred toward the teaching profession
in general. HOW I DISCOVERED THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANSă I had
reached the age of about twelve, but I felt myself isolated, and avoided
playing games with my contemporaries. Besides, my health since my
peregrination had received a blow, and I often felt deathly weak.  And
yet I was aware of a nameless urge to create, and this eventually built
the bridge to my old Egyptian researches. The descriptions of the
wonders of ancient Egypt had made such an overpowering impression on me,
that all my thoughts and aspirations were directed to the knowledge of
the sources   '        0*((@@  for the investigation of
these wonders.  The Egyptian Museum opened the gates to this for me.
The small, at that time, but already very valuable royal collection of
Egyptian antiquities was located in a long, hothouselike building in
the midst of the shady trees of Monbijou Garden, on Oranienborger
Strasse. The Director, M. Passalacqua, an Italian born in Trieste, had
formed this collection during his long sojourn in Egypt, where he had
devoted himself to the mercantile business, through excavations and
inexpensive purchases.  On his return to Europe he settled in Paris,
exhibited his treasures publicly, and cherished the wish to transfer
them by sale to the French government  it was in the time of Louis
Philippe. Negotiations over this came to nothing, until our great
Alexander von Humboldt, who spent every winter in Paris in order to
pursue his scientific studies in the worldfamous library of the
Institute, succeeded in acquiring the beautiful collection for Berlin.
The price paid for it was moderate, but attached to the purchase was the
stipulation that its owner, M. Passalacqua, must be promoted to
statesalaried Director of the Egyptian Museum in Monbijou.  I shall
return presently to this worthy man, for he assumed a prominent role in
the years of my first struggles. Timidly I entered, for the first time,
the rooms densely filled with old Egyptian remains, small and large.
The excellent museum seemed to me like a sanctuary, in which every part
and every piece aroused a feeling of the most
reverential   '        0*((@@  admiration in my young mind.
It was to me as though heaven with all its glory had fallen upon the
earth, and as though I wandered about in the midst of a beautiful dream,
in the realm of fairy tales.  Not mere curiosity, but the sincerest
thirst for knowledge had gripped me, and the hieroglyphs passed like
secrets of deep significance before my eyes.  Who would solve their
riddles for me, who would give me information on the origin and history
of the inscribed monuments?  The great question remained unanswered, and
yet I believed I had discovered a finger pointing in the direction of
its solution, and indeed in the hieroglyphic words, because Passalacqua,
on the basis of Champollion the Younger's discoveries, had added a
German transcription with his own hand, as short explanatory text to the
exhibited monuments, even to the smallest images of gods.  Furtively I
drew a slip of paper from my pocket, with a pencil copied the strange
signs with the greatest possible faithfulness  and the ancient Egyptian
goddess had for the first time extended her fingertip to me, in order
later to clasp me irretrievably in her arms. In my efforts to transcribe
the richly illustrated signs to paper I had attracted the attention of a
royal gallery attendant, who approached me with the words:  "Well, what
are you doing there, young man?"  Confused, I stepped back, but he
immediately went on:  "Don't worry, I won't rob you of your pleasure;
you can cut your teeth on that, as many a great scholar has already
done."  It was "old Pahl," as they
called   '        0*((@@  him, whose acquaintance I made
here for the first time, and who later honored me with his full
friendship.  The small man with the arrow face and blond wig above it
was, at that time, going on fifty, and his whole being reflected an
indestructible cheerfulness.  Later I had to help  him empty many a
"cool blond" at Pickebacks' on Linienstrasse, but I did so with
pleasure, because before his appointment in the museum he had, for over
ten years, stood near a hero whom the world mentions only with
admiration, the great statesman and linguistic scholar, Wilhelm von
Humboldt.  Pahl, a rather cultured man, had occupied the position of his
secretary, to whom the famous scholar had dictated his last works, among
them the worldrenowned ingenious investigation "Concerning the Kawl
Language," and also "Letters to a Lady Friend," much admired by a far
wider circle of readers.  The secretary was a true child of Berlin, and
when his tongue was loosened, I received contributions on the
characteristics of von Humboldt in his domestic existence, contributions
which could not be thought more precious, and which proved to me anew
the truth of the assertion that the greatness of a man disappears in
front of his valet. Old Pahl remained during the entire remaining course
of his life, until his seventies, as gallery attendant in the Egyptian
Museum, even after its transfer into the new Museums. Therefore he was
my protector in everything concerning freedom of entrance and work in
the areas of the Old
Egyptian   '        0*((@@  Ԍsanctuary.  For at that time,
it was open to the general public only one or two days a week. My
frequent, that is, daily appearances could not fail to draw the
attention also of the Director, M. Joseph Passalacqua, and Pahl did not
refrain from praising my industry and my qualities to him in exceedingly
warm terms. In my memory, I have vividly preserved recollections of the
amiable personality of the Director of the Museum in the Montbijou
Garden.  He still today stands before my eyes like a dear and precious
picture, even with all the faults and weaknesses of a 'selfmade man,'
who was moreover, a Southerner. Italian by birth, French according to
his language and his entire being, Passaladqua, at that time sixty, made
the impression of a distinguished personality, which extended to the
outward appearance of the man.  He was welcome in all the salons of the
Berlin society of that time, mingled with the best company, and showed
himself every afternoon on the promenade Unter den Linden, where his
expressive face with the brownish tinat of a Southerner instinctively
drew the attention of the crowd.  Unmarried, he led the life of an
amiable man about town, dined in the Hotel St. Petersburg, guided his
friends or distinguished strangers through his collections, went to the
theater in the evening, or into society, to come home and devote himself
to intellectual work until late at night.
   '         0*((@@  Ԍ     His apartment was located on the
ground floor on Prasidentenstrasse, in the neighborhood of the Monbijou
Garden.  It consisted of a series of rooms which were filled with
pictures in countless numbers, with and without frames, hanging on the
walls or standing on the floors, so that only a narrow passage remained
free between them.  The treasures consisted entirely of oil paintings
from the early Italian and Spanish Schools, which, in Passalacqua's
opinion, owed their origin to the most famous masters, and possessed a
value beyond price.  In the middle of the farthest room stood a great
round table with a green cover, on which a ballast of books and drawings
of old Egyptian figures, done by his hand, towered in wild disorder.
Only a small space on the table was left free, to serve him for writing
and reading.  A dusty chandelier in the Rococo style hung over the
table.  A wrinkled gauze covering enveloped it, and a rosette of green
wool concealed the iron hook by which the broad lightdispenser was
fastened to the ceiling of the room. I mention this circumstance for a
particular reason.  The rooms with their treasures of pictures were
never allowed to be cleaned by the servant, so that fingerthick dust
rested on everything that bore the name of picture, furniture, cover,
drapery and curtain.  One thought one was in the storeroom of an Italian
antiquarian, as soon as one set foot in the apartment.
   '         0*((@@  Ԍ     How many an evening the
inquisitive boy sat opposite the mature man, in order to listen to the
most wonderful tales of ancient and modern Egypt from his lips, or to
hear about Champollion, the discoverer of decipherment of the
hieroglyphics, and other great scholars with whom Passalacqua was
personally acquainted, or to be provided with books which were to open
for him the entrance into the dreamedofparadise of the old Egyptian
mysteries!  Each time I felt myself inspired, and could have fallen at
the feet of the master, in order to express my childish thanks in mute
language. Passalacqua appeared to me like a demigod, who possessed only
the one fault, that he regarded the deciphering of the hieroglyphs as
something incidental, and looked upon the secret of the enigmatic
pictures as the foundation of all the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians.
What did I understand at that time by the words "enigmatic pictures?"
The master explained to me clearly and distinctly, and of course in the
German language, which he wrote and spoke excellently, that not the
inscriptions, but the pictorial representations on stone and papyrus
bore the riddles of this primeval wisdom within them, and that he had
been favored by destiny to rediscover the lost key to their solution.
He had, for a long period of years, collected heaps of proofs of this
enigmatic language, and there they lat  at that he pointed to the
piledupdrawings  and then followed an explanation, until to me, poor
youth, the spinningtop of enigmatic
wisdom   '        0*((@@  fairly split my head.  But I
endured it, in order not to give the worthy revealer of the secrets any
offense or dis illusionment. His main doctrine concerned the
significance of the right, the spiritual, and the left, or material side
of the monuments, the former enigmatically indicated by burnt offerings,
the latter by bread offerings.  Then there were the four great
worldzones through which the departed souls had to wander and each zone
was divided into a spiritual and a material side.  That was the sacred 2
x 4 or 8 number.  When a representation showed exceptions to the
established rules of the mysteries, he knew each time his own good
reasons for this, for it had to conform. Not infrequently the
instruction in evening hours was interrupted by peeping sounds, which
seemed to me to come from the ceiling above in the region of the
chandelier, and each time I looked in confusion toward the upper part of
the room, "Don't be disturbed" my amiable adversary used to remark
soothingly. "It's a bird again which in the evening has flown through
the open window into the room in order to have its night's rest here. I
do not disturb it for it brings me luck." I am anticipating something
that occurred only later, since it did not cross the path of my life,
but perhaps casts a doubtful shimmer on the word "luck."  One evening 
I was at that time in the Nile Valley  Passalacqua was seated at his
usual work place, when from the already described height, a   '
        0*((@@  complete mouse nest, with the old and young ones
in it, sailed down onto the table!  One can imagine his surprise at such
as unexpected present, and can easily understand that thoughts about the
advantage of matrimony, in the place of young, or rather, old
bachelorhood ripened in the mind of the worthy sixtyyear old.  He
decided thereupon to conclude a late marriage prompted by reason,
stepped under the gentle yoke of matrimony, and found therein the luck
he had missed.  Only one experience was not spared him beforehand.  His
precious collection of paintings, which found no adequate appreciation
in Berlin, he had sent to Paris and brought under the hammer. The
proceeds hardly paid the cost of transportation and renting of the space
for its exhibition.  Its possession had in any case afforded him little
pleasure, for in the last years of his life he lost his eyesight, and
thereafter remained bound to his quiet home. I may not pass over in
silence the fact that Passalacqua, who in his outward appearance
displayed, in spite of his Italian origin, a calm and considerate
nature, never allowing me, at least, to perceive a sign of a passionate
temper, felt a deep antipathy against Professor Richard Lepsius.
Lepsius had first engaged in Egyptian studies in Paris and Italy, and
during his Italian travels had found the opportunity to purchase several
historically important monuments of Egyptian origin for the Berlin
Museum.  To these belong the colossal granite figures of two kings,
which at present are exhibited   '!        0*((@@  in the
lightcourt of the Egyptian department, confronting the entering
visitor.  Passalacqua was painfully offended, that the transaction had
been conducted without his cooperation, and that he received first
knowledge of it when the monuments had already begun their journey to
Berlin.  His ill humor grew, when later the renowned first Prussian
expedition to Egypt, Ethiopia and Sinai Peninsula, under Lepsius'
direction, procured for the Museum new and rich treasures of antiquity
from the valley of the Nile.  It reached its peak in the rejection of
the plans Passalacqua had presented, which were to have been used in the
arrangement and wall decoration of the Egyptian department in the
construction of the new Museum. The suggestions and designs of the
learned young professor of Egyptology were given preference, and
Passalaqua's sense of honor was injured most sorely.  In the meantime
the, for him, unthinkable had happened, and the erstwhile Director was
obliged to accept the administration of the old Egyptian Museum in the
Lepsian form.  Upon entering the empty Director's room a melancholy mood
came over him, which he attributed to the move from the fresh,
treeshaded Monbijou Garden.  But in fact, it lay much deeper, namely,
in resentment against the new arrangements, and the encroachment of one
whom he thought incompetent upon his own field of activity. It must be
admitted that he was completely wrong, for a museum is not created for
the private pleasure of its   '"        0*((@@  director,
and learning, in which Passalacqua was a really worthy dilettante, but
still only a dilettante, has a full right to let its voice be heard in
museum affairs, and to be heard by those whom it concerns.  Yet
Passalacqua had not comprehension of this, and he stuck out his horns
wherever he could.  Unfortunately, the opportunity would not be lacking
with the gathering storms in the upper regions, to play off my poor
person, at that time completely unknown, as a trump against Lepsius.  I
shall come back to this later in more detail.   I ENTER THE
KOLLN GYMNASIUMă My first contacts with Passalacqua came
at just the period when I was enrolled, for the second time, as a
grammarschool student at the Kollnisch ReelGymnasium, then located in
the old Town Hall on the Fish Market.  I was assigned to the "Quarta,"
or fourth class, but the knowledge I acquired in the public school was
too weak to meet all the requirements, and it was especially the
language of the ancient Romans, and the difficulties of mathematics,
that gave me unspeakable trouble.  Private tutoring was beyond the
family means, and so I sat for two full years on the hard school bench,
without moving from the spot. My written works were calligraphic
masterpieces, but their content gave evidence of the Quartainadequacy
of their already fourteenyearold author. I had recovered somewhat from
my hatred against the entire teaching profession.  The Director of the
Institution,   '#        0*((@@  Professor August, and my
former teachers possessed not only outstanding pedagogical ability, but
also a thorough learning, which never escapes young students, as long as
it rests on a firm foundation.  August was an esteemed teacher in
physics and mathematics, Barentin an unsurpassed master in lecturing on
the three realms of nature, and Benari was an academic luminary who had
a command of Greek and Latin as no one else, and spoke both languages
with unbelievable fluency.  His public debate, in Latin, with the author
of the desertion entitled De morbo democratico is perhaps still
remembered by my older contemporaries.  Professor Kuhn, under whose
guidance we received instruction in German and English, has become the
most learned and fundamental scholar in the field of comparative
IndoGermanic languages, known to most through a periodical named after
him.  The names of my remaining teachers:  Holzapfel, Kreh, Kuhlmei,
Polsbeerw, Runge, Selkmann, Lommatzsch, among others, refer to men of
importance in the history of the Berlin school system, and to each
individual one, I owe the warmest gratitude for the knowledge I
received.  If, among the distinguished masters, I may choose, the names
Holzapfel and Kuhlmel would occupy a particularly shining place in the
recollections of my youth. It was they who allowed me again to recognize
in a teacher the true friend of his student.  Both brought me into their
house, and through gratuitous private instruction, filled the existing
gaps in my knowledge.  They had sympathy for
my   '$        0*((@@  weaknesses, and soon the young bird
felt the strength of his wings, to let himself be borne in swift flight
out of the lower regions of the class up to the highest levels. I had
begun to love my teachers heartily, and to show them the proof of my
affection by steady industry and the most active attentiveness. Today
these honorable people all rest in the grave; only Professor Holzapfel,
who later took over the position of Director of the Gymnasium in
Magdeburg, is still among the living.  A few months ago (November 1892)
in the house of my honored friend, Hermann Gruson, I had the
indescribable pleasure, after the long span of 45 years, of being able
to greet him again, a mentally alert old man of 82 years.  It is
unnecessary to describe my deep feeling and his own tearful emotion, as
our eyes met and spoke that silent language which expresses more than
the most ringing words.  May heaven increase the number of his years,
and bestow upon him a blessed and happy old age! Dr. Kuhlmei, a no less
dear figure in my memory, was at the same time teacher and friend to me.
He was the only one who knew about my secret work in the ancient
Egyptian field, and with his comprehensive knowledge he lent its
critical direction to my peculiar urge to studies in the barely touched
field of the science of antiquity.  His rich and selective library was
at my disposal at any time, and in its stillness I burrowed like a miser
in his treasures.  Unfortunately,   '%        0*((@@  later,
after his marriage to a young noble lady with the proud name von
Bismarck, the amiable teacher was not permitted to enjoy an untroubled
domestic happiness.  He died of a broken heart, and faithful students
sorrowfully accompanied his earthly remains to their last resting place.
Outside of school, I owed a good part of my newlywon vital energy and,
incidentally, my mathematical knowledge, to a man whose name I have just
mentioned, and whose great successes in the field of steel techniques
have been deservedly appreciated not only in our Fatherland, but
everywhere abroad; I mean Geheimrat H. Gruson. My parents occupied at
that time their modest home, consisting of sittingroom, bedroom, and
kitchen, which was located on the court side, and on the ground floor,
in a long house on Ziegel Street in Berlin.  This hermitage did not lack
poetry.  Leafy espaliered vines surrounded the windows, which opened
directly upon a small garden of the landlord.  A dovecot sheltered an
entire bird population, and the lively winged world seemed to find
pleasure in moving to and fro on the windowsills, and with cooing voices
pecking at the small panes of glass.  I sat at my simple work table in
the corner of the bedroom, and felt a blessed atmosphere at the
appearance of the doves.  It was as if they wanted to lure me into the
open, but there lay the work for school on the table. Not infrequently,
an Egyptian book was concealed under a Latin grammar, that of the old
Zumpt, for I was afraid of incurring   '&        0*((@@  the
censure of my parents, as soon as I brought to light my Egyptian
secrets.  My studies were carried on in secret, and ever at night  I
slept in a small wooden alcove by the kitchen  I continued my work,
after having lighted carefully collected candleends, to serve me as
illumination. Between the garden before the dwelling and the bank of the
Spree, which flowed past the farm, lay a great area which dispensed with
all poetry.  It served as the place for assembling bricks, which were
carted on planks from the "Zillen," or barges, which lay at anchor on
the Spreeside, in order to be piled, with clattering din, in towerlike
form, row on row.  It was such an everyday sight, that I finally
regarded the brick work as a disturber of the peace, for the laden
"Zillen" robbed me of my chief pleasure after work was done; angling for
fish of highly doubtful value and size.  My good mother, as a thrifty
housewife, was always kind enough to bring my frequent booty to the
table in baked or fried form, until eventually I lost my appetite for
it, and hung up my fishing rod.  There was also another obstacle of a
serious sort, which interfered with my continued delight in angling: my
own brother, who about this time, over 14 years after my own birth, saw
the light of the world.  I was given the privileged position of
nursemaid who, during my free hours, had to carry the latecomer out
into the light and warmth during his free hours.  That was the toughest
service in my life, for the uncomprehending brother used to
scream   ''        0*((@@  violently, and secretly dealt
cuffs from my hand, which proved to be the very worst means of bringing
an end to his song. Besides, the Egyptians were in my head, and carrying
this young citizen of the world back and forth prevented me from letting
my thoughts take their undisturbed course.  O golden Youth, where was
your shining glow for me? Separated from the living quarters of my
parents by only a narrow corridor were a few rooms which two young
bachelors had rented, in order to prepare themselves for their future
professions.  Both were natives of Magdeburg, and both were of the same
age of 21 years.  One of them was a tall, handsome young man with the
most friendly face, overshadowed by blond hair, by trade a technician in
the field of engineering.  The other, a small, thick set figure with an
intelligent head and dark brown, curly hair, was dedicated to the
banking profession.  They lived plainly and simply, as befitted
respectable young bachelors, and rested after completion of a day's work
only to devote themselves to further work and study with the most
zealous efforts.  From the enticing pleasures of this world they
prudently guarded themselves, for the simple reason that their means
were only of a modest sort.  They certainly did not lack joy of life,
for they sang like the nightingale in the wood. The first named, Hermann
Gruson, later became known to the entire world as the inventor of
hardsteel casting, and as the founder of an enormous industrial
organization for the   '(        0*((@@  production of
cannon and armor plates.  The second ended his life in the most
favorable circumstances, for he was able to retire a rich man, in order
to lead a pious existence in Berlin, in the practice of godly works.
His name, Losche, is perhaps known to one or another reader. Since my
mother was a compatriot of both lodgers, friendly relations were soon
established between the two apartments, and I could dare to approach the
aweinspiring Gruson when mathematical difficulties in my school work
kept me from my old Egyptian favorites.  On a blackboard which was
fastened to the door of the inner room, I had to draw chalk triangles,
rectangles and circles, with their angles, tangents, and segments, and
under Gruson's jolly guidance had to construct an orderly statement and
solution.  Under such instruction, the science of mathematics eventually
gave me true pleasure, which turned into pride in my teacher, when I saw
him going across the court one day in the becoming uniform of a smart
PioneerOfficer. Fully fiftythree years were to pass before we met
again, as I shall tell the gentle reader later.  The time elapsed was
long enough, but for the two of us, not sufficient to efface our mutual
memories. My intellectual development made rapid progress, and soon, as
a student in the upper classes of the Gymnasium, I had come so far as to
give instruction to weaker schoolmates, and through the earned income to
contribute to the defrayment   ')        0*((@@  of the
costs of life's needs and nourishment in the family. Also my father's
position had taken a turn for the better; one could even think of
managing to afford the rent for a larger and more expensive apartment.
After a short search this was fortunately found, in the same house, on
the second story of the front building on Artilleriestrasse, close to
the Ebert's bridge. In the meantime, my selftaught studies of ancient
Egyptian inscriptions had made blessed progress, and above all, in the
branch of the demotic, or Egyptian popular script, with the decipherment
of which I had constantly occupied myself, led to important discoveries
whose significance I myself was not able to estimate.  Hitherto one knew
only the alphabetical value of a few letters which served for the
transcription of Greek and Roman names, while everything else was
wrapped in obscurity.  Even concerning the system of this kind of script
there were contradictions among the scholars who had considered it at
all worth and trouble of occupying themselves with it more closely.  The
difficulties of decipherment appeared at that time insurmountable. Today
there is no longer any doubt that this script grew out of the
abbreviated hieratic characters, the current script of the hieroglyphic
ones, in order to give expression to the popular language of that time,
which in grammar and syntax shows the greatest deviations from the old
and oldest languages.  To prove this is today no longer a feat, after
I,   '*        0*((@@  in my hardy youth, through years of
work far into the night, had solved the riddles from case to case.  From
the study of the socalled Demotic Salecontracts of the Berlin Museum,
the demotic part of the Rosetta inscription, the gnostic papri of Leyden
and similar monuments, I had, at the age of 16 years, already compiled a
complete grammar of the demotic script drawn up in Latin, the reading of
which affords me the greatest pleasure even today. At the Gymnasium my
progress in all branches of instruction was recognized by the teachers
with the highest praise, and I did not let myself be discouraged from
earning my spurs also in Hebrew, under the direction of Professor
Lommatzsch.  With my schoolmates I was on the best footing. Friendships
were concluded "for life," even though in this regard there was later
many a disappointment.  The two Princes von Reuss (one of them is today
the German Ambassador in Vienna), the State Minister von Puttkamer, the
two von Prillwitzes, von Klitzing, von Caprivi, the sculptor Sussmann
(Helborn), the Court actor Hiltl, the architects Luca and Ende, and many
another later renowned personality of our time sat with me in the same
class under the mild regimen of our beloved Director August. The
widespread knowledge of the latter was accompanied by an unbelievable
absentmindedness, which occasionally expressed itself in words and
actions, and provided material for the most comical stories, so
inseparable from school life.    '+        0*((@@  That he
once "with the left eye looked through a prism, and with the right eye
held the pencil in order to note the angle of observation" was by far
nothing extraordinary.  Many a playful student took advantage of the
complete immersion of the good Director in his subject by mischievous
pranks which still at this moment bring an involuntary smile to my lips.
I recall in particular two cases, which afforded the entire class the
greatest delight, without Professor August's having the slightest
suspicion of the intentions of the miscreant. One fine day, a wellknown
physics experiment  calculating the height of a point from the speed of
descent of a falling body  was to be proved by a practical
demonstration.  The seniors climbed to the floor of the fourth story of
the old building; the Director held in one hand a watch with a second
hand, in the other a ball of lead.  At a given moment, this was to be
let fall into the depth between the stair landings and through its
impact on the floor of the lowest story announce the moment of its
arrival and thereby measure the speed of the fall.  Three balls fell in
succession out of the hand of the Director, without making an audible
impact below. This was thoroughly explainable, for the younger von
Prillwitz had crept behind the nextlowest landing and caught the
falling balls in his hat.  The Director was struck with the greatest
astonishment, for his eye was fixed on the secondhand, and he never
found out which rascal had played a trick on him each time the
experiment failed.  The same senior,
who   ',        0*((@@  later became an officer in the
regiment of the gardeducorps in Berlin, one fine day had to carry out
a mathematical demonstration on a triangular figure, before the
assembled forces and in the presence of the Director.  He stepped up to
the board, drew the required triangle with a piece of chalk on the black
surface, and there ensued the following conversation: Senior:    "One
may think of a triangle EMA." Director:  "How strange!  One uses the
letters ABC." Senior:    "I cannot do that, Herr Director." Director:
"Why not?" Senior:    "Because I fondly love EMA!" We all burst into
Homeric laughter, for it was known that Director August had a charming
daughter whose first name was Emma.  The same senior succeeded in
evoking enormous merriment when a worthy teacher, who was a native of
Saxony and gave to the letter P the pronunciation of B, read aloud a
German essay composed by the senior, literally teeming with P's and B's
and the beginning of which I have never been able to forget.  It ran:
"From the Potsdamer Platz the public, burdened with postpackages, made
a pilgrimage to the Botanical Garden between magnificent poplars placed
in pairs."  One can imagine what the effect was, when the worthy Saxon
read to us in a loud voice the literary production of the promising
student. "That is pure poetry!"  retaliated the Senior, and a new
outburst of merriment was the result of his impudent answer.
   '-        0*((@@       It is remarkable how infectious
outstanding characteristics of some students exercise their influence
upon an entire class.  This was the case with my friend Hiltl, now dead,
who enjoyed a welldeserved reputation in the public world as royal
actor, national writer, and finally as artistic director of the weapon
collection in the Zeughaus, the present Hall of Fame.  While still a
junior he assigned to the rest of us the parts of the chief characters
in Schiller's plays, and during the intermission drama was performed
with all the pathos of inspired actors.  The conclusion regularly took
the form of a postlude in which a medieval tournament served as the
glorious climax.  The stamping of the horses, i.e., of our own feet, was
of thunderous effect, and thick clouds of dust swirled from floor to
ceiling.  An observation post stationed at the door took care of any
unpleasant surprise on the part of the teachers. Director August became
in later life a dear, good friend to me, and a sincerely devoted patron,
whom I loved above all and whose death filled me with deep sorrow. My
education at the Gymnasium was nearing its close.  I sat in the
OberPrima, or upper first class, distinguished myself through earnest
endeavor and through my diligence in studying and in my written work,
and won the regard of all my teachers.  Meanwhile I had not buried the
battleaxe of my secret Egyptian decipherings.  After completing the
lessons for school I sat at the table until late after midnight
with   '.        0*((@@  hieroglyphic and demotic
inscriptions before me, in order to solve their riddles and to enrich my
handwritten grammar of the old popular script through new discoveries.
Passalacqua followed the most intense interest the course of my work,
which appeared to him more than merely noteworthy.  If I call to mind
from this time two more persons, the present Geheimrat Kunstman, whose
cheerful humor and wit have lost nothing of Berlin salt from then until
this day, and my own uncle Benecke, it is done to pay them herewith in
my late years of life, the due tribute of the most heartfelt gratitude.
Both were officials of the Royal Library in Berlin, and both gave their
willing approval that the desired scientific works of greater and lesser
range were to be handed over, without delay, to the young student for a
time.  I myself was not in the position to procure the mostly rare and
costly books out of my own means, even though my longing for the
possession of at least the more important ones grew from day to day, and
I made every effort, out of the scanty groschen I saved, to acquire this
or that book.  I still remember vividly how my heart beat, when I
succeeded in buying Champollion's worldfamous work Precis du systeme
hieroglyphique, and how I clasped my treasure to my breast and
breathlessly hurried home, in order, so to speak, to devour its precious
contents. Those were festive days, which have never in my life come back
to me.    '/         0*((@@  Ԍ     In the year 1847 something
extraordinary happened for me. The library of Ideler, Jr., was to be
sold at public auction following his death.  The printed catalogue
indicated a true wealth of works and treatises which touched upon my own
science and seemed to me, at least for that time, of the highest worth.
In conversation I revealed to my older friend Passalacqua my distress at
seeing the spring flow before me, without being able to quench my
burning thirst at its waters. "I know a way out" he interrupted me,
after I had given him further information on the subject of my wishes.
"Address a handwritten petition to His Majesty King Friedrich Wilhelm
IV, to invoke in warm words his favor for you, whom I am proud to call
my pupil, and to implore support for the purchase of works you desire.
His Majesty is enthusiastic for every success in the field of the
science of Egyptian antiquity,  think of the sacrifices he made for
Lepsius' expedition  and since the warmest heart beats in the bosom of
the magnanimous Prince, I am firmly convinced that he will gladly grant
your most humble petition.  On my recommendation it should not fail."
And thus it was done.  The petition was delivered to the King, and with
true excitement we awaited the answer. A completely unexpected honor was
to be granted me soon after that, the visit of Professor Lepsius, whose
fame at that time filled not only Prussia, but the entire world.  He had
returned from his great journey for the investigation of the monuments
in Egypt, Ethiopia and the Sinai Peninsula, and
had   '0        0*((@@  justified in the most brilliant
manner, the confidence of his high patrons, Alexander von Humboldt and
Josias von Bunsen, who had recommended him and his aims to the favor of
the science and artloving King.  Every critic, as to the value at that
time of successful studies, must be silent before the fact that his
works surpass all productions in the same field that have hitherto
appeared, and are distinguished by an unusual keenness of comprehension,
by their clarity of presentation, and by their instructive content,
undeterred even in the face of doubts.  The plates of his celebrated
great work on monuments, published at the same time and executed by the
skillful hands of the two Weidenbach brothers, the draftsman Eirund and
the architect Erbkam, furnish the most brilliant proof of the
indisputable merits of the young professor.   He had created a new epoch
of the hitherto isolated Egyptology, and above all, had thereby
contributed to letting the glory of the name of his royal patron shine
in the brightest light.  A favorable destiny had made him secure,
through a rich marriage, against the troubles and cares of ordinary
life, so that the early renown could be called fortunate in every way.
His house on Behrenstrasse, and later on Bendlerstrasse, was a place of
pilgrimage for numerous foreigners who came to pay their respects to
him.  To his circle belonged everyone who bore a name of importance in
politics, science, and art, and Lepsius himself appeared as the focus,
who exerted an irresistible attraction
for   '1        0*((@@  everything good and beautiful.  If
to that we add that his outward appearance, with the finelychiseled
face and intelligent features, which occasionally, however, betrayed a
certain coldness and hardness, left a distinguished impression, we have
exhausted what could be aid of the outstanding personality of the famous
man at that time. I was a silent admirer of his learned name, but any
hope of ever enjoying his notice was far from me.  The distance between
the famous man and the Gymnasium student was too great.  One will
understand how startled I was, when Lepsius entered the modest room of
the soldier's son and opened a conversation with me, which was more like
an examination than an exchange of common thoughts.  At his express
wish, I laid before him the sheets of my demotic grammar, of which
Passalacqua possessed a special transcript. When I entered the Gymnasium
the next day, I was summoned to my Director in order to report on my
relations with Lepsius.  The latter may have inquired of him and the
rest of the teaching staff about my diligence and ability and, in
accordance with the truth, received a satisfactory answer.  My Director
expressed his astonishment that I had occupied myself with old Egyptian
studies, and commended me in general, to be sure, yet without
suppressing his silent doubt as to the value of my own studies.  He
advised me, therefore, first to put my final examinations behind me and
later, at the University, to continue the work I had begun.  Dejected,
almost ashamed, I   '2        0*((@@  left the room of the
good Director with the firm resolve to follow his fatherly advice and
put the Egyptian studies completely on the shelf.  I did not possess the
requisite means for studying, and made the decision, according to my
father's proposal, to enter the career of a subordinate official in a
ministry, after having passed my final examination.  My beautiful
handwriting might be my best recommendation for my entire future.  Even
two corporals and an artillery gunner, whom my father named and who were
well known to me, had recently entered a ministry on the basis of their
good writing, and they had surely acted wisely.  My father was a
prophet, for today all three occupy the high position of Geheimrat, have
an important voice in administration, and possess house and home and
what one otherwise calls the good things of this world.  I often have
the opportunity to see and speak with them, to hear of their good
fortune with all the interest of old recollections, and, in the
stillness of my heart, to reproach myself for not having followed better
the sincere advice of my dear father. Some weeks passed, after the visit
of Professor Lepsius, when suddenly one evening Director Passalacqua
entered our apartment and, with every sign of the highest agitation,
drew from his pocket an answer to his recommendation which had come to
him from official quarters.  Its content was indeed depressing.  It
stated in clear words that I was a very mediocre student at the
Gymnasium, that I possessed
more   '3        0*((@@  imagination than actual knowledge
in the field of Egyptian research, which diverted my mind from
everything really useful for me, and therefore had no hopes for future
results, which at most could promise something under proper guidance.
The refusal of the petition was therewith thoroughly wellfounded, and
finally the Director was advised to proceed with suitable caution in the
future, in judging aspiring talents. The blow had struck my house like a
bomb, and put all of us into the greatest consternation.  My honorable
father in particular felt its shock, when he was given the wellmeant
advice by his chief, the amiable Colonel, von Alvensleben, then
commander of the bodyguard, later General and Equerry of the King, to
keep an eye on my fingers a little, in spite of my beautiful
handwriting, and sternly restrain me from presenting petitions to the
person of the royal master.  That was too much for his military heart,
and after his return to the house, I was made to feel, through harsh
reproaches, how deeply the official reprimand had cut into his flesh.
Nevertheless, the affair was not to be broken off, for Passalacqua had
sworn a solemn oath to make the heirs of wisdom pay for it, and the
hotblooded character of his nation came to the fullest eruption in his
personality.  ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT BECOMES MY PATRONă
Passalacqua betook himself to the Nestor of Science, the great Alexander
von Humboldt, who rightly enjoyed a world reputation, and as the friend
and adviser of King Friedrich   '4        0*((@@  Wilhelm
IV, his magnanimous and noblehearted Lord, enjoyed the highest respect
imaginable, not only in Berlin, but in all the land and in the entire
civilized world.  When the venerable old man, at that going on eighty,
in a black coat and white cravat, walked with slow step through the
streets of the city, young and old, high and low, stopped at the
approach of the worthy figure, to raise their hats in hearty respect.
His person as well as h is name were known to all, and one esteemed
himself fortunate to have seen him, or perhaps even to be addressed by
him. His apartment was on Oranienburgerstrasse in the vicinity of the
excellent Matzner School for Girls and opposite an apothecary.  A
memorial tablet is found today below the second story which he occupied
alone, and in which he spent his last productive years until his death.
His unadorned study, a small, onewindowed room, lay off the court, on
the far side of which was a small garden whose wall bordered on
Johannisstrasse.  From here a late stroller, even at three o'clock in
the morning could recognize the lighted window behind which the immortal
scholar sat at a table, writing his Kosmos.  Not until about four
o'clock was he accustomed to seek his bed in the tiny alcove in which he
also gave up his spirit. Passalacqua was well known to the great
Alexander von Humboldt, for the latter had conducted the negotiations
with him in Paris for the acquisition of his Egyptian museum
for   '5        0*((@@  Berlin, and also after Passalacqua
settled in Berlin he had remained in constant contact with the Nestor of
Science. He calmly explained to von Humboldt the subject of his bitter
complaint, at the same time having before him, in the original, the
official reply to his respectful petition to the King. A. von Humboldt
listened to him attentively, shook his head reluctantly, a pained
expression playing about his lips, and after some reflection he replied
to the excited man who was crying for justice:  "I for my part also
deplore what has happened, and I have no doubt at all in the correctness
of your assertion with regard to the talent of your protege, but
prudence demands that we hear an impartial judgment also from another
learned side.  This can be possible only if the young man publishes his
demotic grammar, at my expense, of course. The criticism, which will not
be lacking, as to the value or worthlessness of his discoveries will
determine my further decisions." On the very next day, I received the
invitation to present myself between twelve and one o'clock midday, the
usual receivinghour, at the house of the great man.  My heart beat
almost audibly, as I pulled the bell next to the great glass door on the
second floor, and soon faced a powerful fiftyyearold man of Herculean
appearance, who opened the door and asked what I wished.  He was "the
old Seiffert," faithful valet and former companion of Alexander von
Humboldt   '6        0*((@@  of his last journey to the
Urals and Siberia.  I told him my name, and the unknown, shy student was
at once led to the great man. The venerable old man sat, as always, in a
black coat and white cravat, before his table at the window, surrounded
by books and open pasteboard boxes which contained his orderly
references on Kosmos.  His pen wrote in slanting strokes on the
paper.  At my entrance he arose, bade me take a seat on the simple sofa
covered with green woolen material, and sat opposite me on a chair by
the sofatable overloaded with papers and books.  I was embarrassed like
one who was about to lose his head and stammered words of apology, but
soon the ice of my innermost fear and anxiety melted before the old
man's mild, friendly smiling features, which remained unforgettable to
anyone who had been granted the good fortune, even only once, of being
near him. What he said to me were words of astonishment at my early
scientific activity, questions about my parents and my Director, who was
well known to him as a thorough physicist and finally the proposal to
have my work printed at his expense. Today I can still give myself
credit that I answered the scientific questions directed to me, insofar
as they touched upon the written languages and history of Egypt, most
intelligently and apparently to the satisfaction of the listener.  He
pressed my hand upon departure and invited me,
   '7         0*((@@  Ԍas often as my time allowed, to visit
him and to follow his good advice. Happy as a king, I left the hallowed
place in an inspired mood, to report to my parents on my reception and
my impressions in the house of the incomparable one.  My depressed
spirit felt lifted, my strength steeled, my entire being was transformed
as if by magic. On the next day I already went to work, in order to
deliver my written grammar of the demotic script for printing. A setting
in the type was naturally not to be thought of, since the individual
characters of this script comprised an extraordinarily rich number, but,
besides, many combined characters or ligatures, whose cutting and
casting would have been both timeconsuming and costly.  I preferred,
therefore, to publish the whole book, written in Latin, with the help of
an offprint, and wrote my text with a specially prepared, but very
sticky, greasy ink on paper which was covered with egg white and gave
new difficulties to the writer. My manuscript was finally transferred
onto zinc plates, and from these the impression of each individual sheet
was taken.  The work proceeded happily, and after fourteen days of
strenuous writing, in constant struggle with the mechanical hindrances
mentioned, I saw my first opus completed. Introduced to the world by a
handwritten preface by my honored Director August, with complimentary
words for the young author, my book saw the light of literary publicity
in   '8        0*((@@  January of the year 1848.*  It
appeared under the title Scriptura Aegyptiorum demotica ex papyris et
inscriptionibus explanata scripsit Henricus Brugsch, discipulus primae
classis Gymnasii realis, quod Berolini Floret in the Amelang bookshop
(then located on Bruder Street).  Coming directly before the final
examination, I had finished it and, for my part, fulfilled the
requirement of Alexander v. Humboldt in the shortest period of time.  I
awaited with suspense the scholarly judgment on my book in Germany and
abroad, yet without feeling the slightest uneasiness as to its fate, for
I had the comforting sensation of being sure of my subject. In England
it had at last been Doctor Hinks who had occasionally given his
attention to the demotic script; in France, on the other hand, the Paris
Academician and Colonel of Artillery, de Saulcy, had just in the last
few years made it the subject of his most zealous investigation, and, in
a short time before the appearance of my little work, had deciphered a
demotic inscription in his own way and had published his results on it.
After I had come into possession of his work through Humboldt's
kindness, I was able to convince myself, for a short time, that his
decipherment rested on a completely erroneous foundation.  I expressed
my contrary opinion in one place in my grammar, but not without
submitting the outline of my opinion beforehand to my renowned patron.
"For heaven's sake!" he exclaimed, smiling, "Do not commit the folly, as
a Gymnasium student, of speaking
the   '9        0*((@@  truth, even if deserved, to a French
Academician. On the contrary, make use of the favorable opportunity of
dedicating some flattering words to him, in spite of your differing
opinion, somewhat in the sense that, even though you cannot declare
yourself in agreement with his rendering, nevertheless you would have
reached your own results only through the application of his methode
raisonnee.  You will have nothing to lose by this, and in de Saulcy
will gain a warm friend and patron who can be very useful to you in
Paris."  I followed Humboldt's wise counsel and replaced the relevant
passage by a clever sentence which ended with the words, that the
deciphering of the demotic script was so difficult on account of the
striking similarity of the most different characters, that among all the
scholars who had hitherto occupied themselves with demotic studies, the
palm belonged without doubt to the ingenious de Saulcy. How well I had
done, to take this way out, was proved to me by the first reception
which the learned Colonel of Artillery gave me a few months later, after
my arrival in Paris.  With a written recommendation of Humboldt's in my
hand, I presented myself at that time to the French demotic scholar.  He
was sitting in military uniform on a chair in front of the carved
fireplace, surrounded by several young French officers who had served
with him in the campaigns in Algiers.  I stood erect before him.  Hardly
had he read the first words of the letter, when he suddenly sprang up,
kissed   ':        0*((@@  and embraced me impetuously,
grasped my right hand and presented me to his officers with the words:
"Regardez bien ce jeune homme la!  On ne m'a jamais battu sur les champs
de bataille en Afrique, mais ce gamin m'a joliment vaincu dans ma
campagne demotique."*  I subsequently owed to his ardent recommendations
the warmest acceptance in the circle of the scholarly world of Paris,
and his friendly sentiments toward me lasted lifetime. The appearance of
my modest book was greeted abroad above all with genuine delight and
numerous letters of famous scholars reached me to congratulate me on my
success. The greatest triumph for me however was a critical discussion
of my book from the pen of the French Academician and State Councillor
Vicomte Emmanuel de Rouge who a few years before had turned his entire
attention to the study of the ancient Egyptian world and its monuments.
His first works in the field of deciphering hieroglyphic and hieratic
scripts already proved the extraordinary acuteness of the subsequent
master, who was called to establish a new fruitful epoch of Egyptology
in France. For after the death of Champollion the Younger this science
remained forsaken and abandoned. To be sure, C. Lenormant took the
professorial chair vacated by the discoverer of hieroglyphic
decipherment but without bringing even one step further the
investigation of what was     still unknown.
                    
     *"Take a
good look at this young man here!  No one has ever beaten me on the
battlefield of Africa, but his urchin has vanquished me nicely in my
demotic campaign."
   ';        0*((@@  Ԍ        Й    
Von E. de Rouge's treatise, which examined closely my justpublished
demotic grammar, was reprinted in the Revue Archeologique, and its
contents were read by von Humboldt with the greatest pleasure.  On the
very same day, he read it before his royal master and friend, and one
can easily imagine the effect it produced.  I received the most striking
proof of the King's favor, for out of his private funds were to be paid
the expenses during my threeyear studies at the Berlin University, in
order to relieve me of the heavy anxieties for my future, and thereby to
facilitate my demotic researches in every way. As a result of my strict
soldierly upbringing at home, my entire nature was affected by an uneasy
shyness, which throughout my life I was able to suppress only with
difficulty, in the company of more highly placed persons.  I observed,
not only in my later years, that a distinction exists in the world
between the great and the small, and that to be a descendant of parents
who are eminent and distinguished through their position or their wealth
provides the best recommendation for the fate of the sons and daughters
of the house.  Heredity in the social system has the fullest validity
even today, and from my own life experience, I can only confirm
Humboldt's occasional assertion that the iron ring of the Mandarins
cannot be penetrated with impunity by a homo novus.  Nevertheless,
in the great public I had won a    '<         0*((@@  Ԍhost of
friends who came forward honestly, even for the homo novus,
and opened to him the doors of their houses and hearts. The then
Burgomaster of Berlin, Doctor Naunyn, the Chief of Police, von Minutoli,
with whom I later went to Persia, the worthy and learned Doctor Parthen,
owner of the Nicolai bookshop on Bruderstrasse and member of the Academy
of Sciences in Berlin, General von Alvensleben, under whose command my
father led the bodyguard, and other well known personalities offered the
young student their protection and support, and I was honored with
invitations, as if I had become a Somebody for Berlin and its environs.
I sought to overcome my shy nature as much as possible and, all dressed
up by my mother, went to the most glittering parties. The month of March
of the year 1848 had come and the final examination started.  The
written works were carried out in customary seclusion, and the week for
the oral test had begun.  Unfortunately, the public peace in the streets
did not help to fix the attention and the consecrated mood of the young
candidates in suitable measure, for the squares and lanes in the
neighborhood of the royal palace, as far as the Linden, were filled with
numerous groups of people who were talking with one another in the most
excited fashion, expressing their discontent with loud words.  Berlin
was politically aroused, since the latest news from Paris had announced
the overthrow of the King of the French, Louis Philippe, as the result
of a revolutionary uprising, and
the   '=        0*((@@  transformation of the monarchy into
a republic.  The good Berliners, who were accustomed to praise peace as
the first obligation of the burgher, were carried away to a frightening
degree by the stormy movement which swept through all Europe like an
evil spirit, and they found in the present time of dearth and general
distress the nearest excuse to give a highly disturbing expression to
their discontent.  Cavalry patrols rode through the streets, drove away
through their appearance alone the burghers and Bassermann figures
crowding together, who dispersed in every direction amid loud howling
and whistling.  On my daily walks to the Gymnasium during examination
week I was obliged to take the route through Breite or Bruderstrasse,
and on my way was the involuntary witness of the most exciting scenes.
Through all Berlin there prevailed a repressed mood, and everyone not
taking part in the public movement had a foreboding that something out
of the ordinary was going to happen. 
FINAL EXAMINATION
WITH OBSTACLESă In the midst of this unrest the examination was
completed, at which the generally loved school councillor Doctor
Schultze, my later patron, was present in an official capacity.  I,
along with a few others, was released from the oral examination, but
remained in the class as involuntary witness of the pearls of wisdom of
the other candidates, among whom was also a later Minister of State.
The examination could be called, on the whole, a mild and considerate
one,   '>        0*((@@  "for they all came through," while
the screaming and raging of the crowd in the street struck upon our
ears, filling each one of us with dread and foreshadowing evil events.
We were to learn, a few days after that, that particularly the square in
front of the Gymnasium building, the Kolln Fishmarket, and Breitestrasse
running into it, became the scene of bloody events which were enacted on
and near the mighty barricade in front of d'Heureuse's confectionery. In
the parental home there was an oppressed mood.  My father, with a grave
air, gave orders for the event of his absence, tested his weapons, and
in the evening took leave of his family, in order to set out on
horseback at the head of his commandos, which were stabled nearby on the
west side of the artillery barracks, and ride to the old royal palace.
The 18th of March dawned and the uprising was in full swing.  On the
opposite side of the Eberts bridge, which began at the corner near our
house, in whose second story was our apartment, stood the Russian
battery, brightgreen in color, which the Czar Nicholas in his time had
presented to the King of Prussia.  The gleaming barrels of the cannons
had their mouths pointed directly at our house.  At
the other end of Artilleriestrasse, where it ran into Oranienburger,
there had been erected a wagonfortress out of overturned mailcoaches
from the postal sheds located at the same place which the people
occupied. The alarm signals of the church bells, the thunder of the
cannon, the rattle of gunfire, the
wild   '?        0*((@@  shouting of many people, and in the
evening the red flaming light of a gigantic fire with sparks scattering
far and wide  it came from the burning of the artillery depot in the
suburb of Oranienburg, later turned into the barracks of the Third
Regimental Guard  all of that instilled terror and dread in the family,
and anxious grief filled our hearts when we thought of the fate of our
own father.  The fact that the most bitter and serious situation is
occasionally not without its funny side was true in our case also.  A
Dr. Siedler, who had befriended me, a true phenomenon in all that
concerned the knowledge of the Roman language and literature, but a
coward without equal, had fled to our apartment with the notion of
finding the best protection in the lap of a military family. With
trembling lips he begged my good mother to grant him a hiding place in a
closet.  He squeezed his body into it, let himself be closed in, and
remained the entire night, lying in a crouching position in this odd
asylum. The striking hoofs of trotting horses on the pavement, and the
clanking of sabers of the mounted cavalry drew me to a window on the
street side of our apartment.  At that moment I heard loud talking on
the steps.  I opened the door and found myself facing several people
trying hard to drag some containers filled with sulfuric acid up to the
top of the house.  The apparent ringleader was a master dyer well known
to me, who, because of the nearness of the Spree, carried on his
business of dyeing and colorprinting on cotton in
the   '@        0*((@@  yard where we lived.  He had
conceived the frightful plan of pouring "oil" over the troops passing by
in the street, and of using his apprentices to help him.  I rushed back
into the room, tore from the wall two unloaded pistols, booty from the
French war, cocked the flintlocks, and placed myself with courage in the
face of death, opposite the band.  While I, with the pistols in both
hands, threatened to shoot anyone who dared to take a single step
upstairs, I saw to my greatest satisfaction how they, intimidated, left
the containers on the floor in front of the door, and escaped as hastily
as possible down the steps.  A few seconds later the massed cavalry
trotted past under our windows.  What would have happened to us all, if
the unfortunate dyer had carried out h is intention?  Since then I have
felt a deep hatred against the originator of so disgraceful a plot, and
he, on his part, guarded against ever meeting me again. Hardly half an
hour later the military tread of about 2000 men resounded through the
street along which the riders had passed, and my eye fell upon dark
figures in working clothes who, provided with weapons and iron rods,
marched in soldierly order and in deep silence on the road and across
the wooden bridge.  Only here and there sounded the call "Lights on!" in
order to ask for the lighting of the windows.  The Russian battery at
the other end of the bridge remained silent, because the force to
operate it was missing, and indeed to our good fortune.  The corner
house in which we lived would have been shot to the ground. We remained
throughout the night awake in our clothes  for who could have thought
of sleep?   and awaited with dread the break of day.  The frightening
uproar was silenced, and from every direction "Victory!" resounded
through the streets.  Toward 9 o'clock I left the house in order to gain
information on the whereabouts of my father.  First I went to the
stables of the bodyguard, where one ought to know best, whether and when
the troop might return.  I spent about a hour in the place wellknown to
me, occupying my time in reading the tablets which were put up over
every stall, for I myself had written them with liquid chalk on a black
polished wood background.  I let the names of Numa, Nero, Epaminondas,
etc., their lineage, size, age, and whatever else belongs to a horse
register pass before my eyes, but my thoughts were quite elsewhere, with
my father, whose return I awaited with painful impatience. Then the
trampling of horses struck on my ear and I clearly heard the dear man's
voice of command.  "Halt!  Ready to dismount!  Down!"  I rushed out.
The grizzled riders had just set foot out of the stirrup and were on the
point of grasping the bridle at the bit.  My father looked pale and as
though suddenly aged.  With the words:  "Father, the people are
victorious," spoken in a clearly audible voice in front of the gathered
troop of riders, I stepped closer to him, when
a   'B        0*((@@  resounding blow from his hand struck
my right cheek.  I received a lesson such as had probably never been
imparted more forcibly.  The recipient never later, even by a syllable,
complained to the father about it, for the immediate punishment was well
deserved, and he kissed the hand that had administered it to him so
thoroughly. The loyalty of a soldier is a golden thing, and nothing
surpasses a faithful soldierheart.  That I have been able to recognize
so truly in my blessed father.  I believe that no living contemporary
any longer exists, to whom is known the following event which I may
relate today in accordance with the full truth, as an actual proof of
this loyalty. The horses had been led into the stable, unsaddled,
quickly rubbed down and fed.  My father had a footstool brought by his
men, and a barber summoned in the meantime received the order to remove
completely, from the twentyfour men, the embellishment of their beards.
He let himself be the first to be deprived of his beard.  I stood timid
and ashamed in a far corner, but clearly heard the following order from
his lips:  "The troops will go to their homes, put on civilian dress,
and at three o'clock in the afternoon appear again here.  To be sure,
the order has been given, that the troops are to leave Berlin.  I am
determined to remain here, in order to serve my King as a loyal soldier,
even in civilian dress. The Bodyguard belongs close to His Majesty, and
we shall know, all together, how to fulfill this, our task.  Everything
further at three o'clock. In the antechamber of the King there appeared
about 4 o'clock in the after a civilian guard at arms, which consisted
of twentyfour men who changed their posts with punctual regularity.
When the King stepped out of his rooms in order to address a friendly
word to the individuals, my father sounded a loud "Present arms!" as
order of command.  The King in astonishment stepped up to him, to ask
his name and his situation in life.  The explanation brought tears to
the King's eyes, and he pressed my father's hand with the words: "Now I
am at rest, for guards with greater loyalty I cannot wish for." In the
meantime, down below in the great space near the winding staircase, in
the second court of the palace, a dense crowd gathered.  The happy
civilian guard ate its sandwiches, drank wine and beer, while the
Philistines, with great words, celebrated their victory in the fight for
freedom in which only very few had risked life and limb. I do not
consider it my task to describe the March days, which were attended on
the one side by pentup fury and silent rage, and on the other by clear
rejoicing and frenzied triumph.  Opposition had come to a head from both
directions, and collided, so that even in the bosom of the family
serious friction arose between the individual members.  In our own
house, the strict father was a man of proven loyalty to
the   'D        0*((@@  King, and no word could be expressed
which was not in accord with his feelings.  He was one of the first,
therefore, of those who joined the "Treubund" founded at that time, and
who wore on their hats, as an outward badge, the rosette of the
blackandwhite cockade, in place of the German colors. To an aunt who
was then making a long stay in our family and who praised in excessive
terms the freedom won, but let slip indiscreet expressions on despotism
and the military establishment, my father gave such a pity answer, with
the final words:  "Then you had better sever yourself from my house!"
that she packed her belongings most hastily and after a few hours drove
off in a carriage.  Not merely the aunt, but all her considerable
property was irretrievably lost for us children. On Sunday afternoon,
March 19th, I betook myself to our old Gymnasium, to make inquiries
about the fate of my Director, for the old Town Hall, situated on the
Fish Market, along with d"heureuse's confectionery, had been exposed to
the grapeshot of the artillery and the rain of infantry bullets from
Breitestrasse, in order to prevent the defenders of a giant barricade
from advancing on the palace.  Both buildings were pitted as with
bullets, and everywhere traces and pools of blood showed the devastating
effects of the shooting.l  In the City Hall itself deep grief prevailed
in the apartment of the Director.  On the 18th of March the people had
broken into the high, strong building, had occupied the windows up to
the   'E        0*((@@  garret, and opened uninterrupted
fire on the soldiers.  The previously described barricade was no longer
able to offer resistance to the pressure of the advancing troops, a part
of the angered force broke into the house itself, rummaged through every
corner, to give vent to its fury, and did not leave untouched even the
apartment of the Director.  He, with his war medals of 1813, 14, and 15
on his breast, faced the attacking soldiers.  He received a blow across
the face, the beds were pierced by bayonets, and a visitor of the
Director's who chanced to be present, a Herr v. Holzendorf, was arrested
because of his full blond beard and led away in the company of soldiers.
When a sudden movement of the arrested man looked like an attempt to
escape, he was shot through the heart in the middle of the street.
Lifeless, he sank down on the pavement.  Shocking s the deed may seem in
our present time, the bitterness which animated the troops on the one
side, and on the other the socalled heroes of freedom, must serve as an
excuse.  There was no time for peaceful deliberation, and the innocent
often had to suffer with the guilty.  One simply did not dally long, and
the "I or thou" had become the watchword. I remember a story which
portrays very strikingly the situation at that time.  It was told to me
by an acquaintance who had served his year as volunteer in the second
Regimental Guard, and already bore the rank of sergeant, when his
company was ordered to the Linden, to take the barricade on Grosse
Friedrichstrasse.  The Kranzler house, standing nearby,
was   'F        0*((@@  held by fighters from the people,
awaiting the advance of the troops.  My friend was wingleader, who had
made the firm resolve not to shoot a fellowcitizen.  "Only think," he
concluded indignantly in a later report of his heroic deeds, "There I
see a fellow at the corner window, aiming directly at me.  Bank!  he had
his bullet right in the breast.  Staggering back, he fell over.  I had
all at once been taught better advice; I held my opponent firmly in
sight, in order to defend my own life.  I or thou, but I'd rather it be
thou.

Chapter II.


My Study

     After my enrollment in the register of the royal Friedrich Wilhelm
University of Berlin had taken place, there began for me the threeyear
period as student, with all the joys and pleasures which the lectures of
famous teachers of the University, independent work in the quiet home,
and the intercourse with congenial comrades usually offer the
enthusiastic son of the Muses in so rich a measure. The exciting
agitation of the March days lay behind me. My arms I had delivered,
according to instructions.  The visit to political gatherings and the
routine stop in beer halls were inherently detestable to me.  A few
younger and older friends  and among the latter I proudly number the
still living philosopher of language, Professor Steinthal  afforded me
the most beneficial impressions through their company, and contributed
not a little to the education of the heart and to the broadening of my
knowledge.  Outside the University a large circle of patrons had been
given to me, in whose families I was received and was able to form new
acquaintances with intellectually congenial men.  The everopen house of
the Wolff family formed at that time the center of a small but select
world in which representatives of the sciences and arts, famous
travellers and outstanding writers joined in a beautiful garland.  The
eldest son of the house, my former home teacher at Kolln, Professor
Gustav Wolff, was a model of Greek learning and of outstanding
importance in Sopyocles   '        0*((@@  research.  His
warmest friendship remained with me until his death.  In the same
hospitable house at that time, I came to know the poet, F. Bodenstedt,
and formed a bond of friendship with him which brightened our long joint
lives up until his death.  He had come to Berlin in 1847, shortly after
his marriage with his charming young wife, the same one who at present
wears the widow's veil.  Through the publication of his Mirza
Schaffy he, in a short time, captured the hearts of all by storm, but
unfortunately his presence in our midst was not to be long, for a police
order expelled him from the walls of Berlin.  What his offense might
have been, I cannot any longer say, but political considerations lay in
the background.  He was all in all a splendid person. Unfortunately,
life's cares and worries spoiled for him the full pleasure of the
existence which his childlike nature, full of the fragrance of roses and
the breath of spring, had dreamed of in love for Edlitham. Among the
other guests of the house, there floats before my eyes even today the
figure of a young man who bore the name Stamm, and whose gentle beauty
shone like a bright full moon. Only the dark eyes, which seemed to
pierce deep into the soul, glowed like the sun's fire.  Endowed with
riches, he lived in his house on the Tiergarten along with a
brownskinned native of Java, a man of astonishing size and bodily
strength, who displayed all the characteristics of his exotic lineage.
His face was broad, but not unhandsome, and his great black
eyes   '        0*((@@  sparkled like glowing coals.  He
spoke German fluently, besides showing great facility in all foreign
languages, and was a man of outstanding cultivation. Stamm and his
Javanese friend were regarded as oddities in Berlin society, but were
everywhere welcome guests.  Their pure existence recoiled before
everything conventional and commonplace.  The two Dioscuri had set their
hearts on founding a new religion which they shortly designated as the
Religion of Action.  Not pious words on the lips, but good deeds and
benevolent service, or real compassion, was to form the epitome of the
true religious person in this sinful world. Depressed at not having
found the hopedfor approval in Berlin, but, on the contrary, having
been the target of many a jesting remark, the two friends emigrated to
England, in order first of all to attract attention through public
lectures and win adherents for the new Religion of Action. The practical
English gave them the wellmeant advice, to make a beginning with
themselves first of all.  They did not let it be said twice, and
completed the difficult study of the art of healing  medical help
seemed to them the most suitable means of affirming the Religion of
Action  passed the examination with honors and embarked for Mexico and
later for Brazil, in order to erect hospitals at their own expense in
the unhealthy regions visited by yellow fever, and themselves to provide
medical help. Doctor Stamm and his friend, who lost his life in
America   '         0*((@@  as a helper of mankind, had
sacrificed their entire large fortune for the most noble purpose,
without having found helpers and converts to the Religion of Action.
Stamm later came back to Berlin impoverished, and I saw the
fortyyearold man again, in a modest furnished apartment on Kronen
Street. But what had become of him in the interval!  In his features I
read the deepest grief and sorrow.  The disappointments which had come
to him had broken his spirit, and he complained bitterly that the law
prohibited his medical practice in Prussia, since he had received his
degree in England.  He wanted to try to pass the prescribed examination
in Berlin. Several years after that, I met him again by chance in
Karlsbad.  His outward appearance indicated to me the man who had fallen
low.  His conversation revealed in no way the former moralizing youth.
He had deadened his despair through the use of hashish, and had finally
become a complete Socialist.   Of his later life, nothing has come to my
ears. Perhaps a kind fate has saved him from a terrible end.  He has not
deserved such. Another acquaintance, which I had the opportunity to make
in the Wolff house, was that of a young, then only fifteenyearold girl
with reddish hair and an intelligent, pretty little face, who, through
her sharp, witty remarks, put many a shy youth into the uttermost
confusion.  She was the lovely Helene, daughter of the Bavarian
Ambassador von Donniges and a close relative of the house which I had
the luck to   '        0*((@@  frequent.  She has lived
through the most changeable fate and through her liaison with Lassalle
for a long time made the world talk about her.  At the World Exposition
in Vienna I saw her appearing as an actress of moderate talent in a
public theater. My teachers of this University bore famous names, which
I have only to cite, to indicate their importance:  the philologists
August Bockh, Bopp, Lachmann, Haupt, Heyse, the geographer Karl Ritter,
the historian von Raumer, the philosophers Michelet, Trendelenburg,
Steinthal (for comparative languages and Chinese). In the old Bockh, who
maintained a friendly relationship with Alexander von Humboldt for many
years, I had a special support, and had the honor to be in his house for
almost a year when he, nearly blind, needed a scientific secretary. His
Egyptian investigations on Manetho's lists of kings, on the year of
Sirius and the festival of Isis from a chronological standpoint,
frequently offered me the desired occasion, still as a student, to carry
on scientific discussions with him, from which I gained the highest
profit for my own knowledge.  The clarity and certainty of his
presentation, the acuteness of his judgments and conclusions, his fine,
neveroffending wit irresistibly held the listeners. At home he loved to
smoke a cigar at his work, and when a new thought came to him, it
regularly went out.  Lighting it again was the outward sign that he had
succeeded in the solution of   '        0*((@@  a difficult
question. A jurist who later achieved fame, Dr. Gneist, now Excellency
von Gneist, was at that time, the suitor of the charming daughter of the
classical Geheimrat. I had to good fortune to meet both of them
frequently in the father's house. When a recent American writer accorded
me the honor, in a justpublished work on Cleopatra's Needle, or
the obelisk from Alexandria exhibited in New York, of referring to me as
"the greatest living Egyptologist and disciple of Lepsius." I must
explain, to my regret, that I can lay no claim to regard myself as pupil
of the founder and promoter of Egyptology in Germany; and Lepsius
himself seems not to have wished this; how would it have been otherwise
possible, that on my first visit to one of his public lectures in the
University, he ordered me, with a loud voice from the podium and in the
presence of the other listeners, to leave his lecture.  Deeply
humiliated and unable to explain the grounds for so unusual a rejection,
I of course, left the lecture hall immediately.  I have been an
autodidact person in my science, and if anyone deserves my thanks for
lessons learned in the field of deciphering hieroglyphic and hieratic
texts, it is solely the French Vicomte Emmanual de Rouge, Champollion's
most worthy successor in the teaching of Egyptology, the same one who
had passed so favorable a judgment on the demotic grammar of the senior
from the old Kolln Gymnasium.    '         0*((@@  Ԍ     `
`	 Ã" ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDTă From my first visit
on, I was an everwelcome guest in the house of Alexander von Humboldt,
for up until his death I was granted the enviable good fortune of being
able to see the great scholar every week and to speak with him several
times, gaining a rich profit from his good advice and his instructive
conversation.  My initial shyness in facing the hero and Nestor of
Science yielded little by little to a courageous, even though respectful
attitude, and I dared allow myself to express my open and honest opinion
on new publications and works of Egyptological content. The amiable old
man followed my analyses with attentiveness, and a delicate smile played
about his lips, when the occasion presented itself that a learned
personality had committed some scientific blunder.  Everything
unscientific, superficial, uncritical, was extremely repugnant to him,
and he could not find bitter words sharp enough to characterize a
certain pseudo scholarship.  He followed all the scientific and literary
publications of any importance, not merely works on the natural
sciences, read whole books and treatises, made handwritten notes in the
margins or on the cover, answered the numerous incoming letters on the
spot, and about midday received the scheduled visits.  Toward four
o'clock he went to the royal table in Sanscouci, Charlottenburg, or
Berlin, to see the allotted time fly all too quickly in the liveliest
conversation with his royal   '        0*((@@  friend, the
noble and unfortunate King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. And finally, toward
seven o'clock, he returned to write on his Kosmos at his little
worktable by the window until about three o'clock in the morning.  He
was economical with his time and regretted every lost moment.
Susceptible to the impressions of nature, whose traces he pursued to the
farthest reaches of the immeasurable universe, he regarded the theater
or the concert as pleasures of a doubtful sort.  He stayed far away from
them and only a special invitation of the Court could induce him to give
up his aversion and to appear in the King's Lodge.  The representational
arts of sculpture and painting he prized most highly, and considered it
his duty to support young aspiring artists according to his means, and
above all, as an eloquent Maecenas to recommend them to the benevolence
of his royal master.  In following this tendency he was a saving angel
for all those to whom a cruel fate had denied the way to further
unfolding of their talent in all spheres of learning and knowledge, and
a few lines from his hand were like a magic formula which opened the
most tightly closed entrances. Only with the clergy did he fundamentally
disagree. While he himself had formed his own opinion on "the black
frocks" he was condemned by them as an obdurate atheist, who in his
Kosmos never once thought of the name of God.  The great
naturalist took his revenge for this in the salt of his wit, which he
always knew how to scatter in the right
place.   '        0*((@@  Ԍ     Alexander von Humboldt's
essential nature could not be depicted more strikingly than by a French
writer's following words, which concluded the description of the
captivating charm of his conversation.  "Once one has heard him, as he
lets men and things pass by, one must realize at once that the famous
and witty scholar, deep down, was the noblest nature that could ever be
found, the most highminded, unselfish and exalted character; that his
life represented only a constant sacrifice of love for science; that in
Berlin where he enjoyed the fullest confidence of his King whose
Chamberlain he was, without ever wishing to be anything else, he brought
his influence to bear in the noblest way, in favor of literature, the
sciences, and the arts.  In a word, it may be said that he possessed the
secret of doing much good in all directions and of being generally
loved, in spite of making fun of all the world." von Humboldt showed
himself the most bitter foe of boastful ignorance and hypocritical
convictions, which fishes in muddy waters and flatters the great ones of
the earth in unworthy adulation, in order to attain its own egotistical
ends, even though by very devious ways.  Truth and right shone as his
shield of honor, and the struggle and striving for perfection on the
battlefield of knowledge kept the then eightyyearold in youthful
freshness and liveliness.  Charm of manner and noble perceptions seemed
to him the first requisites of a man of honor.  The small weaknesses in
human   '	        0*((@@  nature he was glad to overlook,
and regarded them as passing shadows across the bright mirror of a man
favored by intellect and knowledge. The times in which von Humboldt was
writing the four volumes of his Kosmos in order, at the conclusion
of the last one, to take leave of the world, were not conducive  to fill
him with happy hopes for the future.  Men and things often provided him
with the material to indulge in bitter and biting observations and to
unburden his heavy heart in letters and words to his friends, for, as he
once expressed it, to one's real friends one is obliged to speak only
the candid truth. This statement has been twisted and argued from
various sides but it had only the one meaning which he gave it, and
indeed with fullest justification.  For it presumed, as a matter of
course, the discreet silence of those whom he believed he might consider
his sincere friends.  Could he have foreseen that his most intimate
conversations and communications would one day be handed over by an
unauthorized party for the sake of publicity, and indeed directly after
his death, he would surely have guarded against setting foot across the
threshold of the house of Varnhagen von Ense, who gleefully noted down
accumulated Humboldtiana in his journal and kept a formal record of it.
The aged author of the Kosmos whom the French, in competition with
us Germans, made their countrymen on account of his French style and his
intellectual affinity, held our expressive rich German mother tongue in
the highest   '         0*((@@  honor.  All his efforts in
the writing of his immortal work were directed to clothing his thoughts
in the noblest form and in words of irreproachable perfection of
expression, but which unfortunately, as he himself attested, were often
too poor to paint the individual parts of the picture of nature,
according to their appearance and impressions, with the desired
completeness of language.  Varnhagen von Ense, a man of taste in the
mastery of the essence of the German language, was often called upon as
adviser in difficult cases, in order to give the decisive vote in the
choice of a phrase, just as Professor Buschmann, then Librarian at the
Royal Library, "my pedant," as von Humboldt called him, fulfilled the
task, for a yearly salary, of revising the printed sheets of the
Kosmos. It was natural that the long years of friendly relations
with Varnhagen seemed to von Humboldt to be one reason more, not to
conceal his occasional illfeeling and to tell him straight from the
shoulder what was meant to be heard by the discreet friend alone. I
shall indicate in a single example the falsification of which the
shameless editor of the Varnhagen journals was guilty when she,
according to an alleged statement of Alexander von Humboldt, attributed
to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV the proverb, "the scoundrel of State."  In
fact, the invention of this expression belongs to a peasant who, on the
following occasion, shouted to his King and Lord with the most open
frankness.  The sovereign was returning from a drive
one   '        0*((@@  morning to his rooms in Sanscouci,
when by the entrance a little peasant stood in the way with a petition
in the form of a letter held high in his hand.  The King asked what he
wanted.  It had to do with the requested repeal of an order according to
which a street was to be laid through the middle of the peasant's field.
When all complaints and written appeals had not helped at all, he turned
to the highest authority.  The King in his usual jovial manner answered,
"Well, dear friend, I can do nothing there, for the whole thing concerns
the State."  Perplexed, the good man scratched his head, and from his
lips came the words, "Yes Majesty, if only there were not this scoundrel
of State." With a hearty laugh, the King told this little story to the
members of his Court who happened to be present, among whom was
Alexander von Humboldt, and repeated several times, "No, this scoundrel
of State!  It is too priceless!"  One understands, by this sample, the
way in which the most natural things in the world were distorted by the
avaricious editor of the journals, in order to exercise a titillating
attraction on the distant reader. It would not occur to me in all my
life, to hand over for printing the numerous, mostly jesting or
sarcastic remarks of the great scholar, as I remember them still vividly
today, for they were prompted by the moment, and expressed to me in the
confidence that I would keep them for myself, least of all turn them
over to publicity.  Contemporary history would gain
nothing thereby, and I myself would
come to feel the justified reproach of belonging among the indiscreet.
Much more instructive and entertaining was it for me to hear from the
eloquent lips of the aged prince of science about the course of his own
studies and his relations with great contemporaries during his long life
rich in experiences and works.  He remembered with pleasure, for
example, the time in his early years when he attended the great trade
school in Frankfurt on the Main,* and instead of occupying himself with
finance, had written his first treatise "Concerning the
    Basalts on the Rhine" in 1790.  This had procured for him
the

    good fortune of being named assessor of mines without an
examination.  Later he was transferred to the vicinity of Berlin, which
he had formerly hated, in order to practice his mining activity in the
Rudersdorf Limestone Mountains, which he knew thoroughly.  He belonged,
on the whole, to those men to whom fortune has been propitious, for he
never had to pass an examination otherwise prescribed, and yet he had
been promoted step by step. Our great poet Schiller, with whom he had
sometimes come in contact, he described to me as a simple, plain, and
prosaic person who had made no special impression on him as an
intellectual man.  All the more intellectual, on the other hand, had
been Frau von Wolzogen.  Schiller was willing to try
 *Frankfurt on the Oder   '
         0*((@@  Ԍanything.  Once in Rudolfstadt, von Humboldt
remembered, he had "The Magic Flute" performed without music, and had
taken part in it as an actor.  It had made a laughable impression on von
Humboldt. Up until the death of the great scholar, which occurred at his
house on May 6, 1859, his full favor was conferred on me, and hundreds
of precious letters to me, from my student years to my period as private
docent at the Berlin University, testify to the regard and friendship
which I enjoyed in the steady increase of cordiality of expression on
his part.  He was the good genius who watched over me like an anxious
father, guided my steps, secured for me the benevolence of the gracious
King, made possible my first journeys to Paris, Leyden, Turin and Egypt
through his mediation with the highest authority and facilitated my
entry into foreign lands through the most forceful letters of
recommendation.  The name Alexander von Humboldt had the effect of a
magic wand, for it opened door and gate to me, wherever I turned my
steps, and gave me the honor, while still a student, of being received
and treated as an equal by the most famous and highly placed men.  I
felt sure that my modest work on the demotic grammar would never, least
of all in such early youth, have attracted such interest toward me, had
not the letters of the incomparable von Huboldt smoothed for me the path
to everything beautiful and good on the highest human levels. Even in
the most remote foreign land I received answers
and   '        0*((@@  reports written by his hand, which
praised and encouraged me and informed me about Egyptian affairs at
home. My first journey to Paris, which I entered upon as a student, and
at the expense of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, afforded me the most
extraordinary impressions, as the metropolis on the Seine still offers
them today, and which affected me all the more deeply, since I had never
stepped out of the four walls of my parental abode, in order to make a
longlasting sojourn in strange lands and among foreign peoples.  My
heart pounded as I saw the Prussian blackandwhite on the frontier
posts disappear, no longer heard the sounds of my German mother tongue,
and a French Sergeantdeville with a long, pointed moustache and the
jutting tricorn on his head demanded my passport.  In the restaurants in
the main railway stations, with their shining, mirrored finery of the
buffet and the courteous and adroit service, I saw, for the first time,
the contrast between French elegance and German roughness, but yet I
looked in vain for a German sandwich, to appease my groaning stomach.
The dictionary in my head from the time of my French instruction at the
Gymnasium did not even offer me the word for it.  The good people who
boarded the thirdclass carriage with me, and whose clothes betrayed a
foreign element in another way, spoke a tongue completely unintelligible
to me; I understood only one word in ten, and I am convinced that even
this one I understood falsely.  This one and that turned to me with
some   '        0*((@@  remark, and my invariable reply
resounded as a longdrawnout "Oui!"  I was in despair and pictured to
myself, with all the terrors of imagination, my entry into Paris and my
presentation to the famous scholars of the Institute.
+ PARISă Alexander von Humboldt had provided me with a
letter of recommendation to the owner of the small hotel in which he was
accustomed to be living during his yearly stay of several months in
Paris.  It stood in the old RueBonaparte, later renamed
RuedespetitsAugustins, close to the long quay on whose stone
balustrades itinerant antiquarians used to lay out their paper treasures
during the day in order to entice poor students, curious literati, and
professors on the lookout for rarities, to closer examination of the
things offered.  Not far from there, in front of the Pontneuf with its
equestrian statue of Louis XIV, rose the building of the Institute, the
sanctuary of French learning, with its famous library and the halls for
the sessions of the French Academy in the rear. Herr Bieler, the
proprietor of the small, modest hotel, a worthy Swiss who was completely
fluent in French as well as German, received me in the most obliging way
on my arrival, read with delight the note directed to him by "Monsieur
le Baron," and lodged me and the friend who travelled with me in two
small, but clean rooms in the mezzanine.  I have made no mention of my
travelling companion up to now, for the very simple reason that, during
the entire ride from Berlin to   '        0*((@@  Paris he
had not exchanged a single word with me.  John Fisher, son of a rich
boot manufacturer for the English army, with his residence in London,
was a strange brother student in accord with the English way, who had
settled in Berlin in order to devote himself thoroughly and with ardent
effort to the philosophy of Herbart.  But nonetheless he was a good
fellow, whom I liked with all my heart and who possessed only the one
national failing, that he was at times attacked by melancholy, and in
such a state did the most incredible things.  To these belonged his
extended silence, which lasted for days, until he again became talkative
and joined the conversation in the liveliest way.  When, one day before
my departure, I informed him of my intention to go to Paris for six
months to carry on Egyptian studies, he said simply, "I'll go with you,
pick me up tomorrow evening at nine o'clock."  He lived on Unter den
Linden in the house well known to all old Berliners as that of the
optician Petitpierre, where today there is a fine restaurant on the
corner of Charlottenstrasse. Petitpierre provided the barometer and
thermometerstand for all Berlin, and nobody passed by without examining
the mercury columns displayed in the broad shop window, just as nobody
on the opposite side of the Linden could pass without comparing the
standard clock, the "academic time" for Berlin, with the time of his own
pocket watch. On my arrival at the designated house, punctually at nine
o'clock in the evening of the next day, my cab was
prevented   '        0*((@@  by an obstacle from stopping
directly in front of the gate. It was a freight wagon, loaded with great
wooden boxes and cases, probably twelve to fifteen in number, which
contained John Fisher's complete library, the other travelling
equipment, and two chests with about a hundred pairs of English army
boots studded with nails.  My British colleague possessed the ample
means to lead a noble student life and to appear in elegant clothes, but
in the case of boots he did not let himself be dissuaded from following
the advice of his wise and thrifty father. I found him ready to go and
we boarded the thirdclass carriage in order to travel the long, at that
time almost fortyhour trip, in bitter cold, on the route through
Cologne. As I said, he had remained dumb as a fish during our entire
journey, and only on the second day of our Paris sojourn did his frozen
tongue again thaw out. I anticipate the sad story of his death, for
after the course of about twenty years, he died a suicide in the same
room which he occupied then, in the year 1848.  Paris seemed to exert a
special power of attraction on him.  English friends of his led him
astray into the notorious Jockey Club, and he squandered his paternal
fortune.  Later he studied medicine, went as ship's doctor to Australia,
and happily came back, to choose the Bieler Hotel in Paris for his
lodgings. For days he busied himself in his room, sharpening a dozen
razors on a whetstone, until the hotel people found him
with   '        0*((@@  his throat cut, lying in his blood
in the corner of a sofa. The lively activity in Paris at first
bewildered my senses, and I hardly found the necessary calm and leisure
to describe, even in the briefest form, in my letters to my parents, the
thousandfold impressions rushing in upon me. The mighty metropolis
seemed to me to be a world in itself. There was a surge and flow like a
raging sea, across the squares and through the streets and along the
quays, from one end of the giant body to the other.  On the boulevards,
so I thought at the time, one was not sure of his life, and I felt like
a lost grain of sand in the moving crowd which made its way along them,
or idled in the elegant cafes on pretty chairs or small divans at the
round marble tables and viewed with a lorgnette for a longer or shorter
period the compatriots skipping past with daintily lifted petticoats and
pretty shoes on their little feet.  A flood of newspapers and pamphlets
was offered for sale in the booths or on the street; one was living in
the year '48 and under the President of the Republic Louis Napoleon, and
politics dominated the public life of the streets.  I admired the
monuments from the time of the historical past of France.  The churches
and monumental buildings, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Louvre and
Palais Royal, the City Hall, the Palace of Justice, and whatever the
stone sights worth seeing were called, attracted my curiosity and made
me roam through the great city from one end to the other.  Even the
narrow alleys in the neighborhood of
the   '        0*((@@  Palace of Justice, which Eugene Sue
had described with such vivid perception in his Geheimnisse von
Paris, at that time read and much admired by everyone, did not
frighten me away from a visit, despite their filth and their sinister
inhabitants.  I stole through the narrow maze of houses, in which the
sewer with its foulsmelling moist contents traced its course in the
middle of the pavement.  I thought I might meet a "Marienblume," or be
able to see face to face the droll cobbler Pipelet in the porter's booth
with the little "what is that" window.  But I was soon disappointed, for
the bitterest misery and the most sinister figures confronted me and
from every corner there was a call to me "stay away!" in mute language.
Today the alleys have disappeared, for this hiding place of the old
Paris with its rabble has long been done away with, and only the novel
has preserved its memory.  In the vicinity of the Luxembourg Gardens I
also paid a visit to the notorious Chaumiere, which later vanished from
the city.  I saw merry students performing indescribable dances with
wild grisettes, and in the one visit I had enough for all time. But I
saw what had seemed to me unbelievable according to reports and printed
pictures, and on my return I could tell about it. My boundless curiosity
was completely satisfied in the first week of my Paris sojourn.  I had
begun to fit into the new conditions, to become accustomed to the sound
of the Paresien speech and to understand tolerably the quickly
spoken   '        0*((@@  word.  I had learned to know the
cheap restaurants and, all in all, had begun to prepare myself for my
entry into the world of the great minds.  If I had gained the
conviction, through even a superficial comparison, that my beloved
Berlin was really only a village beside Paris when I considered the life
on the street and the moving crowd, my judgment found renewed
confirmation in a still higher degree in the Paris salon.  The
differences between here and there seemed to me colossal. The
Academicians, in whose works and intellectual activities France placed
just pride, for the entire nation honored them as the teachers of all
the rest of mankind, overwhelmed me with kind invitations and opened to
me the treasures of their knowledge and of their rich collections, with
the expression of their friendliest feelings.  There was the venerable
old Jomard, at that time still living, the last surviving member of the
scientific commission which, at the end of the past century, had
accompanied the military expedition of the great Napoleon to Egypt.
There was the famous Hellenist and Director of the Bibliotheque
Nationale on the Rue Richelieu, "le pere Hase," as the French called my
German compatriot who had become a French citizen, and his younger
colleague M. Eggers, occupied with the publication of the literary
legacy of Letronne.  Then there were also the Egyptologist Vicomte E. de
Rouge and his colleague C. Lenormant, the latest demotic scholar de
Saulcy, at the time Colonel in the army and Director of the Artillery
Museum, the sagacious
numismatist   '        0*((@@  Longperier, the editor of
the ShahNamah of Firdusi, Jules Mohl, the two Amperes, the famous
astronomer Biot, and many other members of the Institute.  All of them
received me, the shy young student from Berlin, like an honored friend
and older acquaintance, and I, deeply ashamed, felt the difficulty of a
situation for which I had been born, and which to maintain with my
dignity I seemed to lack the strength and the spirit, and, not least,
the requisite knowledge of men. I took part regularly in the sessions of
the Academy, and listened with the greatest pleasure to the lectures and
discussions on learned subjects.  The kings of science sat at a long,
green table in the middle of a vast hall on the rear court of the
Institute, and everyone was granted admittance, in order to admire the
great intellectuals of France in person.  When the session came to an
end, they withdrew to the conference rooms and sat in groups before the
heated fireplaces, in order to carry on private conversations, debate
questions of the day, or to throw light on new discoveries in scientific
fields with French vivacity.  In all conversations the most courteous
forms were maintained and even irony was clothed in the finest turns of
phrase.  The militarily schooled Colonel and Academician de Saulcy
struck a rougher tone, but the immortals smiled at his funny sallies and
received his strongest expressions  I remember his "je vous en defie"
at a public session  with outbreaks of general merriment.  I felt
warmed and uplifted, and cherished in
the   '        0*((@@  meantime only the one wish, to
obtain the good opinion of the French teachers for myself, through new
discoveries, and to prove myself worthy of the numerous recommendations
of my unforgettable patron. The opportunity for this was not to be
lacking, after, by spending all the time at my disposal, I had most
industriously examined the rich Egyptian collections of the Louvre and
the Bibliotheque Nationale, in which there was, above all, a true
treasure of hieratic and demotic papyri, and had taken as many
transcripts of them as possible.  Through the unexpected discovery of
the Greek translation of a long demotic document, preserved in the
Berlin Museum, and through the finding of the demotic translation of the
extensive 125th Chapter of the hieroglyphic socalled Book of the Dead
in a Paris papyrus, I had the luck to have discovered two
doublelanguage inscriptions of wideranging importance, and to have
brought to my stepchild of a science an unsuspected enrichment. Vicomte
E. de Rouge, who at that time as Honorary Director was occupied in
compiling an ingenious as well as learned catalogue of the ancient
Egyptian collections of the Louvre, embraced me, quite delighted with my
find, and the gentlemen Academicians clasped my hands at my successful
performance as soon after my arrival in Paris.  "Voyex ce gredin de
Brugsch, il nous plante nous tous!"* exclaimed de Saulcy in his jovial
way, during a public session in the Institute.
   '         0*((@@  Ԍ     After the many humiliations and
disappointments to which I had been exposed in Berlin on the part of
many among those who prided themselves on being guardians and
benefactors of science, my acceptance in Paris had the effect of a
cordial welcome, and my creative desire grew in proportion, as I most
zealously made use of every opportunity to prove myself worthy of the
benevolence of my magnanimous King and his friend Alexander von
Humboldt, through my performance in Paris.  I was active from early
morning until evening, lived frugally in order to prolong my stay in the
metropolis as long as I could, and finally went back to Berlin in order
to evaluate my discovered treasures in quiet retreat, and to continue my
University studies with all ardor.  I did not go to bed before two
o'clock in the morning regularly, even though my physical strength
suffered ominously thereby, and I belonged to the number of pale, thin
striplings.  My thirst for knowledge was certainly unlimited, and the
idea that almost everywhere I set foot for the first time as pathfinder
in unknown territory lent me that enthusiasm which only he who has ever
found himself in a similar situation can comprehend.  My circle was
restricted to a few friends, among whom, of contemporaries still living,
I rank first the sculptor L. Sussmann, the two    

    Begas, sculptor and painter, and Dr. Steinthal.  With Paul
Heyse I had contact almost daily, since we two used to sit
     *Look at this
scoundrel of a Brugsch, he is supplanting us all!"
       '         0*((@@  Ԍbeside one another as good
neighbors in the course of lectures by his distinguished father.  His
almost girlish beauty made a deep impression on me at that time, and yet
I was never in my life to be offered the opportunity to see him face to
face again.  Of course, I spent long years in Egypt, while he, the
fortunate one, mounted the ladder of fame in his career as poet.
( IN HOLLANDă After my return to Berlin, I found my
old friend and patron, Passalacqua, once more at the peak of ill humor.
His vexation that his plans for the arrangement and exhibition of the
Egyptian collection entrusted to his care, in the just completed new
museum, had remained disregarded by the higher authorities, led him to
present an official complaint, consisting of no less than 270
handwritten sheets, against the General Director at that time, Herr von
Olfers, and Professor Lepsius.  The muchoccupied author of the
Kosmos declined to read the extensive opus which was sent to him,
or to concern himself at all with the ticklish affair.  Jupiter
tonans raged, but his lightning bolt fell into the water.  His secret
resentment fell upon myself, since I decidedly refused to launch
scientific attacks against Lepsius.  On the contrary, on Humboldt's wise
counsel, expressed verbally and in writing, I was bearing it in mind to
arouse a more friendly disposition of the official scholar toward me in
the future.  Passalacqua had once played me off as a trump card in the
deplorable   '        0*((@@  affair, and had beaten the
noisy tomtom in all the society circles of Berlin; a second time the
simplest common sense advised me not to let myself be misused as means
for other purposes.  I felt I had learned sufficient shrewdness, and
resisted all temptations that came my way.  A mysterious neverexplained
piece of gossip contributed chiefly to warning me in time.  M. de
Saulcy, during a stay in Frankfurt, A. M., was said to have expressed
disapproval of Alexander von Humboldt and my humble self, and to have
said he wanted to come to Berlin to call us to account (for what?).  My
great patron preferred to address an open enquiry to him.  The reply to
it is repeated in substance in the following note to me: "I hasten to
tell you that in a letter of 19 October, already in answer to my
remonstrances, M. de Saulcy announces in the most amiable way that he
was in the Pyrenees, and had not thought of coming to Berlin now; that
he had just learned, 'according to foreign books, that a man was
travelling in Mainz under his name!'  Since the letter contains the
greatest praises of you (M. Brugsch est un jeune homme du plus brilliant
avenir, entre ses mains, je vous l'affirme, la philologie egyptienne
fera des progres admirables.  II a debute par un coup de maitre et
certess II ne s'arretera pas en aussi beau chemin)*  I want to show it
to the King (before I send this to you).  I would not inform
you      *M. Brugsch is a
young man with the most brilliant future.  In his hands, I assure you,
Egyptian philology will make admirable progress.  He has      with a
master stroke, and surely he will not stop on so fine a
road.   '        0*((@@  Ԍ    of this eulogy, if
your conduct did not give me the certainty of your being able to endure
early praise, and so vividly expressed.  For others than you, my dear
Brugsch, it would be corrupting. A. v. Humboldt    Wednesday." My Paris
journey lay long since behind me, when my wish was fulfilled, also
through royal generosity, to be able to visit the rich museums in Leyden
and Turin, in order to search for demotic treasures in their famous
collections, but at the same time, to turn my whole attention to the
hieroglyphic grammar and its supply of words.  In the course of my own
researches, my conviction had grown, that Champollion's immortal works,
still in the form published after his death by rather unskilled hands,
no longer sufficed, to gain from ancient Egyptian texts their true,
philologically based understanding.  The great master had brought the
first light into thousandsyears' darkness, but it was like the weak
morning red which, with its dawning glow, can only faintly illuminate
the domain to be conquered in the future.  The enormous material
available from the times of the furiouslywriting ancient Egyptians had
to be sifted, the more recent and latest separated from the older and
oldest, and the distinctions of the individual script characters and of
the spoken expressions must be strictly separated from the grammatical
ones.  The development of the script characters themselves, up to the
most current demotic, must
be   '        0*((@@  established by examples in the course
of a more than 3000 year existence of old Egyptian literature from
century to century, and likewise the development of the language up to
modern Coptic must be followed with all necessary thoroughness, in the
grammatical and lexicographical structure of words.  All that was a
gigantic task, at whose solution the present generation is still working
today.  Even the Coptic language, whose wordsupply in the known lexicon
of the learned Italian, Abbe Amadeo Peyron, was still far from exhausted
or was, from today's scientific standpoint, insufficiently treated,
needed a complete working over and required the most penetrating
investigation.  In a word, everything else still remained to be done, in
order to give pattern and form to the heapedup rough blocks, for the
erection of a mighty edifice whose foundations the master had only
fleetingly sketched in his basic plan. The idea hovered before me, first
of all to compile the vocabulary in alphabetical order, to convince
myself of the meaning of the words found, through distinct examples, and
thus to create for myself and my successors a firm basis for our
studies.  In Holland this idea came to fruition, and I began a work
which was turned over to publication in the years 1868 to 1880, my
sevenvolume Hieroglyphic  Demotic Dictionary.  This has
nowadays become the common property of science, for, as I am assured, it
forms the muchused source of all ancient Egyptian
decipherment.   '        0*((@@  Ԍ     My journey to
Holland, due to my modest means, was naturally by third class on the
railroad and by post.  Via Wesel and Amsterdam I happily reached Leyden.
It gave me an extraordinary fascination to make my way along in the
broad, flat country crisscrossed by straight canals, but everywhere well
cultivated and covered with clean, brightly painted villages and
settlements, and to sit in the most peculiar railway coaches along with
equally clean and honest fellow travellers of Dutch origin.  The
thirdclass carriage at that time was without windows, and as in our
Berlin horsecars in the summer season, colorless cloth curtains on all
four sides of the coach served as the only protection against sunshine
and pouring rain.  I did not get far with the language, since except for
"Myn Her," I understood next to nothing, and during my short stay in the
Dutch Venice, the old mercantile city of Amsterdam, my astonishment at
discovering the presence of so many "cantors," on the polished plates on
the blackpainted house doors, only subsided after the meaning of the
Dutch "cantor" had been explained to me in the sense of the French
comptoir." My entry into Leyden, the university city of the Netherlands,
took place early in the morning in heavy rainy weather.  A troop of
soldiers marched in rank and file past me.  Officers and men had open
umbrellas, unable to guess how much such a sight amused me, the
soldier's son.  But the Hollanders seemed to me to be extraordinarily
practical   '        0*((@@  people, who troubled
themselves little about externals.  That, as I later found frequent
occasion to observe, the maidservants carefully cleaned the halfpaved
streets and the stone steps up to the house doors with brushes and water
and actually laundered them, finally no longer astonished me at all.
Everything, even to the shining windowpanes, had to appear sparkling
clean, and when I later wandered through the dirty Egyptian villages of
the Pellahs, I almost always thought, with secret longing, of the Dutch
cleanliness. I had the pleasure of knowing personally, for the first
time, the honored Director of the Egyptian collections of the Museum in
Leyden, Doctor Leemans, and of learning to esteem in him, the publisher
of the monuments of his more than rich treasure, a man as learned as he
was outstanding as a critic. After a short acquaintance, he invited me
into his hospitable house, and there, as well as in the homes of all the
other acquaintances who honored me with invitations, I had the
opportunity to admire the sterling quality and cordiality of Dutch
family life.  No evening went by that did not find the father of the
house united with his family, and the singing or the music of the sons
and daughters embellished the hours in the most pleasant way.  The young
Dutch girl seemed to me like the model of fresh young cheerfulness.  Her
open, honest nature, far from any affectation or mannerism, the charming
smile on her fresh, pretty face, left an irresistible impression and
delighted me in the highest degree.  In
the   '        0*((@@  house of Professor Juynboll, I would
have lost my heart by a hair's breadth, if she had only wanted me.  Also
the student life, as it is in Leyden outwardly patterned after English
club life, captivated my attention.  Comradeship formed the keynote, and
the community life in the stately rooms of the students' own building
did not fail to make an impression.  Of course, in my opinion, only sons
of rich parents could partake of the privileges of such a grand home,
for the costs of maintenance must have been quite considerable. The days
in the Leyden Museum and the evenings in the house of my Dutch host
flowed by like minutes, and I was astonished myself, when the hour of
departure approached.  But six full weeks had passed since my arrival,
and in the fullness of my scientific harvest I saw best that I had made
good use of my month and a half. In the excellent Doctor Leemans I had
won an ever helpful friend for life, with whom I remained thenceforth in
correspondence for many years, and to whose wise counsels I always
listened.  He still today enjoys a happy existence on earth, even though
his age has advanced into the eighties. I left Dutch territory with all
wishes of blessing for its hospitable places, and could hardly wait for
the time of my return to Berlin, in order to examine my scientific yield
and finally to present to my high patron, A. von Humboldt, a written
report which would include one result of my Leyden studies.  This had to
do with the Ancients' acquaintance
with   '        0*((@@  hypnotism (at least as early as the
second century) and its explanation through magic charlatanism, based
upon the socalled "Gnostic Papyri," written in demotic, in the Leyden
Museum.  I later expanded my work insofar as it related to demotic
findings in Holland, through the proof that Aesop's fables without a
doubt bear every sign of an EgyptianEthiopian origin.    MY
JOURNEY ACROSS THE ALPSă My third journey into demotic foreign lands
 Humboldt called even the street on which I first lived the "demotic"
Artillery Street  took a southerly direction, to "la bella Italia."
With barely 150 thalers in my pocket, I began my passage across the
Alps, in order to reach the capital of the then kingdom of Piedmont and
Savoy, and in the famous Egyptian collections of the Museum of Turin to
reap new demotic harvests. The journey was long and difficult.  Instead
of the expensive express train, I chose the ordinary cheap train which
goes from Berlin in the direction through Frankfurt a.M., on the east
bank of the Rhine, first to Basel.  For reasons of economy I had
resolved to keep completely away from hotels on the whole journey to
Turin  in other words, day and night, through a full week, not to get
out of the train.  It was a hard task which I was attempting to carry
through with every expenditure of my not excessively great strength.
Already in Basel, which I reached in the evening, the   '
        0*((@@  situation did not seem to me quite right, but
the world belongs to the courageous.  I climbed into the boxshaped
belly of an old post coach, in the company of some sturdy sons of free
Switzerland who spoke a frightful German and who suffocated the confined
space with a pestilentialsmelling tobacco from short, glowing pipes.
The postilion merrily blew his horn, the fourinhand began to pull, and
with a heavy din the vehicle rattled through the narrow, rough lanes of
the city. I no longer know today who had given me the odd advice to make
my way through Basel, in order to reach the St. Gotthard and, descending
from Arona, to strike the rather level road to Turin.  Perhaps the
amiable counselor had it in mind to offer me the opportunity to admire
the extraordinary natural beauties of alpine Switzerland.  If I had a
presentiment of the of the difficulties of travel at that time on this
route, I would cheerfully have taken another, perhaps a more direct
road, and would have renounced with the sight of even the grandest
pictures of nature.  At that time, there were still no railroads in
Switzerland, and a clumsy, antediluvian postcart provided the
connection from town to town.  Furthermore, among the free folk, there
was a lack of nourishment and drink at cheap prices for travelers, and I
have a strong suspicion that the trusty postillons had entered into
secret pacts with innkeepers at the main stations of the road  pacts
whose point was aimed at the sacrificial lamb in the belly of
the   '!        0*((@@  post coach.  When one had extricated
himself, that is, from the torture chamber, after previously having been
duly jolted and shaken, in order to get a meal at the table of the cafe,
everything had to be ordered a la carte.  One paid for the order
beforehand, so as not to lost unnecessary time later. After the host had
pocketed his good money, a long time passed until a hot, steaming soup
appeared on the table.  One ate the boiling broth with all precaution
against involuntarily scalding the inside of one's mouth.  After that,
there was an intermission.  Finally, the sight of a glowing roast called
for an energetic assault; then, as upon agreement, the postillon blew
his horn, one was obliged to hurry out, and inside the postcoach to
reflect whether the man was not a common beast of prey, who used every
trick and device to fleece his victim.  Never in my life have I felt
such hunger, as on that miserable journey through Switzerland.  I had
sworn, since then never in my life to touch Switzerland again, and I
have indeed kept my oath to this hour. What am I to tell about that
which has been depicted thousands of times, and better than my weak pen
would be in a position to describe?  We drove to Lucerne; I saw the
steep Pilatus lying before me, as though I needed only to stretch out my
hand, in order to touch it.  I boarded ship on the Lake of Lucerne and
debarked at the other end, near Fluelen.  A new torturebox took me in,
and up it went to the snowcovered St. Gotthard, and past the hospice
there down toward the South.    '"        0*((@@  Upon
arrival at the north point of Lake Maggiore, I took a steamer once more,
admired with a sidelong glance the picturesque shore and the mountainous
surroundings of this lake, finally reached the harbor of Arona, and
there spent a miserable night in a winehouse in which vagabonds of
banditlike appearance seemed to regard me with lustful eyes.  I became
uneasy and wandered a few hours through lonely streets, to be barked at
by dogs in the bright moonlight, or to meet unsteady drunkards who were
babbling an Italian national song with hoarse voices.  I gathered all my
courage, went back to the wine shop, and slept away the last hours
before the break of day on a narrow wooden bench which the host, who was
just on the point of closing the shop, had willingly granted me in
return for payment.  Numb in every limb, I arose from my unhappy bed at
the first beam of the rising sun of Italy, and with my modest piece of
baggage in my hand, as always, set off for the post office I had been
told about, where the opportunity for the drive to Turin was offered
daily. The post wagon was really only an omnibus with two wooden benches
on the long sides of the vehicle, on which about sixteen persons could
sit.  Only a halfdozen Italians appeared as travelling companions,
among them a priest in a hairy cowl, with whom I attempted to open a
conversation.  I spoke French, but the language of the modern Frenchman
was completely unknown to him, as was Italian to me at that time. I had
the sudden clever idea to choose Latin as a means
of   '#        0*((@@  understanding, and seeing then that
the monk knew how to reply, our conversation flowed like honey over our
tongues. Whether it possessed a classic flavor, I cannot pass any sure
judgment today, after so long a time has elapsed.  In regard to the goal
of my journey, the city of Turin, I permitted His Reverence to put a few
questions to me which alluded to persons and were closely associated
with my future acquaintances.  I did not let it go unmentioned, that a
recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt was at my disposal, which I
expected to make a special effect.  To my question, whether he knew this
high personage at least by name, the delightful reply came from his
lips:  "The priest or bishop of this name is unfortunately unknown to
me."  I could almost have fallen off the bench; A. von Humboldt a
bishop! We had set out in the early morning and in the evening we
already drew into Turin.  As far as could be perceived, the city, with
its wide, wellpaved streets, made an exceedingly clean, anything but
Italian impression, for one could have believed that he was in any one
of the larger royal residence cities in German lands.  Before a modest
inn in a side street, the Albergo del Puzzo, we got off, and I moved
into a tiny little room located on the court, and reached through the
door of an iron passage.  It was a kind of balcony room, paved with red
tiles, unclean, chilly, uncomfortable, sparsely furnished, and without
curtains over the tall rickety glass door.  I had a frugal meal on the
products of the South, that is,
radishes   '$        0*((@@  along with green salad formed
the essential ingredient, took off my clothes and lay down on a bed
again for the first time in eight days. I slept as badly as possible,
and felt seriously ill.  My bloated body seemed to have the hardness of
stone, my forehead was burning hot, and when in the early morning I was
awakened by the noisy activity of the boys in the court who were
harnessing the posthorses to the omnibus, I got up from the hard bed,
only to lie down again at once.  Not until 3 o'clock in the afternoon
did I gain enough power over myself, to dress and to attempt the walk to
the nearby Museum. Painfully and with difficulty, I asked the way to the
place I had earlier so ardently longed for, and inquired, in the French
language, of the old bearded doorman in a great uniform before the door,
whether I was in the right place.  He answered, to my greatest joy, in
the most fluent French, invited me into his booth, to the left of the
main entrance, and seemed to have the sincerest sympathy for my
miserable state, for I looked pale as death, and the perspiration of
distress stood out on my brow.  At his remark that a session of the
Academicians was just taking place upstairs, I drew the recommendation
of Alexander v. Humboldt out ofmy pocket and handed it to him with the
request that it be delivered to one of the gentlemen, in the hope of
meeting a savior in my need. The letter was really an open sheet, on
which my patron had written in clear script the following
words:   '%        0*((@@  Ԍ     "Je prie tous ceux que dans
les belles Regions de l'Italie ont conserve queique souvenir de mon nom
et de mes travaux, d'accueillir avec bienveillance le porteur de ces
lignes, Mr. le Docteur Brugsch, mon compatriote, dont les recherches
archeologiques inspirent un grand interet et qui est aussi distingue par
son savoir que par la delicatesse de ses sentiments. Potsdam ce 6
Juillet 1851. Le Bn. de Humboldt."* *(translation of Humboldt's letter)
"I pray that all those in the beautiful regions of Italy who have
preserved some memory of my name and of my works will receive with
kindness the bearer of these lines, Dr. Brugsch, my compatriot, whose
archaeological researches inspire great interest, and who is as
distinguished for his knowledge as for the delicacy of his sentiments.
Potsdam, this 6th of July, 1851. Baron von Humboldt." I know very well,
how little I deserved so flattering a distinction for my person, but the
noble old man preferred to do rather too much than too little for his
devoted friends, when it was a question of supporting them and
introducing them to the great world. The stately old doorman, according
to his affirmation a former Grenadier of the Guard of Napoleon Bonaparte
who had remained behind in Turin because of wounds, had hardly
left   '&        0*((@@  me, when I fell off my chair in a
faint and lost all consciousness.  I came to, only when I felt myself
sprinkled with water.  I opened my eyes and, to my astonishment, found
myself surrounded by a large circle of dignifiedlooking gentlemen who
inquired, full of sympathy, after my health and most willingly offered
their help.  A member of the medical department of the Academy instantly
took over my treatment; he examined my body, felt my pulse, asked about
this and that occurrence on my journey, and since I had not bee able to
perform the most natural thing of all on such a long trip, it was
recommended that I have a hot bath at once, and after that, I was
advised to go to bed and await further action. The "further action" took
place iin my room punctually an hour later.  A powerful hand knocked on
the transparent glass door, and with the thought that it was the amiable
Academy doctor coming to pay me a helpful visit, I turned toward the
door with an audible "Entrez, Monsieur, s'il vous plait!"  Who can
describe my surprise, when a broadly built figure of a woman in her
forties, with a fully developed black moustache on her upper lip, forced
herself through the narrow door, greeted me in Italian, simply took the
contents of a folded packet, and performed on me that procedure which
anxious mothers not infrequently administer to their children.  I felt
deeply ashamed, but the exceedingly vigorous madame did not let it
intimidate her, and the unavoidable happened.  I was saved, even though
deeply contrite.  My antiquarian
studies   ''        0*((@@  could still be started on the
same afternoon. In the rooms of the Museum, I had the pleasure of
meeting the Abbe Amadeo Peyron, wellknown to every Egyptologist as the
author of a CopticLatin dictionary and editor of the Greek papyri of
the Turin Museum.  The learned old gentleman, with his mild and friendly
features which by no means called to mind his spiritual position,
greeted me with sincere pleasure and praised my work on the demotic with
unfeigned warmth of expression.  But I felt it like a stab in the heart,
when he prefaced his words of praise with the following remark.  "The
younger Champollion," he said to me, "the socalled discoverer of the
hieroglyphic decipherment, I knew well from the first visit he made to
our Museum.  I considered him a common swindler, and his works have
subsequently strengthened my opinion.  His philological productions have
now remained an incomprehensible riddle to me.  How differently has your
demotic grammar impressed me...."  I leave off repeating his further
details, in order not to give the appearance that I wished to place
myself in the undeserved foreground at the expense of the grossly
misjudged great Frenchman, to whom alone I owe my own first knowledge.
In spite of Peyron, he remains for all time the great Champollion. My
labors in the Egyptian Museum of Turin granted me the most unexpected
pleasures, and I did not weary of eagerly plucking the proffered fruits.
The then Director of this   '(        0*((@@  collection,
the knowledgeable Italian scholar, Orcurti, opened for me, with the most
amiable willingness even its most hidden treasures, but at the same time
his whole heart also, for he suffered most distressingly through daily
anxiety for the maintenance of his family on a yearly salary of 800
francs. I felt the strongest sympathy for his fate, yet without
possessing the means myself to bring him help.  The Academy lacked a
sufficient endowment, and all my recommendations and efforts for the
betterment of his situation were frustrated by the distressing question
of money.  The poor man died early, after he had fulfilled the last and
most valuable service to the scientific world through the publication of
a catalogue of the rich collections of the Museum.  How often since then
have I had to experience that talent by the grace of God in the struggle
for existence came to a wretched end in a beggar's coat, while the
pseudoscholars and the lazy ones grew fat and attained rich livings on
the path of nepotism! Since I am not writing a scientific book, I need
not trouble the reader with descriptions, even of only the outstanding
monuments which make Turin one of the greatest points of attraction for
travelling scholars.  I shall only remark incidentally, that among the
demotic papyrus rolls are found the earliest examples of the use of the
old Egyptian popular script in the form of dated contracts.  They belong
to the times of the Psammetic Pharaoh (about the 7th century B.C.), yet
I was able to decipher hardly half their
contents,   ')        0*((@@  for the script shows the first
beginnings of its development from those hardtorecognize forms of the
hieratic characters, as they appear pertaining to that epoch. In Turin I
had made the acquaintance of an amiable German countryman, Baron Pirch,
who at that time, occupied the position of legation councilor of the
Prussian Embassy in Turin.  To his friendly mediation, I owed many an
introduction into distinguished society, and not less to his lively
descriptions I owed a precise knowledge of city and country as far as
the picturesque mountain range of the snowcovered alps in the
background of the city.  A joint excursion to the mountains by coach in
the direction of Rivoli, the summer seat of rich Turniners, was
delightful through the charm of the surrounding landscape in the
vicinity of the royal Residence. Of course, a certain caution was
necessary, for in the evening, when we drove through the ravines in the
dark, a pair of pistols was kept in readiness in order to ward off the
attacks of brigands, not infrequent at that time. On my return home, I
chose the route that leads in a westerly direction from Turin across
Mont Cenis and touches the cities of Chambery and AixlesBains, home of
the Savoyards, iin order finally to strike the road through Geneva and
Bern to Basel.  On the postcoach, I regularly took the high seat beside
the postilion and enjoyed an unhampered look around at the most
wonderful pictures of nature, iin constant change from mountain to
valley, which have remained in my   '*        0*((@@  memory
lifelong, and moreover compensated in the richest measure for the
hungertour on the journey over the St. Gotthard pass.  Herr von Pirch,
who had recommended to me most forcefully the advantages of the western
route, had been completely right and I thanked him in spirit and in
truth for the good service he rendered me.  One thing I will not forget
to add.  In Paris I had learned to know the poor Savoyards as unassuming
children.  On their home ground, they showed themselves to be anything
but amiable.  They ran along beside the postcoach, begging with loud
cries for alms, and when the same, paid in ready coin, did not seem to
them considerable enough, they threw stones at the windows of the coach,
so that the glass shattered into pieces.  When one set out in their
pursuit, they slipped aside into the bushes to vanish from sight
forever. My student years flowed by with unbelievable swiftness with my
regular visits to the University and continued demotic studies.  In the
work, I experienced the highest pleasure and each new discover in the
field of an old Egyptian decipherment, for which my travels had placed
an extraordinarily rich material at my disposal, could send me into a
true ecstasy of delight.  In fact, I was living now and then in a state
of genuine rapture which seized my entire nervous system and evoked the
most remarkable phenomena.  I mention the following expressly because it
repeated itself    '+         0*((@@  Ԍfrequently in the
course of time so that I almost began to be afraid of myself. Until deep
into the night, I sat studiously before my Egyptian inscriptions in
order to establish, by way of example, the pronunciation and the
grammatical significance of a character or a wordgroup.  In spite of
all brooding and reflection, I did not find the solution, lay down
exhausted on my bed, which was in my workroom, and after having turned
out the lamp, sunk into a deep sleep.  In a dream, I continued the
unresolved investigation, suddenly found the solution, immediately left
my restingplace, sat at the table like a sleepwalker with closed eyes,
and wrote the result with pencil on a small sheet of paper.  I rose,
went back to my bed and slept again.  Upon awakening in the morning, I
was astonished each time to see before me the solution of the riddle in
clear script characters.  I remembered the dream well, but asked myself
in vain, how I had been in a state to write down whole lines, clearly
readable, in the greatest darkness. Another phenomenon which is fixed
unforgettably in my memoir had a ghostly flavor.  A dear friend, the
landscaped painter Eduard Hildebrandt, of famous memory, possessed a
wellpreserved mummy head of Egyptian origin, which he had acquired on
his last journey in Thebes.  He made me a present of it and I placed it
under a glass case on my worktable. The eyes were wide open and between
the halfopen lips, now become black, showed a double row of brilliant
white teeth.    ',        0*((@@  Never had I experienced a
feeling of abhorrence or dread, at the by no means beautiful sight.  One
day I sat from the midday hours uninterruptedly until night, chained to
my table, occupied as usual with difficult questions which claimed my
entire power of thought, without succeeding in finding the desired
answer.  Depressed, I turned my gaze to the head and murmured, "If you,
manythousandyearold child of man, would only open your closed mouth
to give me the answer, what wouldn't I give for that!"  At the same
moment, it struck 12 o'clock midnight.  Then I saw, to my horror, how
the eyes of the mummy head turned, the mouth and the tongue moved,  in
a word, how the dead began to live.  A cold chill ran through my limbs,
my heart pounded; I turned the head away so as to see nothing more,
hastily put out the lamp and threw myself into bed in my clothes, to
pull the cover over my head and pass a fearful wakeful hour before
falling asleep.  The next morning, the head appeared unchanged, as it
had always been. Nevertheless, I had nothing more hasty to do than to
pack it in a basket and hand it over to the egyptian Museum in Berlin as
their property.  For me, it was if a stone had fallen from my heart,
after I saw myself freed of the sinister neighbor. I had made the
experiment on myself, that an excited imagination can deceive the seeing
eye by the most terrible pictures.  Later in Thebes, I slept, all soul
alone, in the midst of old Egyptian corpses, but never was aware of that
   '-         0*((@@  Ԍtortured feeling which had seized me
with demonic power in the case of the abovedescribed phenomenon in
Berlin. Still during my period of study, I was able to deliver many a
result of my scientific works for publication and I won rich approbation
for my discoveries, but with an overwhelming majority from abroad.  It
is true that my treatises touched upon a narrowly limited field of
Egyptiandemotic studies, but Alexander von Humboldt, in his everlasting
goodness, disclosed a special advantage in that very thing, since also
in the realm of nature, microscopic investigations afforded the greatest
uses because in their connection with one another, they formed the true
foundation of all research.   I BECOME A DOCTOR OF
PHILOSOPHYă The time was gradually drawing near for me to prepare for
the examination for Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Berlin and
therefore, I saw myself obliged to lay aside my Egyptian works during
several months and, as a future magister liberallum artium, to
turn my whole attention to Philosophy and the Liberal Arts.  I almost
envied A. von Humboldt, who assured me that he had never in his life
taken an examination, and yet had found his advancement.  It was a
difficult place of work, to find my way in the individual branches for
which I had to take the examination, but I was in general, well
"behoofed," as one used to say.  Only Philosophy gave me a good deal of
trouble, since I could not get rid of the suspicion that, with the
exception of Logic, for whose   '.        0*((@@  categories
I had a special respect, every system contained only more or less
skillfully laid patterns of reasoning according to the special quality
of its founder.  The philosophy of Hegel, which I had tried to
comprehend under Professor Michelet's direction, gave me particular
difficulties, even though its spirit attracted me involuntarily.  I
understood that everything is, and in the next moment is
not,  in other words, that everything is in a state of
becoming, or is subject to constant change, that furthermore, the
becoming corresponds to movement in space, that time is only
measured space, hence unthinkable for itself alone; but my head
whirled, when I climbed the uppermost steps on the ladder of knowledge
and looked down from a dizzy height into a vast depth.  I would not in
all my life have become a philosopher, and if, however, on the basis of
my diploma I have been designated as Doctor Philosophiae, I have
actually deserved such a distinction little or not at all, which, in the
decline of my existence, I feel no hesitation in confessing openly. And
yet, man is a very vain creature who likes to deck himself in false
feathers.  When the hard hours of the examination lay behind me and the
gathering of the professors who, as examiners and judges, had searched
me to the bone, pronounced me worthy of the title of a Doctor of
Philosophy, then I was clearly jubilant; I made the deepest bow and left
the halls of wisdom in order to rush home and inform my
dear   '/        0*((@@  parents of the enormous event, and
from there to plunge at full gallop to a porcelain painter in the
neighborhood to order a doorplaque with the inscription Dr. Phil.
H. Brugsh, to be ready just as soon as possible.  I was of the opinion
that the world could not learn early enough, that behind the entrance
door of our apartment a real Doctor of Philosophy had set up his
workshop of the spirit. My ceremonial graduation took place, according
to tradition, in the Aula of the Berlin University, without a special
crowding of curious and eagertolearn attendants. The unavoidable
public debate left nothing to be desired, in my power of demonstrating
my proposed thesis, and I emerged as shining victor in the dispute.  For
the sake of prudence, however, I had considered it a good idea to come
to an understanding with my opponents a day earlier, and, I admit it
quite honestly, the roles had been very nicely rehearsed and
distributed.  I received my doctor's hat, took the prescribed oath and
gave my opponents a tasty meal in a restaurant which at that time was
situated directly above the Kranzler confectionery.  My friend Dr.
Theodore Stamm, who had just recently returned from a journey to the
Orient in order to learn to know more precisely the vital power of water
and the Religion of Action at its oldest cradle, was anything but
satisfied with his experiences and in the conversation at the table, he
expressed himself bitterly over the increasing decadence of mankind
which is animated only by selfishness
and   '0        0*((@@  desire to persecute.  The second
theme which he took up was little suited, to be sure, to the winefilled
glasses beside our plates, but yet it was instructive for us because the
young speaker demonstrated that Pindar, the Greek poet, was quite right
to praise water as the best thing in the world. Since in the East,
perhaps with the partial exception of Egypt, they had failed to care
about water, everything had gone to ruin and want had taken the place of
wealth.  We could only applaud him with all our hearts for his
assertion, and so my friends finally departed with their best wishes for
my prosperity in the future. What now?  That was the great question
facing me after the completed doctorate.  The royal stipendium, which
until then had kept my head above water, had expired after I finished
the third year, and consequently I was obliged to provide myself for the
future.  My scientific papers, which I published from time to time,
brought in little and it would have been painful for me to have to
receive bread and butter from my parents.  Then fate and chance brought
it about that I was suddenly offered an opportunity that would bring an
end to all anxieties, if I only wanted to seize it.  Several
distinguished Moldavian families whose names:  Ghika, Dobreanu,
Skelitti, among others, are still familiar to me today, were looking for
a boardingschool for their twelveto fourteenyearold sons, in which
French would serve as the colloquial language, and the sciences would be
taught   '1        0*((@@  according to the German method.
The chief condition set by the parents was that the boardingschool
father be a married man.  In other respects, the payment in cash turned
out to be so favorable that it would not only relieve the recipient of
every care of material existence for several years ahead, but would even
allow him to lead an elegant life in his own home. After considerable
deliberation, I accepted the condition to receive the sons of Moldavia
for board and instruction in my house  wild, powerful boys, to be sure,
who nevertheless later turned into excellent, knowledgeable youths and
men, and altogether performed the best services for their fatherland.
But the chief stipulation remained to be fulfilled on my part:  I had to
marry, and frankly that seemed to me the slightest among the obstacles
to be overcome.  Still in my student years, during a visit on the estate
of a rich landowner in the vicinity of Berlin, I had made the
acquaintance of a young orphan  she was at the time 17 years old 
whose charming, natural manner and blooming, healthy freshness
captivated, and not only in passing, my heart and mind.  It came very
soon to be a declaration, which turned out in my favor, and Pauline was
likewise delighted that she was so unexpectedly quickly to become mine
for life and to manage as a respectable housewife at my side.  She was
the youngest of three sisters who, after the early death of their
parents, called a house on Stein Street their own.  The eldest had
already become the wife of a merchant, who at present
holds   '2        0*((@@  the position of a worthy governor
of a ward in Berlin, after having retired from his former business.  He
is the father of the talented sculptor and painter, Richard Neumann,
well known to all showloving Berliners as the ingenious director of
the Panopticum Unter den Linden.  The second sister managed as head of
the household and directed the education of my future wife.  She died a
worthy matron, without living to see our marriage, which was consecrated
in the year 1851 by the Minister Vater in the Dorotheenstadt Church.
Alexander von Humboldt had not declined to pay us the honor of his
presence as marriage witness and among other invited guests, I had the
pleasure of being able to greet the Director Pasalacqua and my famous
friend, the landscape painter, Eduard Hildebrandt. My young wife, a born
Berliner and burgher's daughter who, alas, would later be snatched from
me by death, blessed me with the pureness of her disposition and the
most lovable cheerfulness in her whole appearance.  She raised my often
sinking spirits and inspired me with enthusiasm for my perpetual and
difficult work in the field of deciphering Egyptian scripts, taking the
liveliest part in my own joy over any lucky discovery, although she did
not understand it in the least.  Besides, she possessed the excellent
quality of not seeking amusement and of feeling true satisfaction in the
modest existence of a young beginning scholar. We had rented an
apartment at number 99 Friedrichstrasse, opposite the great circus of
Renz and Dejazet, whose former   '3        0*((@@  site is
marked by the present central railroad station.  Our first home was
spacious and, under the circumstances at that time, could even be called
splendid, for my rich Moldavians marched in and nothing must be lacking
in spaciousness to satisfy the required demands.  My young wife was
shocked, to be sure, when the various mothers appeared with lighted
cigarettes between their delicate lips, in order to deliver the hopeful
sons to the young couple for care and education. But of course their
homeland lay not far from Turkey and the harem custom of smoking had
crossed the dividing frontier and found willing acceptance among the
ladies of Moldavia and Wallachia. I had undertaken a great
responsibility, through the obligation to confer upon five foreign boys
who, except for their mother tongue, spoke only French, a thorough
German education and German culture.  My time was completely taken up by
it and only the night, hitherto my truest friend, remained left to me
also for the future, for my quiet, peaceful work. A whole year long, I
had borne the heavy burden of a young boardingschool father, to whom
the youths entrusted to him, with their pampered ways, had given so many
bitter hours, when I became disgusted with it, and after short
deliberation, reached the decision to give up the wretched business and
to devote my entire time to science alone. The ring of the Moldavian
golden ducats was indeed a great temptation, but it in no way
compensated for the spiritual unrest by which I
felt   '4        0*((@@  oppressed day and night.  For even
out of sleep it shook me 2awake, after an incident supplied me with the
unedifying disclosure that the older of my foster sons, provided with
door and house keys, regularly left the apartment about one o'clock in
the morning, in order to spend a few merry hours with the French troupe
of professional riders from the Dejazet circus.  Without my having
suspected it, the entire domestic staff of my house had been bribed by
the young cubs with gifts of money, and every member of it had been
unscrupulous enough to support most strongly the secret escapades of the
golden youth. My further life in Berlin became, with regard to the
choice of dwellingplace, a truly nomadic existence.  The united family
changed it as soon as the income increased and a suitable opportunity
presented itself for a better home.  In general, we remained attached to
the southwest, where at that time the price of rent, on the average,
amounted to fifty thaler for each habitable room.  After I had
cheerfully given up the stately apartment on Grosse Friedrichstrasse, I
took up my new quarters in Johannis Street 3a, situated three flights
up, to be sure, but pleasant to me through the nearness of my patron,
Alexander von Humboldt, into whose garden I could look out from my
window.  Near it rose a justcompleted Jewish synagogue, whose visitors
on the Jewish festival  and holidays lent the otherwise quiet
neighborhood a certain liveliness and a Sundaylike
aspect.   '5        0*((@@  Ԍ     With my apartment at that
time are connected many dear recollections which I shall have a later
opportunity to revive.  It was not mere chance that brought me here into
contact with famous contemporaries in the fields of art and science,
who, however, in the majority came from abroad, for Berlin, as the
Residence of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who was enthusiastic for
everything beautiful and good, had become a rendezvous of enlightened
spirits.  They streamed hither from all parts of the world, in order to
stay for a longer or shorter time in the place in which the Muses and
Minerva had set up their favorite abode.  The amiability of the royal
patron, who was well versed in all branches of science and learning and
possessed in his "great Alexandros" a trusty friend and advisor, charmed
all visitors who had the honor to be presented to the high lord and to
admire his intellectual conversation.  It was French scholars in
particular who did not refrain from offering their respects to the King,
and from expressing their highest satisfaction in the museums, as well
as in the circles of Berlin society.  Even my cell three flights up on
Johannis Street shared the distinction of being entered by the most
famous people.  The French Academicians Renan, E. de Rouge, Maurice,
Vogue, the French African traveller Marquis d'Escayrac de Lauture, among
others, belonged to their number and I felt pride with all my soul, in
hearing my royal master praised by them in all tongues and
modes.   '6        0*((@@  Ԍ     A special recollection from
that time in my life is connected with the name of the abovementioned
French Marquis, who in the year 1856, at the order of the Viceroy of
Egypt, undertook a journey into the heart of the Sudan to discover the
sources of the Nile.  The Marquis had made the trip to Berlin in order
to persuade me to take part in the expedition. I was nearly on the point
of agreeing to his proposal and signing the submitted contract, had not
Alexander von Humboldt at the last hour expressed his decisive veto. In
Berlin itself, I found only slight regard and recognition at that time
in the learned world.  My studies and discoveries lay apart from the
great road which was taken by the majority of linguists, so that nobody
was in the position to pass a correct and impartial judgment.  Is it any
wonder that at that time the depreciating utterances of the official
Egyptologist excluded me from learned participation in my own
fatherland?  Those who stood by me were not Egyptologists, but still
today I thank them for the encouragement which their confidence in my
doubted productions instilled in me for the continuation of my work.  I
still gratefully acknowledge today the amiable reception which was
granted me in the house of my then patron, Geheimrat Dieterici, Director
of the Statistical Office on Linden Street.  The acquaintance with his
excellent son, the Arabist, Fritz Dieterici, has preserved until now the
recollection of a time in which only the encouragement and the to raise
my sinking spirit. Chapter III.

My First Journey to Egypt

     It was toward the end of the year 1851 when a Herr Reuter, a German
merchant from Magdeburg, who had just returned from a business trip to
Syria and Egypt, looked me up in Berlin in order to bring me the
greetings of an English resident of this city who had settled in
Alexandria.  His name, Mr. Harris, was at that time, already well known
to me, although it became truly perpetuated only later in connection
with the highly celebrated Egyptian papyrus rolls, particularly Harris
number 1, in the collections of the British Museum in London.  The
abundant means of Mr. Harris permitted him regularly, year after year,
to take a winter trip on his own Nile ship to Upper Egypt and to acquire
antiquities of all sorts, above all, valuable Greek and Egyptian papyrus
at, incidentally, exceedingly low prices.  Luck was extraordinarily
favorable to him in this.  Thus on his visit to a cave full of crocodile
mummies, opposite the town of Monfalut in Upper Egypt, he came upon
embalmed human corpses, which had found their last restingplace, no one
knows for what reason, in the midst of the monsters.  On the body of one
of them he discovered two voluminous papyrus rolls with writing in Greek
letters.  One contained the speeches of the Greek orator Hypereides, the
other the greatest part of Homer's Iliad.  Both finds deserved
sensation in the scientific world at that time and the name Harris was
on everyone's lips. On his journeys to the upper land, he used to be
accompanied by a young fullblooded negress whom he had adopted.  I knew
her personally later as a grown young woman and learned to esteem
her   h)        0*0*0*  mind highly.  She had enjoyed an
excellent education in England, spoke and wrote English with
extraordinary refinement, mastered in addition French, Italian and
Arabic, and played a clearly prominent role in the society of
Alexandria.  Even though her negro face left everything to be desired in
beauty, one forgot the ugliness of her race in conversation with her,
for besides her intellect she possessed a pleasing eloquence and a
sparkling wit, which immediately won the hearts of her listeners.  Only
the great fortune which was assured her through the will of her foster
father, after his death, attracted many a wooer, but she once remarked
to me, smiling, "Tell me, with such a face, what European will marry me
out of purest love?" On the "Hill of the Cock" of Alexandria, in the
vicinity of the fortifications which with great probability cover the
graves of Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies, Mr. Harris possessed a
handsome house with a charming view over the city lying below, and the
wide blue sea in the background.  A large part of the distinguished
villa was taken up by the antiquarian treasures, which formed a perfect
museum of rare and precious antiques, admittedly, after the death of the
father, to be scattered to the four winds by sale.  Mr. Harris was not
only an amateur in the usual sense of the word, but a prudent and
penetrating investigator, who was familiar with the hieroglyphic script,
insofar as it lay disclosed at that time, and who had published in the
English language many a valuable article which contained the fruits of
his studies in the Upper Egyptian temples.  One of his most important
discoveries had to do with the
geographical   (        0*0*0*  significance of certain
hieroglyphs arranged in the form of lists, in which he, with great
acuteness, conjectured the names and the sequence of the old Egyptian
provinces (names) of Upper and Lower Egypt.  His thoroughly accurate
surmise formed the basis of all my later geographical works on Egypt.
The German merchant, of whom I have previously spoken, asserted that he
was a friend of Mr. Harris, at whose request he invited me on a journey
to the Nile Valley, in order to enjoy the hospitality of the English
collector to the fullest extent.  He did not conceal from me the fact
that Mr. Harris had a marriageable black daughter of great spirit and
intelligence, but I showed him my wedding ring and in that way made it
clear to him that I was already "spoken for," and therefore renounced
Miss Harris, together with her riches and the Egyptian Museum.  Only in
the past year, during my last sojourn in Egypt, I learned with deep
regret, through a letter from the unfortunate, by now really old black
lady, that after the death of the father she had lost her entire
fortune, so that she found herself in the most bitter need. At that time
I took the liberty of communicating to my high patron, A. von Humboldt,
the enticing invitation of Mr. Harris, and he found it so important for
my Egyptian studies that he promised me to inform the King about it, and
to give me the prospect of the very necessary means for a scientific
journey to Egypt.  The hope of raising the required sum of money was
certainly very weak. Lepsius' journey had cost about one hundred
thousand thaler, and since then scarcely ten years had elapsed.  The
King and the State had fulfilled their utmost obligation toward ancient
Egypt,   (        0*0*0*  "Denmaler" which were to contain
the chief results of the first Prussian expedition in the most
splendidly executed plates. Besides, there were many other claims upon
the King's generosity for support in the scientific field, so that one
had to budget the funds carefully.  Von Humboldt's efforts,
nevertheless, to make the journey possible were almost limitless, and it
is touching to read the letter which he wrote to me nearly every day, in
order to keep me au courant as to the good prospects or the poor results
of his efforts.  By alluding to an old Egyptian myth, he sought to
convince me that it was a question not merely of the travel money, but
also of a struggle of the bad Typhon against the good Osiris. But since
he had once take the affair into his hands, he wanted to carry it
through to the end. Ardent as was my longing for my Promised Land on the
banks of the Nile, I would not, for anything in the world, have ventured
to become burdensome to the amiable old man through my own petition, for
at that time there was a crown of dil minorum gentlum who, by way
of the backstairs, abused his goodness in an actually unpermissible
manner and with brazen boldness, and who applied for support, positions,
and even orders of distinction, on the strength of his famous name and
his influence on his royal friend.  Occupied as he was with the wearing
labors for the publication of Kosmos," which progressed in the
printing from page to page (Professor Buschmann provided the clear copy
of the notoriously hardtoread manuscript, which later, soon after the
death of Alexander von Humboldt, would be presented by the copyist to
the then Emperor Napoleon III, accompanied by a letter), robbed,
moreover, of the   (        0*0*0*  spirit of energetic
defense through the bodily weakness brought on by his advancing age, he
was obliged to sacrifice many hours of his precious time to importunate
petitioners, and to occupy himself with "beggingletters" and the visits
of persons who were completely outside of his scientific circle. My
travel hopes seemed to be slowly falling asleep, when a notice
circulated in the newspapers gave them a new impulse. August Mariette, a
French archaeologist, whose later affectionate friendship for me expired
only with his death (1881), had the unexpected luck to find the grave
sites of the sacred Apis bulls in the socalled Serapeum near Memphis,
and under the deep sand of the desert behind the present village of
Abusir and in the vicinity of the Step Pyramid of Sakkarah to hit upon
monuments of Antiquity as numerous as they were valuable.  Among them,
according to the report of the daily paper, were found an incredible
wealth of inscribed stelae, or commemorative stones, and not the least
of such were those covered with demotic inscriptions.  They remained
incomprehensible riddles, since at that time no one except me had
occupied himself with the deciphering of the Egyptian popular script.
What a harvest I might expect, and how my heart pounded at the thought
of the salvation of really historical treasures! What seemed almost
impossible became all at once full reality. Alexander von Humboldt,
strongly supported by the Privy Cabinet Councillor Illaire, understood
how to rouse the enthusiasm of the noble and generous King by pointing
to the Mariette find, and 1500 thaler were granted to me for the
duration of a year, for a journey to the land of my most yearning
wishes.  No one could be happier   (        0*0*0*  than I
was, and with precipitate haste, I made all preparations for my
departure, which was set for the beginning of the month of January,
1853. In Germany at that time, travelling to Egypt was a rarity; not so
in France and England, from where every year excursions brought a
multitude of visitors to the land of the Pharaohs in order to learn to
know the wonders of antiquity on the spot and, as in school, to give
their complete attention to the recollection of long past history.  In
my fatherland one was not yet accustomed to exposing one's self to the
possible dangers of so distant a journey across the sea to Africa
without further ceremony and out of mere curiosity or thirst for
knowledge; and when it did happen, the prudent man put his house in
order for the eventuality of his death, and took all measures to protect
himself against the unhealthy influences of the foreign climate.  He
collected beforehand more exact information on the land and the people
in that distant world, for a Baedeker on Egypt did not yet exist, rather
the individual was directed to obtain the necessary advice and
assistance from the betterknown travel works, especially from the
"Reisebriefe aus Agypten" of Professor Lepsius. The preparations within
and without my four walls were soon accomplished, and even the thickest
woolen underwear was not forgotten to protect the body from catching
cold.  And so I took leave of my loved ones, who overwhelmed me with
blessings and tears, in order to begin the journey in the company of my
father, first by way of Prague and Vienna to the port city of Trieste.
He would not be dissuaded from taking me at least as far as the
port,   (        0*0*0*  in order to witness my
embarkation.  It was bitter cold, we were traveling thirdclass,
progress on the railway went rather slowly, was interrupted on the
Semmering beyond Vienna, and stopped completely near Laibach.  We were
forced to make use of a post coach in order to cover the last stretch
over the melancholy, desolate Karst, almost without vegetation, as far
as Trieste.  On this road, at the end, we had the unpleasant surprise of
being overtaken by a bora wind which, with hurricanelike force, swept
across the boundless sea of stone, so that the posthorses were only
able to move the heavy wagon forward at the slowest pace.  The sight of
the blue sea from the height of the post road directly before Trieste
richly compensated for the cold we endured, and in good spirits, we
moved into a small albergo in the port city with its thoroughly Italian
appearance. As with all my earlier travels, this time also Alexander von
Humboldt had found it good, before my departure to provide me with
letters of recommendation, which proved to my greatest advantage and
helped to open house and hearts to me.  The letter to the Englishman
Harris in Alexandria, from which my high patron promised the greatest
results, has had a remarkable destiny.  In his last letter, in which at
the same time I received a long series of commissions for exact
observations of geological and physical nature, he wrote to me:  "Here,
my dear Br., is the letter to Mr. Harris, in which I have cunningly
compressed everything which can be pleasing to him and useful to you."
The recommendation was composed in the French language, not in English,
as one could have expected, considering the derivation of the addressee.
"I speak   (        0*0*0*  and read English with the most
complete understanding," said von Humboldt to me one day, "but I have
never dared to write it.  In its apparent simplicity, it offers the
greatest stylistic refinements, and thereby difficulties, to which I do
not feel myself equal." The contents of the "cunning" recommendation I
learned only two years ago, through a strange chance, and I make it
public without hesitation, since for about twenty years it was exposed
to the knowledge of everyone.  My longtime friend, the African
traveller Professor Schweinfurth, several years ago extracted it from
the middle of a heap of old papers and documents which were stored in
the former Customs Building of Alexandria.  At a fleeting perusal, he
recognized the handwriting of his great colleague Alexander von Humboldt
on the envelope.  He could do no more than hastily to request it for
himself, without being able to obtain information as to how the letter
had arrived at that place at all. After his return, he gave me the
pleasant surprise of turning over to me the fortyyearold
recommendation as my property.  It reads, word for word:

& Monsieur! Je ne pouvais laisser partir un jeune Savant, Mr.
Brugsch, auquel je suis vivement attache, sans profiter de cette
occasion pour Vous offrir, Monsieur, l'hommage do ma reconnaisance qui
vous est due de la part de tous ceux qui sulvent avec interet les
immenses progres de l" Archeologie egyptienne.  Vous avez profite
noblement avec succes de la position elevee dans laquelle Vous
Vous   (        0*0*0*  estes trouve, en reunissant tant de
documents demotiques, en decouvrant le fragment precieus de l'orateur
Hyperides et d'apres ce que l'on nous annonce un fragment de l"Jiliad!
Que mon jeune ami, aussi distinque par l"etendue et la solidite de ses
connaissances que par la douceur de son caractere, serait heureux de
jouir de la Protection qui J'ose relamer pour lul aupres de Vous! C'est
d'apres les ordres de mon Roi que le Dr. Brugsch, qui sur ma
recommandation a ete recu avec une grande bienveillance a Paris, a Leyde
et a Turin, se rend, pour une annee, en Egypte.  Le Roi le connalt dt le
cherit personellement.  Au millieu des agitations politiques de
l'Allemangne le Roi ne cesse de se mettre au courant de tout ce qui nous
revele le merveilleux et antique etat de culture sur les bords du Nil et
de l'Nil et de l'Euphrate, a Thebes comme a Nimroud et a Khorsabad.
Votre derniere memoire, Monsieur, que J'al eu le plaisir de mettre sous
les yeux du Roi, a fixe son attention dans une de nos soirees de
Charlottenbourg qui est le Sanssouci d'Hiver pour la Cour de Prusse.
Veuillez bien, je Vous en prie, Monsier, excuser l'illisibitite de ces
lignes tracees par un savant "anteluvien" et agreer l'expression de ma
plus haute et plus sincere consideration. a Berlin ce 26 Dec. 1852.
V.T.h.et.t. d. serviteur Le Baron de Humboldt


   (	         0*0*0*  Ԍ`	 (translation of von
Humboldt's French letter) Dear Sir, I cannot let a young savant, Mr.
Brugsch, for whom I have a lively attachment, depart without profiting
from this occasion to offer you, Sir, the hommage of my acknowledgment,
which is your due on the part of all those who follow with interest the
immense progress of Egyptian archaeology.  You have profited nobly with
success from the elevated position in which you find yourself, in
bringing together so many demotic documents, in discovering the precious
fragment of the orator Hyperides and, according to what we are told, a
fragment of the Illiad!  How happy would be my young friend, as
distinguished by the extent and the soundness of his knowledge as by the
gentleness of his character, to enjoy the protection which I dare to
claim for him on your part! It is according to the orders of my King
that Dr. Brugsch, who on my recommendation has been received with great
kindness in Paris, in Leyden, and in Turin, is going to Egypt for one
year. The King knows and esteems him personally.  In the midst of the
political agitations of Germany the King does not cease to keep himself
uptodate on all that is revealed to us of the marvelous ancient
culture on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates, in Thebes as in
Nimrud and Khorsabad.  Your latest memoir, Sir, which I had the pleasure
of placing under the eyes of the King, occupied his attention at one of
our soirees at Charlottenburg, which is the winter Sanssouci for the
Prussian Court.

   (          0*0*0*  Ԍ     I pray you, Sir, please excuse the
illegibility of these lines written by an "antediluvian" savant, and
accept the expression of my highest and sincerest regard. Berlin,
December 26,l 1852. Your very humble and very devoted servant, Baron von
Humboldt

     A last blessing from Father, and the Steamer pushed out to sea.
Far be it from me to bore the  reader with the description of my voyage
from Trieste to Alexandria on a tiny little ship of the Austrian Lloyd.
Only one thing may not remain unmentioned, that during an unusual storm
on the Adriatic Sea  I was seasick as only one can be  I almost lost
courage when in the midst of the heaving waves one of the two
oscillating cylinders of the steam engine broke, so that the sail had to
be raised in order to lighten the work of the second cylinder.
Nevertheless, we fortunately reached the island of Corfu and changed the
ship for a still smaller paddlesteamer, to arrive happily in Alexandria
four days later. On this first voyage, which I have repeated in the
later years of my life at least fifty times  in one single year, 1874,
even three times  I learned to value highly not so much the solid
construction and elegance, as rather the seaman's knowledge, calm,
prudence and sobriety of the officers and the entire crew of the
Austrian Lloyd, and I remained faithful to the Company, with two
exceptions which were offered through the most compelling circumstances.
Once I took advantage of an opportunity to travel on a French Messagerie
steamer from Marseille to Alexandria by way of Messina, the other time
on a ship of the English P. &.
O.   (        0*0*0*  Company, without having felt
particularly comfortable on either, even though the French cheerfulness
contrasted with the English stiffness, at least toward nonEnglish
travelers, in the pleasantest way.  The Lloyd has one fault, it is true,
which is seriously felt until the present day by the passengers without
a knowledge of the Italian language; I mean the deficient knowledge of
German, or the complete ignorance of it, by the entire ship's staff.
 EXPERIENCES IN ALEXANDRIAă My first sojourn in
Egypt, in the years 1853 and 1854, my experiences and the impressions of
land and people which I received on my first excursion in the Nile
Valley from Alexandria as far as the island of Philae, and above all, my
studies of monuments I have tried to describe with unvarnished honesty
in my "Reiseberichte aus "Agypten" (Leipzig, 1855, F. A. Brockhaus).
Although a writer of my makeup usually does not especially love the
children of his pen, for only too often he discovers later the defects
which cling to them, nevertheless the inclination has never left me, to
read the printed pages of my travel work again and again.  Now at an
advanced age, I feel even a satisfaction in comparing the judgments of
my youth with the ripened experiences of the autumn of my life, and to
measure the scientific advances which have been made since then in the
field of Egyptology.  In spite of numerous corrections which would need
to be made in a new edition of my travel report, according to the
present state of research, the warmth of youthful enthusiasm in the
descriptions I provided is comforting and refreshing for my soul grown old.

     The Prussian Consul General

in Alexandria, a Herr Bauernhorst, received me with open arms.  He
belonged to the older number of vagabond travelers in Africa, had
traversed the long and difficult route to Khartum with von Heuglin and
our celebrated VogelBrehm, and had seen and experienced much which, at
that time at least, had remained closed to all other men.  The tales of
the handsome man of Herculean stature, son of a Berlin postman and a
brother of the Hanoverian Courtactress Frau von Barndorf, well known
also in Petersburg and Berlin, used to abound in strong expressions
which corresponded to his forceful, often unruly character.  It was
difficult to deal with him, as one used to say, for his vehement manner
generally frightened one away, so that he had only a few sincere
friends.  Nevertheless, he took to his heart, and before my eyes, let
the curtain rise from act to act of his adventurous life. His favorite
sport was horseback riding, and he could not understand that I, after a
few attempts, and falling off, obstinately refused to gallop along
beside him on his white English thoroughbred through Alexandria's
streets or in the region of Ramieh.  Yet it gave him pleasure to
introduce me, even "unmounted," to the society of Alexandria, and he
felt a particular satisfaction in being able to show, as his friend and
guest, a protege of the worldfamous Alexander von Humboldt, who had
recommended him most warmly.  I had at that time, to be sure, put up in
a hotel in Alexandria run by the Wurttemberger Zech, but my Prussian
ConsularDeputy would not rest until he saw me, with bag and baggage,
enter his own home as guest.  Things were rather bachelorlike and wild
African there.  Thus it was part of the   (
        0*0*0*  afternoon entertainment of my Consular protector
to shoot with a revolver at a target fixed on the wall of the room.  One
day a bullet struck through the thin wall and hit a picture hung on the
other side of the adjoining room; the shatter of glass fell to the
ground with a loud crash.  You should have seen the dumbfounded face of
the marksman, when he had to convince himself that he had shot right
through the breast, even though only in effigy, a personage of high
position in our Fatherland! In other respects his principle was:  live
and let live, and according to Luther's motto, that wine, women and song
delight the heart of man all his life long, he paid homage to all three,
but especially to wine, for which an honest Mecklenburger called "Father
Langfeld" offered frequent opportunity and rich material. The latter
kept a public wine shop on the corner of the present MehemmedAli
Squart, then named "PlacedesConsuls," and it must be said for him that
his beverages were unadulterated and excellent, and could indeed entice
valiant people to a long drink even under the hot Egyptian sun. Since I
never in my life had felt particular enjoyment in the partaking of
intoxicating drink, I was from this standpoint regarded by my host with
a contemptuous air.  I excused myself, as well as I could, with
reference to my weak strength, yet, on the other hand, did not conceal
from him my full admiration for his own extraordinary capacity.  And so
we got along well with one another. Father Langfeld, a fat, very
powerful figure who looked more like a comfortable landowner than an
Alexandrian tavernkeeper, was a countryman of Fritz reuter not only by
birth and descent, but was   (        0*0*0*  also a
kindred spirit through his inborn wit and humor.  He actually spoke
little, and reeled out the words "messingsch" in a strange mixture of
Low and High German, in short sentences which left nothing to be desired
in natural repartee.  Also in his transactions and decisions the
Mecklenburger was revealed, as Fritz Reuter has described him with
incomparable fidelity in his writings.  As evidence of this, I quote the
following story of Longfeld which I experienced and which I cannot
recall without the greatest amusement. Langfeld promised to visit me in
Berlin, when I should happily have returned to Europe.  A few years had
passed since then when he actually appeared in my apartment, his small
travelling pouch slung over his shoulder on a green band.  We talked of
past times over a glass of sparkling wine, which he examined with a
connoisseur's eye for its color and its brightness, tasted with sipping
lips, and immediately pronounced in a more than adequate manner as "bad
sort, Berlin poison."  Thereupon ensured the following conversation.
"Where are you staying, Herr Langfeld?" "Here downstairs." "In my house?
That is indeed a strange occurrence." "No, down below, in the droshky."
"So you have just come from the station and are looking for a hotel?"
"On the contrary, I've been staying in the droshky since yesterday."
"Let who can understand that.  And your luggage?" "I carry that with
me!"  and he clapped his plump right
hand   (         0*0*0*  on his pouch, "there is comb,
brush, and soap in here and a whole bundle of gold." "But explain
yourself more precisely; I understand less and less." "Not much to
explain.  I live in the droshky day and night, that is, sleep at night a
few hours in coachhouse.  Horse blanket keeps me warm.  It is summer,
of course.  By day the coachman drives me wherever he wants to, man who
knows his business, he serves me as guide through Berlin.  Eat and drink
well, see everything, hear everything, know everything.  When droshky
stops, I get out, obtain information, coachman waits and then goes on.
If I need linen or something else, I buy what I wish.  Coachman gets
everything that I discard.  Am satisfied.  No excess baggage, no hotel,
no tips, no packing, no seeking and asking, have everything. Will remain
here three days more.  Now put on your coat, Herr Doctor, come
downstairs to my hotel, drive wherever coachman wants to.  Very
comfortable." I hardly believe that another mortal would ever have had
the idea of making use of a droshky as a perambulating hotel during his
stay in a European city.  But Father Langfeld had already carried out
this idea in practice, with success, in Trieste, Vienna, and Prague, and
was not to be convinced that one might be able to travel through the
world in any other way.  His next goal was Paris, to a survey of which
he had allotted a whole week's stay in one or another hoteldroshky.  As
I heard later from his lips, he inspected from a hired droshky, with the
greatest profit, not only the great Babel on the Seine, but also London.
In his domestic   (        0*0*0*  life, by the way, he had
by no means been spoiled.  According to the deplorable custom of many
Europeans at that time settled in Egypt, he had formed with a widowed or
divorced Coptic Christian a marriage "for a time," which was not
recognized by the Patriarchate.  The worst consequences of such a union
appeared only when children had issued from the unlawful partnership.
Later in an official capacity, I once had to handle a sad case in which
a very skillful and generally popular German photographer died suddenly,
without the wife, a Copt, and the surviving children having even the
slightest claim to the estate of the husband and father, according to
the terms of the law. My most ardently desired and finally realized
visit with Mr. Harris, an Englishman already well along in years,
brought me a great disappointment.  In him I became acquainted with a
simple, straightforward man with an almost shy disposition, while his
colored daughter, elegantly dressed in the English fashion, carried on
such a spirited, lively conversation, that I was downright charmed by
her.  The requested permission to work in the already worldfamous
collection of Egyptian and GreekRoman antiquities was readily given me,
as a matter of course, but everything else was also done that could be
defined as special courtesy.  I, for my part, had expected an invitation
to a joint journey with father an daughter on their great Nile ship to
Upper Egypt, but there was not even the remotest talk of it, and I
departed somewhat annoyed, on my first visit to the two Harrises. I
stayed almost a full month in Alexander's city, which at that time was
really just in the process of construction, as far
as   (        0*0*0*  the laying out of new streets with
stately, Europeanstyle houses, often true palaces, was concerned.
During the excavations for laying the foundations, the most remarkable
remains of the old city came to light on all sides, and not least
surprising to me was the fact that the former subterranean aqueducts,
with high arches fully lined with masonry, showed themselves to be well
preserved.  A whole network of canals, laid out according to quite
modern standards, ran through the subterranean quarter, and I was
actually struck with the greatest astonishment when, in a boat guided by
Arabs, and by the light of torches, I passed through long, highvaulted
corridors above which was the largest part of new buildings of the
modern city.  The buried cisterns, which one encounters in all the
squares and all the alleys of presentday Alexandria, entered these old
aqueducts which have disappeared today with the construction of the last
houses, so that perhaps only few inhabitants of the older generation
have any knowledge of them. Upon my information my now deceased friend
August Mariette undertook at a later time to make a topographical survey
at least of the cisterns according to their location, after Emperor
Napoleon III, who at that time, was occupied with his celebrated work on
Julius Caesar, had expressed to him the wish to reconstruct the plan and
layout of the streets of the old city with as much care as possible. I
devoted much time and effort to the study of these remarkable canals, on
whose side walls were found hewn many a work with representations and
inscriptions of monuments from preAlexandrian times; I took notice of
all remains of Antiquity which   (        0*0*0*  had
otherwise come to light or were sunk in the swamps of the immediate
vicinity; I repeatedly visited the villa colony of Ramleh and the
remains found there of the older place, Nikopolis; I rummaged through
the now almost completely vanished catacombs from pagan and Christian
times  in a word, I reveled, as a beginning antiquarian, in delights
which only he who has ever been inspired by the love for Antiquity can
understand. On my daily excursions I enjoyed a knowledgeable guide,
thoroughly familiar with the place, in the person of Dr. of Medicine
Pfund, a native of Hamburg, who had established himself in Alexandria
some years before my arrival and lived on the very slight income from
his city and ship practice.  To his avocation, researching the flora of
Alexandria, he sacrificed almost all his time, so that his herbarium
acquired an astonishing size. Unfortunately his learned propensity never
brought him prosperity, so that he had to struggle unceasingly with care
and anxiety.  He later moved with wife and child to Cairo, but there
also he did not succeed in finding better advancement.  Later I procured
for him a position as teacher at the government school I founded, which
for a time kept his head above water.  As a sixtyyearold man he later
felt he still had the strength and courage to accompany an Egyptian
expedition to Donogola and Kordofan as physician and botanist, but he
died as a result of a violent fever, an unfortunate sacrifice to his
last efforts to protect wife and child from bitter care. Important as a
botanist, yet nowhere did he find deserved recognition, for he worked
slowly and deliberately, and his younger colleagues went ahead of him;
mediocre as a physician, he threw   (        0*0*0*  away
his clientele through his passion for botany, which robbed him of the
necessary time for visiting the sick; weak as a man, and of almost
childlike temperament, he despaired of himself and thereby came to a
miserable end.  Therefore I am doubly pleased when I occasionally find
his name mentioned with honor in the most recent botanical works on the
flora of Egypt. My journey from Alexandria to Cairo, in the company of
the Austrian Baron von Friedau, later famous in science, and two other
distinguished compatriots of his, including a Baron von Konigswart, was
by a Nile boat, since at that time there were neither railroads nor post
steamers in Egypt.  We were almost a week on the way, including one
digression by land, from the village of Terraneh through the desert to
the sodium lakes and the Natrun monasteries in the west.  On this trip,
which showed me, for the first time, the luxuriant green of the Egyptian
fields on both sides of the river in the winter season, there occurred a
thoroughly amusing incident which could have been quite sad.  Baron von
Konigswart was an incarnate hunter before the Lord, who had taken it
into his head on our trip, to shoot a red flamingo from the ship.  The
first thing in the morning he was already lying in wait on board with
his gun, his weak eyes armed with spectacles and a quadruple pincenez.
One day, his loud voice penetrated the salon at the break of dawn: "Come
quickly, if you want to see the flamingo!"  We turned over on the other
side, in order sleep peacefully again, when the shot blasted, but at the
same time, a wailing cry came resounding across to us from the left
bank.  I plunged halfdressed out of the cabin and witnessed the
following scene.  An Egyptian fellah,
according   (        0*0*0*  to the custom of the country
as good as naked, was already at the break of day busy on the bank of
the Nile with the help of a "noreg," an extremely simple contrivance for
scooping river water to irrigate his fields.  Illuminated by the rising
sun, his redbrown body, which moved now up, now downward with the
working of the leather bucket, shone in the purple glow of the Queen of
the Day.  Then the unbelievable happened.  The Baron, in the firm
opinion that he saw a splendid red flamingo before him, shot his gun at
the bird, and the volley went into the back of the poor human being.
With a shriek, the injured one plunged into the Nile, his arms divided
the waters, and with loud lamentation, he clung fast to the edge of our
Nile boat  in order to call the careless hunter to account?  Oh no, but
to call out imploringly and repeatedly for baksheesh.  He was pulled
onto the deck, his numerous shot wounds were looked at, and a bright
fivefranc piece was given him as compensation.  Smiling with
satisfaction, he regarded the piece of money, thanked us according to
the Egyptian way with a "God increase your luck!" and assured us with a
sincere manner, even though trembling and shaking in his whole body,
that he would be glad to serve as target once more, if his reward would
be doubled.  Baron von Konigswart would certainly not have gotten off so
easily, if he had the hunting mishap in his own homeland.

IN CAIRO

Our arrival in Cairo went smoothly.  We landed in the port
town of Bulak, went with our baggage on donkeyback to the city, through
the middle of an enormous bulrush thicket which shot up above a man's
height, and on which at present rises the
most   (        0*0*0*  aristocratic European quarter of
the city, Ismailia, and put up in the Hotel d'Orient, which at that time
served as the abode of the few foreigners present in Cairo.  Today it
has declined into an inn of the second rank, although its favorable
location, on an open square in front of the Ezbekieh Garden, ought to
exert a special power of attraction. Among the guests present, who
intended to spend the last months of winter under the Egyptian spring
sun, there were many whom I met again in my later life.  I became
acquainted here for the first time with a handsome young Prussian
cuirassier officer from Berlin, Count Perponcher, who had sought the
mild climate of Egypt because of a stubborn hoarseness.  He is the same
one who later, as Court Marshal in the service of Emperor Wilhelm I,
came into the foreground as a very popular person.  The young Austrian
Princess von WindischGratz honored me with her friendship, to which in
the first place, my antiquarian knowledge of the country had offered her
the greatest inducement.  Among the remaining residents of the hotel, of
whom the majority consisted of English and French, there was no lack of
jolly persons who shared the common round table and knew how to enliven
the company in the highest degree, often without intending this.  I
number among them a stiffly earnest American who had travelled the
distant journey from New York to Cairo with windlass and ropes, in order
to remove one of the pyramids of Gizeh from its place and transport it
to his native land.  Furthermore there was a young Protestant candidate
of Theology, who later in Berlin built up his parish through his pious
sermons, but at that time had the idea of making the long
journey   (        0*0*0*  through the desert to the Sinai,
sitting on a camel behind a Bedouin, and supplied with a small bag of
ship's biscuit and no other nourishment; after a threeday march, he was
brought back, sick and miserable, to our hotel.  Unforgettable to me
above all the rest remains a foolish Austrian physician, Dr. Jemtschik,
who was assigned to accompany to Cairo an officer severely wounded in
the war against Piedmont, and who spent the livelong day at hunting in
the environs of Cairo.  The poor invalid, whose lung had been pierced by
a bullet, lay helpless meanwhile on his sickbed.  One evening his
bedcovering of light gauze material, socalled "mustiquiere," was set
on fire resulting from a draft of air on the candle standing on the
nighttable.  He saw that he was alone, but raised himself up with his
last strength in order to plunge out of bed and pull out from under his
restingplace a small chest with ammunition.  His medical attendant had
found this very place the most suitable for protecting the dangerous
contents of the chest from the usual thievery of the Arab and Nubian
servants of the hotel.  A few days afterward, as a result of the
excitement and overexertion, the patient expired after a violent
hemorrhage.  Dr. Jemtschik preferred not to go back to his homeland.  He
accepted a position in the service of the Egyptian government, was sent
as physician to the Sudan in order to introduce cowpox vaccination in
Khartoum, arrived safe and sound among the Sudanese after a journey of
several months, to be convinced finally that he had forgotten to bring
with him the most essential thing  the lymph. The arrival of an
Austrian countryman from Vienna, a Dr. Natterer, threw our hero into a
true ecstacy of delight.  The not   (        0*0*0*  very
young traveller, then about thirtytwo years old, showed an awkwardness
and a shyness that would have been explicable in a young girl of fifteen
years.  Very soon he unburdened his heart to us both.  Son of a
prosperous householder of middleclass origin in Vienna, he, Dr.
Natterer, devoted to research in the natural sciences, had cherished a
tenyear love affair with a respectable seamstress, unfortunately
hopeless, since  his father had declared himself firmly against the
matrimonial union of the two lovers. The gracious fiancee, having
finally become tired of waiting, had simply written him a farewell
letter and immediately married. A few days after her marriage, the
father had departed this life, and the rich estate of the deceased was
left to him as the only son.  Almost in despair, he, who had never left
the city of Vienna, had set out on the long journey to Africa, in order
to buy himself a wife at the slave market in Cairo  one who for all
time must remain his duly paid for and duly acquired property. Dr.
Jemtschik shouted with delight and called out with his stentorian voice,
while his right hand fell on the table:  "That was a very clever idea of
yours!  We'll set out together tomorrow for the slave market in the Chan
 Chalil, Brugsch must come too, and we'll help you choose and buy a
wife." On the next morning, we set out on three donkeys  carriages or
even droshkes at that time in Cairo existed only in a few examples of
antediluvian construction  through the long Muski street to the
Bazaars, in order to make our way to the Chan  Chalil known to all
travellers, which, after the suppression of slavery in all Turkey, has
been transformed into a rug bazaar.
The   (        0*0*0*  vast building, constructed of stone
and brickwork, enclosed a court in which rose galleries in four stories,
where small towers led to vaulted chambers behind.  Their gloomy rooms
received light from outside through one small window with iron grating,
and today serve as storehouse of the precious carpets, but at that time
they formed the living quarters for about 2000 poor heathen slaves from
the Sudan, though not excluding Christian Abyssinians also. I felt
almost frightened when the slave dealer, a fat Arab of brutal aspect,
made us climb the stone steps to the first upper gallery, after Dr.
Jemtschik had imparted his request in broken Arabic.  We soon entered
one of those dark rooms, which looked more like a prison under the lead
roofs of Venice than an abode for human beings.  The halflight of day
fell from the court through the open door into the interior of the
gloomy room, in which colored women and girls crouched on the ground and
watched with dull gaze the work of a companion, who was busy baking a
doughy, flatshaped mass on a hot tin plate.  The fuel was smoldering,
extremely evilsmelling camel dung, the wellknow "gilleh" of the Arabs,
already mentioned in the Book of Job.  It was the bread of the
unfortunate, which was offered them as the only nourishment. In place of
human clothing, they were provided with a kind of grain sack of the
roughest material, which in its lower part was cut out in a sort of
circle, large enough to allow the head of a human body to stick through.
The sad fragment of misery offered to our eyes the picture of a row of
sacks, above each of which appeared a human head. I felt deeply shaken
and agitated, and would have liked
best   (         0*0*0*  to leave the sinister place right
away.  False shame on the one hand, curiosity on the other, kept me from
carrying out my intention, and so I became an unwilling witness of a
sale which, in my opinion, was not only forbidden according to European
law, but even punishable.  Dr. Natterer's choice fell upon a pretty
Abyssinian girl of about fourteen years, for whom he paid a mere 100
Maria Theresa thaler.  I pointed out to him that after completing this
transaction, he had assumed a very heavy responsibility, since he must
make a declaration before his Consul that he was taking the place of
parents for the child, and must first of all provide for Christian board
and lodging and suitable education.  All this he had not thought of
beforehand, and I do not know what steps he took later to follow my good
advice.  To me the society of Mephistopheles and Faust had become
repugnant, and I left the hotel, to take up my new living quarters
directly under the wings of the Prussian eagle, in other words, as guest
of our then Consul General, Baron von Pentz. Immediately after my first
presentation to this man, the invitation was issued to me to consider
his house as my own, and to come to him.  I accepted the amiale offer
and received one of the most cheerful rooms in his residence, which was
situated directly behind the Hotel d'Orient and separated from it only
by a narrow street.  From the farthest windows the eye fell on the
Ezbekieh quarter, which at that time had not yet assumed the form of a
boring city garden in the French style, but just because of its wildness
and in its abundance of trees and thicket of plants formed one of the
most attractive places in Cairo.  Arabs and Greeks
had   (        0*0*0*  set up a great number of
gailypainted wooden coffee houses here; one sat under the thickleaved
shady trees of astonishing size, at small wooden tables, drank his
mocha, blowing blue clouds of the excellent Latakia tobacco out of long
Turkish pipes into the air heavy with the scent of balsam, and believed
one's self transplanted, as in a dream from the "Thousand and One
Nights." Through the interior of the thicket ran small paths full of
blooming roses and myrtle, in which the ladies of the harem, heavily
veiled, moved about in all freedom, without fearing to be molested by a
"Frangi," or European.  Everything was so natural and genuinely
Oriental, like all the planting itself, which in artless beauty left
nothing to be desired.  It became my favorite retreat, as often and as
long as I stayed in Cairo at that time and later, in order to carry on
the most instructive conversations with my friends, mostly African
travellers like Herr von Heuglin, a Wurttemberger, and the Bavarian
Baron von Neimans, and to listen with the most eager attention to their
plans or tales of travel. Our Consul General, Baron von Pentz, was a
native of Necklenburg, had served as artillery officer in the army,
later retired in order to devote himself to a diplomatic career, and had
been sent by the government to Egypt as Consul General. Approaching
fifty and unmarried, he was in his entire nature the very opposite of
what one expected of the representative of a foreign European government
in the East at that time.  That is, he had an honest openness and, in
the expression of his opinions, a bluntness which was interpreted as
rudeness by the intriguing, ingratiating, excessively polite and crafty
Orientals, and this   (        0*0*0*  made him an anything
but popular personality.  His incorruptible character exercised
notwithstanding a great impression on them, and in private, they must
have said to one another that "the old Pentz," as he used to be called
in Cairo, was a downright real man, in whose presence one had to adopt
another tone. Whoever knew him more closely, and our common domestic
life offered me abundant opportunity for this, had to pay him the
fullest recognition just on account of his often brusque behavior, for
in the Egyptian Nile Valley Prussia, or Brussla, was a land hardly known
by name, and sarcastic allusions were occasionally indulged in, to which
the old Baron immediately responded with the full expenditure of his
power of expression.  The ruling Viceroy at the time, Abbas I, entitled
"The Cruel" by the Arabs, with full justification, was an outspoken
friend of the English, as later his successor, Sajid Pasha,
distinguished himself through his inclination toward France.  The
politics of Egypt was at that time already wavering back and forth
between these two Great Powers, whichever in a given case was regarded
as the most natural and most powerful protector.  The other Powers were
taken into little or no account, and Brussia played a very subordinate
role according to the Egyptian viewpoint, which only changed, at one
stroke, when fifteen years later the news of the victory of the
Prussians at Koniggra6z reached Cairo by telegraph. I still remember
today with true pleasure how Muski Street, on which the Prussian
Consulate stood at that time, was filled in an instant with a dense
crowd of Arabs, after the event became known. The people stood pressed
together, head to head, and turned
their   (        0*0*0*  eyes fixedly toward the
coatofarms above the entrance portal of the Consulate, which showed at
that time, standing beside the shield and rendered in bright colors, the
two familiar wild men with clubs in their hands.  The Prussian "kawasse"
on duty, two chosen natives, had to do their utmost to answer the
numerous questions directed to them.  "Those are the sons of the Kingdom
of Brussia?  Indeed they are strong, vigorous sons of Adam, but they are
naked.  Don't the fathers of the country freeze in their cold homeland?j
And are there not yet any tailors among them?  How strange, instead of
the tarboosh or hat, they wear leaves of trees on their heads, and
around their hips a short apron of cabbage, or whatever else the green
leaves may mean.  Just look, brother, at their strange weapons" (they
meant by this the clubs in the picture).  "Those are the dangerous
weapons with which they, without loading, shot one bullet after another
at their enemy. Maschallah!  What God has made happen, all according to
His will!" Thus and similarly ran the conversation which the curious
spectators carried on with one another, in order to show their
astonishment that nothing had hitherto been known about the brave sons
of the Kingdom of Brussia.  And to this was joined the wish that they
should be invited to come to Egypt, naturally in all friendship, in
order to show their peculiar, but so dangerous weapons, and to let
themselves be admired by all Misr, the land of the Egyptians.

BARON VON PENTSă The old Baron von Pents, as has been said, had in
his time a difficult position in defending and protecting the honor and
renown   (        0*0*0*  of Prussia according to his
forceful manner, especially in opposition to the cruel Abbas, who
believed he had to recognize in the person of the Baron the embodiment
of all things Prussian.  He had a thorough hatred for the Baron, and
loved to let fall sharp phrases, which did not remain unanswered from
the other side.  I remember in this respect one incident, as if it
happened only yesterday, in which I myself had to play an incredibly
miserable role, since it had to do with my own presentation to Abbas I.
I mention beforehand that the then Viceroy hardly ever used to stay
longer than a few days in the same palace, but year in, year out,
wandered aimlessly from one place to another, to lay down his bearded
head to nightly rest.  He had a kind of travel fever, which was
attributed solely to fear of death by an assassin's hand.  In fact, this
was the case in the Nile castle near Benha; two of his Mameluke
bodyguards fell upon him there and strangled him with the aid of a noose
around his neck.  Since no one had an idea at which place he would stop,
perhaps even in the next hour, his journey was really a kind of daily
flight, as to the direction of which nobody was able to give exact
information.  For the General Consulates, which had business to transact
with the Viceroy, it constantly remained a difficult task to make sure
of his momentary quarters, and it required all the tact of the native
consular interpreters to receive any sort of reliable statement.  Often
cunning had to be used against cunning, as in fact the old Baron applied
it with full success on one occasion that was offered.  Abbasd had
withdrawn for an indefinite time to his small castle of Meks, on the
deserted seashore in the vicinity of Alexandria.  Suddenly a heavy
wagon   (        0*0*0*  drove up to the portal, whose
occupant was the Prussian representative.  "We regret to have to inform
Your Excellency that His Highness has already left the castle," lisped
an official present at the viceregal court.  "No matter," replied Herr
von Pentz, "I have arranged to stay at least a full week at this
pleasant place.  I've had my bed packed, also taken care of sufficient
provisions"  at that he pointed to chests and boxes in and on the wagon
 and I intend to kill time by reading books." The thus unmistakenly
beleaguered Abbas I saw himself finally obliged to make the best of a
bad bargain, and the Baron got the desired reception. I was hardly
fourteen days in Cairo and living in the house of the Consul General,
when he entered my room in triumph one morning with the words:  "I have
luckily caught him, he is residing today in the Abbasieh.  You come with
me, for I intend to present you." In a hired carriage of the Rococo
period, we drove out the gate toward the desert in the direction of
Heliopolis, where the Viceroy had erected for himself a tasteless,
manywindowed castle painted bright blue, which was surrounded by a
massive high wall.  It was called, after his name, Abbasieh, later
turned into barracks, and still stands today as a dilapidated ruin in
whose neighborhood, following the socalled Battle of Tell elKebir and
after a march covered with astonishing speed, the Indian riders of the
English army had drawn up, to be greeted by the humbly bowing Sheiks of
Cairo as saviors from the clutches of Arabi Pisha.  We were received by
the Viceroy, whose voluminous body occupied the left corner of a long
divan on the window side.  He wore the
then   (        0*0*0*  customary Arabian costume, and his
blackbearded round face looked anything but friendly at our entrance.
In stooped posture, hands laid one over the other as a sign of
submissive obedience, a young Armenian named Nubar Effendi stood, in his
capacity as court dragoman, at a proper distance from the Omnipotent and
Feared One. This was the same Nubar who later, as Prime Minister, was to
occupy such a prominent place in the most recent history of the Egyptian
Viceroys and who, not without pleasure, was to hear himself compared to
our Prince Bismarck.  Abbas I was not familiar with any European
language and liked to conduct the conversation in Turkish, while Nubar
had the task of translating the Turkish discourse into French, or the
reverse, French into Turkish. How difficult it is, to fulfill such a
task conscientiously, I myself can confirm on the basis of my own
experiences as dragoman in the service of Emperor and Empire, when the
honor fell to me, during my sojourn in Persia, to serve as interpreter
to our Ambassador in his conversations with the Shah of the Iranian
kingdoms.  Along with calm and prudence, it requires the quickest
comprehension and the skilled accurate expression, in order to translate
each communication at once from one language to the other with all
acuteness, to avoid every misunderstanding, to add nothing personal, and
besides to adapt the formulas of courtesy in address and turn of phrase
without overstepping Oriental taste.  I can assert that a halfhour
conference had each time strained my powers to the utmost, so that after
returning to my apartment, I had to throw myself on my bed in order to
recover to some degree from the labor undergone.  Even the most fluent,
skillful and practiced   (         0*0*0*  interpreters are
not in a state to prove the measure of their strength for over half an
hour.  They do so finally at their own risk, for the burden of all
responsibility for speech and counter speech rests on their shoulders.
But to come back to my story, I must mention that, as a result of an
incident, Nubar Effendi found himself in one of the most difficult
situations.  Hardly had I been presented to the Viceroy, when there
entered the Audiencechamber, unannounced, the English Consul General
Murray, known in history as the instigator of the PersianEnglish War,
to be welcomed by the Viceroy in an extraordinarily amiable manner and
invited to take part in the conversation.  Mr. Murray, moreover, had the
advantage of a knowledge of Turkish, so that we others remained in
complete ignorance of the content of the dialogue carried on. I saw how
the cheeks of the Baron reddened, a serious sign of bad omen with him.
He demanded with a firm voice that Mr. Murray be removed, since he had
come first, had been officially announced and received.  At the
Viceroy's answer refusing this, there ensured a scarcely believable war
of words, in which, from the side of Viceroy, Prussia and its Baron came
out rather badly.  The highly incensed Baron played the last trump with
the deliberate shout: "Now you know what Prussia and a Baron mean.  But
I want to tell you what you are:  the descendant of a Macedonian tobacco
dealer!" Pale and trembling, Nubar stood there, Murray smiled in a
peculiar way, Abbas hurled the pipe from him so that a sea of sparks
streamed over the precious carpet on the floor, sprang from his seat as
though stung by a tarantula, and disappeared
hastily   (!        0*0*0*  from the hall through an open
door.  That was a strange audience, such as I should never again like to
experience, but quite in the style of that time, in which the fine
Turkish courtesy had not yet acquired its winning forms of today in
diplomatic intercourse. "I have told it to him properly once and for
all," snorted my honored host, when the last step of the staircase was
behind him," but it was necessary to give him this lesson in the
presence of the English colleague." As far as I remember, Nubar Effendi
was sent on a mission to Berlin a few months later, and soon after that
Baron von Pentz was recalled from his post.  He took his leave and
settled in Brandis, an estate in the vicinity of Leipzig.  He was
adopted as a son by the owner of the property, an eightyyearold aunt,
and died soon after, having lost a family lawsuit which, I believe, had
dragged on over one hundred years and had cost him his entire fortune.
He was an honorable character, through and through, an original, if you
will, but in the best sense of the word, with whom I never quarreled,
first because it was not fitting for me, the young man received as a
guest, but chiefly because I knew that the highest virtues of man,
honesty and integrity, were his inborn qualities. He was not
particularly conceited about his nobility, but yet one day he regretted
quite openly, in my presence, that unfortunately after our death we
would not see one another again, since even in heaven, the distinction
between noble and burgher would persist, because a more beautiful abode
is reserved for the former than for the latter, according to God's
inscrutable will.    ("         0*0*0*  Ԍ     I laugh
heartedly and asked for the proof of his assertion. He thereupon
explained to me that in the Bible is already found an indication of the
great distinction between noble and burgher blood.  It is written,
namely, (Genesis 6, 1) that after the increase of men upon the earth,
"the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they
took them wives of all that they chose."  That is indeed the oldest
example of a true misalliance between the nobility and the burthers, and
nobody in the world is in the position to dispute its interpretation,
because only in this sense does it obtain correct understanding.  I may
scoff as I will, he is convinced that the very blood of the nobility, if
unmixed, is quite essentially distinguished from that of the burghers
through greater purity.  It is the blueness, of which there is so often
talk.  "But for all that," he added, "we'll always remain the best of
friends.  For me, too, the daughters of men, when they are young, pretty
and clever, are a pleasing vision, and for the sight of a bright and gay
young girl I'll turn over to you one hundred images of Rameses, each one
4000 years old." Thoroughly pleased with himself, he rubbed his hands
together as if he had won a great scientific victory over me.  God bless
him, my dear departed patron who, through his energetic support of my
first studies in Egypt erected a monument of enduring thankfulness in my
heart. <  NEW FRIENDS IN CAIROă The Austrian colleague of
the Baron von Pentz, Consul General von Huber, whose friendship I
enjoyed until the end of his life, thought differently from the former
about Egyptian Antiquity,   (#        0*0*0*  although on
the other hand, he, too, was a great admirer of feminine charm and
beauty, and therefore missed no opportunity to invite recommended
travellers in ladies' company to a picnic in the desert near Sakkarah.
Nevertheless, he remained a bachelor to his last day, since all his
affection and all his time, insofar as it was not claimed by his office,
he sacrificed to the science of numismatics.  He possessed one of the
most beautiful and precious collections, which he later put up for
public auction in London, after he had found opportunity everywhere,
during his long stay in Odessa and in Turkey, to acquire the rarest
pieces.  His later connections with friendly consuls provided him almost
weekly with new consignments, which he used to examine with genuine
delight, and define according to their origin.  He was a very learned
gentleman in his specialty, and many valuable essays in the numismatic
journal of Vienna issued from his pen.  With much understanding,
following his fondness for everything ancient, he had in the same way
formed a collection of Egyptian antiquities which numbered thousands of
objects, and had even conducted excavations, which brought to light
several beautiful finds.  To be sure, antiquities at that time were not
very high in price; for example, a splendid carved beetlestone, a
socalled scarabaeus, of old Egyptian origin cost hardly half a mark,
whereas today forty to sixty times that sum is paid for such a piece.
The most select monuments from his findings and his collections, Herr
von Huber dedicated with patriotic intention to the Imperial Ambraser
Museum in Vienna; the remaining part of his cabinet of antiquities he
sold, upon his departure from Egypt, to the
Viceroy   ($        0*0*0*  Sajid Pasha for several thousand
English pounds.  It formed the real basis of the highly celebrated
Museum of Bulak, whose treasures were transferred some years ago to the
palace of Gizeh, across from Old Cairo. Herr von Huber, likewise going
on fifty, whose name will remain preserved in my memory with truest
recollection, offered little that was attractive in his outward
appearance.  Small in stature, stooped forward as a result of his
strenuous work in a bent position before his writing table, he revealed
in his facial features, with the strongly protruding eyes, not even the
slightest trace of beauty or charm.  Only his dark, carefully dyed beard
also his long hair falling in strands bore an artificial black 
modified a little the impression of downright ugliness and peculiar
stupidity, although it could not escape the physiognomist, that
ingenuity and ridicule for the world shone from these features.  My
honorable friend, Herr A. von Kremer, who lives in Cairo at that time as
first dragoman of the Austrian Consulate General and later ended his
career as Austrian Minister of Commerce, could not tell me enough about
the severity and sarcasm of the old man who, himself an excellent
worker, knew how to torment his officials to the quick.  Herr von Kremer
was a very learned Arabist, who acquired a deserved name through his
published treatises and books on Egypt and Arabian matters, but it
became truly difficult for him to satisfy the demands of his chief, and
the dove escaped as often as it could and as far as it was able to fly
from the talons of the hawk, in order to be safe from pursuit in
solitary seclusion or among friends.   (%        0*0*0*  Ԍ
I had become from the beginning the declared favorite of the old man.
My Egyptian knowledge was a benefit to his collections. I read to him
the old Egyptian inscriptions that were engraved on the monuments, we
discussed ancient themes for hours, made excursions to the ruined sites
in the surroundings of the city, and his house and table were open to me
at any time.  In a words, I had become plainly indispensable to him, so
that he never presented me to his visitors with words other than "my
young, but best friend and colleague in antiquariis."  With my own
best friend and actual colleague in antiquariis, the Frenchman A.
Mariette, who at that time was conducting his last excavations in the
Serapeum, Herr von Huber stood on the worst imaginable terms, while
Mariette mentioned his name only with a contemptuous air.  The two could
not stand the smell of each other, as one used to say.  How often have I
not had to listen to the assurance of my Austrian colleague with:  "The
Frenchman in Sakkarah is a thief.  My agent, the Spanish Jew Fernandez,
is the real discovered of the Serapeum.  See these sphinxes, which he
brought into my house already four years ago, but he wa so stupid as to
tell him about it over there.  Then the secret was revealed, and the
thing was completely out."  Thus Mariette had become his enemy in
antiquariis and I was placed in the unpleasant position of being the
best friend of two declared enemies, without any hope of being able,
through my mediation, to bring about a reconciliation between the two.
All the more peaceful was the mood in the house of my dear friend Dr.
Bilharz, a young physician born in the Principality of Hohenzoliern,
whose amiable personality, warm heart, and
abundant   (&        0*0*0*  knowledge charm me still today
at the mere remembrance of him.  He had entered the service of the
Egyptian government as doctor one year before my arrival in Egypt, with
the intention of devoting himself, besides his profession, to purely
scientific studies for which Europe did not offer him the desired
material.  Comparative anatomy and zoological studies formed the chief
subjects of his learned, extremely careful investigations, which earned
an honorable name for him in the science.  He was the first who had
dared, although in secret, to dissect the corpse of Mohammedan and to
establish the presence of a hitherto unknown intestinal worm. His works
on the electricityproducing organs of the electric eel in the Nile,
whose shocks I once felt on my own body while bathing in the sacred
stream, soon enjoyed a renown which went far beyond the boundaries of
the German Fatherland.  His anthropological collections of human skulls
of Arabian and Coptic origin gave the scholars in his homeland and the
material for important research, and finally his works on the most
ancient animal world, based on the representations on old Egyptian
monuments, offered me myself an inexhaustible abundance of material for
the definition of animal names occurring in old Egyptian scripts, in my
Hieroglyphic  Demotic Dictionary published twenty years later.
In the company of the gentle and amiable compatriot, in whom I learned
to value a teacher of the first rank, the hours of our meetings flowed
by like minutes.  I saw him again later in Berlin, but soon thereafter
mourned his early death on foreign soil.  Entreated by a reigning,
German Duke and his wife to accompany them as personal physician on a
pleasure tour of the huntingpreserve of the East African
coast   ('        0*0*0*  in the vicinity of Abyssinia, he
lost his young life, so useful and precious for other purposes, from an
attack of fever, after he had successfully saved the Duchess from a
serious illness.  "Ave'pia anima" I call after him still today in
most grateful veneration. I would have to enumerate a whole list of
wellknown names in order to do justice to my first circle of
acquaintances in Cairo, if I did not fear to weary the patience of the
reader with an empty recital.  These were only fleeting moments, in
which the figures passed before me, without having exerted a definite
influence on my own life.  Therefore I content myself, provisionally, to
give prominence to only three above all the rest:  Dr. Pruner Bey, a
German physician, and the two Frenchmen Dr. Clot Bey and Linant Bey. The
first named occupied, before my arrival in Egypt, the position very
influential in the Orient,  that of court physician to the ruling
Viceroy, and in his free hours he developed a very zealous activity in
the field of investigation of the human races. He was an anthropologist
who had written several books then acknowledged as good, but which today
are left behind.  His personal instructions were of little use to me,
and I found myself on false trails, as soon as I followed the
distinguished Bey's scientific counsels, which my own studies in the
country completely disproved. The Frenchman Clot Bey, after whom an
entire boulevard is named in the new Cairo, is said, according to rumor,
to have been a former barber, who trained to be a doctor and rendered
the most useful services to the old Mehemmed Ali and his successor
Ibrahim   ((        0*0*0*  on the throne of Pharaoh.  At
all events, he possessed the courage, in the hard times of the
visitation of the plague in Egypt, to go to the sick, without caring
much about the consequences of infection.  He also possessed a small
museum with choice antiquities, which later passed into the possession
of his native city of Marseille and which today is still visited with
pleasure by learned Egyptologists in France.  Clot Bey, of small,
unassuming figure, possessed an extremely lively personality, and his
tales from the time of the old Mem and of the Egyptian campaigns in
Syria, Arabia, and in the Sudan I always listened to with particular
pleasure.  He even wrote a book on Egypt in the French language, which
meant well, to be sure, but was rather weak in execution.  The fact, for
example, in the zoological part of the book, which he praised to me as a
lifework achieved in print, that he represented the bat as a peculiar
kind of bird, is not the worst among all the sins committed in it.  A
Turk, it is true, would have found nothing offensive in it, but his book
was written not for Turks, but for Europeans. Much more significant for
me from the beginning was the acquaintance of a man who could be
designated as a blessed benefit to Egypt; I mean the Frenchman Linant,
with the addition:  de Bellefonds, as he liked to be called, after his
birthplace.  He died at eighty only a few years ago in Cairo, after
having been raised to the rank of a Pasha.  When I first came to know
him, he was a vigorously fortyyearold of military bearing, with a
great, powerful frame and sympathetic, always friendly features in his
found face with its ravenblack, welltrimmed moustache.  He
had   ()        0*0*0*  already entered the Egyptian service
under Mehemmed Ali as ingenieur des ponts et chaussees, to submit
proposals to the government, in neatly executed cartographic plans, for
the laying out of canals, damming of the Nile, systems of locks, among
other things.  He had likewise made his own contribution for the
construction of the maritime canal of Suez, although he did not bear the
recognition which his ingenious proposals, from the practical
standpoint, would have deserved in the highest degree. He felt a special
satisfaction in geographical studies which were connected with water
distribution in ancient Egypt and compared the old with the new.  His
treatise on the former Moeris Lake in the Fayum has even achieved a
classic fame, and not less his fundamental investigations on the oldest
linking of the Nile with the Red Sea, which he traced back, with full
justification, to the time of Rameses II, therefore to the end of the
14th century B.C. With clear perception, he had assembled the proofs
which extended the older inlet of the Red Sea toward the present
Crocodile Lake as far as the middle of the Isthmus of Suez, and in
accurate estimation of the topographical conditions, he had established
the same place for the march of the Jews through the sea of reeds.
Unfortunately, it was not granted him to see the cutting through of the
isthmus carried out according to his plans, after his diplomat
compatriot, Mr. von Lesseps, under the administration of the next
Viceroy, succeeded in getting the concession for it.  To my deceased
friend and patron Linant, moreover, is due the fame of having first
rediscovered the gold mines of Wadi Olakimines which drew profit from
Pharaonic times to that of the Caliphatein
the   (*        0*0*0*  region of the Bischarin nomads, near
the southern border of Egypt towards the Red Sea, and of having made a
curtographic survey of those unknown regions.  On his travels in these
wild regions the swiftrunning dromedary had become the most convenient
mount for him, so that one caught sight of the good man riding only this
beast even in the streets of Cairo, when business or visits obliged him
to leave the house.  According to his own story, he had once travelled
the distance from Alexandria to Suez via Cairo, on the edge of the
Libyan Desert and through the middle of the wadi of the Mecca pilgrims,
in the astonishingly fast time of 24 hours, without longer stops, on the
same dromedary, a performance which may hardly ever have been surpassed.
At that time, it was generally the custom among the Europeans settled in
the main cities of the land, chiefly in Alexandria and Cairo, to form
old Egyptian collections which, with the years, gained an increasing
value and not infrequently contained, besides much trash, the most
precious objects of Antiquity.  As sellers of the antiques there
regularly appeared Bedouins, who wandered about the country in order to
buy up, at cheap prices, finds accidentally made by the peasants working
on their farms, or themselves to carry out secret excavations, usually
at places lying hidden, and at night.  My friend, the Bedouin Farag
Ismail, still living today and at present a very rich man, was most
successful at this, for almost nothing eluded his nose for tracking
things down.  In Alexandria there was the collection of Dimitri, a
prosperous Greek, which had the rarest pieces to show.  In Cairo the
well known English missionary Dr. Lieders had founded a private museum
which was worth   (+        0*0*0*  seeing.  In addition
there were the apothecary Jannowitsch, a German confectioner whose name
escapes me, the English dragoman Massara, a native Copt by origin, my
old friend the Italian refugee and painter L. Vassalli, who occupied the
position of conservator in the Viceregal Museum in Bulak established
later, and the Spanish Jew Fernandez, all of whom were in possession of
a rich number of antiquities which they offered for sale to amateurs,
mostly travellers.  Also the Italian Lanzone, at present one of the
conservators of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, possessed true treasures
in his cabinet of antiquities selected with great care. But not one of
the fortunate owners found himself in the position to read the
hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic texts with which the monuments were
covered.  Only when a socalled "king's ring" (the cartouche, as
Champollion called it) enclosed a number of signs, did one know halfway,
and seek to decipher the name of the Pharaoh from published works. When
it was learned that for me, the young Egyptologist, the knowledge of the
three kinds of script was a specialty, and that I had devoted body and
soul to Egyptian studies, I soon became a person much in demand in
Cairo, and everywhere I found open doors and open hearts at my entrance.
I, in turn, enjoyed the pleasure of swimming in a true sea of
antiquities, even though I was greatly exploited, to give explanations
concerning the secret legacies from days long since past.  Occasionally
my time and my knowledge were thoroughly misused, and Mariette, my later
friend, was truly right, to reproach me for it, since I was thereby only
contributing, without knowing it or wanting to, to force the prices up
high and   (,        0*0*0*  to ruin the antiquities market.
In spite of everything, it was a wonderful time for me, to sit for hours
in the midst of the old trash, to examine each individual thing and to
open the closed mouth of the dead inscriptions.  Later, I admit, this
pleasure had changed into its opposite, and today I have come so far
that the visit to an Egyptian museum frankly appears to me as a
difficult task.  My curiosity in the past fifty years has had plentiful
opportunity to become satisfied in the most sufficient measure, all the
more so, as I , through my own works, have exhausted the material
offered for my claims, and gladly leave it to younger and more capable
forces to build further on my investigations, in other works, to confirm
the same, or to correct and enlarge them. Everything has its just
season, and human knowledge and understanding are not exempt from this
law.   IN THE SERAPEUM OF MEMPHISă In the month of
February, the pleasure was to be mine to become acquainted, face to
face, with Auguste Mariette in his hermitage of the Serapeum, in the
desert between the Arab villages of Abusir and Sakkarah, and with this
to knot the band of lifelong friendship.  The warm reception which I
enjoyed from his side was such as to captivate me by his personality,
which with many others had the very opposite effect.  He was of great
height, with a strong body, his face, framed by a blond beard, was burnt
redbrown like that of an Egyptian feliah; in his features lay a certain
melancholy which, on the other hand, could be displaced instantly by a
striking cheerfulness.  At the same time, he was vigorously active and
preferred riding on his Arabian white horse to going
on   (-        0*0*0*  foot.  Wit, and preferably the French
pun, was his inborn inheritance.  Moreover, he possessed a deep worldly
wisdom in all his plans which miscarried in only one point  which in
this wicked world is an essential one  in all money matters which came
his way.  He did not understand how to manage money prudently, because
he had become completely indifferent to it, after having to struggle, at
the outset in life, with all the misery of existence of a poor man.  He
could be as liberal as a king and in the next moment not know with what
means he was to pay for the smallest expense.  He possessed all the
ambition of the man who is aware that the eyes of the whole world are
directed upon him as the result of a magnificent discovery favored by
lucky chance, but at the same time he was tormented by the feeling of
his own inadequacy, not to be able to master the countless multitude of
monuments, which he had brought to light, with full knowledge of their
significance, and to have to leave it to others to exploit his gains.
His knowledge in the field of hieroglyphic decipherment was on the whole
weak, and he felt constrained in his conscience through the uncertainty
of the translations he had supplied.  He confessed to me openly and
honestly, in our dialogues no less than in his written communications,
that he possessed absolutely no gift for the philological side of our
science, and this he deeply deplored.  He was, so he explained to me,
much more an artistic nature, which feels its only satisfaction in form,
wherein Egyptian antiquity does not quite provide the most suitable
material.  At best, he understood  how to organize, to arrange a museum
and to exhibit harmoniously and to catalogue the places
belonging   (.        0*0*0*  together; beyond that he
lacked, not the good will, to be sure, but indeed the requisite strength
for scientific exploration.  He deplored having entered upon a false
path of life, for his realm and his ideal was the world of the
beautiful, and he really felt called upon to earn an esteemed name as a
writer, perhaps even as a poet.  Now he had to come to terms with
destiny, and as the extolled discoverer of the Serapeum, to do
everything to uphold his so suddenly captured fame and to adapt his
future work to it. With his confession he had hit the nail on the head,
for his spirit was tender and susceptible to the most delicate feelings.
His imagination roamed about inventively in the boundless realm of
poetic creations and his thoughts were clothed in a form perfected
language which blew the breath of life even into rigid Egyptian
Antiquity.  His descriptions of antiquities according to this tendency
revealed the man whose ingenious pen is limited only by the barrenness
and emptiness of the material, and tries in vain to break through the
sharply drawn limitations.  Where he was free to fulfill a poetic task,
then he reveled in the enjoyment of the favorable moment and, like our
George Ebers, he told stories with the pleasure of the poet by the grace
of God.  Only very few know that the celebrated opera "Aida" owes the
subject matter and the invention of its action to Mariette alone.  He
wrote the librettro in the French language, and Verdi obtained the
viceregal commission to set it to music for an honorarium of 150,000
francs.  Also the drawings for the Egyptian and Ethiopian costumes of
the characters who appear in the opera originate from Mariette's band 
even to the ornamental objects and weapons.  He was the real soul of
the   (/        0*0*0*  whole opera which, from its first
performance in Cairo, enjoyed such an extraordinary success, without
anyone having thought of his name. Mariette's fortunes in many respects
resembled my own.  We had both served from the bottom, inspired with an
early enthusiasm for ancient Egypt, had encountered famous authorities
who bore us more or less ill will for that reason and set up obstacles
of every sort, we had married early and shared the happiness of a family
of many children, for whom we had to carry on the struggle for
existence.  Even in another direction our mutual fortunes are similar.
Just as I venerated like saints my magnanimous patrons, King Friedrich
Wilhelm IV and Alexander von Humboldt, so for Mariette had a noble
protector arisen in the person of the then Prince Louis Napoleon, who
could not forget that, during his captivity in Hamm, the young Mariette
had furnished the design for his artillery works.  I heard of this
remarkable episode from Mariette's own lips.  As President of the first
French Republic and later as Emperor, Napoleon affirmed his real
interest in him at every opportunity.  There served him as intermediary,
moreover, the foster sister of the Emperor, Madame Cornu, known for her
distinguished French translation of Goethe's "Fauste," a lady of great
intellect, but republican in sentiment, who could never forgive
Napoleon, that, contrary to his oath once taken, he dared to place the
imperial crown on his head.  I shall have later an opportunity to come
back to this remarkable woman, since she demonstrated her complete
friendship for me, and intervened later in my own life with great
success.   (0        0*0*0*  Ԍ     Mariette's invitation to
share his dwelling in the Serapeum I accepted most gratefully, and I
soon became not only his good, but even his best companion.  The
dwelling which I have in mind is still standing on the same spot today,
in the middle of the desert, although in a beautified and enlarged
condition.  At that time it consisted of a crude building erected with
the help of thick, sundried earthen bricks which had belonged to more
than twothousandyearold walls in the Serapeum itself.  Three
socalled rooms were located at the front, the kitchen and other spaces
were found in the annex to it in the rear building, all naturally set on
level ground on the sandy soil of the desert.  On a long pole on the
flat roof there waved the French tricolor.  In front of the building was
an enclosed terrace, before which, in a small walled yard, stayed a
young Egyptian wild boar n the company of a gazelle.  Probably up to
thirty monkeys of the longtailed species formed the fellow inhabitants
of the house.  They tumbled about freely in the desert, or occupied the
roof, to perform their tricks gratis before our eyes.  Egyptians of
purest lineage from the nearby village of Sakkarah were employed as
guards and servants during the day, to be relieved by genuine sons of
the desert at night.  All of them were devoted to my friend Mariette at
the risk of their lives.  The village girls walked daily, with pitchers
on their heads, from the village along the nearly onehour sandy way up
to the desert, in order to deliver to the small colony cut off from the
great world the necessary, but dubious drinking water from the flooded
lakes or the canals in the neighborhood.  That it was not really safe to
drink, I willingly admit, for in spite of filtration with the
aid   (1        0*0*0*  of a "stirpitcher," it was teeming
with visible forms of life, but the summer heat was great, thirst still
greater, and a glass of abominabletasting absinthe was taken as an
antidote after almost every drink. Almost eight full months, reckoned
all together, my stay in the Serapeum lasted, that is, in one of the
smallest rooms, whose furniture consisted of a small table, a small
chair, a small bed of rough wooden boards joined together.  In the
chamber I never felt comfortable.  Snakes on the ground, tarantulas and
scorpions on the old masonry walls, and spiderwebs hanging like banners
from the ceiling, with fatbodied inhabitants in the center, shared my
dwellingplace.  As night came on, bats slipped into my cell through the
light and airholes over the door, to rob me of the last small
remainder of repose with their ghostly fluttering. Before going to
sleep, I used to tuck the ends of the mosquito net under the mattress
and then commend myself to the protection of God and all the saints, in
the midst of the desert in which jackals, wolves, and hyenas surrounding
the house raised their nightly howling. In addition to this, there was
still the daily battle with the monkey vagabonds.  When I was writing 
and this had to be done with the door open, for lack of a window  a
devilish rascal suddenly sprang onto the table and upset the inkwell;
when we sat at dinner, another specimen crouched on each shoulder of the
eater, in order to contend for every morsel from the fork on its way to
the mouth.  If one threatened or once struck hard, one had the
   (2         0*0*0*  Ԍwhole horde on his neck and had to
defend himself against the daring assaults of the biting monkeys. How
comfortable I had been in my clean, neat room in the hospitable house of
the Baron von Pentz, and what an exchange I had made for it!  And yet I
would not have given up my life in the wilderness for anything in the
world, not even for a palace, because the inscribed stones which were
being brought to light by the excavator in indescribable abundance,
under the sand of the desert and out of the subterranean tombs of the
sacred Apis bulls, sweetened my existence by their hieroglyphic and
demotic yields. I copies and copied the countless texts from morning
until evening, in order to satisfy my eagerness for knowledge and to be
able to send in my reports to Berlin.  It was a harvest such as never
again in my life fell to my lot, a precious spring at which I sat, in
order to quench my insatiable thirst for knowledge in long draughts. For
Mariette my labors were of rather special value, for they allowed him to
see h is own investigations confirmed or corrected, and to broaden
substantially his studies concerning the Alps worship of the ancient
Egyptians, particularly on the basis of the demotic accounts.  I gained
through the communications of my friend almost more than I was able to
give.  Had he not already resided in this desert for thirty long months,
far from family and homeland, in order to win from the Serapeum its
thousandyearold treasures, hidden under the sand and mostly well
preserved, to pack them up carefully, and to send them in hundreds of
crates monthly to the Paris Louvre?  A complete carpentry shop was set
up for this   (3        0*0*0*  purpose in a spacious cave
which had formerly served as a masstomb for the mummies of sacred cats
and ibises, and the French master with his men never grew weary, from
early morning until late evening, constructing more and more new crates
with saw, hammer, and chisel. The Egyptian government had finally become
aware that such magnificent antiquarian shipments were being transported
on the Nile, and it found itself informed for the first time that this
was a matter of the abduction of the most precious treasures of
Antiquity only after almost all the newspapers in Europe had faithfully
reported the news about it, following the arrival of each shipment.
Abbas I, as a result of this, was in a highly ungracious mood, and
hastily issued a firman on the strength of which nobody has the right to
conduct excavations without his sanction, or to export discovered
monuments out of the country. Mariette was warned at the right time.  He
ran up the tricolor on his house and without delay proclaimed the desert
by the Serapeum as French territory.  The land built upon was Egypt, and
there he would take care not to dig; the desert was no one's property.
The Viceroy was beside himself with rage, and a troop of horsemen
consisting of a wild band of Macedonian Arnauts, who in those times
performed police service in Egypt, was sent to the desert in order to
take military control of the Serapeum. Mariette, with his people who
from the beginning were ill disposed toward the Turks, placed the
Serapeum in a state of siege and threatened to shoot down from his horse
anyone who would dare to   (4        0*0*0*  set foot on
French terrain.  The horde was intimated and retreated with its object
unattained. Then the Egyptian government took a peaceful way out; for
one fine morning there appeared an old, toothless Turkish Bimbaschi,
Monsieur le major, as Mariette used to title him, in order to make
the official announcement to the unruly Frenchman that he had come, not
to disturb the excavations in the French desert, but to superintend the
removal of the monuments on Egyptian territory and to receive these most
gratefully as property of the government. Here was needed good advice,
for a whole new cargo lay stored hidden in a cave, ready to make its way
to Alexandria.  All that happened on that day of my move to the
Serapeum. Mariette did not let himself be intimated.  He received the
old gentleman in the most hospitable and generous manner, whereby he did
not fail to make frequent offerings of Raki brandy, and there ensured
between the two approximately the following conversation,  naturally in
the Arabic language. "Major, you are a fine man, on whom I bestow the
highest confidence, and I am glad to have made your acquaintance." "God
grant you every grace and prolong your age!  You have made my beard
white." "I must therefore inform you, in confidence, that yesterday I
made a great gold discovery" "Where is it, where is it?  Hand it over
immediately!" "Allow me to finish my report  and I am keeping this gold
discovery concealed in a deep well." "I am at your service.  Go down
yourself, in order to be   (5         0*0*0*  convinced of
it." "By God, I will do that, I must do it." "But consider , at your
age!  You must, sitting on a rope, allow yourself to be let down by two
of my workmen to a depth of thirty elis." "That is to be done, and at
once." "As you please.  Men, to work!" The Her Major was actually let
down into a hollow shaft, in the bottom of which there was an empty
grave chamber which once had served as last restingplace for a
distinguished ancient Egyptian. As soon as his feet touched the ground,
Mariette had the rope pulled up, and the Herr Major remained twentyfour
full hours in involuntary captivity. He entreated, shouted insults,
cursed, threatened  nothing helped him at all.  The necessary
provisions were furnished him in a basket, above all, strong drinks
also; a pair of warm blankets flew down into the well, and the poor
Bimbaschi had plenty of time to reflect on what a trick Mariette had
played on him. His long waitingperiod completely sufficed in order to
load a waiting camel caravan with the entire consignment for Paris.  It
made its way to the Nile, where a ship under the French flag received
the precious wares. Mariette compensated the victim of the trick with a
rich gift of cash in French gold, came to an understanding with him, and
he belonged, from then on, among our honored housefriends.  When a new
shipment was prepared, the good Major and Turk disappeared always at the
right time, in order not to see
anything.   (6        0*0*0*  Ԍ     Thus were the most
precious monuments saved for France and science, and only a small part,
consisting of about thirty inscribed stones, on account of their weight
went to the citadel of Cairo, to be preserved here as curiosities of the
first rank.  The Turkish Nazir (Director) of the collection had the
inscriptions of all the monuments nicely ground off, in order to give
the stones a prettier appearance.  Thus it happened in the year 1854!
L VISITORS IN THE SERAPEUMă Visitors from the city appeared
almost daily, and only when the hot, burning sun of the summer stood
over our heads did it become lonely in the whole neighborhood of the
Serapeum.  The majority of the arrivals were travellers who were eager
to see M. Mariette and his Apis tombs uncovered in the subterranean
crypts of the desert.  For acquaintances or especially recommended
persons the vast corridors, on both sides of which were more than sixty
open tombchambers with giant granite sarophagi for the sacred cattle,
shone in the glow of hundreds of candles, and the sight never failed to
exert an indescribable impression upon the visitors.  In mute wonder
they walked through the extensive arched passages, to come back into the
blinding light of the sun at the exit, and thank the discoverer in the
most complimentary words for the pleasure provided. It need not be
wondered at, that it was above all his French countrymen who made the
pilgrimage to the Serapeum (the way from Old Cairo, at that time to be
made only on donkeyback, required four full hours) and enjoyed the
kindest hospitality in the Mariette house, for the sons of France were
proud of their brother,   (7        0*0*0*  and the French
press had done everything to glorify his discoveries in picture and
word.  For that reason Mariette showed every imaginable courtesy to the
bestknown journalists and famous writers of his nation  in the first
rank I count Edmond About  and I regularly made the observation that he
could not overcome his jealous feeling by introducing me other than with
the words "Mon ami Monsieru Br. de Berlin."  I was wise enough to
put my Egyptian knowledge under the bushel, and leave to him the
deserved honor of the day, for I knew that, fundamentally, he loved me
with all his heart.  When one said to me "Ah, Monsier est
Prussian," he answered in reply, "Certainment!  mais Prussian de
mon coeur," as he likewise used to indicate in his many letters
directed to me. On a hot summer day of the month of May, which in Egypt
means anything but the month of bliss, for the fiery hot chamsinwinds
usually blow throughout its duration, there arrived in the Serapeum a
small donkey caravan composed of four Frenchmen and their guide. The
most distinguished among them introduced himself as Mr. de Lesseps, who
was later highly extolled as the promoter of the Suez Canal, and today
is condemned to play so deplorable a role in the Panama tragedy.  He was
at that time a vigorous man in the forties, of small,but solid figure,
with a full round face and short black moustache above the lips, from
whose eyes and features radiated the most complete good nature.  Without
knowing him more closely, one could read from these features that their
bearer was not capable of deceiving anyone knowingly, but all the more
capable of being deceived and taken advantage of.  Although later, in an
affair fateful for me, he wrote the harsh expression:  "Le
dernier   (8        0*0*0*  Francais vaut miiille fois mieux
que ie premier Allemand."  I am far from being angry with him on that
account, since he had addressed the so critical words to an Oriental
prince ten years after Sedan, in the excessive fervor of his French
national pride. He did not possess the qualities of a man of high
intellect, but on the other hand, a certain readiness at repartee and
the fine French wit which seasoned social conversation with its salt.
Courteous and polite in his approach, he charmed moreover by his amiable
manner and revealed also therein the prerogative which is customarily
proper especially to diplomats through birth, training, and position. A
raging khamsin storm set in shortly after the arrival of the four
gentlemen, so that to stay in the house became plainly unbearable.  Huge
masses of sand covered in a second everything living and dead, and the
sun's disk showed a completely redbrown color.  Heat and dust mounted
from minute to minute, but Mariette did not appear to recognize the
slightest difficulty; on the contrary, he praised the chance to have
gained the finest opportunity to take the prepared midday meal in the
cool chambers of the subterranean tombs of the Apis bulls.  Between the
redhot sand hills we walked together to the tombs in the subterranean
crypts.  To our incredible astonishment we were invited to climb down on
a wooden ladder into one of the largest of the colossal coffins of
sacred bulls in order to take our places on six chairs at a covered
table set with food.  No one found the space cramped, and we passed the
most pleasant hours in the stone chest.  When I have occasionally
related that I took a midday meal, in the
company   (9        0*0*0*  of five guests, in a coffin, one
smiled at this, or shook one's head unbelievingly.  And yet it actually
happened. In other respects the midday meal described was to turn out
very badly for me.  I had committed the indiscretion, after rising from
the table about sunset, of going by foot to the village of Sakkarah, at
a distance of one short hour.  Mariette owned a house in the middle of
the village, built, like all the others, out of bricks of black Nile
mud.  There we used to sleep during the hot summer nights, and thither I
turned my steps, in order to finish a task that was absorbing me.
Suddenly the khamsin broke loose with new violence and threw whole piles
of sand into my eyes.  I finally lost my way in the desert and reached
the place only late in the evening, after a twohour march.  Deadly
exhausted, I threw myself onto the bed, which I was not able to leave
for fully three weeks. I had caught chickenpox, and only the medical
treatment of Dr. Bilharz, who came in haste from Cairo, succeeded in
restoring me. During my illness I had the surprise of the visit of a
German Compatriot, the Count Schileffen von Schileffenberg, who had
already for several years been visiting Egypt and Nubia, in order to
become free from the consumption hereditary in his family.  He was the
last and youngest of several brothers who had died of the terrible
disease on European soil.  On medical advice and accompanied by his
aged, dignified mother, he set out on the journey to Egypt even before
the beginning of the winter season, and the two were not afraid to
extend their route as far as the province of Dongola, north of Khartoum,
and to stay for months, as though vanished, in these inhospitable warm
regions seldom visited   (:        0*0*0*  by Europeans.
The admirable mother had kept alive the young Count, an overgrown youth
of twentyone years, and thereby furnished a new proof that no sacrifice
seems too great for a mother's heart, when the existence of a beloved
child is concerned.  I later had the honor to be presented to her in
Cairo, and to learn to esteem in the fullest measure her devout spirit
and the shrewdness of her understanding.  It may not go unmentioned on
this occasion that the young Count had the luck to discover in Dongola
an historically important stone inscription originating from the period
of the Ethiopian empire, which is of enormous circumference and at
present forms one of the most important treasures of the Berlin Museum.
Its transport down the Nile through the bad cataracts of Nubia was
fortunately successful.  MY LIFE AMONG THE ARABSă My life
among the Egyptian Arabs and Copts taught me for the first time to
become acquainted more closely with the peculiarities and the customs
and habits of a race which, in spite of the introduction of foreign
elements, in spite of the intermixture with these, and in spite of the
diversities in the religious domain during the course of thousands of
years, nevertheless has faithfully preserved the hereditary
characteristics of the ancient Egyptian race to the fullest extent.
Egypt does not let the foreign element in its inhabitants come to the
fore; it becomes suppressed or generally disintegrates in the physical
and moral sense.  European families remaining unmixed may survive hardly
three or four generations, for their youngest and last one sickens away
like a northern plant or southern soil.  The offspring
which   (;        0*0*0*  has issued, on the other hand,
from European mixed marriages with natives, takes on, according to the
two tendencies indicated, all the characteristics of the genuine
Egyptian and loses therewith the peculiarities of Europeanness.  The
children of such marriages speak, think, and act ArabEgyptian and show,
moreover, not the slightest inclination for a European pattern.  I can
testify to this experience from my own study of many mixed marriages
which have become known to me. The Egyptian shows extremely noteworthy
differences in his disposition according to youth and age.  As a child
until about his fourteenth year he is wild, highspirited, of the
liveliest cheerfulness, full of wit and intelligence, and capable of
attaining the highest degree of cultivation through proper instruction.
With advancing years the opposite qualities enter in, a result, as I
believe, of his strict religious education under the guidance of
fanatical and, according to our concept, uncultivated clergy.  It
required a wise admonition of the pious late Khedive Mohammed Tewfik to
the present generation of the teachers of Islam, in order for the first
time to remind them that strictness of faith in no way excludes striving
after worldly knowledge; that, on the contrary, God has granted
understanding to man not merely to believe the divine doctrines, but to
examine heavenly and earthly things from a scientific standpoint, and
also to admire the omnipotence of Allah in the glory of His creation,
and learn to venerate its invisible Author.  It must freely be admitted
that the critical judgment of the Egyptian does not go beyond the
mediocre, and the love for truth in scientific research, as in life,
reveals   (<        0*0*0*  serious contradictions.  On the
whole, the Egyptians are and remain great children, with whom one gets
along well, as long as one makes no higher demands on them, as to the
Europeans has been done through education in school and home. On the
special recommendation of a native of high standing I enjoyed my first
instruction in the Arabic language from a socalled sheik, who had the
reputation of particular holiness among the people, after he had
devoured sixteen glass lamps without having done harm to his body.  To
be sure, this extraordinary performance furnished the reason that the
superiors of a dervish order, to which he belonged, expelled him from
their band on account of repeated waste of lamps.  Sheik Ahmed, as he
was called, was a man of sixty, blind in one eye, only halfseeing with
the other, talkative as a thrush, ridiculous in his whole appearance
and, his conduct, but at the same time a model of conjugal life, for in
the course of time he had married seventy women, without having been
presented with the desired progeny.  When I saw him, the wise man of
Cairo, enter my house as teacher, the old rascal was on the point of
entering into a seventyfirst marriage with a young, fifteenyearold
virgin. I could never look at him without being seized with the desire
to laugh, for he had the most comical method of initiating me into the
finer Arabic conversation and style of writing.  When he came to my
house, he remained first of all standing in the open door and addressed
a long greeting to me with a ceremonial voice.  When at my invitation he
stepped closer, he got rid of his yellow slippers and sat down gravely
with crossed legs beside me on the divan.
   (=        0*0*0*  After the servant had handed him coffee
and pipe, there ensured the refined conversation conducted in Arabic, of
which a single sample may suffice here. "O sir," he began one day by
saying, "Are you in the possession of money?" "No," I answered him. "Say
yes!"  he replied. "Why yes?" "It is only for the sake of grammatical
conversation, therefore say yes!" "Very well, then, I possess money."
"How much of it do you possess?" "I have indeed no money." "Say:  I
possess so and so much, for example, a thaler." "For all I care, I
possess a thaler." "Where have you put it?" "Indeed I possess no money
at all." "Very well.  Have you any small change on you?" "Yes." "Show it
to me and count it out." "Yes, but for what reason?" "Only for the sake
of Arabic conversation."  I drew two fiveplaster pieces out of my
purse. "Lay them in my hand." "Again, for what reason?" "Only for the
sake of Arabic style."    (>         0*0*0*  Ԍ     I laid the
pieces of money in his right hand with the words: "Here they are."
"Good!"  As it pleases God, let us continue our conversation another
time."  With that, the quaint holy man put the money into his breast
pocket, rose, and I never saw my ten plasters again. Sheik Achmed was
behaving, according to the manner of his countrymen, like a great child,
in whom a calculated craftiness is not wanting. In order to make me an
Arabic writer, he one day dictated a letter to me.  He brought the sheet
written by me close to his halfseeing eye, read it, and found not even
one mistake in my script.  And yet I was perfectly conscious of having
written a few words wrong, since I had only heard them.  I leaned across
him in order to direct his attention to them in the text, when I
discovered, to my astonishment, that he was holding the sheet in his
hand upside down under his eye. "I believe, O Sheik, you cannot read?"
I remarked to him. "O my son," he exclaimed, "You are right, for I know
neither how to read nor to write.  But God is merciful, and the All
Merciful One will help me further." I naturally relieved him at once of
the position as techer, and he disappeared with deep bows, never to
cross my threshold again. In the two years of my stay in Egypt, 1853 and
1854, of which the greater half fell in the domain of Upper Egyptian
monuments, I lived in constant intercourse with the sons of the land,
learned to know their few virtues and numerous weaknesses almost daily,
and   (?        0*0*0*  accustomed myself to the chief
requirement for relations with them, namely never, even in the worst
situations, to give up my calm and to show a violently excited temper
through my expressions and my conduct, as the majority of the Europeans
are in the habit of doing.  Losing one's temper gives them a kind of
pleasure, and old and young hurry over, yelling and rejoicing, to
ridicule the "Father of the Hat" in his anger.  In such cases we
Europeans seem to them like a special kind of clown. Those who were in
my service proved themselves dependable people, even though here and
there, in their marketing, they took advantage of me by a half or a
whole plaster.  I was completely conscious of this and preferred to shut
my eyes to it, since even in Europe similar practices among the servant
class are said to be no rarity. <  AMONG WORTHY THEBANSă
Still today I think with grateful feelings of my two guides in Thebes,
the old graybeard Timsach (his name means in Arabic no less than
"crocodile") on the eastern side of the vast site of ruins, and the
venerable old man of eighty years, Auad, on the western. Timach, at that
time about sixtyfive years old, had been in his manhood the guide of
Champollion the Younger, when the latter was staying in Thebes, and for
that reason he was in the position to tell me a great deal about the
great master, whom he had accompanied on all his journeys.  The French
government had conferred French citizenship upon him as a reward for his
faithfully performed services, so that he was exempt from all taxes and
duties and, along with all the members of his own family,
was   (@        0*0*0*  in no way permitted to be harassed
by the Theban authorities.  The population of Karnak, to which he
belonged, venerated him like a famous Sheik, and in addressing him gave
him the title of "Our Father."  Although my old Timach wore the fellah
costume of his countrymen and a respectable turban decorated his head,
he was nevertheless proud of his Frenchness and took pains, as far as it
concerned him, to bestow his full approval upon French customs and
views. His colleague Auad, over there on the other side of Thebes, which
embraced chiefly the Temples of the Dead and the region of the tombs
from Antiquity, was just as estimable a man as the eastern "crocodile."
As the latter perceived his own fame in Champollion, so did the former
in Lepsius, whom he had served during FLepsius' longer stay in Thebes.
He felt on this account a double satisfaction, to recognize in me a
compatriot of the great scholar, and I, on my part, was in the fortunate
position to show my heartiest gratitude to the venerable old man for all
his efforts.  He on this side, like Timsach, over yonder, possessed an
admirable knowledge of the monuments, even to the numbers of the
individual tombs and catacombs, so that under his guidance I never found
myself in errors. During my stay of several months in Thebes I had set
up my living quarters on the east side of the old city in the small
temple of the local goddess Ape, and when I awoke in the early morning,
I always felt great pleasure in seeing the great and small gods of the
ancient Egyptian Olympus pass before my eyes on the silent walls
opposite my bed.  Ape stood at the top of all,
even   (A        0*0*0*  though in a figure of little charm
for an exalted goddess.  She showed herself in the image of a hideous
black hippopotamus with gaping jaws, and only the crown and scepter and
other attributes on her body made one forget that she belonged not
merely to a mythological zoo.  Never have I felt the joy of work quite
as much as in this Theban dwelling of mine, which left nothing to be
desired in durability, was exposed to no danger of fire, and had besides
the pleasant advantage that I was a tenant fred from rent and tax on it.
A room not occupied by me possessed a remarkable peculiarity which had
given it the designation "the Chamber of the Clock of the Dead" among
the Arabs.  When the outer wall of stone became illuminated by the rays
of the morning sun, there could be heard a low, resonant tone that was
approximately like the longdrawnout metallic sound of a striking
clock. The famous columns of Memnon, according to the consistent
testimonies of Antiquity, offered occasion for the same observation.
The physical causes of the ringing tone of a cracked mass of stone
warmed by the sun have long since been cleared up. It cannot be
surprising that the Arabs composed a whole cycle of legends out of these
and similar phenomena in the midst of the magnificent monumentworld of
Thebes.  Their tales and fables stand on a par with our "Ahnfrau" or
white woman in the famous corridors of old castles and citadels.
Anyway, their stories had a particular value for me, since they were not
without connection with actual traditions supported by the inscriptions
of the temples  traditions which were transmitted from generation to
generation through thousands of years.   (B        0*0*0*  Ԍ
My dwelling on the opposite side of Thebes was the former tomb of a
distinguished Egyptian which was chiseled at some height in the rocks of
AbdelKurnah and decorated with pictures and inscriptions, and provided
for me the advantage of a cool and relatively clean place of abode.
When I stepped out of my tomb in the morning, the wonderful light and
the panorama spread out at my feet so charmed me that it could not be
imagined more splendid, more magnificent.  The ruinsite of the onetime
"Queen of Cities" spread in vast extent at my feet, cut through by the
waters and sand islands of the Nile River, which separated its domain
into two great halves.  The massive remains of the Empire Temple of
Karnak and the columned halls of the great sanctuary of Luxor, pierced
by the blue brightness of the sky, transported me into a true world of
enchantment. The impressions that I felt at such moments in my innermost
soul allowed me to forget the need in which I found myself in the last
months of my wanderings.  The travel money was used up to the last
heller, and I was compelled to keep myself alive like the poorest
Thebans.  Lentils, beans, onions, dry bread and only rarely a meager
chicken do not form a diet capable of strengthening a European over a
long period.  In addition, there was an inconsolable loneliness at a
great distance from the family, the lack of all news "from the outside,"
the deprivation of all spiritually refreshing pleasures, such as Europe
offers the cultivated man in inexhaustible abundance, and, not last, the
lack of certainty and fast forwarding of all communications by letter.
And so I was thankful to fate when, at the height of my
desperate   (C        0*0*0*  state, I attained possession
of a letter whose address let me recognize immediately the trembling
handwriting of my protector, Alexander von Humboldt.  I rejoiced when I
read with all due devotion the following lines on the two closing
written pages: "My dearest Brugsch!  I have to reproach myself severely,
that I have not given you more often and earlier signs of life, of the
sincerest friendship, and of thanks for such exceedingly important and
heartfelt letters.  But the thought that you, even for only a moment,
could doubt my sincere attachment, my ever increasing respect for your
fine talent and your unprecedented and yet so disciplined activity,
cannot enter my mind.  Almost every letter of yours, also those
addressed to me, has been put before the King and has been listened to
by him with the benevolence which he has so unalterably bestowed upon
you. Whether these lines come safely into your hands, my dear doctor,
seems to me very uncertain.  Their chief purpose is to give you the glad
news that the wish you expressed to me in your letter written on board
the bark "Serapis" has been fully gratified.  You announced that from
November on you would be without funds, and in February would come back.
It has been easy for me to obtain again for you from the King, for a
whole year,  fifteen hundred thaler. This is not to say that
you must remain for another full year; it will merely open up for
you the possibility of the disposition of 1500 additional thaler, namely
125 thaler each month, until your arrival in Berlin.  Perhaps you'll
still go to the Sinai, where there are such old inscriptions, perhaps
you'll make the return   (D        0*0*0*  journey by way of
Malta and London, where you can count fully on Bunsen's friendliness.
In London there is such, very much to read, and a stay in London
could perhaps be included in the Egyptian journey, if the 1500 thaler
brought you back to Berlin via London. You will have to visit London
anyway, in order to complete your works, and from Berlin, after the
Egyptian journey, it might not be so easy to obtain money again for a
London trip.  It would be better that Egypt and London were one, and
that, with the new 1500 thaler now granted until August, you came to
Berlin by way of Malta and London.  I would like to think of peace, but
in this respect the future is not to be counted on with certainty.  I
have agreed with Geheimrat Cabinet Minister Illaire, who is very fond of
you, that a credit of 1500 thaler will be opened for you at the Legation
by the Chamberlain and Consul General in Cairo, Baron von Pentz. Due to
the absence of the King and Illaire in Warsaw and the presence now of
the Russian Emperor in Potsdam (because of the agitated time), the
matter is not yet settled in every formality, but the friendliest
sanction of the King is quite certain.  I intend to write to Baron von
Pentz myself on this account, even before Geheimrat Cabinet Minister
Illaire does. For every detail of the journey which I alluded to before,
act quite freely, according to your own wish.  Lepsius continues to
speak very kindly of you.  I have accompanied your letter to Bunsen with
a very warm one.  I greatly approve that you do not hurry too much with
the work promised to Bockh in the Academy.  On a journey, where all
reference material is lacking, it is never possible to produce something
finished, or even to ask for it, but before
you   (E        0*0*0*  come back, a work for the Academy is
by all means necessary, since your fine reports to the King, which
served different purposes of information, I have always returned
directly to your excellent father.  Your very learned and distinguished
friend, G. Weiss, author of a very remarkable book, I had already
welcomed with great honor, when I received your letter. My health has,
on the whole, remained the same, that is, not directly hindering work,
only lately I have had more of the usual ailments:  constipation as well
as catarrh and cough. Argo's death has grieved me deeply, much as it was
to be wished for.  Poor Passalacqua's matter of debts, brought about
through foolish and mistaken speculation in paintings still occupies me.
I hope there can be help for him, although the Ministers refuse all
advance payments.  Herr von Olfers, contrary to expectation, has shown
himself very kind.  The Seifert family sends you hearty greetings.
Accept, dearest Brugsch, the renewed assurance of my inviolable
attachment. Dr. Pfundt's meteorological observations (but on the Reaumur
scale  this addition cannot be repeated often enough!) are very
praiseworthy, but the single months can be lost.  He should send them
together every six months addressed for the greatest security, to
Professor Dove (on behalf of the Geographic Society).  Will you
yourself, however, try very seriously to find out:  1)  What is the
greatest heat of the summer with reference to the scale, and 2) what is
the highest air temperature in the shade, far from proximity of rocks,
in the open air, not in tents, not in
air   (F        0*0*0*  filled with dust, at a height of six
to seven feet above the ground in the shade.  You know, of course, that
physicists do not believe that is 36 to 37 degrees Reaumur.
Observations in the sun do not help at all.  Potsdam, October 9, 1853.
Yours, A.v. Humboldt." The words of the preceding letter, which the then
eightyfouryearold man had written with trembling hand, rang in my
ears like music of the spheres.  With one stroke I had been delivered
from all distress and care, and found again the almost completely lost
courage to devote myself with fresh vigor to my researches on the domain
of the Theban city of the dead.  But I did not let it keep me from
making my way to the Nile, having myself taken across the river, and
celebrating a true holiday in the "French Castle" in Luxor.  I arrived
at just the right time to save from destruction a highly valuable
astronomical monument of the Empire Period.  A brownskinned servant of
the castle was just on the point of raising the hatchet to reduce to
pieces for firewood an old coffin brightly painted with constellations,
when I entered and prevented the disaster.  The "French Castle"
consisted in all of several rooms build of old Nile bricks, which rested
at an airy height upon the stone supporting beams and columns of the
rearmost chambers of the Temple of Amon in Lexor.  A flight of steps,
likewise made of Nile bricks, led to the halfEuropean, halfArabic
furnished living quarters, whose owner, a Frenchman named Maunier, with
his wife, a no longer young Italian woman, passed a lonely existence,
solely to obtain a small fortune in a suitable way.  He produced
photographs which he sold to travelling Europeans, mostly English and
French, or he bought and sold antiquities  even inscribed stones of
the   (G        0*0*0*  temple walls were not safe from him.
Besides, he lent money at high interest, in which he did the best
business with Arabian merchants who sent their caravans through the
desert as far as Dongola and Kordofan.   M. Maunier was therefore a
figure well known to all Thebans, for his yearslong stay, his active
business, and not least, his medical help had brought him into contact
with everyone, and no Nile traveller landed in Thebes, almost at the
foot of his lofty, strange templedwelling, without paying a visit to
him and his beautiful, although somewhat melancholy wife.  To be sure,
this was only in the short winter months, for the hot season then, as
still today, one avoided the sojourn in the inferno of Egypt. I passed
many a happy hour in the French castle, because of the pleasure it gave
me to be able to communicate with two European souls and from time to
time receive news "from over there," that is, "Frangistan."  At that
time, to be sure, the newspapers needed at least a month, to reach the
castle from Paris and London.  The castle, in the end, had a sad fate,
from which only a lucky chance saved the inhabitants, who were absent at
the time.  During the nighttime the floor, that is, the trunks of the
palmtrees laid diagonally across the temple walls, collapsed, and a
large part of the house with its furniture plunged into the depth of the
sanctuary lying beneath.  M. Maunier left Luxor soon after that, in
order to go back to Cairo and enter the service of an Egyptian prince as
estate manager.  As far as I heard later, he emigrated to France a rich
man.    (H         0*0*0*  Ԍ     My rock dwelling on the west
side of Thebes had the pleasure of many a European visitor n the winter;
indeed I once had to share it with a travelling countryman who later won
a name for himself as researcher in the field of geography and
ethnography.  This was the Baron von Maltzahn, whom I delivered from the
clutches of his Maltese dragoman right after his arrival in Thebes.  The
dragoman, who had been engaged to guide my compatriot on a Nile boat
through Upper Egypt, mistreated the poor Baron in the most unheardof
way, plundered him, and so far forgot himself as to attack him even with
blows.  As I said, I stepped in as a saving angel, freed the unfortunate
one from his dangerous position and lodged him for six weeks in my
modest rock tomb. Another meeting has likewise remained in my memory,
since it provided me, quite unexpectedly with the personal acquaintance
of the Catholic pastor Ignatius Knoblecher, a native Austrian who,
through his missionary work on the White Nile, 10 north lat., later
attained a certain renown and ended his active life as Bishop in Rome.
Abuna Soliman, "our father Solomon," as the Arabs called him, at that
time a man of thirty, knew the upper Nile regions like is own homeland.
At the time of our first meeting he was accompanied by twelve craftsmen
of Austrian origin who were to devote themselves to practical missionary
work, in order to introduce the Negroes to European handicrafts and to
awaken their minds to the blessings of our culture.  As I learned
several years later from the lips of the pastor, not one of them came
from there alive.  They succumbed after the space of a year to the
climate and to fever, perhaps as a result of their sober say of life and
their   (I        0*0*0*  abstinence from all alcoholic
beverages.  Accompanying the expedition there was a young Bari Negro,
the first ever to be seen in Egypt, who attracted general attention,
particularly by a peculiar feather crown on his head.  The pastor was
only partially able to come to an understanding with him in his dialect,
in which the ssound is said to be unknown.  At least, the Bari never
pronounced the word Soliman other than Toliman.  Pastor Ignatius told me
of the tragic end of the Austrian Consul Dr. Reltz (one of the members
of the Muller expedition to the interior of the Sudan) of whom he had a
short time before received news by letter from Khartoum.  On a
huntingtrip outside this city the Consul, against the warnings of the
natives, killed a hyena with his bullet. Shortly thereafter he fell into
delirium and died miserably, probably from poison which had been
administered to him on the part of the warners.  The animal is regarded
there as sacred, and no one dares to do it any harm.  Knoblecher knew
this belief, and told me of a Turkish official who assured him that he,
too, had once shot at a hyena, hitting it on the shoulder, and suddenly,
after the powdersmoke had evaporated, in place of the animal, he had
seen a maiden before him, with the red blood flowing from a wound in her
shoulder.  As one can see from that, the Sudan does not lack poems and
hunters' tall tales. I did not experience adventures, least of all
dangerous ones, on my entire first journey in Egypt, and everywhere
enjoyed the best reception among the natives, high and low.  "La douceur
de mon caractere," as Alexander von Humboldt in his amiable kindness
declared of me, opened hearts and doors to me everywhere, and if
on   (J        0*0*0*    some occasions my left hand
did not know what my right was doing, yet I felt with a certain
satisfaction the honor of the name which since then was conferred on me
by the Egyptians:  Abulmaaruf, that is, "The Father of Kindness."
Overwhelmed by the benedictions of my servants and friends, I returned
happily to my native land, in order to attempt the struggle for
existence with the weapons of the mind.  Egypt had furnished me with the
steel for it, and it was up to me to sharpen it for defense; for I had
to prepare myself thoroughly for the defensive, that was obvious to me.
Chapter IV.

Sorrow and Joy At Home

     My happy return home to Berlin was of course a celebration for my
house, in which I set foot with thanks to God.  Laden with the richest
treasures from my labors in the historic Nile Valley, I looked into the
immediate future full of cheerfulness, even though first of all it still
remained hidden from me in what way I had to smooth the path of life
before me.  Received by my magnanimous King in the most gracious way,
overwhelmed by Alexander von Humboldt with the most encouraging praises,
greeted by my sincere friends in the most affectionate manner, I let the
first period of excitement and relaxation slip away reflectively, before
I sat down at the work table, arranged my transcripts and drawings, and
approached my scientific investigations with the old love and pleasure.
Truly I had no lack of material, it was only a matter of making use of
it in the most profitable way, and of losing no precious moment.  
Those very ones who occupy themselves with the deciphering of unknown
scripts and languages of Antiquity will best be able to judge in what an
extended manner their time will be taken up.  Days, weeks and months,
yes, even years occasionally go by, before one succeeds in coming on the
right track for the grammatical forms of a single obscure character or
word, and establishing its sound and its meaning. Excursions into the
realm of the unknown strain and weary the nerves, even though each new
victory bears in itself the highest reward:  one's own satisfaction in
the hard work.  The   h)        0*0*0*  accumulated leaves
grow into a tree, which the researcher cultivates with sheer,
inexplicable love, in order to let future generations pluck the fruits.
Even if several among them may have been gnawed by the worm of error,
the good fruits offer rich compensation for the spoiled ones. My demotic
studies, for which I had collected in Egypt a rich treasure for future
works, taught me that the popular language and popular script of the
ancient Egyptians represented only the youngest forms of the older
hieroglyphic. In order to understand the daughter, the ancestress had to
become known in her innermost nature.  But still at the beginning of the
fifties, the old lady was in pretty good condition, for her mouth had
just barely been opened, and her speech allowed only broken traces of
her thoughts to be recognized.  One surmised more than one knew, and a
world of doubts stood in the way of weak knowledge. In Egypt I had
already reached the resolution to master the secrets of the hieroglyphic
written language and to compile its rich vocabulary in the form of an
alphabetically arranged lexicon.  It was a daring attempt on my part, to
want to solve this problem, but the previous labors accomplished up to
then gave me the firm foundation on which I planned to erect the
structure.  Equipped, as few others were, with wordmaterial accumulated
in Egypt, to which an enormous number of geographical names provided an
addition likewise still to be worked on, I went rashly to work, in order
to master a task for which the entire strength and the longest
conceivable life   (        0*0*0*  of an individual hardly
seemed to suffice.  But I had learned to realize that without the full
understanding of the ancient Egyptian inscriptions and texts, the
various fields of my knowledge, above all, Egyptian history, floated in
the air, and that empty names of kings and chronological tables could
raise no claim to replace the substance of the traditions on stone and
papyrus.  In a word, I was eager to read, not only to guess, what the
hieroglyphics concealed within themselves, and the desire to come nearer
to my goal did not let me rest, day and night. The beginnings of my
preparatory work fell already in the first months after my return home
from the Nile Valley. In my enthusiasm I overlooked the anxiety that sat
behind me on my chair.  I did not stand alone in the world, for my
family of five required the necessaries of life and nourishment of the
body.  My modest position as private docent at the University of our
Residence city provided me the pleasure, to be sure, of gaining a number
of listeners relatively large for that time, among them foreigners who
today bear a name in science, but the honorarium paid formed only single
drops in the bucket of my expenditures.  I must gratefully acknowledge
that occasional remunerations from the office of the Ministry of
Education helped to plug many a gap, but in the main I was thrown upon
my own activity, in order to earn the necessary means for the
maintenance of the family. Since my scientific productions, which
appeared successively in print were not the kind to attract a
larger   (        0*0*0*  circle of readers to buy them,
the income gained from them was understandably of the most modest
nature.  In order to make up the deficiency, I began, despite my
timeconsuming, serious studies for the enlightenment of the Egyptian
darkness, to develop a rather extensive literary activity in book form,
as well as in periodicals and newspapers.  My favorite organ was the
Spener newspaper of that time, Uncle Spener, as the Berliners called it,
for which even A. Von Humboldt set his pen in motion.  Besides, I gave
private instructions, and at the persuasion of my former Director
August, I became a teacher in the senior class of Kolln.  Frankly, this
new activity brought me the greatest pleasure, and laid the ground for
my later qualification to discharge my office as Director of a newly
founded academy in the Levant.  In the winter months I appeared not
infrequently as speaker at the lectureevenings in the Music Academy and
won, perhaps undeservedly, the praise of my indulgent listeners.
Cultureconscious Berlin used to gather on Saturdays in the long lecture
building in the little chestnut grove, and even their Majesties and the
princely members of our royal house did not disdain to demonstrate their
interest through their personal appearance and to give their fullest
attention to the scientific subjects treated  by learned speakers.  The
lecture evenings, which enjoyed an extraordinarily large attendance
under the direction of Professor von Raumer, only came to an end in the
course of time, when the musical arts had established their exclusive
residence in the Music Academy,   (        0*0*0*  and in
place of the lonely speaker's podium, a wellfilled orchestra appeared.
My regular activity suffered many interruptions through the frequent,
even though pleasant visits of friends and patrons, to which foreign
countries above all Paris, provided a significant contribution.  A
special satisfaction was granted me by the sudden arrival of my host
August Mariette, who had made use of a journey to France in order to
undertake a three week detour to Berlin and unburden his full heart to
me.  After the termination of his excavations carried out in Egypt,
which had brought him much honor and fame, but little money and hopes
for the future, he found himself in the end facing nothing, so that he
shared with me a similar fate, and we two had understandable cause to
dwell on our mutual miseries.  Fortunately his good humor saved him from
desperate steps, and he began to take new plans into consideration, to
make possible his return to Egypt and his entry into the Egyptian state
service.  He considered himself proscribed in his own country, after his
work concerning the cult of the Apis bull had been placed on the Index
by the Church, and had earned for him many silent opponents in his
French homeland. The arrival of Mariette in Berlin offered the King the
desired opportunity to gain from the discoverer of the Serapeum a more
precise insight into the subterranean structures laid bare with their
extremely rich antiquarian contents.  To myself, through his
benevolence, there had come fifty bright gold Friedrich thaler, to
lighten for me the   (        0*0*0*  costs of the
hospitality offered, with the express order to let nothing of this be
divulged to Mariette.  The two of us were invited to dinner in
Charlottenburg on a February evening and Mariette had the honor to offer
to the King, on the basis of his laidout drawings and plans, the most
penetrating explanations concerning his excavations and discoveries.
With the liveliest interest the King followed the report of the French
researcher of Antiquity, whom he distinguished, upon departure, by the
conferring of the Red Eagle, 3rd class, in order to lend a lasting
expression to his royal thanks.  Also my humble self did not come away
from this occasion emptyhanded.  On the point of descending the
staircase of the palace in the company of my friend, in order to make
our homeward way, the then Privy Councillor Illaire pressed a little
packet into my hand with the words:;  "This, on the order of His
Majesty, for you, so you will not cry."  It contained the Order of the
Red Eagle, 4th class. Mariette was charmed by the scholarly knowledge
and the amiability of His Highness, and he could not find words enough
to express his admiration for me and to assure me that he almost envied
me as to my fate, that once and for all was secure in the immediate
future.  How different had been his reception in France, where even a
Napoleon did not possess the power to protect him against his opponents
and to procure an honorable and secure position.  More than ever, he had
therefore resolved to forsake his Fatherland in order to seek a second
homeland in Egypt, and to find a
noblehearted   (        0*0*0*  protector in the person of
Sajid Pasha, who had acceded to the rule after the assassination of
Abbas I, Pasha. The next years passed by like months among my scientific
works and investigations, but to me it was as if my dreamedof future
was a house of cards which threatened to fall down before the gentlest
gust of wind.  The intention of my so gracious King, to appoint me as
codirector of the completely installed Egyptian Museum, was frustrated
through an unlucky error.  Through a still unexplained, for me fateful
mistake of the then Cabinet Councillor Niebuhr, the name of Lepsius had
been entered in place of mine, into the Cabinet orders drawn up, and the
King had signed it with a number of other documents, in the full belief
that it had to do with my person.  On the next day the appointment was
to be read in all the newspapers.  A. von Humboldt was beside himself
with agitation, but the damage was no longer to be rectified, and I had
to thank fate that at least there remained assured for me the role of
directorial assistant at the Egyptian Museum, with a salary which at
that time was sufficient to keep my head above water. Toward the end of
the year 1857 there came an invitation to me from Mariette in Egypt with
the happy information that his position was once and for all confirmed,
Sajid Pasha having appointed him General Director of a museum in Bulak,
a suburb of Cairo, and given him the full authority over the most widely
extended excavations, and he expected my most speedy arrival, in order
to undertake in his company a journey   (        0*0*0*  to
Upper Egypt on the Museum's Nile steamer.  Because of my friendship he
was awaiting an assent by return mail, and he asked me to pack my bag
immediately and make my way to his official apartment on the bank of the
Nile. A. von Humboldt considered the invitation so important for my
scientific development, and with regard to new excavations already
begun, that he urged me to take my departure immediately, with the
promise that he would deliver to the ruling Viceroy of Egypt one of the
most forceful letters of recommendation for me, "which will do wonders,"
as my aged patron smilingly added.  The King had me summoned to
Sanssouci, in order to permit me to take leave personally. Despite his
ailing condition, the King had the strength to carry on the liveliest
conversation for almost half an hour, to listen to the more detailed
report on my travel plans, to allude to historical questions concerning
the Rameses period, and to recommend to me the close study of certain
monuments. Deeply touched, I received the parting wishes of the
benevolent King, without at that time suspecting that I was granted the
happiness of being able to look into his mild and friendly features for
the last time. On my way from Sanssouci to the railroad station in
Potsdam, to begin my return to Berlin, I was taken by a surprise as
sudden as it was unexpected.  An Adjutant of the King, it was a Captain
von Rauch, galloped after me and handed me "on the order of His
Majesty," a sealed box, in which I found the Order of the Red Eagle, 3rd
class, with band.  Even   (        0*0*0*  though I
imagined that, as a young man of thirty, I had no sufficient right to so
unusual a distinction, which is customarily conferred upon persons at a
more advanced age, outstanding through position and merit, nevertheless,
this renewed proof of the most gracious benevolence of the King touched
me deeply, for it told me, more than words, with what interest the King
followed my humble activities, and how he intended, even before the
outset of my second journey to Egypt, to present me with a public proof
of his interest.  A von Humboldt assured me repeatedly how much he had
been surprised by the King's magnanimous intention, of which he himself
had not possessed the slightest idea.    MY SECOND SOJOURN IN
EGYPTă In the middle of the month of October I found myself already
in Cairo.  Since my first presence in Egypt the residence of the modern
Pharaohs had been connected with Alexandria, the port city, by a
railway, even though near KafrZeijad a bridge was lacking across the
Rosetta arm of the Nile, and the connection between the two banks of the
sacred stream was made by a steamferry.  In the railway station of
Cairo I had the joy of embracing my dear friend Mariette, and of
greeting the Prussian Consular administrator Bauerhhorst as well as the
French Consul Batissler.  Mariette was thoroughly delighted, pressed my
arm so that I could have cried aloud, repeatedly called me his "Prussian
de mon noeur," and on the way to his livingquarters in Bulak told me
that chief events which the favorable turn of his fate had brought
about.    (	        0*0*0*  Prince Plonplon, the wellknown
cousin of the Emperor Napoleon, had expressed the wish to undertake a
journey to Egypt, and in the upper region to inspect the wonders of the
monuments.  There followed on the heels of his scarcely uttered wish an
invitation from the Viceroy Sajid, who, through his education and his
inclinations and from political considerations besides, was half French,
and in his own country and among his subjects took no pains at all to
conceal his preference for the "grande nation" and its allpowerful
"Empereur."  The highest conceivable honors were to be rendered to the
aforesaid Prince during his stay in Egypt and his antiquarian desires
satisfied in every respect.  A request was dispatched to Mariette to
hasten to Egypt as speedily as possible, in order to lay bare new,
unknown monuments through excavations, to free the buried ones, as far
as time allowed, from the rubbish surrounding them, and to place at the
disposal of the expected Prince a choice of precious antiquities as
souvenirs of his Egyptian visit.  Mariette fulfilled the task assigned
him by summoning all his powers, but Prince Plonplon suddenly gave up
his travelplan, and there remained nothing for the Viceroy but to
reconcile himself to the unavoidable and to have forwarded to to Paris,
as a sign of his veneration for His Imperial Highness, the largest part
of the monuments collected for him.  They remained for a long time in
the Prince's palace, before he turned them over to the Louvre Museum as
permanent property. Mariette was really a born diplomat, and above all,
he   (          0*0*0*  understood admirably how to combat
the aversion of the Egyptian Viceroys toward the heathen antiquities of
their land, and to break their holy dread of the old junk.  Although it
cost him incredible trouble and time, to attain his appointed goal, he
nevertheless succeeded in gradually convincing the Viceroy Sajid that
the founding of an Ancient Egyptian Museum in Cairo would only serve to
increase his viceregal fame and would attract an uncounted multitude of
visitors to the Residence.  He finally put it through; his proposal was
approved and the necessary place turned over to him in order to obtain
the requisite space for the intended museum building. In the Miceregal
Ministries, in which at that time Turkish officialdom occupied the most
influential positions, they looked askance at the Mariette plan and of
course raised the greatest possible difficulties for carrying it out.
With great reluctance, they finally consented to assign to the
justappointed "General Director of the Museums and the entire
excavations" a piece of land situated on the Nile and in the suburb of
Bulak, which heretofore had served as embarkationand landingplace for
the passengers on the mailstreamers between Cairo and Alexandria.  On
the south side there was a dilapidated building which housed the offices
for the Postal Service, on the north side stood an old, tumbledown coal
shed, from which the steamers received the necessary supply for heating
the boilers.  The free place situated in the middle, between the two
structures, looked neglected in
the   (        0*0*0*  highest degree, and needed first of
all a thorough cleaning and levelling. In the short time of a few months
Mariette had accomplished the unbelievable.  The coal shed had been
transformed into a museum with an ancient Egyptian entrance facade, and
the rooms in the interior shone in the glow of gailycolored old
Egyptian ornaments, which the skilled hand of the Italian painter and
antique dealer Vassalli had executed with stylistic fidelity.  The
latest finds from the Serapeum, the antiquities acquired by purchase
from the Austrian Consul General von Huber, and a large part of the
monuments dug up for the Prince Plonplon filled the existing spaces of
the Museum, whose contents were augmented from year to year by the most
precious remains of Antiquity.  The postoffice Mariette had transformed
into his official apartment, and in the empty place in front he had laid
out a pretty garden.  For all these creations the funds had been granted
only in small portions, but Mariette's patience and perseverance had
overcome these difficulties also, and he showed me his miracle with
justified pride, at my first entrance into the realm of the rescued
antiquities. My first visit which I had the honor to pay the ruling
Viceroy, in his castle situated on the Nile, will remain unforgettable
to me.  The extremely corpulent Prince, with his strong face framed by a
reddishblond beard, and his blinking eyes, was cheerfulness itself,
which now and then broke into a burst of laughter and was answered in
the richest measure by his entourage,
of which the majority were Frenchmen.  The conversation was conducted in
the French language, which Sajid Pasha used with incredible fluency.
The subjects touched upon everything possible.  From isolated sentences
I was able to draw the conclusion that Monseigneur, for reasons unknown
to me, at that time bore a certain grudge against the English. He did
not speak at all well of them. His questions about my royal Master I
answered in a suitable manner, and it seemed to gratify him in the
highest degree that His Majesty manifested so unusual an interest in
ancient Egypt.  He spoke to me of the great work on monuments that would
be published at the King's instigation, and assured me that he, too, had
resolved to render his humble services through the founding of a Museum
of Science.  He spoke of A. von Humboldt as of a hero, and it seemed to
him incomprehensible how a single man, even throughout a long life,
could have displayed such extraordinary activity. Humboldt, he said,
united in his person an entire Academy, and was the pride of the
Prussian people, because of whom the other nations, with fullest
justification, envied them. The favorable moment had come to present to
the Viceroy the letter of the great scholar addressed to him and written
in the French language.  Since I possess a copy of it, I am in the
position of being able to offer it to my readers verbatim:

   (          0*0*0*  Ԍ"Monseigneur, La haute protection que
Votre Altesse daigne accorder gracieusement a la culture des sciences et
des arts, la noble munificence avec laquelle Elle a encourage, depuis
les premiers jours heureux de Son regne les progres de la civilisation
sur les bords du Nil, m'inspirent le courage de Lui adresser une humble
priere. Affectueusement lie avec le jeune, mais deja tres renomme savant
qui ambitionne l'honneur insigne d'entre admis a la presence de Son
Altesse le ViceRoi, j'implore la faveur d'un genereux et puissant appui
pour les travaux d'antiquite dont il est charge. Le docteur Brugsch, un
des conservateurs au Musee d'archeologie egyptienne du Roi a Berlin,
chevalier de l'ordre Royal de l'Aiglerouge, s'est rendu dans les
ouvrages qu'il a publies comme fruit de son premier voyage en Egypte,
l'interprete des merveilles qui attirent l'admiration de l'Europe et
dont Votre Altesse daigne faciliter la libre investigation. Je me sens
d'autant plus le courage de solliciter votre geneeuse protection que le
jeune voyageur, aussi distinque par sa vaste enudition que par ses
qualites morales, jouit tres personnellement de la bienveillance de Sa
Majeste le Roi de Prusse. Ce Souverain a la cour duquel j'ai l'honneur
d'appartenir, a recu le docteur Brugsch au Chateau de Sanssouci, pres de
Potsdam, peu de jours avant son depart pour Alexandrie et l'a fait
monter en grade dans ses ordres Royaux. Son nom est tres avantageusement
connu a l'etranger. Je suis avec le plus profond respect, Monseigneur,
de votre Altesse le tres humble, tres obeissant et tres soumis
serviteur,   (        0*0*0*  Alexandre do Humboldt.*
| (Translation of Humboldt's French Letter) * "Monseigneur, The
high protection which your Highness deigns graciously to accord to the
cultivation of the sciences and the arts, the noble munificence with
which, since the first happy days of your reign, you have encouraged the
progress of civilization on the banks of the Nile, inspire me with the
courage to address to you a humble request.  Bound affectionately with
the young, but already very renowned savant who aspires to the signal
honor of being admitted to the presence of Your Highness the Viceroy, I
beg the favor of generous and powerful support for the works of
antiquity with which he is charged.  Doctor Brugsch, one of the
conservators at the Royal Museum of Egyptian Archeology in Berlin,
Chevalier of the Royal Order of the Red Eagle, has, in the works which
he has published as the fruit of his first journey in Egypt, rendered
himself the interpreter of the marvels which attract the admiration of
Europe, and of which Your Highness deigns to facilitate free
investigation.  I feel all the more the courage to solicit your generous
protection which the young traveller, as distinguished by his vast
erudition as by his moral qualities, enjoys personally from the
benevolence of His Majesty the King of Prussia.  This Sovereign, to
whose court I have the honor to belong, received Doctor Brugsch at the
Castle of Sanssouci, near Potsdam, a few days before his departure for
Alexandria and had him raised in rank in his Royal Orders.  His name is
very favorably known abroad.  I am,   (        0*0*0*  with
the most profound respect, Monseigneur, the very humble, very obedient,
and very submissive servant of Your Highness. Alexandre de Humboldt."

     So strong a recommendation could not fail to exert its effect, and
in fact the result surpassed my highest expectations.  A few days had
passed since my first reception, when there was paid to me, on Viceregal
order, for the facilitation of my investigations on my journey to Upper
Egypt, the truly no small sum of 20,000 francs in shining gold.  I felt
like a Croesus, reveled in the anticipation of my works, and found
myself two weeks later on the wellequipped viceregal steamer which was
to carry Mariette and my humble self into the monumentrich highlands.
My French friend had been provided with the necessary papers, in order
to encounter no hindrances anywhere on the part of the authorities.  Of
foremost importance were the orders to the at the time Turkish Mudirs,
or Governors of the provinces, to furnish people for the excavations and
to supply the required coal from the government storehouse for the fuel
steamer.  A brave Turkish kawass, who later came to the Museum as
underinspector, served as police, some marines of the Egyptian fleet
formed our escort, and a Corsican, who had left his homeland for obscure
reasons  Mariette asserted he must have poisoned his own father 
performed altogether excellent services as engineer.  Master Floris,
which was his name, belonged later to the bestknown persons in Egypt,
who as an   (        0*0*0*  unintentional comic delighted
everyone, and for us travellers became a source of daily cheer.  He
revealed the qualities of a factotum, for even though he claimed in all
seriousness to be a poet by the grace of God, according to his talent
and his inclination, and only to have missed his calling, he performed
in technical respects everything required of him.  If one were to have
given him the order to transport the obelisk of Luxor to Cairo, he would
certainly, and without hesitating, have carried out this difficult task
with success.  He was sculptor, painter, carpenter, cabinetmaker,
turner, glazier, clockmaker, tailor, cobbler, etc., in one person, and
his skilled hands accomplished quite extraordinary things in all fields
of the most varied activity.  Proud to be a compatriot of the great
Napoleon, he had the ambition to astonish the world some day by a
magnificent invention, with which he had been occupied for many years.
It had to do with the production of a "perpetuum mobile," which was to
take the place of steampower.  Later he actually brought a wooden
monster with a queer wheelconstruction to the point that it was to be
set in motion by fieldstones weighing 25 kg.  But when at the first
trial, the movement accelerated so unexpectedly that two fieldstones
were hurled against his breast and head and wounded him almost mortally,
he gave up his wonderful invention after his recovery, and compensated
for it by founding a CorsicanMasonic lodge in the Caliph city of Cairo.
He died a few years ago at the age of almost eighty, although the small,
active figure looked sixty at the   (        0*0*0*  most.
Master Floris was an original, as the book says, but nevertheless such a
useful member of the personnel at the newlyestablished Museum, that
still today I do not hesitate to affirm that he seemed utterly
indispensable.  Mariette furnished the head, Floris the hand, in the
founding of the worldfamous collection.  He himself knew that very
well, and let it be clearly noticed by his General Director, whom he
occasionally addressed with a highly familiar "mon cher ami," but
fundamentally hated with all his heart.  He could not get over it, that
on our journey together his chief, because of his obstinate refusal to
perform a required service, had placed him under lock and key for a
whole week, as a "dangerous maniac," in an empty Upper Egyptian
barracks. Our journey in Upper Egypt was the most favorable and
successful imaginable in the world, and I had the joy to see, in the
monuments cleared of their thousandyearold rubbish, chiefly in Abydos
and Thebes, new sources, hitherto unknown to me, opened for the
expansion of my hieroglyphic lexicon and for the knowledge of
historical, geographical, astronomical and mythological traditions.  The
diary written in the French language by Mariette and my humble self,
which I have kept as a precious souvenir until the present day, leaves
little to be desired in preciseness and richness of content, and if
anything gives it a particular charm, it is the joyful tone with which
two happy men, enthusiastic for their studies, had written in it the
description of their common experiences, observations and
investigations.  Such a period does
not   (        0*0*0*  return a second time, and therefore,
retains its lasting value through all later life.  Provided with ample
means, furnished with the most emphatic orders to the local authorities,
and masters of our time, it was the enviable privilege of both of us to
live together in our friendship and our studies.  Each learned from the
other, and we filled the gaps in our knowledge through the exchange of
our thoughts on the field of the Egyptian language and archaeology.  The
island of Philae, in the extreme south of the Egyptian border, was the
goal of our journey, which had taken us almost four months. - 
T! EGYPT IN THE YEAR 1858        In the upper
country I found the condition of the population little changed since my
first journey in the Nile Valley.  A good inundation, and a good year
without poor harvest and without cattleplague was all the fellahs
required, in order to pay their taxes and be able besides to furnish the
indispensable baksheesh at the appropriate place. It looked differently
in Cairo, where the presence of the Viceroy and the court sets the tone,
which the officialdom dutybound follows, while the people do not let it
keep them from bringing praise and blame on gossiping tongues in
coffeehouses and social gatherings in the bazaars or in their own
homes, according to the custom of the country. It was considered right
that the Viceroy had broken with the English, but it was not forgiven
him that he had delivered himself to the French, and then and there was
ready to found an Egyptian military state, and had genuine silver
buttons and   (        0*0*0*  insignia of diamond
crescents fastened on the uniforms of the soldiers and officers.  In
fact, Sajid was an enthusiastic friend of soldiers, always ready to make
the greatest sacrifice for his troops.  These consisted at that time of
native Egyptians, at whose head were the sons of the SchechelBeleds,
or village magistrates, who wore a picturesque, true Arabian costume for
show, and of Turkish BaschiBosuks from the land of the Arnauts, who had
put on their customary native costume which gave a sensational
impression, especially in the almost meterhigh fur caps with turbans
wound directly around the head.  As at the court and in the civil
service, it was Frenchmen who had been called to Egypt as instructors
for the army.  Yet it may not remain unmentioned that at that time a
battery of the Egyptian artillery was under the direction of Prussian
instructors, or Talimbaschis, of whom one, the Geheimrat Kanski now
living in Berlin, still numbers among my contemporaries.  He, as well as
his meanwhile deceased regimental comrade Blumel, both of whom had
belonged to the artillery in our Berlin residence, fulfilled their task
with the greatest success and in the exercises were superior to the
FrenchEgyptian batteries on every occasion.  The Prussian energy was
transmitted to the Arabian artillerymen, and they did not fall short of
their northern models in any way. Sajid Pasha lived among his Egyptian
troops wherever he was staying, and a change of his stoppingplace was
combined each time with a military migration of peoples on a
small   (        0*0*0*  scale.  From my diary I see that,
for example, on February 4, 1859, no fewer than thirteen steamers and
nineteen towboats, laden collectively with troops, horses, mules,
camels, cannon, etc., went from Cairo down the Nile, in order to precede
their Lord and Master and set up an encampment at the Fumelbapr, in
the vicinity of the Barrages, the sluicebridges, and to take part in a
magnificent celebration which was set for the birthday of the Viceroy on
February 8.  Evil tongues asserted in those days that the government
intended to withhold the salary of all its officials for six months in
order to defray the costs of the planned festivity.  It was not
impossible, when one takes into consideration that under Ismael's rule
no salary was paid to the entire officers' corps for three years, so
that an uprising broke out in Cairo, a description of which will occupy
me later. The festivity I have in mind at the moment applied not only to
the celebration of Sajid's birthday, but at the same time to the
inauguration of a fortification established at the order of the Prince
and consisting of five bastions, the socalled Sajidieh, at the
abovementioned spot.  There where the Nile below Cairo divides into its
two main arms, the western of Rosetta and the eastern of Damietta, the
fork bears the odd designation of "Cowbelly" or the other name of
"Rivermouth" (FumelBapr).  A tongue of land extends here into the bed
of the river which from the left is connected with the opposite river
banks by the two mighty  sluicebridges, or socalled barrages.
Napoleon I was the first who had cast his eye
on   (        0*0*0*  the plan to dam the Nile inundations
at this point and to keep their fertile blessing for irrigation of the
fields in the neighborhood of Cairo.  Later the two giant bridges were
built, but it had been forgotten to lay sidecanals beforehand on both
sides of the river, in order to divert the powerful masses of water and
lessen their pressure on the sluicegates. As a result of this
negligence, the unavoidable occurred, that is, ships were driven with
all force against the locks, and every year were dashed to pieces by the
hundreds, along with their cargoes.  Only in our day it remained for the
English to remedy the fault and to divert the pressing floods into the
laidout canals. Honored by an invitation to the festivities, I had
embarked in time on a Nile boat in the company of several European
officers, Prussians and Austrians, in order to witness, on the morning
of the main day, the "Fantasia" in prospect.  A dense throng of people
filled the tongue of land, in the midst of which stood a countless
number of Spanish mules and French horses, which belonged to the teams
of the artillery and were to be employed for the great show of troops.
Egyptian officers and soldiers in their becoming, but almost overrich
costumes, squatted before the erected tents, the Pashas and Beys ran
about in confusion, giving their orders, and the kawasses of the Viceroy
struck at random with sticks, when their instructions did not produce
immediate results.  The fortress ramparts were covered with pyramidal
wooden frames which were to serve as supports for thousands
of   (        0*0*0*  glass lamps for the evening
illumination; also the main gates of the bastions, painted in bright
colors a la Turca, were hung with lamps and lampions  in a word,
everything seemed appropriate to promise a "Fantasia" of the first rank.
For the enhancement of pleasure a public circus had been set up, close
in front of the improvised wooden house of the Viceroy, to offer the
invited guests and the assembled forces the opportunity to admire the
performances of a French troupe of equestrians and Moghrebin acrobats
from Fex and Morocco.  For the horses an enormous tent had been set up,
while the band of performers had previously taken their places on the
deck of a Nile steamer at the shore.  In giant fieldkitchens the
viceregal cooks bustled about before whole batteries of kettles and
pans, to begin the preparation of the meal for the guests, although the
sight could little entice the appetite. For "the fathers of the kitchen"
looked extremely dirty, and the most dubious smells steamed into the
blue air.  Then suddenly there sounded a twentyonecannon salute.  The
viceregal harem on its flotilla of steamers had just landed. There
emerged first of all the then fouryearold Prince TussanPasha, son of
the reigning Prince, in a great general's uniform and led by the hand of
his French governess to the house of the Viceroy.  The entire harem
followed after him, but invisible to the crowd, for the carpets
stretched on both sides of the way prevented any glimpse of the
closedoff space, which in addition was defended by twenty blackskinned
eunuchs armed to the teeth.  New steamers brought "the
Fathers   (        0*0*0*  of the Faith," the whole band of
learned Ulama from Cairo to the "Cowbelly."  The Muslim spiritual
leaders all appeared in silk, brightcolored kaftans and high turnedup
turbans, over their shoulders hung precious cashmere shawls, and
fluttering banners with embroidered Koran verses separated the
individual sections from one another.  The trumpeter corps of the
Egyptian cavalry blew Arabian tunes, the infantry music resounded wildly
in between, and to make everything perfect, also the BaschiBosuks, with
their piping and beating on small kettledrums were not left out, so
that a truly infernal noise resulted, such as you could not find
anywhere. The illumination from the approach of evening on was in fact
fairylike; even the two Nile bridges sparkled in the shimmer of lights,
whose reflection was mirrored in the waters of the Nile in wonderful
splendor.  Also the interiors of the principal tents shone in the full
candlelight of giant glass candelabra which had been set on precious
carpets.  In one of the largest thirty Ulama, squatting on the floor,
chanted whole passages of the Koran with nasal voices, and awaited the
arrival of the Viceroy in order to implore God's blessing on his head. A
frightful thunder of cannon awakened the sleepers from their rest on the
next morning, to announce the beginning of the great parade.  At nine
o'clock the muster took place in front of the silk tent of the Viceroy.
The troops consisted of three battalions of riflemen and infantry, among
them a battalion of blacks, a squadron of Uhlans wearing
polished   (        0*0*0*  helmets with yellow and red
feather tufts on them and banners of pure silk in the same colors on
their lances.  Included was a squadron of hussars with bearskin caps,
another of cuirassiers in yellow breastplates with a great silver star
on them and yellow helmets with red crests.  A new squadron was made up
of hussars who wore black kalpaks with red tufts of hair and whole
horses were decorated with darkblue silk bridles and silver insignia.
The artillery was represented by twelve cannon, while the BaschiBosuks
appeared in two squadrons.  For the European the sight of the wild
horsemen was captivating above all else.  The men of the first squadron
wore white turbans, red coats and sashes over them, blue trousers in
waterproof boots, and carried muskets with short bayonets.  The second
troop presented itself in green silk kaftans, orangecolored dolmans,
and meterhigh hats of red silk.  Their hands held lances of immense
length.  The musicians, enveloped in green silk, operated their small
kettledrums and pipes in a superhuman manner, while I noted that the
fierce drummers held the reins of their horses between their teeth. At
the removal of the green silk, goldembroidered standards and banners,
the assembled troops presented arms with a loud Turkish "Effendimiz
tschok jascha," "Long live our Lord!"  Thereupon they shouldered arms,
in order to present them once more, for the Ulama, the pious fathers of
heavenly wisdom, appeared in order to enter the silk reception tent of
the Viceroy and offer their congratulations in the name
of   (        0*0*0*  Allah.  They were followed by the
generals and the invited notables, that is, a "rien du tout," as Nubar
Bey remarked to me jokingly. It had an uncommonly cheering effect
on me when, after the close of the wearisome reception scene, the
investiture of a  hoary Pasha as Commander of the BaschiBosuks was
consummated with all formality in the open square in front of the
viceregal tent.  His short Arabian jacket was taken off him and replaced
by a long bloodred kaftan, the breast of which was decorated by six
heavy golden clasps with six great emeralds.  The huge, high fur cap of
the BaschiBosuks was set on his baldshaven skull, after which, among
loud cheers of the assembled troops, he was mounted on an Arabian
racehorse of noblest stock, with precious saddle and trappings. During
the entire period of this ceremony the Viceroy appeared in snowwhite
Arabian costume, and only the shining patentleather boots on his feet
recalled European custom.  He seemed to be thoroughly bored, even though
for a moment a witty word escaped his lips and a brief smile flitted
across his features. At the great court table set for eight o'clock in
the evening, laid out in crescent form for about one hundred guests
under a giant tent, natives and Europeans took part without distinction.
I myself, thanks to chance, could greet in my neighbor a young Egyptian
Pasha named Ismael, who remained unnoticed and lonely.  He later became
Viceroy of Egypt, my patron always so welldisposed toward me,
who   (        0*0*0*  probably had hardly a presentiment
then, what a high honor would befall him some day.  The reigning Viceroy
took  his place at the center of the table, to be served y his favorite,
the then Director of Railways and later allpowerful Minister Nubar, a
Christian Armenian.  The dishes appeared before the Viceroy sealed, were
examined closely by His Highness, unsealed by Nubar, who at the same
time was obliged to taste the contents of the meal beforehand.  The
service consisted of pure gold and silver dishes, on the long table
there were about sixty candelabra of the same precious metals  in a
word, the viceregal luxury which was displayed under the tent recalled
the fabulous times of the "Thousand and One Nights." The third course
had just been reached when the Viceroy suddenly rose to go, with a very
natural, to be sure, but most bluntly expressed excuse.  With that,
everyone left the table and turned toward the exits of the tent, in
order not to miss the pleasure of the fireworks promised for the
evening.  Two European fireworkmakers, a Frenchman and an Austrian, had
to work for three full weeks, completing with one another in their
pyrotechnic feats, and each had taken pains to carry out his program in
the most artistically correct and complete manner.  The object was to
surpass the most intense expectations of the Viceroy where possible, and
to reap his neverfailing thanks in hard cash.  Hardly had the usual
cannon shots died away into the dark of night, when the first Roman
candles crackled heavenward and the spectacle began. But to the
astonishment of all, there suddenly developed
such   (        0*0*0*  a confusion of fiery apparitions
that nobody was nay longer able to follow even a single figure.  In
every nook and corner the fireworks hissed, sparkled, crackled, roared
and burst in competition, so that in a short quarter of an hour, the
enjoyment calculated to last half the night was completely over.  As it
came out later, the patience of the high Lord and host had become
exhausted and he had issued the order to prepare everything for a prompt
departure; accordingly the giant fireworks had ascended into the air in
accelerated tempo.  The steamers were heated up, arrangements made for
embarkation, the drums and trumpets gave the signals for the marching
out of the troops, and toward ten o'clock in the evening the Viceroy was
seen already in his steamer going homeward, followed first of all by the
ships in which the riflemen had taken their places, to make the return
trip to Cairo.  The other troops embarked later, concluding with the
worthy Ulama, whose chant, a continuing "la illah il'allah," "There is
no God but God," long resounded across the water into the still night.
The lamps were extinguished, the festival had reached its sudden end,
and I slept the rest of the broken night on my Nile ship.  That was the
great consecration of the newly established fortress of Sajidieh, which
no one any longer speaks about today.  But the recollection of it has
remained vividly in my memory to this hour, for every effort had been
made to land a truly Oriental color to the planned
celebration.   (        0*0*0*  Ԍ  THE RETURN HOME
OF THE RICH MANă In Egypt the peach tres were in loveliest blossom
and the bloom of roses filled the air with fragrance when, toward the
end of the month of February, I decided to return to my native land.  I
had touched only a little of my treasure, which had come into my
possession through the entirely unexpected generosity of an Eastern
Prince, and I pondered quietly, in what way I could put it to the best
use.  I even thought of buying a house in Berlin, in order for once to
play the host myself, and to establish a permanent home.  I wanted to
suspend travel and to live within my four walls alone and solely for my
science and my family.  But man proposes and God disposes, as the reader
is truly to learn later, for I bought a house, to be sure, but my small
fortune, which was invested in the house, I lost down to the last heller
during my third sojourn in Egypt.       Also, to my deepest
regret, I saw my Oriental patron, Sajid Pasha, hastening to his
financial ruin.  When, at the beginning of the year 1863, he departed
this life, he left behind a burden of debt of six hundred million marks
to the country which he had taken over debtfree after the death of his
predecessor, the cruel but thrifty Abbas I.  He had to experience many
disillusionments at the conclusion of his reign, when his position
appeared more critical from day to day, and not the last was the fact
that the silver buttons on the uniforms of his soldiers and the diamond
insignia of his officers, which at his order were to have been set in
gold,   (        0*0*0*  proved to be completely worthless.
The buttons, on closer examination, revealed themselves as silverplated
brass, which a French manufacturer had delivered in place of pure
silver, and the diamonds had been exchanged by their wearers for glass,
after they had sold the genuine stones for a high price.  Even the
precious fabrics, mostly embroidered on silk, which served to decorate
the warriors and horses, were taken away to be converted into cash, but
no one paid a suitable price, since the quantity on hand reduced its
worth as a matter of course.  Ruin was all at once at hand, and loans 
they were the first ones to come on the market  had to be raised, in
order to help cover the great deficits. The latest news from home was
not disposed to make me feel happy, in spite of my assumed riches.  King
Friedrich Wilhelm IV was suffering from the effects of a pernicious
illness which had gradually developed, and of which I received the first
information, to my horror, through a communication of A. von Humboldt's.
It was addressed to a consular friend, to whom the old scholar had
written the following words: "I owe to your obliging kindness the
pleasing news of the departure of our dear mutual friend, Dr. B., for
Upper Egypt, as well as an exceedingly amiable, witty letter from the
Pasha Mahommed Said.  This Prince knows how to choose his secretaries
well.  In no European Chancellery does one know how to praise with more
refinement and taste.  I have been able to read the Pasha's letter in
part to the Monarch.  This was all the more pleasing to His Majesty, as
the King, out of   (        0*0*0*  great fondness for B.,
had often asked me about him, even during the more serious stage of
illness.  I may not conclude this expression of my thanks without the
happy report to Your Excellency of the clearly progressing, although
slow recovery of the King which we perceive since the move to
Charlottenburg, more precisely since ten to twelve days (physically and
also mentally, with reference to his distinctness of speech).
Abstention from all affairs will, however, still remain necessary
certainly for six to eight months longer."      My return to
Berlin, in the beginning of the month of March, 1858, had filled me with
a new fear.  Early in the morning I was waiting for my father at the
Silesian railway station, but how it wrung my heart when I saw before
me, in place of the strong, handsome man I had left a few months
previously, a sick, pitiful figure who greeted me with tearful eyes.  To
my hasty question, what had happened, he gave only the one answer:  "My
son, do not be frightened!  To you I may say that after three months I
must leave this world." Unfortunately he kept his word all too
punctually, for exactly three months after my return home, I closed his
weary eyes. He died a sacrifice to his military calling, which he
carried out in the most loyal fulfillment of duty, without any sparing
of his suffering condition, almost until his last breath.  My own family
at that time, besides my wife, consisted of three children, two sons and
a daughter; through the death of my father there fell to me the
responsibility for the maintenance   (        0*0*0*  of my
widowed mother and my about fifteenyearsyounger brother, the only one
I had, and who today, invested with the rank of Bey, occupies an honored
position as Conservator of the Viceregal Museum in Gizeh. Deep sadness
filled my soul, especially at the thought of the immediate future and of
the obligations which fate had laid upon me, the young supporter of a
family of six.  To deaden the cares, I took my refuge in the best
expedient; I gave myself up to the continuation of my Egyptian studies,
and in the daily findings and discoveries, with the help of the material
I collected on my two journeys in Egypt, I felt the true joy of my
existence.  My circle was limited to a few likeminded contemporaries,
who belonged to the most varied professions and who regularly assembled
once a week, after a completed day's work, for a merry little evening
party. Although in the veins of most of them flowed no Berlin blood,
nevertheless Berlin wit prevailed at fullest worth.  Since not only
"learned people," but also artists namely Afinger, Blaeser, Hildebrandt,
Meyerheim,, among others, and not to forget the sodawater producer of
that time, Marsch, belonged to our circle, it might justifiably boast of
a certain manysidedness, which never lacked material for captivating or
lively conversations. Outside of this closed circle there were three
personalities in particular, with whom fate brought me into contact, and
one of whom the first two exerted a tangible effect on my later destiny.
Their names:  Prince Puckler   (         0*0*0*  ԫMuskau,
Baron Jul. von Minutoli, and Lassalle, I have only to cite in order to
remind my contemporaries of the importance of each individual. The
Prince belonged to the bestknown personalities at the Court and the
distinguished Berlin society in which, in spite of his seventythree
years, he moved with almost youthful agility and exerted an irresistible
attraction.  His entire being, even to the expression of speech,
suggested the highly cultivated man of the world, who must have seen
countries and peoples and come into frequent contact with the great ones
of this earth.  And so it was in fact, for  his journeys in Egypt and in
the Sudan at the time of the Viceroy Mehemmed Ali, and his wanderings in
the Near East, to recall only his exotic pilgrimages, provided him with
a reputation that spread far beyond the borders of the Fatherland, after
he had revealed himself as an outstanding writer in the mid thirties,
in his fivevolume work "Semilasso in Africa" and in similar creations.
The attacks which the skillful pen of Fallmerayer directed against
"Semilasso" and "Der Verstorbene" in the first half of the forties never
alluded to the literary value of the Prince's writings; they criticized
only his outspoken opinions therein concerning Mehemmed Ali and the
Egyptian peasantry, as well as his proposals to send German colonies to
the Nile Valley.  In reference to the latter, the Prince was not alone.
Still in the year 1868 it was reserved for a German writer Hans
Wachenhusen, to interest the Viceroy Ismael and his Minister Nubar in
the same proposal, without   (!        0*0*0*  success, to
be sure, after a chief stipulation for it had proved impossible to
fulfill. The "old Prince," as he was called in Berlin, was a cheerful,
happy person, who did not let himself be disturbed by the natural
effects of advancing age.  Celebrated for his successful activity in the
field of horticulture, he had transformed his desolate estate of Muskau
in the Lausitz into a magnificent park; and well known for his cooking
and his gourmet taste, the Prince lived in Berlin during the winter
months, which he regularly used to spend in the first floor of the then
existing Hotel de Russia (behind the Command headquarters, in the
vicinity of the Schloss Bridge).  For the summer he loved to take up his
residence in the Castle Branitz near Kottbus, after he had sold Muskau
to the Prince Friedrich of the Netherlands.  I had been recommended to
the Prince already at the beginning of the year 18537 through a letter
of Alexander von Humboldt's.  The letter in question, of whose contents
I possessed no knowledge, has quite recently and to my own surprise been
sent to me in a copy by its present owner, Dr. Karpeles.  The passage in
it referring to me: "Pleasing in manner, esteemed in France and England,
he possesses a rare talent in writing 'German.'  To you, master in this
art, he may be recommended from this angle," taught me anew, how an A.
von Humboldt understood how to praise. After I had the honor to be
presented to him, there arose on his part a liking for me which was
perhaps connected with our mutual longing for the venerated land of
Egypt.  I had the   ("        0*0*0*  good fortune to be his
constant house guest, to receive his visits in my modest home, and to
participate in his outings, on which he himself used to drive the horses
with steady hand. His midday meal in the hotel consisted regularly of a
choice of the most select dishes, for which the Branitz estate delivered
the poultry, the eggs, and the butter, and he never allowed the salad to
be prepared by other hands.  He himself executed this work of art, and
every time I read on a menu in Berlin or abroad "Salate du Prince
Pueckler," I was transported in spirit to the Hotel de Russie. To the
former traveller in the Orient it was pleasant to speak of his
recollections of Mehemmed Ali and to boast about his inventions during
his wanderings.  To these belongs the ingenious contrivance of a small
cooking apparatus for liquid and solid meals, which one could actually
put comfortably into one's pocket and which sufficed for all
requirements.  A second invention consisted of an arrangement to ward
off lionsand mosquitosfrom one's self during the night, on a sojourn
in the desert.  For the use and benefit of all African travellers I will
reveal the secret.  It consists of a simple sack of white cotton, into
which the traveller crawls.  It ends at the head in a kind of hood of
gauze material which can be closed with a string at the top.  One
fastens it to a nail driven into a tree or the wooden tentpole.  The
sinister effect of the sight scares away the lionimagine a white sack
that moves here and thereand the sting of the mosquitos is unable to
reach through the fabric to the living
contents.   (#        0*0*0*  Ԍ     The company at the
Prince's was always a select one in an intellectual respect also, and
the subjects of conversations remained far from everything ordinary and
insignificant.  The sale of the historical anecdotes seasoned it and
often gave it an added piquant flavor. Not infrequently, it happened
that my godfather, Prince Heinrich von Caroleth, and his friend the poet
Geibel, along with my godfather's excitable dwarf with his biting
tongue, met at the hotel in order to play a game of whist at which
conversation on questions of the day used to fill the intervals.  Above
all, it was the worsened state of the King's health that provided fears
which one would have liked to call unnecessary.  On October 7, 1858,
Prince Wilhelm von Preussen was named Regent, and with that a new era of
our Fatherland was ushered in. For me, it became clear that for myself a
new period had begun, and that I had to summon everything in order to
learn how to stand on my own feet.  Also the days of Alexander von
Humboldt were already numbered.  Even though the nearly ninetyyear old
maintained his old creative power, and worked until late in the night on
the completion of his Kosmos, his advanced age, but likewise the
sufferings of the royal patient, had exerted their disturbing effects on
the body and spirit of the venerable old man.  In addition, it came
about that the cherished habits, which had brought him daily into the
proximity and the society of his loyal friend at the Court in Berlin,
Sanssouci, or Charlottenburg were with one
stroke   ($        0*0*0*  broken off so that his earlier
influence lost its beneficial result.  It is true that the celebrated
scholar and Nestor of Science was honored by distinctions and
attentions, full of delicacy of feeling by the Prince von Preussen and
by his illustrious wife, the Empress Augusta, but it was difficult for
him to adapt himself to the new circumstances and to take a warm
interest in events which earlier had occupied his mind so actively.  His
adversaries, and he had them in great number, frankly triumphed over the
fading and sinking of the bright star; they were not ashamed to speak
occasionally of "the wellknown tourist Humboldt" and to push his high
scientific merits into the background, but they forgot that the whole
world bowed in reverence before the renown of his name and his works. I
must gratefully acknowledge that Prince Puckler, on an independent
impulse, felt induced, from this combination of circumstances on, to
place me under his personal protection. To him alone I owed the
distinction to be named Consul of Prussia in Cairo in the year 1863, as
the reader is to learn later in greater detail. The second person with
whom I came into closer contact in the year 1858 was Dr. Ferd. Lassalle,
whose name I need only mention, in order to recall to memory one of the
most remarkable of personalities.  To my surprise, he appeared one day
in my apartment, in order to present to me his just completed work, "Die
Philosophie Herakleitos des Dunkein von Ephesos" as a mark of his
esteem, and to combine with it
the   (%        0*0*0*  request that I be willing to regard
him in the future as my pupil.  He had resolved to devote his time for a
series of years exclusively to scientific investigations, after his
already determined police expulsion from Berlin had been revoked upon
the recommendation and mediation of Bockh, the famous Hellenist, and
Alexander von Humboldt.  He wished to occupy himself in all seriousness
with ancient Egyptian studies and entreated me most urgently, not to
refuse him as a pupil.  He was too old, he said, to sit at my feet in
the midst of young students in the college, and therefore preferred the
form of a regular private lecture.  To my question as to what particular
purpose he wished to apply his Egyptian knowledge to be acquired, he
answered that he had taken it into his head to translate and to explain
the old Egyptian Book of the Dead from beginning to end.  Smiling,
I remarked to him that this was a problem which could hardly be solved
in a hundred years, but his resolve remained firm, and he replied to me
simply:  "What I want to do, I can do; I shall solve the problem, for it
is the very difficulties which exert a special attraction for me."
Lassalle was at that time, thirtythree years old.  Our L. Pietsch, in
his charming book, Wie ich Schriftsteller geworden bin, has
described the outward appearance of the socialdemocratic agitator with
surprising fidelity and truth, and has sketched the peculiarities of
his character with accurate strokes.  The passionate and impetuous
element formed a principal feature of his character, with which was
linked a   (&        0*0*0*  mania for contentiousness.  It
subsequently cost me much trouble in the appointed lessons to restrain
the willfulness of the pupil.  It often happened that I gave up the
lesson in a certain exasperation, whereupon Lassalle, in the most
excited mood, regularly launched letters to me which mostly began with
the words, "To the devil with you." When I had come to know him
for the first time, he occupied, as the Berliners used to say, "chambre
garnie" in a corner house situated on Behren and Mauer Stasse.  Later he
established his own house on Bellevue Street, close by the dwelling of
Fraulein Ludmilla Assing.  His home, for conditions at that time, was
handsomely furnished, there was a splendid library in the salon which
constituted his workroom and from which a glass door led to a
conservatory with exotic plants.  Even a servant was not lacking, to
attend to the orders of the master, and the gracious master was
sometimes abusive.  Lassalle led an existence in elegant style, and only
in his conversations did he develop his socialdemocratic ideas, which
stood in the fullest contrast to his actual life. It is known that the
groups that met in his house by special invitation belonged to the most
selected, whether with respect to the position and the name of the
invited guests, or with regard to their intellectual merits.  Prince
PucklerMuskau, General von Pfuel, Hans von Bulow, to mention only a few
names, gladly accepted the witty and learned host's invitations, where
the Countess von Hatzfeld was so kind as
to   ('        0*0*0*  do the honors of the house.  The
hospitality left nothing to be desired in the choice and delicacy of the
dishes served and the vintage wines, and Lassalle seemed to be heartily
pleased when the praise of his table resounded from the lips of the
guests.  The conversation moved naturally in the most selected patterns;
it was always intellectually stimulating, and each of the participants
could maintain that he had borne away from it again for himself. Our
acquaintance, interrupted at times by my later journeys to Persia and
Egypt, lasted until his death.  My idea that Lassalle would accomplish
nothing special in the ancient Egyptian field was abundantly confirmed,
for it is the peculiarity of these studies that they demand the entire
time and working energy of a man and consequently offer no opportunity
to occupy one's self with other things.  That Lassalle was a man as
clever as he was highly cultivated and scientifically informed is
certainly not to be doubted.  His ingenuity was not discouraged by any
difficulties, but in the face of the Egyptian problem, as I had observed
beforehand, he lacked the necessary time and repose to solve the riddles
of Antiquity and to bring renown to his name through his accomplishments
in this field.  In spite of everything, I think of the contacts with
Lassalle not without some pleasure, and often recall in memory the
agreeable hours I spent in his household. The third personality with
whom I had the honor to have a relationship was, like the two preceding,
well known to all   ((        0*0*0*  Berliners at that
time.  The Baron Julius von Minutoli for a long time occupied the
position of Chief of Police of Berlin, which the March Days of the year
1848 brought to a sudden end. I have already above recalled the interest
which he showed in the fullest measure toward the young gymnasium
student, probably at first for the special reason that Egypt and
Egyptian Antiquity exerted a particular attraction on him. His father,
General H.C. Menu von Minutoli, belonged in the number of the older
travellers who had visited Egypt and Nubia in the years 1820 and 1821
under the rule of Mehemmed Ali, and who had extended their route even as
far as the oasis of Jupiter Ammon.  His observations on the old and new
Egypt revealed the connoisseur who viewed the past and present of the
Orient with open eyes and who gave the attractive literary expression to
his ideas on the subject. The Egyptian Museum in Berlin owes to him
precious contributions of ancient treasures which the General had
brought home from the old land of the Pharachs, while another part
remained in the possession of the family.  It was this latter which led
to my frequent association with the former Police Chief of Berlin  an
association which later, oddly enough, offered the occasion for my
journey to Persia. After the March Days Herr J. von Minutoli was obliged
to withdraw temporarily from state service.  He made use of the free
time to attend lectures at the University of Berlin, and I remember
often having sat beside him in order to listen to the geographical
discourses of our great Ritter.  Later
he   ()        0*0*0*  reentered the state service in order,
in his capacity as Consul General, to represent the interests of our
Prussian Fatherland in Spain and Portugal.  The amiable man had the
kindness to carry on the most active communication with me by letters
from his place of residence in Barcelona, to inform me of the
excavations and finds in Spain.  And his interest extended so far as to
propose, and to obtain on the spot, my membership in two Spanish
Academies.  As I want to remark by way of addition, during his entire
stay in Spain, he enjoyed the particular favor of the then Queen
Isabella.   ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT DIESă Hardly one year
after the death of my own father, I was to experience the great sorrow
of seeing Alexander von Humboldt depart from life on May 6, 1859, at
halfpast two in the afternoon, and thereby of losing a fatherly
protector once for all.  Some months before this sad day, the
incomparable scholar and philanthropist already felt the increasing
decline of his powers.  The socalled pruritis senilis tortured
him day and night, and according to his own expression, it often seemed
to him that it must drive him out of his skin. Nevertheless, he
continued his labors on the Kosmos with uninterrupted zeal, in
order, still before his death, to leave to posterity his lifework,
embracing the complete sum of his studies, as a legacy of his spirit.
In addition, he arranged his papers and prepared himself valiantly for
his imminent end.  Often as I had the opportunity to see Alexander von
Humboldt during this period, I could not leave his
room   (*        0*0*0*  without deepest emotion, for he
complained how much still remained for him to do, in order to complete
his work, and how he himself must doubt that he would reach his goal. On
one of my visits, I received from his hands, to my greatest surprise,
the unarranged accumulations for a work begun by him but remaining
unfinished, on the origin of numerals and the beginning of methods of
counting by the various peoples of the earth.  The collection, which for
the greatest part is handwritten by him on sheets and scraps of paper,
contains besides valuable contributions in the form of letters from
famous contemporary scholars, who had given detailed answers to the
questions addressed to them in reference to the subject of  his
investigations, "I turn over to you this manuscript" he said to me, "to
publish it after my death.  There are rough materials which I have
collected for forty years, in order to work the up some day at leisure.
My days are numbered, and so to you, who have devoted such penetrating
investigations concerning the numerical signs and the accounting system
of the ancient Egyptians, I hand over this manuscript with the request
to carry out the task in my memory.  The inscription which is found
written by my hand n the envelope should serve to confirm to everyone
your right of possession." A stroke, which seized the most celebrated
Nestor of Science in the middle of his nightly work, forced him to lay
down the pen forever, in order to await his death with philosophical
calm in the bed in his alcove.  All Berlin
took   (+        0*0*0*  the most deeplyfelt interest in
his suffering, and even the Princesses of the royal house felt moved to
drive to his home, to enquire after his condition, and to leave gifts of
flowers. At his special wish I was called to him a few days before his
death, in order to take leave of him and to receive his last handclasp.
I was surprised to read in his features not the slightest symptoms of
imminent death and to find again in his conversation the earlier
vivacity and interest in scientific things.  When he saw tears in my
eyes, he remarked with a smile; "My time has come, and I die peacefully,
since you know what I think about it."  Then suddenly and with a certain
bitterness, he jumped to a conversation alluding to charlatanism in
science.  Dr. R...., "who has made such important discoveries in the
field of animal galvanism, does not hesitate to exploit them in
quackery, in order to combine therewith a business bringing in money.
He certainly belongs to those who passed through the Red Sea, but his
scientific importance should have restrained him from making a
profitable business out of his discoveries." With these words he
expressed his indignation at the conduct of a then very wellknown,
learned physician. In the course of further conversation, he questioned
me about the most recent state of my studies and gave me precepts for my
later course of life, as the father on his deathbed is accustomed to
urge them upon a beloved son.  Deeply shaken, I left the narrow room in
which soon thereafter the greatest spirit of our century was to take
leave of life.   (,        0*0*0*  Ԍ     The entombment of
Alexander von Humboldt in the Cathedral of Berlin was set for eight
o'clock in the morning.  Long before the appointed time an unbelievable
crowd of people had assembled in the neighborhood of the house of death,
in order to show their sympathy through their presence.  First in the
funeral cortege were the representatives of the city of Berlin, who paid
this last homage on earth to their honored fellow citizen.  The
scholarly world understandably formed the main part of the mourners.
The funeral procession, which did not seem to want to end, took the road
to Friedrichstrasse, and upon reaching Unter den Linden turned in the
direction of the Cathedral.  My humble self, as private docent at the
Berlin University, was among the last in the line, but no one could feel
more deeply the sorrow which filled my breast at the thought of the loss
of the unforgettable one who had laid hold upon my life with so powerful
a hand, after having raised the soldier's son out of the dust up to
himself. I now stood quite alone, without a counsellor in the world, and
needed all my energy to maintain myself upright and, out of purest love
of science, to endure the difficult struggle for existence.  I had
friends who sustained me and tried to raise my sunken spirit, but the
silent grief for the lost one would not cease, for no one in the world
seemed to me to be in a position to substitute for an Alexander von
Humboldt.  The period of mourning gradually passed, I began to reconcile
myself to the unavoidable, and to leave my future to God's goodness.  I
was bold enough even to believe in
the   (-        0*0*0*  Islamic kismet, and to look into the
future with a less gloomy view. Chapter V.

My First Persian Journey

     It was after his return from Spain that the Baron von Minutoli
surprised me one day with his visit, in order to place before me the
proposal to set out with him upon a several years' journey to Persia.
He explained to me that he had been appointed Resident Minister, and had
been offered the free choice of a post in three exotic lands.  Among
them was Persia.  He wanted to undertake the journey if I could decide
to accompany him, naturally in an official capacity and with the title
of a Royal Prussian ViceConsul.  He argued that the modern Persia was a
littleknown country, but which did not lack a poetic flavor, so that
the journey, beside the fulfillment of the patriotic purpose of the
mission, might also offer a certain enjoyment. What had I to lose or to
gain in Berlin?  I accepted the proposal without long deliberation,
convinced that I would find in the presence of an amiable and humane
chief a compensation for the separation from home and family.   Of
course, I felt it like a stab in the heart, that I would be forced to
say farewell to my Egyptian studies for a long time, but I was comforted
by the thought of entering into a new world in the East, and there
forgetting many a humiliation that, especially lately, had embittered my
stay in my own homeland.  It had indeed gone so far, that the skillful
draughtsman Weidenbach, who was working on the great publication of
Egyptian monuments, received the order not to draw a stroke for me, and
the hieroglyphic characters of
the   (        0*0*0*  academic printingoffice here were
not permitted to be employed for the printing of my own books. In about
one month, I learned the Persian language, in which Pietrazewski, the
sixtyfiveyear old teacher here at the University gave me the first
instructions.  He is the same one who served as dragoman on our mission
in the Land of the Sun.  He, too, has long since descended into the
realm of shadows, but I may still today boast of having been his brave
pupil who, right after our arrival in Persia, took over the task of
sharing the labor of interpreter with the teacher. The preparations for
departure were soon accomplished, although it was somewhat difficult in
Berlin to judge the travel requirements of a European for the capital
city of Teheran in the heart of Asia.  My friends, headed by the
sculptors Blaiser and Affinger and the painter W.A. Meyerheim, gave me a
farewell party that would have to search for its equal in gaiety.  It
consisted of an evening feast combined with meaningful wallpictures
which, with the help of a magic lantern whose slides Master Meyerhelm
had painted in bright colors, attained a highly artistic correctness in
the representation. On February 5, 1860, at seven o'clock in the evening
I left Berlin, in order to join the other members of the mission in
Vienna on the next day.  Among the fellow travellers was a Galician who
spoke ill of his government with its paper florin notes and who
incessantly put before me the question, "Can a servant be happy if his
master has no money?"  whereupon
I   (        0*0*0*  answered him simply:  "Yes, if the
servant himself has money." In Trieste I visited my old friend, the
courtpainter Fiedler, a native Prussian, who at that time had just
completed his large and magnificent picture, "The Desert Near Assuan."
We crossed over by Lloyd ship to Stambul, anything but pleased at the
vast mountains of filth and the dirty torrents that filled the network
of streets.  The inspection of the city, which I was visiting for the
first time in my life, took up a few days, and as member of the first
Prussian mission to Persia, I had the honor to be presented to the most
celebrated persons of the Eastern diplomatic world.  I count among them
the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, FuadPasha, the President of
the Tansimat and true reformer of Turkey, AliPasha, the President of
the State Council, KiamilPasha, the young Prince Alexis Labanoff, who
resided in Stambul as Russian Ambassador, MuchilisPasha, a Prussian
military man in Turkish service, whose real name was Kuzkowski, and many
other persons of rank and position within or outside of Turkey. The 26th
of February was the great day on which the members of our mission were
presented by the Prussian Ambassador, Count von der Goltz, and by Fuad
Pasha according tot he Turkish Court ceremony to the Great Sultan
AbdulMedschidChan.  The Ruler of all the Faithful was at that time in
his thirtyseventh year, but he already gave the impression of a man
aged through illness. We left Constantinople on March on an Austrian
Lloyd   (         0*0*0*  ship, to set out on the real
journey to Persia on the Asiatic side of our globe.  We reached
Trebizond, where at that time the learned Orientalist, Dr. Blau
maintained his office as Prussian Consul.  Before our own mission had
undertaken an official journey to the TurkishPersian frontier, had
extended his way as far as the great Persian commercial city of Tabriz,
and had set down his observations and experiences in a
commercialpolitical report which appeared in print.  From Trebizond a
caravan route leads still today to the abovementioned city.  Bad
weather conditions, which prevail about this time in the harsh mountain
country, as well as the slowness of movement of the caravans, had
induced our chief to give up this route and take the way to Persia
through Russian Caucasia.  We continued the journey by sea, landed at
Batum, at that time a miserable Turkish settlement consisting of a few
huts and houses, which today has passed in to the possession of Russia
and has developed into an important Russian commercial town, the
startingpoint of a railroad to the Caspian Sea.  After a further
journey of a few hours, we arrived at the Rion River, the Phasis of the
Ancients, spent the night in the feverridden military station of Poti,
in order later, by river steamer and finally by Russian "kibitka," to
travel the last stretch to Tiflis.  Foothigh snow filled the mountain
passes, a fierce cold made our limbs tremble, but fortunately we reached
the capital of the Caucasus, in which the Russian army, shortly after
the conquest of the Cherkessen region, had set up
its   (        0*0*0*  headquarters. It cannot be my task
to describe the individual personalities, from the Governor General of
the Caucasus Prince Bariatinsky on, with whom we came in contact.  It
may suffice to know that everywhere we enjoyed a kind reception, and
that my name was well known to the Prince himself, since, through the
purchase of the great library of a Russian Egyptologist, he had come
into possession of a collection of Egyptian books that could hardly be
surpassed in completeness. Our journey by land from Tiflis through the
mountainous Armenian region as far as the RussianPersiana border on the
Araxes proceeded smoothly without incident, and it offered us daily the
richest opportunity to learn to know land and people most accurately in
all details.  On the far side of the Araxes, we touched the actual
domain of Persia.  We had the good fortune to be received by a Persian
travelmarhsal, and to be conducted on the threeweeklong way through
Tabriz to the capital city and residence of the Shah of Persia.  In a
twovolume work which appeared right after my return, under the title,
Journey of the First Prussian Embassy to Persia, I made the
attempt to compile in all possible completeness the events, the
observations and the experiences of our mission, in order to give the
German reader a picture of Persia as it confronts us today, with all its
intrinsic qualities and peculiarities. The ruler of this great land,
which surpasses Germany three times in size, but numbers at the most,
seven million   (        0*0*0*  inhabitants, was the then
thirtyyearold Shah NasredDin, who still at present wields the
scepter over his "blessed kingdom" and has drawn public attention to
himself through his repeated journeys to Europe.  For my part, I cannot
resist the pleasure of expressing my frank opinion of this Prince, who
has experienced the most harsh and unjust judgments abroad. It has been
forgotten that the Shah is an Asian and not a European, that manners and
customs of the Persians rest upon AsiaticMohammedan conceptions, but it
is not known that the Shah can indeed be called the best Persian, who
repeated trips to Europe pursued the sole object of becoming more
closely acquainted with the state of European culture and the progress
of our industry through personal observation, and, if possible, of
transposing them to Persian conditions.  In the royal palace garden at
Teheran, on my second official journey to Teheran a few years ago, I
often had occasion to hear in more detail the statements of the Shah
concerning culture and civilization, and each time I enjoyed a
encountering in them the soundest views.  I was no less surprised to
learn from his own lips how much it had pained him to read in German,
English, French newspapers the most unjust and sarcastic judgments of
his actions and customs, and to be met with reproach, as though he alone
were to blame, that his subjects were in a halfbarbaric state.  He told
me he had two tasks to fulfill:  on the one hand to preserve in his
people the genuine Persian quality in purity of language, in excellent
customs and good practices, but on the other hand, to
leave   (        0*0*0*  nothing untried in order to
introduce into his land culture according to European conceptions.  At
that time, as a thirtyyearold, he had already learned the French
language, in order to teach and instruct himself from French books; he
himself had drawn up and put into print a FrenchPersian dictionary, in
order to facilitate the knowledge of this language for the Persians; he
composed writings and poetry, to offer a model to his people also in
their own language, only he must leave it to time, to see his endeavors
crowned by lasting, visible results.  These and similar expressions of
His Iranian Majesty were not merely calculated to bribe me and to
produce a favorable judgment on their author, but they sprang from his
sincere intention, as I myself later had occasion to be convinced by the
facts. Thirty years later, after the return from my second journey to
Persia, the honor fell to me to hear from the lips of our great Emperor
Wilhelm I a judgment on the Shah of Persia which coincided completely
with my own.  Also in this case, my Imperial Lord revealed the deep
knowledge of human nature which distinguished him, and the rare quality
of sharply discriminating, with one glance as it were, between outward
appearance and inner worth.  At the state dinner to which I had the
honor to receive an invitation shortly after my return from Teheran, the
Emperor expressed himself in these words:  "I have learned to know the
Shah of Persia as a man of fine tact, which has never been contradicted
on his frequent visits in Berlin.  Did I not have to feel deeply moved,
that   (        0*0*0*  on that day when the shot of a
madman wounded me, the Shah immediately ordered his departure, thinking
that his arrival on the same day had brought me bad luck?" Shortly after
our arrival in Teheran, the Prussian mission was augmented by a new
member for whom I felt the greatest affection during all his life,
although the paths of our professions diverged and a reunion after
returning home was only seldom realized.  He was the nephew of the
Resident Minister, Herr von Grolmann, who at that time, belonged to the
first Regimental Guard in Potsdam as First Lieutenant, and who was
assigned to the Embassy in Teheran as military attache. Duties in
service had prevented him from departing from Berlin at the same time we
did, and so he was obliged to follow our tracks from place to place in
flying haste, to join us in Teheran only a few days after our own
arrival.  Without knowledge of the Turkish, Russian, and Persian
languages, the cool and clever officer had accomplished the feat of
forcing his way everywhere and finally, in six days, of completing a
courier ride in scorching heat in the midst of the Asiatic steppes from
the RussianPersian border as far as the capital city of Teheran.  The
performance was an extraordinary one, even though on the forced ride,
two horses were left lying on the road. Diplomatic intercourse in
Teheran taught me, for the first time, to know international embassy
life, far from the European homeland and among a halfbarbarian
population.  The national distinctions disappeared, the feeling of the
European   (        0*0*0*  community came to the
foreground.  Although the French language served as the medium of
conversation and official international correspondence, the influence of
France upon the European nationals extended in no further tangible way.
Among the acquaintances I had the opportunity to make at that time,
belonged in the first rank, the celebrated cuneiform research Colonel
Sir Henry Rawlinson, who had taken up his residence in Teheran as
plenipotentiary Ambassador of England, the Russian Legation Secretary
Jessen, well known to us Germans as the poet who wrote many songs, the
court physician of the Shah, Dr. Pollack, a native Austrian, as well as
his successor, the French Dr. Tholozan, one of the most amiable of
persons and most friendly to Germans.  Finally, I do not want to forget
the young Melnikoff, who at that time was attached to the Russian
Embassy, because I had the happiness of greeting him again as Minister
and Ambassador of his government in Teheran on my second stay in Persia,
after the course of almost thirty years. The sufferings and joys of the
sojourn in Teheran in the summer season at the foot of the snowcapped
Elburz Mountains I gladly pass over, because of the sufferings, mostly
caused by the unhealthy influences of the Iranian climate, by far
outweighed the joys.  Yet we spent the entire summer up in the socalled
cool foothills of the Eburz, in order, at its end in the autumn season,
to set out on the journey planned by the Baron von Minutoli, through
Hamadan (the old Ecbatana), Isfahan and Shiraz to the Persian Gulf.
This was against all   (	        0*0*0*  the advice of
informed persons, who called the journey to the south in the autumn
season a plainly dangerous undertaking. The Baron was of the opposite
opinion, since he had the faith that the excursion we made to the Laar
Valley for the ascent of the 18,000 foot Mount Demawend must have
completely prepared and fortified us for the longer distance to the
Persian Gulf. Our caravan consisted of seven Europeans, approximately
twenty Persian soldiers, servants and caravan boys, as well as nine
saddlehorses and twentytwo mules for the transport of the riders and
the baggage.  The apprehensions expressed unfortunately came true in the
fullest measure.  The heat, the eating of fruits, then especially the
bad and mostly salty water, peculiar to the majority of the Persian
brooks, and the lack of any medical help, made their effects felt on our
European bodies.  We fell ill by turns, and faced with dread the last
part of the journey in the South, where, according to the reports of all
travellers, plague and cholera, focusing in Shiraz, claimed numerous
victims.  In the presence of the ruins of Persepolis I felt that my last
hour had come.  Fever and dysentery racked my body, and only with pain
and distress was I able to mount my horse in order to travel the last
martyr's way to Shiraz. Upon our entrance into the city of the poets and
of learning, in which the cholera was raging with all thoroughness, we
had the surprise of meeting a pallid Persian on horseback before whom
everyone on the street vanished into   (         0*0*0*  the
side alleys with loud cries, and who, at my question, had been curiously
designated as the "cholera man."  As soon as he appears in any part of
Persia, according to the tales, the cholera is said to break out there,
and not to decline until the cholera man has again turned his back.  I
shall come back once more to this remarkable person, since I had the
surprise, during my later consular service in Cairo, of meeting him at
the sickbed of a Prussian attacked by cholera. The worsening of my
illness prevented me from taking part in the ride of the Baron von
Minutoli and his nephew von Grolmann to Benderbushir on the Persian
Gulf.  My unfortunate chief lost his life on the way, after the fever
had seized him with full violence, and not even on the English ships in
the harbor of the Persian Gulf had they been able to cure and save the
seriously ill man.  The former Chief of Police of Berlin, Baron von
Minutoli, lies buried in a rock tomb of the Christian Armenian cemetery
outside of the city of Shiraz, far from family and homeland on Asiatic
soil, near the princely poets Hafiz and Saadi. The return to Teheran was
a journey of mourning under such circumstances, and our arrival in the
capital anything but a happy reunion of acquaintances and friends.
Moreover, it happened that the cholera had made its way to the
metropolis behind our backs, and at the same time, a famine had broken
out, which for the Europeans living thereabout sixty in numberwas
cause to fear the worst.  The people stormed the bakery shops, ran
through the streets with   (        0*0*0*  threatening
yells, planted themselves in front of the Shah's castle, and thousands
of women tore the veils from their faces on the public street, in order
to burst out in the cry for bread with shrill voices and menacingly
raised hands. The personnel of the embassies had placed themselves in a
state of defense in their houses and awaited the outcome with anxiety.
But that also passed, and gradually one began to breathe again, after
the Shah and his Ministers had opened the granaries and distributed the
grain among the starving crowd. " ON THE HOMEWARD JOURNEYă
The death of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and the accession to the throne,
which followed on January 2, 1861, of the Prince Regent of Prussia as
King Wilhelm I, I had the honor to communicate to the Shah of Persia,
and to combine with it the announcement of the dissolution of the
mission in Persia.  The departure was expedited as quickly as possible,
and the remaining members of the mission set out on their return home by
various routes.  The aged dragoman Pietrazewski chose the long but,
because of the slower tempo, more comfortable road through Asia Minor;
Herr von Groimann and my humble self did not hesitate to take a fast
courier ride from Teheran to the Araxes, averaging twenty German miles a
day, then to hasten through Armenia by "kititka" and "tarantas" and to
make a stop in the heart of Caucasia.  From Tiflis we crossed the
snowcapped heights of the Caucasus together and separated at their
foot, to meet again at home.  My military friend had
the intention to take part in the last
battle against the Cherkessens, and to earn for himself the Russian
Caucasuscross for proven bravery.  I remark by way of supplement that
my amiable travelling companion is the same von Grolmann who
distinguished himself by his military services to the state as
commanding General in Erfurt.  Unfortunately, I experienced the sorrow
in this current year of learning of  his departure from this world. It
was a kind of dread of the waters of the Black Sea that had induced me
to complete my own return to Berlin by the land route.  From the
Caucasus as far as Moscow my coach sped furiously through all of
southern Russia; only from Moscow on did I have the opportunity to
proceed to Petersburg on the wings of the iron horse, and to present
myself most dutifuly, as discharged Viceconsul, to our then Ambassador,
Herr von BismarkSchonausen.  The hour had remained unforgettable to me,
in which I had the privilege of being able to make my ceremonial call
for the first time upon the Representative of Prussia at the Russian
Court.  The presentday Prince was at that time in the prime of manhood,
and his serious features, as he looked at me, gave me the impression of
a test which I had to undergo. The official coldness with which he spoke
to me chilled me somewhat, but his invitation to come to his house and
present myself to his family made me at once forget the first
impression.  My humble self enjoyed there also an undeservedly amiable
reception.  The wife of the Ambassador received me with sincere sympathy
for the wandering life of a   (         0*0*0*  Prussian
scholar, felt sorry for my family, from whom fate separated me so
unmercifully, and her words affected me all the more deeply when her two
sons Herbert and Wilhelm, then in the beginning of the second decade of
their lives, awakened the memory of my own children.  During the few
days of my stay in Petersburg, I had the happiness to be regarded as a
member of the family, to find myself regularly at their table, and to
admire sincerely the almost simple burgher life in the house of the
strict Ambassador.  The conversation of the Minister with the table
companions possessed the attraction of the opinions of a man of the
world, and was spliced by the speaker's fine wit, which always hit the
nail on the head. Had I possessed at that time a presentiment of what a
great role was allotted to the Ambassador for the destiny of Prussia and
Germany in the future, I would have envied myself, regarded the hours
spent in the Bismarck house as the most inspiring of my life, and would
have kept a precise diary of every minute. In addition to the Legation
Secretary, Von Holstein, to whom, according to the pronunciation of the
Russian H and G, it brought no particular pleasure to be designated as
"von Golstein" in Petersburg society, I became acquainted with a dear
friend in the person of the theological candidate Braun, the excellent
teacher and tutor of the two sons of Bismarck. He later occupied a
position as prison chaplain in Gorlitz, and in the years which followed,
I had the most cordial relations with
him.   (        0*0*0*  Ԍ     My journey from Petersburg,
which at that time still had no direct rail connection with the Prussian
east border, proceeded under the most favorable circumstances, and upon
crossing the frontier, I was really surprised when I learned that the
Prussian customs officials were already informed of my arrival.  By way
of Danzig, I finally reached my beloved Berlin, and upon seeing my own
family again, all Persian recollections appeared to me like a long, dark
dram, which reality let me only gradually forget. My friends received me
with the most sincere cordiality, and the streets of Berlin, through
which I wandered almost daily, seemed to greet me like an acquaintance
and to tell me old stories again and again.  My settled life began anew.
I worked on a book about the journey of the first Prussian mission to
Persia, which, as I have already said, later appeared in print in two
volumes, and found respite from the tedious activity in minor studies of
old Egyptian inscriptions or in carrying on the correspondence which had
already assumed giant proportions.  I am still proud today to have been
honored by communications from the hands of the Ambassador von Bismarck
and his wife, which demonstrate to me the lasting sympathy of both, and
which until now form a shining treasure in my collection of letters.
Prince PucklerMuskau was sincerely delighted to know that, after my
fortunate return home, I was again in his neighborhood during his stay
in Berlin, and every week I received his visits, which were usually
combined with a drive   (        0*0*0*  to his friends and
acquaintances.  Also his charming banquets in the Hotel de Russie began
again, and his witty conversation, as before, exerted its full
stimulating effect on me, especially after my wild life among the
Persians.  The Prince's interest in my fate had remained the same.  It
expressed itself, above all, in the wish to see me in a secure position
and in the service of the State in the place where I would be closest to
Egyptian studies and could, as it were, draw the water of instruction at
the source.  Without my doing anything, my noble patron was working for
me silently, in order to bring about my transfer to Egypt in a consular
capacity.  His efforts bore a splendid result when, in September of the
year 1862, Herr von Bismarck left  his post as Ambassador in Paris in
order to become Minister of Foreign Affairs at the head of a newly
formed Cabinet.  The Prince was a friend of the Minister and his family,
and I still remember with pleasure the intimate evening gatherings at
which, as modest appendage to my princely patron, I had the honor to
participate in such select society in the official residence or in the
garden behind. h# MY CONSULAR ACTIVITYă My appointment as
Prussian Consul in Cairo actually resulted, with the commission to take
over the affairs of the Viceconsul in the city of the Caliphs.  With
the most joyful hopes in my heart, I set out with kith and kin on my
third tour of the Nile Valley, in order to establish myself in my new
residence in the month of September of the year 1864.
   (        0*0*0*  Unfortunately, I had, as they say,
reckoned the bill without the host, and had brought myself almost
thoughtlessly into a situation which, during my entire stay, until the
year 1866, imposed upon me a nearly exorbitant sacrifice. One will
recall the war which, at the beginning of the 60's, the northern and
southern states in the United States of North America waged against each
other on account of the slave question.  As a result of the bloody
events going on in America, the lifelines for trade and industry were
severed and the export of the most important agricultural products to
Europe was completely cut off for years.  To the articles of highest
importance belonged, above all, cotton, whose price, from lack of supply
to cover demands, increased in unbelievable measure from month to month.
It was natural that the buyers and the factories turned their attention
to Egypt, where cotton culture had already been introduced in its lower
and upper regions under the government of Mehemmed Ali.  If it had
provided the greatest source of income for the country before, the war
in the States of North America became the motive for the Egyptians to
turn their entire attention to the cultivation of cotton, whereby the
earlier prices for the hundredweight were raised about five and six
times.  The black soil of Egypt was covered with cotton plantations from
one end to the other, an unbelievable influx of European speculators
flooded the country, and anyone who had only a groschen to spare
"played," as one calls it, in cotton. Whereas one had formerly spoken of
groschen and thaler in   (        0*0*0*  society, during
the cotton period, the gold napoleon or the English pound became the
standard for the simplest money value. But the bad news was not far
behind.  The most essential necessaries of life reached an extraordinary
height in price, and the rents for dwellings understandably did not
remain behind.  It was altogether an impossibility for a newcomer to
procure domestic accommodations for himself without agreeing to pay the
socalled buona sortita,  not to the landlord, but to the tenant
for his voluntary removal, that is, compensation money, the amount to be
determined at the pleasure of the apartment's occupant. I had come to
Egypt not to speculate in cotton and acquire a fortune for myself, but
on the order of my government and to discharge my office honestly; and
since I could not encamp on the street with my family of six, or dwell
in a cave or under a tent, there remained nothing else for me to do, but
to pay exactly 3370 thaler, 20 groschen as buona sortita  in
other words, more than double my yearly salary  for a very modest
apartment consisting of five rooms, of which the largest was allotted to
the Chancellery of the Consulate. Since living requirements of the
simplest sort, including the expense for servants, amounted to an
expenditure of 3000 thaler per year, one will understand that Sajid
Pash's magnanimous contribution of 20,000 francs for my Egyptian
research was so completely spent, that not only was there not a helier
left for me, but gradually a disturbing
deficit   (        0*0*0*  resulted. It is endurable to
suffer with those who suffer when dealing with one's equals, but it
becomes an unbearable torture in one's own need, to see one's self
surrounded by the superabundance of others who, according to their
position, could only be described as adventurers and fortunehunters.
The cottonkings reveled in gold; high living and luxury hardly found a
limit anymore, while for me and mine, there was only allotted the
doubtful pleasure of standing far in the background of a modest
existence, witnessing the nouveaux riches. The trials that were dealt to
me during my consular activity in Egypt had with this not yet reached
their end by far.  Cholera suddenly made its entrance into Egypt and for
eight months, the illness raged in frightful extent among the natives no
less than among the Europeans.  There were no longer enough coffins at
the cabinetmaker's, to bear the corpses to their last restingplace,
and ordinary chests from the tradesmen's warehouses finally had to be
used as beds for the dead.  In the few hospitals which then existed in
Cairo, and which were managed mostly by selfsacrificing French sisters,
there was ultimately a lack of beds to accept the sick, and on going
past the cemeteries, Christian as well as Mohammedan, the contaminated
air issuing from the bodies only superficially buried in massgraves
presented an unequalled horror and danger for the living.  Medical help
was almost totally in vain, for in a few hours, death snatched the
sick   (        0*0*0*  one away, and the general panic
seized even a considerable part of the less courageous practitioners,
who sought to save their precious lives through hasty flight.  The
places on the European poststreamers in the harbor of Alexandria were
worth their weight in with gold, and even the third class on the ships
was occupied by travellers who belonged to the most distinguished
European society.  To my deceased friend, Dr. H. Sachs, a former
Prussian army doctor who had settled in Cairo a few years before and had
acquired a welldeserved reputation for his successful cures and
selfsacrifice, I must still offer praise after his death, that he stuck
to his post and granted his help, day and night, to poor and rich
without discrimination. In the Prussian Viceconsulate in Cairo, it
looked sad enough.  The cholera had in a short time snatched away the
secretary, a young German jurist, a Turkish kawass was killed by the
same illness in the midst of service, the cowardly Levantine dragoman,
forgetful of duty, had taken flight, and so I was the only official
representative left, who as Consul, secretary and dragoman had to stick
to his post.  Almost daily I was called to the bed of dying Prussians
and Germans, in order to receive their last wishes, be it to their own
houses, which I mostly found deserted by their inhabitants, or in the
hospitals which, although only few in number, existed in the European
quarter. In one of these, I had the great surprise to see, sitting at
the bed of a sick Prussian subject, the Persian
"cholera   (        0*0*0*  man" who had met me on our
mission's entry into Shiraz. Fleeting as our first encounter had been,
he resembled the picture that had remained in my memory.  He felt the
pulse of the dying man, who soon thereafter breathed his last.  Already
at the onset of the illness in Cairo, the then Turkish Prefect of Police
had informed me with anxious manner that the cholera was on the advance,
since the cholera man had already been seen in the city.  To my further
curious questions he could give me no answer other than that the entire
population had known the man for years and regarded him as a precursor
of the sickness, but that everyone, at sight of him, took flight with
the utmost dispatch, in order to escape his evil glance.  From the
French sisters of the hospital, I received the information that the
sinister person was a Persian doctor who for many years travelled
through the Orient in order, at all the larger places where the seat of
the sickness developed, to study it more closely. In the very first days
of its outbreak no fewer than thirty persons were snatched away from the
small colony that belonged to the Consulate, and I accompanied every
single one of them on his last journey to the cemetery.  I sat in the
bottom of a Cairo droshky, the coffin or the tradesman's chest with the
corpse laying diagonally across the back seat of the carriage, and so I
conducted it to the Catholic or Protestant churchyard, to deliver it to
the earth.  There was even a shortage of hearses, and the open droshky
had to be used to take their place.   (        0*0*0*  Ԍ
Among the dead I had to mourn was also the amiable wife of my friend
August Mariette.  When the sickness was already on the decline, I paid a
visit to the two of them and found them sitting in an arbor of their
garden in front of the Museum.  I joined them and soon a lively
conversation was underway.  It was toward evening, the sun was already
sinking in the heat and the twilight coming on, when suddenly an owl,
which had alighted on a ledge of the cornice above the Museum door,
raised repeatedly its hoarse call.  Madame Mariette seemed frightened,
and with an almost fearful voice, addressed me with the few words:
"Suppose it wants to call one of us?" Three hours later, she fell ill; I
was called to the Museum by a message in the middle of the night and
found the poor woman already in her last gasps.  The cholera had
snatched her away. One will understand that under such circumstances, my
stay in Cairo did not belong to the amenities of this world, and that,
at the very least, I had neither the time, nor did I feel the desire, to
occupy myself with old Egyptian studies. Nevertheless, I must mark it as
a small triumph that I found the opportunity to discover, in a long
demotic papyrus, an old Egyptian Novel of the Dead which, through its
language and its content, has nowadays attained a certain renown in my
science as an ancient ghost story. At the same time, I did not neglect
delivering regular contributions to my periodical (founded in 1863 and
still existing after thirty years), since Professor Lepsius had the
kindness to take over the editorship of it right after
my   (        0*0*0*  emigration to African soil.  Rich
material for it was offered me, above all, by the communications of my
former pupil and later friend, Johannes Dumichen, the present Professor
of Egyptology at Strasbourg in Alsace.  In the year 1862, provided with
only slender means, he had undertaken a study trip to Egypt, Nubia and
the Sudan, and in the fall of the year 1864 had returned to Cairo laden
with rich treasures.  To the most important finds which he had made,
almost without knowing it, on his wanderings, belonged the great Kings'
List of Abydos, which caused the most extraordinary sensation in the
science.  A transcript of it was immediately published in the
periodical, soon afterward to evoke bitter disputes between Lepsius and
Mariette regarding priority of discovery of the monument. A gratifying
interruption during my professional activity in Cairo was the arrival of
the young Prince Anton von Hohenzollern who, accompanied by the then
Captain Mischke (now raised to the rank of General) had undertaken a
journey to Egypt.  I had the fortune of receiving from his hands a
letter from the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, in which His Highness
particularly entrusted the most warmly recommended Prince to me.  The
recollections of the days spent with him during his stay of about six
weeks in Cairo and the environs still fill me with sincere pleasure
today, but unfortunately, mixed with them is the pain of sorrow, for a
few months later the newspapers announced the sad news that Prince Anton
von Hohenzollern died a hero's death in the Battle of Konitggratz.
   (        0*0*0*  He was a wonderful young man, who all
too early, for  his people and for the Fatherland, expired on the field
of honor. Not without the most heartfelt pity I must mention a second
German prince who visited Egypt shortly after that, and came to Cairo
for the cure of a serious chest ailment.  He called himself jokingly the
"Klingelprinz" after the designation of his peasants, who derived the
odd name from the tinkling bells of his carriage horses.  He had
poisoned his own youthful existence, and wished for nothing more
longingly than death, which should free him from all sufferings.  His
wish was all too soon fulfilled, and I had the sorrow of having to take
leave of him forever.  The confessions of his bruised and torn heart
shall be buried with me.  Let it suffice to know that he felt himself
utterly unhappy and experienced a relief, in the many hours of our being
together, to confide to a sympathetic soul his bitter complaints
concerning a lost earthly existence.  His embalmed body was sent to the
reigning brother after his death, in order to find its last resting
place in German soil. In the year 1866 I returned to Berlin, to enjoy a
short furlough in the homeland and to consider more closely the question
of my remaining in Cairo.  I witnessed the departure from Berlin of the
troops who were marching against Austria in the war to steer the fate of
Prussia into a new course under the leadership of its Prime Minister von
Bismarck.  Still before the battle was ended, I set out on the return
journey to Cairo, forced this time to make my way to Egypt
through   (        0*0*0*  France via Paris and Marseille,
since at that time Austria, as enemy country, remained closed to me.
Before my departure from Berlin, the Princess Pless had expressed to me
the wish to make the last attempts to obtain full certainty as to the
fate of her son, the African traveller Baron von der Decken.  It will be
known to many readers that the amiable researcher, with whom I had
earlier had intercourse in Berlin, left home in October of the year
1864, in order to set out for Zanzibar and from there to travel up the
Lube River on East African territory. In early 1865 he carried out his
plan on a small steamer and reached the town of Bardera, was, however,
with the majority of the members of his party, attacked on the 25th of
September by the Somali, and treacherously murdered.  Although his death
could hardly be doubted, nevertheless the deeply afflicted mother wished
to leave no means untried, in order to find, if perhaps not the living
son, yet to recover his last mortal remains. In the service of the
Prussian Viceconsulate there was at that time a Wurttemberger named
Kinzelbach who had acquired an esteemed name for himself in the field of
geographical discoveries through his journeys in Abyssinia in the
company of Werner Munzinger and in the lands lying to the south.  His
stay in Cairo, where he finally carried on a mercantile business, had
become repugnant to him through the perversities of fate, and he
cherished the urgent wish to set out anew on his wanderings in the
region of the East African
coastal   (        0*0*0*  lands, which at that time had
still evaded a closer knowledge. He gladly agreed to my proposal that he
travel the dangerous route by way of Zanzibar to Bardera, in order to
collect more exact information concerning the fate of the unfortunate
Baron. On the commission of the Princess, and equipped with ample means,
he courageously set out on his way, and his letters and reports which he
sent me from Zanzibar and the East African coast expressed the fullest
hope of attaining his journey's goal in the most peaceful manner.
Suddenly his written communications stopped, for he, too, had become a
victim of the bloodthirsty Somali.  For my part, I had left nothing
unattended to in order to provide him with the warmest recommendations
at the main points of his journey.  I had even succeeded in obtaining
from the Grand Sheriff of Mecca a forceful safeconduct for the
Christian travellers directed to the strict Mohammedan leaders of the
Samoli of Bardera.  But his fate was sealed, and he perished under the
arrows and lances of the Somali.  WHY I BECAME PROFESSOR IN

GOTTINGENă My Consular activity reached its end, after I had learned
to recognize that I was not at all made for it, and, incidentally, my
material means had come to an end also.  The office of the Consul is one
of the most honorable I know, for it must fill its bearer with pride, to
be the representative of a great and powerful government.  His
invulnerability on foreign territory surrounds him with a numbus, which
incites ambition and imposes on him the obligation to carry out
the   (        0*0*0*  activity connected with his office
with all strictness and conscientiousness.  Behind him stands a
protector and avenger more powerful than can be imagined, and the
lowering of his country's flag is synonymous with a threat of war.  I
endeavored to fulfill my obligations in so honorable a position
according to my humble strength, but I would have had to be only Consul
and not Egyptologist, in order to devote my activity exclusively to my
profession. I left Egypt after a short period, in order to make my way
this time by way of Berlin to Paris.  Mariette, who was completely
familiar with my situation, for I had unburdened my whole heavy heart to
him, had not lacked good advice, and invited me to direct my way to
Paris, to join him there, and quietly to take part in the work for the
planned World Exposition in the year 1867.  He had rented a villa in
Passy in the middle of a pretty garden, I was his guest and
fellowresident of his house, and so we lived in daily and friendly
contact with each other, occupied with the preparations for the World
Exposition.  I had abundant opportunity and time, withal, to renew
connections with the French scholars who had befriended me on my first
journey there, and to find, above all, in the Count Emmanuel de Rouge,
who at that time already occupied the rank of a State Councillor, a
patron as warm as he was generous.  The Count occupied the position of a
Professor at the College de France, with which came a salary of 12,000
francs.  He made the proposal to me that I hold lectures on the
Egyptiandemotic script and literature at
the   (        0*0*0*  same College, for which he
voluntarily relinquished to me his salary as Professor, but, as he
added, it would require the approval of the Emperor Napoleon, in order
to change my position into a permanent one. As for the Imperial
approval, Mariette pledged himself to obtain this in a very short time
through an elderly friend, a lady who had performed the most excellent
services for himself and who was on intimate terms with the Emperor.
She was the Emperor's foster sister, Madame Cornu, whose name I have
already had occasion to mention above.  The lady, married to a painter
of mediocre talent, had earlier lived for a long time on the Rhine, and
had complete mastery of the German language.  She occupied a modest
house with her husband in Versailles, in which I had frequent
opportunity to see and to speak with the sixtyyearold lady.  She was
thoroughly familiar with the history of the Napoleon family, and told me
particulars which one is accustomed to confide only teteatete to a
good friend.  Of Madame Eugenie she spoke extremely ill, since she
attributed to the former the blame for having caused her foster brother
to break an oath.  Madame Cornu, as one must know, was an
ArchRebublican, and his elevation to the imperial throne went against
the grain with her.  She had therefore declined to accept any support
offered her from his hands, and preferred, together with her husband, to
gain their livelihood through their own work.  Nevertheless, she was
permitted to approach the Imperial foster brother at any time and to
partake of the evening tea, indeed even to give
him   (        0*0*0*  advice, when it did not have to do
with state affairs.  Her recollections of the family of the Napoleons
reached back to the time of Madame Laetitia, the mother of Napoleon
Bonaparte. I can still hear her story of how she, as a fouryearold
child, was taken by her mother to the house in which Madame Laetitia had
taken up her residence in Rome.  The rooms, from the staircase on, were
all hung with mourningcrept and all decorative parts were carried out
in black.  As children are in the habit of doing, she was laughing with
a loud voice, when there appeared the figure of a dignified, aged lady
dressed in deepest mourning, who called to the child the words:  "My
daughter, you are in the house of the mother of the great Emperor, in
which laughing is unknown."  She spoke and disappeared as she had come.
Madame Cornu, who overwhelmed me with the most flattering demonstrations
of her confidence, undertook with pleasure the mission of informing the
Emperor of the proposed entry of a demotic German into French service
and to ask his approval of the provisionally made agreement.  A result
of this mediation was my presentation directly thereafter, when I had
the opportunity to carry on a long conversation with the at that time
allpowerful ruler of France.  It concerned my life, my destiny, and
above all, my scientific works, of which he possessed a general
knowledge, whereupon he alluded to his favorite subject, Julius Caesar
and the conquest of Alexandria by this Roman commander.  He stood in a
window niche, spoke to me in the German language, put before me
questions which I,   (        0*0*0*  without interruption
from him, answered fluently.  The Emperor then broke his customary long
silence and informed me, as to my future position in France, that the
naturalization of a Frenchman which, according to the law, required not
less than a tenyear stay in France, should for me, on his order, be
granted after one year. I must say, that the speed with which my
naturalization threatened to take place frightened me a little.  I
remembered very well, to be sure, that in Berlin, shortly before my
departure for Paris, the cheap advice was given me by a highlyplaced
person, to look about for a position abroad, since in Berlin there was
neither the desire, nor the means, to cultivate Egyptologists.  I told
myself further, for my own consolation, that a number of German scholars
of best reputation lived abroad  I need only recall the names of the
Hellenist Hase, the Iranian scholar Julius Mohl, the cuneiform
decipherer Julius Oppert in France, the philologist Max Muller in
England, etc.  all of whom were born of German mothers, without the
transfer to a foreign citizenship ever having been charged as a reproach
against them, or as a crime. Nevertheless, one does not, without serious
reasons, exchange his native right for another, as one puts on a new
coat and throws the old one into the corner.  Even though, as a son of
Berlin, I was one of the most travelloving inhabitants of my dear
native city, yet the thought had never occurred to me, of dying in
misery as a foreigner. The last resort should not remain untried, I
resolved, in   (         0*0*0*  order to keep Prussian
citizenship for myself and my children. After I had addressed to the
proper place in Paris the request to be permitted to withhold my
decision until after the lapse of fourteen days, I travelled to Berlin
as Professor in spe of the College de France, to place my decision
in the hands of the Ministry of Education and to spare myself the
reproach of having capriciously broken with my own Fatherland.  I am
grateful principally to the intervention of Professor Lepsius, who was
little in favor of my emigration to France, that a secure position as
full Professor at the Georgia Augusta University in Gottingen was
conferred on me by the Ministry of Education.  It is a peculiar
phenomenon in our Fatherland, that the prophet is without honor in his
own country until he is in demand abroad.  The old experience proved
true in my own case, and I appeared to myself as a "something," as the
Persians say, since I felt that I had attained the value of a desired
article.  I am still grateful today to the highest educational
authorities of my Fatherland, for having offered me, through my transfer
to Gottingen, the opportunity to keep Prussian citizenship for myself
and my family. My move to Gottingen and my stay in that city were linked
with individual odd incidents which I often recalled later with
pleasure.  It may be remembered that Gottingen was a university city of
the Kingdom of Hannover, and that after the annexation of Hannover, the
venerable Alma Mater was obliged to receive its funds and directions
from Berlin.  Hardly three years had passed since the incorporation of
Hannover into   (        0*0*0*  Prussia.  It could
therefore not be surprising that the sentiments of the inhabitants of
Gottingen, headed by the Hannoverian bearers of wisdom, were anything
but friendly toward Prussia and its rulers.  On my first
orientationtrip to the banks of the Leine I myself experienced the
antagonism of the native inhabitants of the city, for nowhere were they
inclined to let an apartment to me at a suitable price.  By chance, it
had happened that a few months before my arrival, a law teacher of
Prussian origin at the University, Herr von der Knesebeck, had departed
this life, and after his death the widow wished to sell a property left
to her in the form of a solid, twostory house on Unter Masch Street.
The rear side looked out toward the socalled "rampart," which at that
time girded the good city of Gottingen, but nowadays is broken through
in various places.  At one point on it there stood, at least still at
the time of my sojourn in Gottingen, a small house whose door one
reached across a small wooden bridge.  It was pointed out to me as the
fortresslike dwelling with the drawbridge occupied by the Prince
Bismarck during his student period in Gottingen. Because of the aversion
toward the immigrant Prussian professor, to whom the need of a dwelling
was beginning to bring distinct anxiety, there remained nothing else for
me to do than to acquire the abovementioned house by purchase, for
which an installment of several thousand thaler was the first requisite.
The lack of money was, however, my least concern, for after a few days I
was already in the position to pay the   (
        0*0*0*  required amount to the lady, cash down.  My grat
Hieroglyphic Lexicon lay completed in manuscript before me; I
delivered it to the J.C. Hinrich Bookseller's in Leipzig for
publication, and this latter was willingly prepared to hand over to me,
in advance, a part of the requested fee.  To be sure, it brought me hard
months and years of labor.  I was obliged to write down the entire work
with my own hand, in constant struggle with obstinate pen and thick,
greasy ink, in order to prepare it for reprint.  For the year 1867 until
March 19, 1882, I was able to complete the sevenvolume work.  On 3146
pages there were executed approximately 8400 words in hieroglyphic and
demotic script characters, discussed and for the greatest part
explained.  I may not bestow on myself the selfpraise for having
carried out a prodigious work, yet may admit openly that the greatest
acknowledgement was rendered to the work by scholars at home and abroad,
already at the appearance of the first issues.  It lies in the nature of
the difficult task, that errors and faults in it were unavoidable, but
these defects have not until now been able to diminish the value of the
dictionary.  I observed with pleasure that since the publication of the
comprehensive work, the dicipherings of ancient Egyptian inscriptions
and texts occupied the activity of the scholars in ever increasing
measure.  Even Lepsius wrote to me about it on April 22, 1882:  "This is
a lifework, to which nothing similar can be compared in Egyptology." So
I settled, then, in my own house, and had plenty of time to become
familiar with the Gottingen citizenry,
without   (!        0*0*0*  feeling the slightest annoyance
that my good neighbors never wearied of scattering yellow and white sand
on both sides, or decorating their windows with flowers which showed the
same colors.  It annoyed my dear wife more, that the dealers in
provisions passed by our house without entering, and that at the market
the prices demanded of the immigrant Prussian were double and three
times those asked by the Hannoverian cook. The reception I enjoyed on
the part of my new colleagues was anything but Hannoverian, but showed a
genuine German character.  Even Ewald, the great Hebrew scholar,
irritable in politics as in science, and generally feared, did not let
me feel his antiPrussian sentiments in any way, and even entered into a
closer scientific relation with me, which certainly did not harm to the
increase of my knowledge.  Among my sincere friends and patrons, I
counted at that time Professor Curtius, the former teacher of Emperor
Friedrich, the Sanskrit researcher Benfey, the physicists Wohler, Weber,
and Listing, not to mention others who stood closer to me in
companionable contact.  In my honored colleague Dr. Klingerfues I
learned at that time to admire an incomparable wit. The lectures which I
held publicly in the largest hall of the University enjoyed a huge
attendance, for not infrequently I found myself facing more than five
hundred attentive listeners.  Small minds, which seemed to be plagued by
envy, could for this reason not resist the joke of designating my
lectures as the "summer theater" of the Alma Mater in
Gottingen.   ("        0*0*0*  Ԍ     Upon a younger,
lifeloving person, who has seen the world and its greatest cities, and
in travelling has come in contact with men of various nations, Gottingen
in time exerts a depressing impression.  It lies not in the natural
surroundings, the mountains and woods in the environs of the city, not
in its small size and the constraining collar of the rampart, but rather
in the character of its inhabitants who seem to have changed little
since the time of Heine.  Indeed their wishes for a  happy existence are
modest, for they are limited to the desired possession of a student able
to pay for a front room of the house, and a dreadful stinking pig in the
backhouse.  At least, so it was in my time.  My olfactory nerves could
testify daily and hourly, what a disagreeable, grunting company carried
on its excesses directly beside my little garden.  Especially in the
summer season, it was hardly any longer endurable, not to speak at all
of the countless flies, which the proximity of the bristled animals
attracted. The windows of my house remained closed day and night.  How I
longed for the pure breezes under the blue sky of the Nile Valley!
Chapter Vi.

My Call to Cairo

     Hardly had I become warm in Gottingen, and accustomed to the new
circumstances, when quite unexpectedly there came a letter to me from
Egypt which was of the most official nature, and seemed worth searching
deliberation.  It came neither from Mariette nor from another European
in the Nile Valley, but bore the signature and the title AliPasha
Mubarek, Minister   (#        0*0*0*  of Public Instruction.
On the order of His Viceroy Highness, Ismail Pasha, the "Vizier of
Knowledge" honored me through the proposal to come to Egypt, first of
all for five years, in order to establish in Cairo a EuropeanOriental
school, in which selected youths of Egyptian race should be initiated
into the subjects of higher instruction and into the knowledge of
hieroglyphic decipherment.  Along with a very respectable salary, there
would be placed at my disposal an official dwelling in the middle of a
beautiful garden, and in other respects every sort of amenity would be
granted me, such as I could not wish better for myself.  Since in the
given case it was a question not of my person alone, but of the
reputation of the Prussian system of instruction, which the prospect had
opened to me to represent in the East, I communicated the contents of
the letter to the higher authorities, leaving it to them to reach their
decision.  I was granted, on the order of the King, a fiveyear leave of
absence, which I myself later shortened, however, in such a way that I
returned to Gottingen in the hot season, in order to continue at the
regular hour my public lectures in the "summer theater," "On the manners
and customs of the peoples of the East." On my arrival in Egypt, I
encountered from all sides the signs of the greatest good will.  The
Viceroy thanked me personally for my willingness to respond to his
wishes, and the "Vizler of Knowledge" welcomed me in the most fluent
French, rather as one receives a dear old friend.  He was
at   ($        0*0*0*  that time approaching forty, lean and
towering in height, brown as a fellah, and of an extraordinary
liveliness in conversation, in which he took pains to express the
clarity of a thought mostly by the indirect means of the Arabic parable.
Son of a fellah from Upper Egypt and later sent to the government
schools in Cairo, he had attracted the attention of his teachers through
his diligence an his ease of comprehension, so that finally he was
assigned to a student mission to Paris.  In the great modern Babel, he
studied the sciences according to the French method, attained the best
grade in every subject, and was later assigned as artillery officer to
the military school in Metz.  After his return to his native land, he
climbed in the fastest sequence, the steps of the ladder of the Egyptian
official hierarchy, to shine at last as the radiant sun in the heaven of
education in Cairo. I can boast of having enjoyed his friendship in the
broadest measure, which led him on his part to the request that I be
willing to work out for him in the French language, during my leisure
hours, a survey of the history of Egypt in the periods of the Ptolemies
and Romans, furthermore, the numismatics of the Nile Valley in those
same epochs, the ancient geography of the country, etc., in the shortest
possible time.  His intention was, so he assured me, to write for the
use of the native youth  also for the adults this could do no harm  an
encyclopedic work in the Arabic language, which would bring before the
reader in understandable style Egypt's position in world history,
its   (%        0*0*0*  learning, its arts, its inventions,
its manners and customer,  in a word, anything and everything as it had
developed in the course of the centuries and millenia.  My Vizier was a
highly cultivated man, but he had one failing, which belonged not to him
alone, but to his entire race, namely in oral and written presentation
to throw things pellmell and with abandon all together.  Even Ismail
Pasha knew this hereditary failing of his people very well, and in
reference to his Vizier he remarked to me once:  "You see, he and I were
together at the school in Paris and were instructed in the same
subjects, only with the difference in the result, that he received the
best mark and I the worst, in the reportcards. But in spite of his
acquired knowledge, his confusion prevented him from really doing good,
while I myself, the poorer student  indeed I possess less knowledge
than he does  have at least kept my sound common sense.  I see clearly
and do not judge things distortedly." The school for which I had been
selected as General Director was situated outside the city of Cairo and
in the vicinity of the suburb of Bulak.  The building belonging to it,
with the outbuildings and a front garden, all surrounded by a high white
wall, displayed the old Turkish architectural style, in which even the
harem windows with their latticework were not lacking.  The house
obviously dated from the Mameluke Period.  Irregularly laid out, each of
the rooms had a different elevation, and a great number of steps and
corridors connected the individual ones with each other.  For
my   (&        0*0*0*  arrival, everything had been
whitewashed and painted, yet they did not avoid leaving the old dirt
under the plaster.  Bats in the rooms, mice and rats in the cellars and
kitchens, were the cooccupants of the Turkish palace, from whose roof,
with its Chinese umbrellalike projections, I was daily witness of the
most magnificent sunsets.  The front garden was charming in its tropical
aspect; tall fruitbearing date palms and blossoming mulberry trees
formed transparent small groups, the paths were bordered by immensely
tall, dark cypresses, the beds were cultivated with brightcolored
ornamental plants or household vegetables, and a government buffalo, as
always with eyes blindfolded, turned the creaking waterwheel in the
corner from early morning until the setting of the sun.  My wife was
quite enchanted by the genuinely Oriental gardenidyll under the
everblue sky of the East; but when, on one beautiful morning, she had
the occasion to witness with her own eyes from the balcony the flight of
our Egyptian housecat with a oneandahalfmeterlong snake, there was
an end to all garden poetry for her.  She gave up her daily walks
between the flowerbeds and satisfied herself with standing behind the
harem lattices of the wide reception hall, to cast a look at the lost
paradise beyond.  "It is really true," she expressed to me, "that no one
wanders under palms unpunished." My pupils were, like the Apostles,
twelve in number, all natives, who differed from one another only in
color, so that the sons of Turkish mothers could be recognized by a
lighter, those of Egyptian ones by a darker skin.  There had
ostensibly   ('        0*0*0*  been put at my disposal a
selection of the most qualified students, but a closer examination of
their attainments soon convinced me that it was actually only the lame
and the blind in knowledge whom "the High Diwan" had sent me from the
city of learning to the SchechGollali.  That was the official and
popular name of my house, in whose neighborhood was the tomb of a holy
man of this name, at which the sons of the land, in passing by, used to
offer a short, perfunctory prayer.  Too late, I realized that the
teachers of the government school had cunningly guarded against
depriving themselves of the best of their students, and on the contrary
had forwarded to me in the house only the stale dregs of their living
wares. I can easily understand that the instruction which Eastern
students receive from European teachers always leads to only moderate
success, since themeans are, for the most part, completely lacking for
the teachers to make themselves sufficiently intelligible to the
students, to be comprehended by them.  Most Europeans, who not even in
their country have undergone a school examination, are assigned to make
use of interpreters in teaching  interpreters who themselves, on the
other hand, lack the capacity to understand the meaning of the technical
expressions in the various branches of instruction, and to introduce a
wordstructure for the Arabic language which coincides to some
comprehensible degree with the foreign expression.  The French language,
which at that time was taught to the students, they also knew only
halfway, so that also in this direction, difficulties of every sort
stood in   ((        0*0*0*  the way of the instruction. My
task, which I had to fulfill, was no easy one under such circumstances,
and to this day, I do not know how I succeeded, with the help of German
teachers and an Abyssinian lecturer, in imparting to my students the
German, French, English and Abyssinian languages, introducing them to
the understanding of the hieroglyphs, and in teaching them the elements
of the auxiliary sciences.  The Viceroy seemed to be satisfied in the
highest degree by my skill, the "Vizier of Knowledge" was delighted, and
the Directors of the government schools nearly burst with envy.  Not to
be forgotten, even my old friend Mariette began to be worried by the
thought that the Viceroy might have the secret plan to appoint in his
museum native officials familiar with hieroglyphic studies. Much as I
endeavored to pacify him about it, he remained distrustful in his mind,
so that he even had the order given to the museum attendants not to
permit any native to copy hieroglyphic inscriptions.  Those concerned
were simply pushed out of the temple. Before I relate the conclusion of
my later school successes, I must mention an event which at that time
kept all Europe most busily occupied, and made the newspapers speak of
it as with the tongues of angels.  I mean the formal opening of the Suez
Canal, in which I participated in an official capacity as Egyptian
Commissar.  Ever since I had taken my position as Director of an
Oriental Academy in Cairo, I now qualified as a "servant" of the
government, and therefore had   ()        0*0*0*  to conform
by putting on the black "Stambulin" coat and setting the red Tarboosh on
my head.  Since at that time, I already had a mastery of the Arabic
language sufficient to make use of it in my hieroglyphic instruction,
and even to give public lectures in Arabic, most Egyptians regarded me
as an official who had already spent long years of his life on the banks
of the Nile. L THE OPENING OF THE SUEZ CANALă November 17,
1869, had been set for the celebration in which the opening of the Suez
Canal was to take place in the most stately manner.  The intention was
to conjure up a festival for princesandpeople such as had never
existed in the world.  At the proper time, the invitations had been
dispatched to the ruling princes of Europe, no less to a number of
prominent persons in European society, and certainly it had not been
forgotten to honor the gentlemen of the mighty "Press" with a special
invitation.  Expenses were under no circumstances imposed on the
travellers, for railroads, steamships, coaches, hotels, in a word,
everything stood at their disposal, whereby the maintenance, even to the
finest wines, could be described as truly regal.  The dilapidated
buildings from older and more recent times in Alexandria, Cairo, and at
other points in the country usually visited by travellers had been newly
painted up on the command of the Viceroy, in order to offer the
strangers a pleasing view, and my "Vizier of Knowledge," who showed off
as a great connoisseur of Arabian architecture, had been busy for
weeks,   (*        0*0*0*  disfiguring in the most frightful
way, the wonderful mosques and buildings from the older Arabian Period
of Egypt.  The surfaces of the splendid monuments were covered, that is,
with white, red, blue, green, and black stripes, like colored
musicstaves, the sight of which, as could not be otherwise, evoked a
horrible impression.  Upon the arrival of the invited guests in Cairo a
cry of indignation was wrung from the mouths of the travellers, and they
would not believe that an enlightened Vizier could consider it an honor
to have the monuments of Cairo daubed from top to bottom with the help
of a paintbrush. In the hotels there was not the smallest place any
longer to be had, for the government had rented every available room at
high prices, in order to receive the arriving guests in the most worthy
manner.  Countless steamers lay heated up on the river or in the harbors
of Alexandria and Port Said, awaiting the moment to receive the invited
guests.  Everything that could move at all was on its feet, in order to
hurry toward the great festival of Suez or, under false colors, to
squeeze into the midst of the great crowd of participants. The closer
the great day came, the more the excitement grew, especially when the
first foreigners came flying in like migratory birds.  Those who had
made their way to Alexandria were conveyed farther east from there, and
it became my job, in such a case, to conduct the German and Austrian
guests on an Egyptian warship to Port Said and to let them pass through
the entire length of the Canal.  It was in the night from
the   (+        0*0*0*  15th to the 16th of November when
the ship laden with the precious living cargo passed along the Egyptian
seacoast on a very agitated waterway, for the sea was restless and the
weather promised to be rather overcast. In the harbor of Port Said were
anchored warships of all nations, which had brought princely personages
of first rank from their native lands to Egypt's coast, and on the
riggings and yardarms fluttered hundreds and hundreds of brightcolored
flags as a nautical expression of greeting and highest festive mood.
The Empress Eugenie of France and the Emperor Franz Josef of
AustriaHungary stood at the head of the crowned guests, while it did my
Prussian heart good to be able to greet the representatives of my German
homeland in the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, our later Emperor
Friedrich III.  He had come to Egypt not merely to help embellish the
planed celebration of the Canalopening by his presence, but at the same
time with the intention, in spite of the short time allowed, to become
acquainted, by personal observation, with the Caliph city of Cairo and
the wonderland of Upper Egypt. As escort and guide through the
monumental upper country the Professors Lepsius and Dumichen had
attached themselves to the princely hero, but meanwhile had made their
way to Cairo by the usual travelroute.  For the Crown Prince, to whom I
was sufficiently known from earlier times, it was obviously a pleasure
to receive the first greetings of the Viceroy through a
PrussianEgyptian official, and to be able to converse with me about the
things to come in the next days.   (,        0*0*0*  Ԍ     It
cannot occur to me to weary the reader by a recital of the festivities
in the city of Ismailla and at other points on the Suez Canal.  The
Canal was consecrated by a Mohammedan, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish
religious leader, the cannon thundered, the invited guests uttered their
cries of joy, in a word, the celebration was carried out in the most
brilliant way according to plan.  Next to the Viceroy, the old Lesseps,
as he was then already called, attracted the highest attention on all
sides.  They crowded around him, shook his hands, and congratulated him
on the great success of his achievement.  At that time, I considered him
the most celebrated hero of peace of our time, and did not remember the
words of Solon, that no one may be called fortunate before his death.
The Panama scandals have sullied also his name, even though it must be
admitted that he managed haphazardly, without closer examination of the
state of the funds, only in order to gain time to prolong the canal
transaction.  He acted like the ostrich which, according to the saying,
sticks its head into the sand, so as not to see a threatening danger.
The princely persons and the other invited guests were quartered in the
castles, private buildings or in tents, fed most sumptuously and
entertained by amusements of every sort, such as balls, fireworks,
public dances until late in the night.  I saw on this occasion, the
Empress Eugenie in the company of the Austrian Princess Metternich
standing before an open tent in which Arabian dancing girls were
performing the socalled bee dance, without taking the slightest
offense at   (-        0*0*0*  the sight which was anything
but suitable for ladies. For the rest, the whole numerous company,
insofar as it had to do with the Europeans, consisted of two almost
equal halves.  One of them was served, the other took over the business
of serving.  The employees of the Viceregal court were not sufficient by
far, to offer the requisite skills for the service of foreigners;
therefore the expedient had been grasped, to put into uniforms or into
black dresscoats and white ties all Europeans in Alexandria and Cairo
who were in any degree useful.  I discovered a great number of German
artisans among them, as for example a cobbler from Potsdam who, with the
greatest dignity, filled the guests' glasses from one champagne bottle,
while a second betrayed him by showing its silvery top out of his coat
pocket.  I did not hold the secret desire for champagne against the man
at all, for even many an honored guest was following the same example,
and I was no less amused when I saw how this and that member of the
invited company betook himself into the background of a buffet tent, in
order to make disappear into his pocket the contents of a box of genuine
Havana cigars.  Man is, in certain cases, plainly a greedy beast of
prey, even when there are no young ones to feed. It can be no wonder
that the costs of the festival later turned out to be quite
considerable.  If I cite the figure of one hundred million marks, I have
still remained far below the truth, but naturally only about onethird
of this sum can be regarded as actual expenditure.  The rest, as they
say,   (.        0*0*0*  evaporated along the way, whereby
theft, without distinction of religion or race flourished in its fullest
bloom. My trip on the Suez Canal, on which I had set up my living and
sleeping quarters under the cannonbarrel of an Egyptian gunboat  for
my foreign ship had remained stuck fast  my arrival in Suez, and my
return to Cairo proceeded happily.  The highlights during these quick
tours were seeing again dear acquaintances and friends from home.  Among
them were L. Pietsch, who at that time had fallen into the water of the
Red Sea and fortunately was pulled out again, the energetic dragoon
captain, Baron von Korff, and the present Under Secretary of State, His
Excellency von Stephan who, after his return home, wrote a quite
excellent and widely read book on Egypt. Already in Port Said a friend,
the Austrian Consul General von Schreiner, had looked for me in every
nook and corner in order to give me an important message.  When he
caught up with me, he called to me, already from afar:  "The Emperor
wants to have you, he wishes you as guide during his stay in Egypt."
Upon my cabled enquiry of the Viceroy, permission for this honorary
service was granted me, and so the unexpected distinction became mine,
to belong to the daily attendants of the Sovereign of AustriaHungary,
as long as he remained on Egyptian soil.  I had opportunity to admire
the amiable simplicity of his nature, and by his energy for work  he
arose regularly at four o'clock in the morning  frankly to be put to
shame.  His conversations with my humble
self   (/        0*0*0*  were of genuine Austrian
goodnaturedness, often spiced by witty remarks, to which the Berliner,
even though in all modesty, never failed to give the powerful Emperor
his due reply.  It was particularly the short word "varnished!" invented
by me, that highly amused the Emperor. In his entourage, there were men
whose historical importance instilled me with a certain awe, even though
I was permitted to associate with them in the closest circle.  There
were three personalities in particular who attracted me, and whose names
I need only utter, to have their importance recognized.  The Minister
Andrassy, a superior horseman and Hungarian cavalier, as the saying
goes; the Saxon, at that time in Austrian service, Minister von Beust,
who actually gave me the impression of an old schoolmaster and,
enveloped in a blue silk, goldembroidered Arabian burnoose, let himself
be carried overland on a small Egyptian donkey; and third, the Admiral
von Tegetthoff, of celebrated memory as victor in the seabattle of
Lissa, who on all excursions was accustomed to make use of the dromedary
as mount.  I have seldom seen an African Bedouin who, with the same east
and elegance as the Austrian Admiral, stretched his path behind him on
the ship of the desert, often with the speed of wind, so that he aroused
general astonishment when among the natives. The Emperor had declined,
considering his limited time, to undertake a journey to Upper Egypt, all
the more so, since one was not sure whether the stormy season would not
hinder the fast passage of his warship during the approaching
return   (0        0*0*0*  ԫvoyage to Trieste.  Already on
the voyage to Egypt furious storms had raged on the sea, so that Herr
von Beust, who was on the second warship, in answer to the Emperor's
question as to his wellbeing, signalled by semaphore:  "Mortituri te
salutant, Caesar."  Back came the Caesar's reply: "Requiescant in
pace." The excursions which I recollect vividly were a trip to
Sakkarah and the ascent of the largest pyramid of Gizeh. During his
Egyptian sojourn, the Emperor occupied the charming Palace of Gesireh,
situated in the middle of a lovely garden on the west bank of the Nile
and opposite the old Museum of Bulak.  One morning at six o'clock he,
with all his attendants, boarded one of the most beautiful Viceregal
Nile steamers, which lay anchored at the garden quay to receive the
noble traveller.  The Nile billowed in the heavy fullness of the flood
waters, the morning air was cold and windy, but one remained on the deck
of the ship in order to view on the left hand the waterfront of Cairo,
the buildings of Old Cairo with the citadel in the background, and the
high range of the Mokkatam Mountains with their stonequarries already
hollowed out in Antiquity, and to follow with eyes on the right side the
whole series of the pyramids across the yellow strip of desert in the
background, and the green fields of grain, meadows of clover, and
forests of palms in the foreground. Notwithstanding the fact that the
steamer belonged to the fastrunners of the Viceroy, three full hours
were needed to cut through the waves of the Nile swell until the moment
of   (1        0*0*0*  our arrival at the landingstage at
the village of Bedreschein.  Horses, dromedaries, and donkeys stood
beautifully harnessed and saddled near the port, and a white tent was
set up, to offer the noble traveller and his following a morning snack
before the ride.  But the tables inside showed only their blank wooden
surfaces, for the steamer with the breakfast was late, and since even a
halfhour wait would not bring its arrival, the Emperor ordered the
horses to be mounted, in order to travel the twohour way to Sakkarah in
fast time, at first on the dams which passed through the region of the
ruins of Memphis. The remains of the latest inundation were still
visible in the form of larger and smaller lakes, on the edges of which a
countless flock of birds had alighted.  The Emperor was at once seized
with the desire to hunt; he had a gun handed to him, and shot upon shot
was fired into the air, out of which fell the stricken bodies of the
winged creatures.  The hunt might have lasted an hour, when the Emperor
complained to me that he was afflicted with the most unbelievable
hunger, since he had not yet had a bite to eat.  Smiling, I put my hand
into the pocket of my overcoat and drew out the crusted piece of a loaf
of black bread, which my wife, out of foresight, had stuck in the
pocket.  Gratefully he reached for the piece of bread and broke it into
two equal halves, one of which he handed back to me.  After he had
consumed his portion, he asserted to me candidly, that never in his life
had a little piece of bread tasted so good to him.  My own half of
the   (2        0*0*0*  bread was thereupon promptly divided
further into three pieces, of which Count Andrassy ate the one, Admiral
Tegetthoff the other, and I myself the third with truly wolfish hunger.
For our arrival in the Serapeum of Memphis, on which now the Egyptian
flag was flown  for the French tricolor had taken its departure since
Mariette's entry into Viceregal service  everything naturally had been
prepared in the most dignified manner, in order to bring before the eyes
of the Emperor the subterranean wonders of the desert in their magic
lighting.  An opulent breakfast was served in the meantime, after the
French lackeys of the Viceroy had made up for their delay by mounting
ready dromedaries, with boxes and chests, and making their way to the
desert at the fastest trot.  At my suggestion to wait for another
halfhour after eating, before the ride was to be continued, since in
Egypt going out in the blazing sun on a full stomach may often cause
sunstroke, there was a restinterval, at the end of which the horses
were mounted once more. The ride from the pyramids of Sakkarah to those
of Gizeh in the north, usually takes three hours' time.  It leads
through the midst of very ancient grave sites in the form of open or
filledin wells across the undulating tract of the desert, to continue
later, on the desert's edge, to the cultivated land on less sandy soil.
In spite of my warning, the Emperor led his horse at the fastest trot
and gallop through the dangerous region of the wells, not
iinfrequently   (3        0*0*0*  springing across the
yawning openings with a leap.  Frankly, my hair stood on end, yet I
summoned all my strength to remain at his side and to follow the tracks
of the Bedouins' footpaths in the sand.  Toward five o'clock, after
hardly an hour's ride, the party arrived before the pyramids of Gizeh,
where, on the height of the plateau and directly at the foot of the
largest pyramid, were stationed the number of Viceregal carriages
intended for the Emperor, as well as a curious crowd from the city. The
ascent of the immense stepped structure which King Cheops had had
erected over his gravechamber is neither easy nor especially pleasant.
Two Bedouins usually pull up the climber by the hands from step to step,
while a third pushes the body of the mounter from behind, so that one is
actually raised and pushed, without one's self performing the activity
of climbing according to his own will.  The Austrian Emperor stubbornly
refused to accept Bedouin support, since, as he assured me, he was a
good mountain climber, and in the Tirol on the chamois hunt was known as
one of the best climbers.  In fact, the Imperial ruler reached about
onehalf the height without having accepted even the slightest help; but
then he declared to me that he now had enough and wanted to start back
down.  At that, I called to the Emperor's attention that from the top of
thepyramid a magnificent panorama presented itself over the desert and
the cultivated land, and that it was advisable, in order to reach the
goal more quickly, not to reject the help of the Bedouins.  Almost at
the same time, we   (4        0*0*0*  both reached the top,
whereupon the Minister Andrassy and Admiral Tegetthoff soon came up to
join us.  At the sight of the many carriages at the foot of the
pyramids, Andrassy turned to the Emperor with the joking remark in the
French language, "Sire, quarante voltures vous regardent d'en bas de
cette pyramide."  This was a play on the wellknown words of General
Napolean Bonaparte, who, at the assault of the Mamelukes near Embabe at
the foot of the pyramids, shouted to his soldiers with a loud voice:
"Soldats, quarante siecles vous regardent du haut de cette pyramide."
General merriment followed the witty expression of the Minister. A few
years later, I stood on the same spot beside a second Emperor who, in
spite of his age, had not shrunk from the trouble of climbing the steps
of the tombmountain, in order to cast a look from the height into the
depth and of the surroundings.  Hardly had he begun to turn his eyes
toward the eastern horizon, when a true seaserpent of American ladies
wound itself up to the top  there were at least twenty of them  each
of whom drew an album out of her travelling bag and expressed the
request that the Emperor be so gracious as to inscribe it.  Smiling, he
took his pencil and wrote on a page of each album the words, "Dom Pedro
d'Alcantara."  He was none other than the Emperor of Brazil. Following
the departure of the Emperor Franz Josef from Egypt, our Crown Prince
Friedrich Wilhelm came to Cairo, after he had made his Upper Egyptian
journey, on one of the Viceroy's steamers happily and to his highest
satisfaction.    (5        0*0*0*  The Crown Priince could
stay only a few days in the city of the Caliphs, but the allotted time
was fully enough to inspect its sights worth seeing and the objects of
interest in its surroundings, and through his presence to lend a
patriotic consecration to the laying of the cornerstone of the
Evangelical Church in Cairo.  The German Club, consisting at that time
of artisans and merchants, did not refrain from honoring the Crown
Prince by a torchlight procession and addressing words of the most
respectful greeting to the celebrated hero.  The conversation of the
Crown Prince with individual artisans was not without a humorous tinge.
I remember that the then very wellknown figure of "the cobbler," in
reply to the question as to his birthplace, answered the Prince:;  "We
are compatriots."  "How is that?"  "We are both Potsdamers."  "Well,
I thank you!"  The Crown Prince burst into a hearty laugh. Was it any
wonder that, in the mass of invitations to the opening ceremony of the
Suez Canal, this or that literary notable felt offended, to have been
overlooked and to have received no free ticket?  Certain patrons of
those overlooked even called this negligence to the attention of the
Viceroy later, with a gentle suggestion to make up for it subsequently,
that is, to honor the persons concerned by an extra invitation.  The
ways and means which the forgotten ones took, in order to have their
complaints and their wishes reach the ultimate address, are no concern
of mine and I have no right, even today, to pass judgement on the
correctness or   (6        0*0*0*  crookedness of the same.
Only one special case stands out in my recollection. One day, when I was
received by the Viceroy in an audience, he put before me the question
whether I was acquainted with the German George Sand, a famous authoress
who seemed to have been forgotten in the invitations, and who had been
especially recommended to him, that he might make amends for the offense
committed.  I frankly confessed my ignorance in regard to a George Sand
in Germany, until the Viceroy finally stammered her name with the
expression, "il s'agit d'une Madame Mulbaque." Now I knew all at once
where I was.  "The person of the writer stands so high," remarked the
Viceroy to me, "that in fact, I have had to have the desired invitation
issued.  The lady will arrive in the next days and take her winter abode
here." And she did indeed arrive with bag and baggage and accompanied by
her "doeeyed" daughter and the atttendant domestic staff, to take up
her sixmonth stay, at Viceregal expense, in the best hotel of Cairo,
where the handsomest carriages of the Viceroy and other honors rendered
to distinguished travellers were placed at her disposal. I received, to
my surprise, the first visit of my famous authoresscompatriot, a
corpulent lady who was perhaps in the midfifties and who displayed on
her bracelets several large gold medals for art and science.  In the
most affable way, she unfolded to me her plans to write a long,
naturally   (7        0*0*0*  "historical" novel, which
would have the family of Mehemmed Ali as its subject, and which her
Egyptian journey had in general brought into existence.  But since, as
she said, she was little acquainted with the manners and customs of the
Orientals, and did not even have a mastery of the Arabic language, she
entreated me to give her the necessary notes about them, to guard her
against possible errors.  I sincerely regrettd that I was unable to
place myself completely at her disposal, since my office claimed my
entire time, and in the evenings I belonged to my family. After a stay
of six months, the German George Sand left Egypt, overwhelmed by favors
of the Khedive, to whom, incidentally, she presented a bill, in order to
be compensated to some degree for the loss of her precious time in the
writing of her historical Egyptian novel.  The Viceroy had the sum paid
through the French Banker Oppenheim, and Madame Mulbaque returned the
following year, her household court augmented by a German stenographer,
to claim the hospitality of the Viceroy anew, and to complete her novel
in manuscript. The departure was combined with a new demand, for which
again the amount of money was granted.  When, in the third year, Madame
once more addressed a letter to the Viceroy, to be permitted to return
to Egypt, the Prince whose kindness was so abused was wise enough to let
her have the short answer by wire, that the Viceroy prevented no one
from undertaking a journey to his country. I have neither seen nor read
anything of her Egyptian   (8         0*0*0*  historical
work, but her Reisebriefen aus Agypten, which appeared in Jena in
the year 1871, I derived much instruction and much amusement in hours of
rest.  How true, for example, is her statement with regard to Egypt:
"Money actually lies on the street; whoever understands how to look for
it, finds it," and then, three lines after that:  "Money lies, moreover,
also buried in the earth from very ancient times.  The wandering tribes
who once passed through the land, before the days of the pyramids and
the Pharaohs, used to bury their gold and silver, in order to insure
themselves against thieving neighbors and travelling companions.  They
meant to find it again, when they returned home from some migration or
other; but then the wind of the desert had passed along over them, or
the water of the Nile had covered the places with its mud, or, since the
vast steppes here are so completely similar and differentiated by
nothing, they themselvess could not find again the places where they
left their treasure."  Now one knows where all the good money of the
Viceroy comes from, but not yet for a long time where it goes, in order
to be safe from being found again. The travel letters of the German
George Sand have, frankly, such a secondary literary importance that no
one speaks of them; indeed at the time of their appearance, moreover,
they had the unpleasant consequence for the authoress, that she was
obliged publicly to retract certain slanderous statements, in order to
avoid an accusation of defamation of
character.   (9        0*0*0*  Ԍ     There was no lack,
besides, of iindividual German stragglers who landed in Egypt with
almost nothing but an umbrella in their hands, provided with written
recommendations, to throw themselves into the arms of the Viceroy's most
extended hospitality.  For their modest claims it was an eady thing for
me to move the Viceroy to meet their hotel bills and the costs of their
travels back and forth, for which I was praised by the wanderers, among
whom was a poet, as a true savior. `	`	 `	 
Ãh# VICEREGAL COURT LIFEă The stay of the foreigners
in Cairo, after their return from the upper country, finally gave to the
daily workaday life of the Suropeans settled in Cairo anuncomfortable
flavor. Prolonged festive moods, expressed particularly in oppressive
evening sessions in the beerhalls, quickly assume an intolerable and
wearisome character, at least for respectable people, and one is glad
when the wandering plague turns homeward.  For myself, it was always a
pleasure to receive dear compatriots in my own home, and at the family
table to be able to talk with them "of over there" and of everything
that stirs and refreshes our hearts.  My friend and contemporary L.
Pietsch, will not have forgotten in what manner, truly German, truly
thoughtful and longing for home, we spent Christmas Eve of the year
1869, and how unique the Christmas tree was.  It was a simple
broomstick, stuck upright in a pedestal, but covered with blooming
myrtle branches from my garden, between which Arabian candles spread
their shimmering brightness.
We   (:        0*0*0*  celebrated the festival of the
blessed, joyful childhood on African soil surely with greater warmth
than we would have done at the same hour in our own native land. I
myself, after the exciting festival days, had again taken up my old
activity at the school, and that was necessary, for the native youth had
also been strongly iinfected with the water spectacle.  The students
made the best progress, each according to h is capability, and I can
testify by experience that, in the facility for learning by heart, they
far surpassed the average student in Germany.  A particular difficulty
for me was to initiate them iinto the mysteries fthat are iinseparable
from the ancient Egyptian mythology.  "There is no God but God" is, as
is well known, the rallying cry of Islam, and any reminder of gods a sin
against the Koran and the Prophet Mohammed.  Ancient Egypt was swarming
with divinities, old and young even to childhood, male and female, who
married, produced children, and led a common family life.  How was I to
make it clear to my students that their ancestors were in the most
complete contradiction to them in religious matters, and how to bring
the essential nature of each individual deity closer to their
conception? How often I had to resort, even here, to a trick, which
permitted me to speak to my students of a multitude of Egyptian
divinities, but not to let their Islamic "La illah il Allah" run into
too much of a dilemma, and burden their faith. Siince, as is known, the
Arabs attribute to their Allah ninetynine great qualities under as many
names, I taught my   (;        0*0*0*  students to recognize
the designations of the ancient Egyptian gods as merely distinctive
names of this one indivisible God, of whom even the pagan inscriptions
say:  "He is unique and alone, and there is no other God except him."
Names of gods like Amon, that is, "the Hidden One," in Thebes, Ptah,
that is "the Creator," in Memphis, among others, began to exert even a
certain power of attraction on my students, and fundamentally my
explanation and conception were not too far from the truth. It was a
kind of idyllic repose which I felt in my house in the midst of the palm
garden, in which at the same time were my students.  The blue sky, the
nodding of the palm branches in the gently stirred air, the creaking of
the waterwheel, but apart from this, the sacred stillness of the entire
environment, did not fail to work their spell on me, and sitting in the
corner of my divan on the broad balcony, which actually represented a
room with the front wall broken through, I often had that blissful,
indescri bable feeling which the Eastern languages are accustomed to
describe with the word "kef."  One dreams with open eyes, and the god of
sleep taps gently on our brow, to embrace us with his arms.
"Kef"produces no poets, to be sure, but I can imagine that formerly it
exerted its full influence on the prophets. Whoever lives in the East,
and above all, is obliged to live in contact with the great ones of the
country, never dares to leave out the fulfillment of one obligation
which for us Europeans might seem inexplicable.  It consists in
paying   (<        0*0*0*  a courtesy visit to the reigning
Prince and his Viziers at least once a week  a visit that demands five
or more hours. One is received in the antechamber by a Secretary and
requested to register his name in a book lyiing open, coffee in little
cups is offered to the guests by uniformed subordinates or by kawassees,
the Master of Ceremonies appears, in order to greet those present and to
note their names.  He disappears again in order to go to his master,
give him the names of the visitors and receive his further orders. He
comes back to the waiting room, begs this one or that, or perhaps an
entire group, to follow him to be presented to his noble master.  JThe
waiting occasionally can stretch from nine o'clock in the morning to
nine o'clock in the evening.  Hence whoever has a sensitive nature like
my own humble self, he can be sincerely provoked, when he observes that
much later arrivals are at once admitted while he himself must endure
waiting for hours.  The illhumor grows proportionately as the visitors,
coming and leaving with pleased or malicious expressions, regard the one
crouched on the divan like a poor sinner in disgrace. In spite of
everything, the European finds various opportunities to amuse himself in
the waiting room, especially in the case when great ones of the realm,
of Egyptian or Turkish origin, enter the waiting hall and distinguish
themselves from Europeans by their peculiar actions and questions.
Isn't it very comical, for example, when a fat Pasha suddenly opens his
vest coat in order to look for a   (=        0*0*0*  living
louse and having happily caught the prey leaes it on his left thumb and
views it with a magnifying glass which he had bought previously
somewhere or had received as a gift? "Schuf agaib!"  (Look how
wonderful!)  See how wonderful, he calls out and turns the thumb with
the ouse on it to his neighbor.  I could tell the most precious stories
which have remained in my memories from hours of waiting, but for lack
of space, must be satisfied with the one example.  In any case, it was
not the worst. And so, once or twice weekly, I had to pay my obligatory
visit above all to the then ruling Viceroy Ismail Pasha, whereby in the
winter, I had to travel by carriage to the city palace of Abdin, and in
the summer, to the country villas of Gesireh or Gizeh, on the other side
of the Nile and opposite the city of Cairo.  The Viceroy was a
thoroughly Europeaneducated man, who did not lack sagacity and
acuteness, even though the particularly sly French bankers in Cairo were
far beyond his imagined cleverness.  He was a devoted admirer of
European ladies, when they were distinguished not merely by beauty, but
also by culture and charm in conversation; he was a patron of art and
science, as far as it served his purposes, and all in all, a gentleman
with whom it was possible to get along well, as long as one did not
contradict him or find any fault with his plans.  It is a pleasant
recollection for me, to have been received by him almost always
immediately after my appearance, and to have been kept near him. His
conversations with me, which he carefully defined
as   (>         0*0*0*  "academic," concerned everything
possible in the world, but alluded with particular preference to our
great Emperor Wilhelm I and his paladins, among whom Prince Bismarck and
Count von Molkte appeared to him as the shining stars.  "His Majesty,
your Emperor," he often repeated to me, "is one of the greatest men of
the time, and in history his name will shine to eternity in the heaven
of renown, but do you know wherein his true greatness lies?  In the
fortunate ability to have recognized among his officials the talen and
the fitness of the inidividual for the solution of the state problems,
and to have put the man of his choice in the right position.  How many
princes of powerful and great kingdoms have there not been, who,
themselves gifted, were full of great plans but yet did not possess the
accurate vision in order to choose their tools out of the multitude and
thereby attain the set goals." I must call attention to the fact that
the FrancoPrussian War in the years 18701871 had not failed to bring
the greatest disillusionments to the Viceroy.  Until then he, like so
many another prince, was firm in the belief, not only that the French
nation marched at the head of the rest of the peoples and was downright
invincible, but also that the Emperor of the French, Napolean III, had
all the other rulers in the world in his pocket, as they say.  Such a
view had induced hiim, and already his predecessor Sajid, to yield
completely to French methods, in the firm belief in the prestige and the
infallibility of the French nation.  The Egyptian army was organized
after the French model and   (?        0*0*0*  commanded by
French officers; in the Ministries the greater part of the higher
officials consisted of Frenchmen; the offices of the Court were likewise
filled by Frenchmen, among whom the Secretary of the Cabinet Barrot, a
nephew of the famous French statesman Odilon Barrot, occupied the most
prominient position.  He was the real adviser of the Viceroy, as his
beautiful wife was the adviser of the ladies, also in their orders in
Paris for the Viceregal harem.  Court life, even to the table service,
was fashioned after French style, for which the sympathy of the Viceroy
was expressed when, after the war so unfortunate for France, he took
almost all of Napoleon's servants into his own service.  French
gratitude, in my opinion, did not particularly prove itself.  When the
money crisis had driven the Viceroy into a corner and the flow of gold
began to dry up, the fattened French rats abandoned the sinking ship of
Ismail.  From Barrot and the French courtphysician of the Khedive down,
they betook themselves to the steamers in the harbor of Alexandria, to
embark for France and to eat up the sweat of the fellahs in high
livingin Paris. That there were also honorable people among the French
was proved by my friend at that time, the architect Rousseau, who
ultimately accepted a position as Undersecretary of State in the
Ministry of Public Works, and only under the successor of the Viceroy
left Egypt as a poor man.  I believe he is the same one who, in the
Panama scandal, emerged as almost the only upright man among the many
culprits. It was natural that my contacts with the Court led
me   (@         0*0*0*  often, sometimes daily, up there with
the French society, but they, even after the year 1871, predently
guarded against letting me feel in any way their own illfeeling.  In
the only case in which it did happen, I gained the greatest satisfaction
from the Viceroy.  In other respects he had become a little bit cured of
his preference for the French by the latest events, and he preferred to
dismiss the French officers of his army and to replace them by
representatives from socalled neutral states.  Ismail chose for that
purpose Sweden, Norway, Denmark, but above all, North America, from
where he engaged a group of officers who had particularly distinguished
themselves for their military qualities in the war of the Northern
against the southern states.  At their head was the American General
Stone, with whom I had the most friendly relations.  And among the
officers, I remember with pleasdure Colonel Long, who had the courage to
undertake the journey from Cairo to Uganda, accompanied by a few Negro
soldiers, to bring the greetings and gifts of the Egyptian Khedive to
King Mtesa, and to conclude a friendly alliance with him.  Among the
gifts King Mtesa sent back to his brother the Khedive, there was a
cotton cap which the King had stitched entirely by his own hand with
needle and thread.  It formed, in my opinion, a splendid exhibit in the
World Exposition in Vienna, after it had been delivered to me by the
Viceroy, but it attracted no one's attention unless he had been informed
of its history beforehand.
   (A         0*0*0*  Ԍx! THE KHEDIVE AS
CONQUERORă The increase of the troops and the installation of
European and American "neutral officers sprang not merely from a whim of
the Viceroy, but had its good foundation in the design he had planned,
to gain possession of the lands of the entire Nile region as far as the
Equator, and to establish a great Egyptian Empire which was to exist
independent of the Sublime Porte.  It was the sore point in the
Khedive's ambition to know himself to be independent, at the head of a
powerful empire whose extent, according to his intentions, was almost
equivalent to that of European Russia.  Military expeditions were sent
to all parts of the Nile lands of the south, in order to incorporate
them into the Egyptian Empire and to prove them with fortifications and
with telegraphic lines.  The war campaigns had demanded little human
blood. Even the great kingdoms of Kordofan and Darfur, on the west side
of Khartoum, passed over into Egyptian possession.  In the east, on the
west coast of the Red Sea, the two seaports of Suakin and the island of
Massawa were acquired by purchase from Turkey, naturally for a high
pavement of cash; and the African Switzerland, or the highland of
Abyssinia, was shortly to enter the ranks of lands conquered and
subjugated by Egyptian troops, since in the year 1872 Warner Munzinger
had acquired the northern regions, gBobos and Mensa, for Egypt. The soul
of the numerous expeditions was of course the Khedive, while the
Egyptian General Staff, under the leadership of the American General
Stone, carried out the   (B        0*0*0*  plans of his Lord
and Master and took into custody the incoming reports along with maps.
It seemed to me at that time that the opportunity had come, to warm the
Khedive up to a subject which was well suited to deserve his attention,
since he stood in close association with the newlyopened regions of
inner Africa and a series of important geographical discoveries.  I mean
the establishment of a geographical society in Cairo.  At my proposal,
the Khedive approved the appointment of Doctor Schweinfurth, the famous
African traveller who was in Egypt at the time, to be the salaried
Director of the Society, and granted in addition, the means for the
foundation of a geographical library.  With this, fresh life entered
into the better society of Cairo, for a center of association was found,
where one could receive information about the latest and newest
discoveries still warm, as it were, from the lips of Schweinfurth,
General, or the officers just back from their expeditions.
Unfortunately, as seems to be unavoidable among Europeans n Egypt,
discord soon set in, and with a split in the Society, after General
Stone had declared that certain reports and cartographic surveys were to
be regarded as General Staff secrets and by no means to be exposed to
the public.  Schweinfurth on that account resigned h is office, and the
dyiing Society managed, as well as it could, with his successors.  I
myself, at the invitation and in the presence of the Viceroy, was glad
to inspect the types of captive men and women from the heart of the dark
continent, who had been   (C        0*0*0*  sent to him as
samples of his newest subjects.  Usually the men performed wild war
dances, while the women crouched motionless in a corner of the square
iin front of the Viceregal palace and gazed about with staring eyes at
the world foreign to them. The enormous sums that were sacrificed for
the equipment of the military expedition to the Sudan, and the defeat
suffered in Abyssinia, combined with a payment of the war costs,
increased from month to month the accounts of debts of the Egyptian
government, while on the other, the Viceroy's plan to transform the city
of Cairo into an African Paris and to beautify it with palaces,
theaters, garden arrangements, tree plantings and similar expensive
undertakings, made the existing debts rise immeasurably.  It is true
that the new creations, as for example the European townquarter of
Ismailia, which rose as if by magic on former bulrush ground,
contributed essentially to the embellishment of the Khedive's capial,
but to every prudent person, it became clear that Egypt was in a state
of indescribable exhaustion, and that the resources on hand no longer
sufficed, even to guarantee cover for the most necessary expeditures.
The speculating banking houses, Oppenheim at their head, were obliging
enough to make loan upon loan against mortgages, and Egypt entered the
ranks of those countries which open gate and door to the most foolhardy
speculation. It was ruinous for the country that the socalled
Musettisch Ismail, a foster brother of the Viceroy, had
taken   (D        0*0*0*  upon himself the arrangement of
financial affairs, whereby the inhabitants, above all the fellahs, were
burdened with the most extreme taxation, indeed even had to pay their
quotas for several years in advance.  The exceedingly crafty Ismail,
himself the son of a common fellah, understood, through his sly
management and his accomplices, how to draw off the greatest part of the
revenues to himself, in order to collect treasures and to be able to
defray the truly princely expense of his household from month to month.
Every day he had no less than a thousand persons to feed, and for the
legitimate wives as well as the concubines of  his harem, even their
shoes shone with sparkling brilliants and precious stones, set from the
heels to the tips of the toes.  Nobody dared to open the eyes of the
Viceroy concerning his faithless Minister, until he himself caught him
in the very act, and mercilessly condemned him to death.  The event,
frightful as only an Oriental story can be, will occupy me once more
further on. +       D MY SERVICE AS SCIENTIFIC TRAVEL
MARSHAL      While I was in the middle of the best efforts, opening
the g ates of knowledge to my students and letting them enter into its
temple, there came up, almost every week, obstacles which took me away
from the school more than I liked, and threw me into Court life.  I
received commissions of very sort, which had not the slightest thing to
do with the school, and in the first rank were the obligations I had to
fulfill as official guide of princely persons on their journeys to Upper
Egypt and Nubia and not infrequently also to the
Sinai   (E        0*0*0*  Peninsula. Three and more weeks,
indeed even months long I remained away from Cairo, and had to be
satisfied to entrust the fate of my students to Tried German teachers.
My journeys into the highlands on Viceregal steamers of course offered
me the opportunity to seek out the world of monuments and to greet them
again like old acquaintances, but the high and highestranking persons
whom I served as scientific guide could not linger for hours and days at
one and the same spot to please me, and so I had to satisfy myself to
pay my visits to the remains of Antiquity in the still night, often
until past the witching hour, in order to enter into my copybooks the
inscriptions illuminiated with the help of candles. Notwithstanding, it
was granted me in this privacy to make many a fine discovery, and to
enlarge in its size and its content my dictionary which was already in
the printing. The princely persons whom I had the honor to accompany
were almost all of German stock, so that in conversation I never came
into the position to usse other than my mother tongue.  The expeditions
which I had occasion to lead were, in the course of the years, placed at
the disposal of the following princely persons:  the Austrian Archduke
Rainer and his wife Marie, also the brother of the former, the Archduke
Ernst; the reigning Grand Duke of MecklenburgSchwerin Franz Friedrich
and his illustrious young wife Marie (among the entourage of the
sovereign at that time was Baron von Schack, whose personal acquaintance
I had the happiness to make here); the hereditary Grand Dukes of
MecklenburgSchwerin and of   (F        0*0*0*  Oldenburg;
the Austrian Archduke Johanne Salvator, the Emperor of Brazil Dom Pedro
d'Alcantara and his wife, the Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, etc.  It
will be clear that the modest scholar in the environment of such noble
personalities and their distinguished escorts received a glimpse into
the great world as is only granted to few mortals.  From daily contacts
with them, I have had the experience that even in the highest circles of
human society, in which position and etiquette play so influential a
role, and outward appearance is subjected to the law of strict
ceremonial, the heart enjoys the quiet happiness of feeling human with
everyone else on a distant beautiful piece of earth, and of expressing
thoughts ini plain words.  Seriousness and jest appear in their full
right, and express themselves unaffectedly, without regard for courtly
forms.  How happy the great ones of this world felt, to have run away
from the parquet floors of the palaces and to know that on the black
banks of the Nile River they were free from every burdensome restraint!
As great an honor as a surprise came to me when one fine day, my brown
servant announced visitors whom two Arabian droshkies had driven to the
high school.  The names of the visitors he was not able to tell me.
jWhile I bade him to show them into my reception room, I glanced down
into the garden, in the middle of which older and younger gentlemen and
ladies in simple civilian costume were slowly moving about. At their
head was a gentleman of about fifty years, with a full beard, who had
offered his arm to an older lady in
simple   (G        0*0*0*  travellingdress.  How astonished
I was, when in the reception room the dignified pair approacheed me with
the words:  "The Emperor and the Express of Brazil have come here to
make your acquaintance."  They presented their entourage to me,
Ministers and Court ladies whose names I later had frequent occasion to
read in the newspapers.  The Emperor asked me to serve him as guide
during his threeweek sojourn in Egypt; he was staying in the New Hotel
in Cairo, and would be grateful to me, if I would be at his side from
early morning at four o'clock until ten o'clock in the evening.  He had
come to study the slave question in Egypt and besides, to become
acquainted with land and people and the monuments of the past. I felt
compelled to express to the Emperor the request to move the Viceroy to
give me the order to attach myself to him as official guide.  At the
same time I let it be known that , for reasons unclear to me, I
had fallen into disfavor and could not wish to offer new food for the
Khedive's illhumor. "Leave that to me," said Dom Pedro smiling, "I only
entreat you to make your appearance at my place tomorrow about nine;
everything else will follow of itself." On the next morning, I was there
on time.  The Emperor descended the steps with me, while he had me go on
the right and with his right arm linked my left.  In the carriage
standing in front of the outside staircase, I had to take the right side
of the seat, on his further express order, while the Emperor satisfied
himself with the left.  j"It is my intention," said he smiling, "to show
the Khedive and the   (H        0*0*0*  Court staff in what
manner the Emperor wishes to honor a king of science."  And so it went
through the streets of Cairo to the Abdin Palace.  I was deeply ashamed
and touched, and had to submit to my fate. Still on the same evening,
the Viceroyj's Master of Ceremonies appeared in my house, requesting me
on the order of his master, to accompany the Emperor of Brazil, asking
me to move with caution in my utterances concerning Egyptian slavery,
and to keep silent on Egyptian conditions insofar as they might give
cause for censure.  The Viceroy, he added, would regard it as a special
service rendered to him, if I bound myself to this obligation, and would
know how to reward me and my children. I could only reply that I stood
instantly at the service of the Viceroy and as his official, felt the
obligation to preserve under all circumstances the most considerate
respect toward my master.  I was a Prussian, and my nation regarded
loyalty as its bade of honor.  The Viceroy might depend upon me under
all circumstances. The communication with the Emperor of Brazil from
early morning until late evening gave me occasion to become most closely
acquainted with his characteristic qualities and to admire h is
scientific zeal in all fields of human knowledge. Simple and natural in
his whole approach, and in almost no way different from an unassuming
private person, he loved to inform himself concerning everything that
interested him, and to write down in his book every precise notes
pertaining to   (I        0*0*0*  it.  It was a peculiarity
which in the beginning frightened me but later on no longer astonished
me at all, that the Emperor in the middle of his conversation fell into
a deep, five to tenminute sleep, suddenly awakened out of it, and
finished the last half of an interrupted sentence with complete
grammatical accuracy.  The Emperor was not what one could call a learned
man, but on the contrary an amateur, who was well informed on the most
varied fields of the sciences, communicated with the most famous
scholars, and possessed a sound judgment on men and things.  His ideal
seemed to be be the quiet life of a man enthusiastic for evrything
beautiful and good, whom the trouble and care of existence do not
oppress too much, and he assured me that he almost envied the Emperor
Napoleon, not for his frightful defeat, not for his ignominious
downfall, but for the pleasantness of his private life in quiet
seclusion.  "If it had to do with me," he remarked to me, "I'd gladly
lay down my crown in order to lead my life as first citizen even in a
republic, and devote all my time to the sciences and the fine arts."  At
our parting, the Emperor made the touching confession that he was
conferring no order upon me, since one could not reward the services of
a sincere friend with an order. Shortly before his departure, he
informed me at the station that, on his farewell visit, the Viceroy had
put before him the question how he, a great and wise Emperor, would
advise him, the Viceroy, in order to make his Egyptian people happy.  "I
answered him," said the Emperor, "Live
and   (J        0*0*0*  act according to the words of the
Koran, and you will make your people unquestionably happy."  On the same
day, I presented myself to the Khedive.  He told me the same story,
confirmed his question but, according to h is account, the Emperor had
answered him:  "If you want to make your people happy, become Catholic
along with your subjects." After the Emperor's departure, I had the
honor in the course of the years to receive written communications from
his hand, which related to most recent scientific works and discoveries,
and which in their content testified to the full interest of a
connoisseur in the field of art and science. Dom Pedro d'Alantara
represented the type of noble human being who, as I already remarked,
through his simplicity in approach and his affable nature, had to win
hearts to him.  I saw him again later only once more, at the time when I
had gone to Philadelphia as Egyptian Commissioner General at the World
Exposition (1876).  A few days before its opening, the Emperor informed
me by wire of his arrival in New York, and I betook myself there, in
order to greet him and his noble wife and to make the return trip to
Philadelphia in his company. At the ceremonial opening of the
"Centennial Exhibition" the stately figure of the Emperor in simple
evening clothes constituted a center of attraction for all, and the
American Republic seemed to be proud to see the Emperor appear in its
midst as representative of the most powerful empire in the southern half
of the American continent.  What struck me above all in his character
was the indescribable calm and
patience   (K        0*0*0*  with which he let everything
take its course, as it were.  His ceremonial passage through the
farstretching galleries of the exhibition building under the guidance
of the American Commissioner General Mr. Goshorn, combined with the
presentation of hundreds of persons, headed by the general commissioners
of the governments, might rightly be regarded as an extraordinary
performance. The days and weeks I spent as guide of the Brazilian
imperial couple in Egypt, in their immediate proximity, have the value
of dear recollections for me.  I deplored it bitterly when the daily
papers of his time announced the abdication of the Emperor, for although
it corresponded to his own wishes, in its form it repudiated the feeling
of gratitude which the Brazilian people owed their Emperor, who only
wanted to be the first citizen of his state.  Gently rest the ashes of
the unforgettable one!  THE WORLD EXPOSITION IN VIENNAă In
the first years of the seventies my school, ini spite of my frequent
absence, nevertheless made valuable progress, and my students exerted
themselves to make the best use of the means offered them to broaden
their knowledge and cultivate their minds according to European methods.
Then, contrary to expectation, came a dissolution of the entire school,
as a consequence, to be sure, of a mission with which the Viceroy had
very suddenly entrusted me.  In the year 1873 a great World Exposition
was to take place in Vienna.  The invitation had been issued to the
Egyptian government to participate
and   (L        0*0*0*  to contribute to it in the most
brilliant way possible.  Nubar Pasha, the then allpowerful Vizier of
Viziers in the modern empire of the Pharaohs, was appointed President of
the Exhibition Commission and to me, to my own astonishment, was
assigned the position of Commissioner General.  I felt uneasy about this
to some degree, for even though the old saying "to whom God gives a
charge, He also gives understanding," afforded a certain consolation,
yet the new honor demanded a great deal of knowledge of a practical and
technical sort which I was convinced I completely lacked.  I in no way
concealed my apprehensions from the Viceroy, but he smilingly reproached
me for having become only half an Oriental; otherwise I must know that a
man of understanding and knowledge in one department also adapts himself
to all professions, since he would soon gain the necessary insight to
carry out plans charged to him, and for example to organize an
exhibition. I had already long known this, of course, but I remembered
the doubtful consequences of a general understanding and its usefulness.
An old friend of mine, Kassim Pasha (our German workers in Cairo called
him, in all seriousness, "Katzenpascha"), occupied at the same time the
office of Minister of War.  The Viceroy commissioned him one day with
the planning and the building of a Viceregal palace in the middle of the
desert.  The old Pasha drew lines in all directions with a pencil on a
large sheet of paper, had the building carried out according to this
group plan by his   (M        0*0*0*  soldiers, and "when
the castle was ready" and was to be inspected by the Viceroy, it was
accidently destroyed in a blazing fire.  On the return from the site of
the fire, the Viceroy called across to me on the street from his
carriage the words:  "Imagine, he has smoked me out." With the support
of the Viceroy, I entered into the spirit of my new task, proposed
commissioners for the individual departments of the Egyptian exhibition,
whom I chose from German, French, and Arabian officials of the
government, and examined more closely the task the Viceroy had given me,
to have model buildings in the Arabic style erected on the arena of the
World Exposition in Vienna.  It was his wish that no costs were to be
spared, in order, through them, to achieve an extraordinary effect.
Monseigneur wished thus to obligate the Austrian government to him, in
order to gain its consent, then still lacking, for the foundation of the
international Tribunal in Egypt.  A credit of one million francs was
placed at my disposal for this task. To the Viceroy it was important to
receive sketches of the planned buildings for inspection within a few
days.  It was a critical situation.  In my need I turned to a German
extolled by Frau Muhibach, a man who had risen from home tutor to
Private architect, and who was of the opinion that he had mastered the
whole of Arabic architecture.  The Viceroy, to whom I displayed the
production, hardly glanced at it, and abruptly dismissed me with the
remark that it was a bungling job and not Arabic
architecture.   (N        0*0*0*  Ԍ     When the need is
greatest, help is nearest, and a native Bohemian was my savior.
Schmoranz was the excellent man's name, an Austrian architect who had
been for several years in Cairo, in order to make a thorough study of
old Arabic architecture from the stillpreserved mosques.  In his happy
grasp of the Arabic style of building, strange to us with its oppressive
wealth of decorative detailss, he displayed such fine feeling and such
deep understanding, that without hesitation I call him the greatest
master in his field.  His copies of Arabic monuments, from the
constructive to the multicolored ornament, were of a perfection which
put all other productions far into the shade.  My poor friend, who was
later appointed Director of the Technical School in Prague, lost his
life a few years ago.  I do not know what has become of the
architectonic treasures which his diligent and skillful hand had
conjured up on paper. The plans which Schmoranz had drawn up:  two
mosques, an Egyptian noble residence with an interior court, and an
Arabian fellah village, found the Viceroy's fullest approval, and so, as
early as 1872, we both set out for Vienna, to begin the preparations and
to obtain the necessary help for the construction of the planned
buildings and to close contracts. To the commissioners in Egypt I had at
the same time given directions to combine into an instructive whole the
objects necessary for the individual sections of the exhibition itself,
partly produce of the earth, partly productions of the native art and
industry.  Each one had plenty to do, and
the   (O        0*0*0*  months flowed by like weeks, until
in May of 1873 the Egyptian exhibition had reached its completion in all
magnificence and splendor in accordance with the Viceroy's wish.  What
lent the exhibition a special stamp were the objects of domestic life,
from the costumes to the most insignificant pot, which the scouts of the
Khedive had sent to Cairo from the lands of the upper Nile, and which in
their completeness left hardly anythiing to be desired.  Among the
curiosities, in particular, was a potato which, on the sandy bank of the
Suez Canal, had developed to a size of a halfmeter in diameter. The
monster attracted attention from all sides and formed at that time the
subject of scientific discussions. The success of the Egyptian
exhibition was outstanding. The Imperial Court in Vienna was frankly
charmed by its beauty, and the representatives of architecture, above
all, found in the buildings of the architect Schmoranz, material for
study such as never before in Europe had been offered in such plastic
form to the eye of the expert.  To me on this occasion, fell the
undeserved honor to escort into the rooms of the Viceregal house, and to
serve as guide and commentator, to the crowned heads and princes who had
accepted the imperial invitation to grace the exhibition by their visit.
It was my great pride to be permitted to escort the Express Augusta of
Germany, and in the great Oriental hall to invite her for an hour's stay
in the house of the Khedive.  With the sincerest satisfaction I heard
the highest praise from the true connoisseur in all that related to art
and science and if I   (P        0*0*0*  mention
particularly that among the commissioners of the Egyptian department who
were presented to the Empress my French friend Mariette enjoyed an
especially gracious reception, I know that the Empress received a
special pleasure at the presentation of the famous discoverer of the
Serapeum. No less precious to me is the recollection of the visit
together of two Princes at that time still young, our present Emperor
Wilhelm II and the meanwhile deceased Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria.
In the gayest mood both inspected the Egyptian animals, consisting of
camels, dromedaries, buffaloes, donkeys, sheep and goats, in the
courtyard in front of the Fellah village, and exchanged their personal
opinions in deepest friendship.  I had also the good fortune to offer my
humble services as guide to the Express of Austria, Elisabeth, and to be
able to respond to her wish, by relinquishing my own servant, a
gronzeskinned genuine Nubian, to become hers.  Not less in my
recollection lives the meeting with the exQueen of Spain, Isabella, who
assured me that she found a quite striking similarity of taste in
Arabian industry with that of "her subjects," the Spaniards, and it
gives me just as much pleasure to think of the midday meal which I was
privileged to share with the then about eighteenyearold Prince Milan
of Servia under the tentroof of the Paris restaurant "des trois freres
Provencaux."  I will also mention the Shah of Persia, who likewise
honored the Egyptian exhibition with his visit, and seemed to derive a
particular pleasure, to find again in me an old acquaintance from
the   (Q        0*0*0*  years 1860 and 1861. Although it was
a period of excitement for me to fulfill my obligation completely in
regard to such outstanding visitors, I had also the satisfaction, from
the communications of the FKhedive, who was at that time in
Constandinople as guest of the Sultan, to read the highest recognition
of the services I had rendered him, after he had been informed of the
brillian success of the Egyptian exhibition through reports and from the
newspapers.  I had to regret subsequently that his intended arrival in
Vienna was abandoned for compelling circumstances, even though I had
received the order to rent for several months a wellfurnished house
with garden on Prater Street, for which I had to pay the trifling sum of
40,000 guiden.  The house remained unused and unoccupied, and only in
the last days of the exposition I moved into it, in order to offer
hospitality in a palace, unfortunately only briefly, to my old friend L.
Pietsch. It was truly deplorable that the great crash, which had already
begun before the opening of the Exposition in Vienna, and the appearance
of the cholera in the middle of the exhibition time, deterred a large
part of the visitors from giving in to their love of spectacle and
undertaking the journey to Vienna.  In Vienna itself, as a result of
this, the mood was depressed, and one did not conceal the fact that a
part of tthe press had contributed the most to frighten away the
exhibitionloving wanderers, through unnecessary blowingup of the
cholera danger.  Added to this, the unusual
increase   (R        0*0*0*  in the costs for rents and the
most necessary provisions brought about a situation of high prices
which, even after the close of the exposition, failed to come down.
Speculation on an extraordinary attendance was frustrated, and the
inhabitants an irreparable damage was inflicted upon themselves. The
dismantling of the exhibition and ssetting of the last business delayed
my return to Egypt until January, 1874. Into this same period falls my
visit in Pest, for which the Hungarian Exhibition Committee had issued
me a special invitation.  The inspection of the city and its factories
took nearly a full week, whereby I may not hide the fact that I was
almost never fre from daily distress, for to survive four to six midday
meals at which the strongest Hungarian wines were served demanded a more
Egyptian stomach.  I was therefore glad in my heart when, from my coupe
on the return trip, I saw the spire of St. Stephan in the distance.
| MY RETURN FROM THE VIENA WORLD EXPOSITIONă Overwhelmed
with honors, I returned to Cairo at the beginning of the year 1874, and
my first visit was to the Khedive who, through my appointment as
Commissioner General, had placed such high confidence in me.  I could
testify to myself that I had worked to the best of my powers, in order
to justify this confidence, and with a happy heart I entered the Abdin
palace to present myself to my high Oriental patron and first of all to
give my general report orally.  The Master of Ceremonies, my old friend
Tonino Salomone, well known to
all   (S        0*0*0*  travellers of that time for his
amiable nature, informed me that the Viceroy wanted to receive me at
once.  As I was mounting the staircase I was surprised to hear the voice
of the Viceroy very clearly in the closest proximity.  Contrary to all
Oriental court custom, the Khedive had come to me as far as the balcony
landing, stretched out both his hands to me on the top step, and called
to me the words:  "Welcome, my dear Bey, and receive my heartiest
thanks.  you have rendered me and my country a great service, for the
gold mines, in spite of my disbelief, have really been found." I was
quite confused, because to me the connection between the success of the
Egyptian exhibit in Vienna and the discovery of gold mines made no
sense.  As we entered the reception room I obtained, through the further
conversation of the Khedive, the clarification I lacked until then.  In
order not to withhold it from my readers, I must begin about one and a
half years earlier. Before my departure for Vienna, as well as later,
after my return to Egypt, I was not infrequently rewarded for my
fourand fivehour wait in the audienceroom by the invitation to
partake in the Viceroy's breakfast.  Usually there were, besides
himself, five persons present, who collectively enjoyed his princely
favor, among them his Egyptian adjutant, his French
physicianinordinary the Turkish Pasha and Artillery General a. D.
Sefer Pasha, a former Prussian officer from the Proviince of Posen, who
occupied somewhat the position of a "Maitre de plaisir" at Court, or
other guests   (T        0*0*0*  just as it happened to
please the prince.  The conversation at the table used to be extremely
lively, the stiff court tone was altogether abolished, and talk of the
day or opinions on personalities and things provided material for the
conversation.  The Khedive could be very serious, but occasionally also
exuberantly gay, when his flashes of wit and small needlepricks did not
fail him. On a day shortly before my departure for Vienna, I found
myself at the breakfast table and the Viceroy put before me the serious
question, what actual use my hieroglyphic knowledge offered the world;
he understood that Egyptian history, the teachiing of the gods, and
other theoretical things gave a special pleasure to this one and the
other, but in practice all my knowledge was something dead.  j"Yes," he
added verbatim, "if one could learn by it in which places the buried
gold treasures were to be found, or from where the ancient Egyptians had
gotten all their gold, that of course would be something else."
Smiling, I answered him that I would satisfy his desire for knowledge of
the former gold mines in the land of Egypt, if he could make up his mind
to send an expedition, in which real miners must also take part, to the
region I would define more exactly.  The Khedive seemed to be
unbelieving, but gave his assent, and so I described to him with all
exactness the goldbearing gegion of the socalled Valley of Hammamat,
which I myself had visited in earlier years, situated between the Nile
and the coast of the Red Sea, and out of which, according to assertions
of   (U        0*0*0*  hieroglyphic inscriptions from the
earliest times, the Egyptians had extracted gold.   I added that, on the
long way to the sea there must have been a series of artesian wells with
clear drinkingwater, which nowadays, to be sure, are filled up, so that
the caravans travel along almost seven days on a nearly waterless route.
The Khedive seemed to place no faith at all in my words, for, as he
remarked, I could well have made a mistake in the reading of the text,
and anyway, he doubted that such things would be handed down by the
Ancients. "In the meantime," he said, "deliver a short memorandum, which
contains all the data, to General Stone, to serve as director and leader
of an expedition." During my absence ini Vienna, the exploration of the
desert valley was actually begun.  They discovered the abandoned gold
mines and found the wells, which at that time, were still filled up by
the sand of the desert, but which were at once cleaned and showed clear,
drinkable water at the bottom.  To the Khedive the solution of the water
question seemed so important, that he gave the order to have the town of
Kasser at the opening of the gold valley toward the coast of the Red Sea
fortified and armed with cannon, in order to prevent a possible landing
of the English from India, after the formerly waterless desert route had
lost its hospitality for a larger army. It was that, for which the
Khedive had thanked me on my first reception.  Even though later, under
the pressure of affairs and of impending disaster, the idea of risking
an   (V        0*0*0*  attempt to work the mines escaped his
mind, nevertheless he had gained the conviction that the deciperhing of
the hieroglyphic texts rested on an accurate foundation.  As for the
rest, the Viceroy distinguished me for the good services in Vienna by an
elevation in rank and conferring of a decoration.  I remained thereafter
a welcome guest in the house of Pharaoh, was invited to his table at
every opportunity, and often engaged in "academic" discourses with him.
The Khedive had a keen mind and possessed a more than ordinary culture
according to European views.  He himself professed to be a great judge
of men, but he always agreed with the last speaker in a conversation,
usually to his great disadvantage. How much he regretted  unfortunately
too late  having favored the Europeans, and particularly the French, at
his Court and in government positions, at the expense of h is Egyptians.
Proof of this is the bitter complaint which he felt compelled to express
to me during the decline of his authority, on one of my visits. I found
him at the time seated in the corner of a small European sofa, sunk in a
melancholy mood and his eyes fixed on a bunch of asparagus which he held
clutched in his right hand. After a minute's silence, he turned to me
with the words: "Look, this bunch of asparagus calls my attention to an
error I have committed against my Egyptians, and which is hardly to be
made good again.  It is just too late!  I had stated
my   (W        0*0*0*  surprise to my French court gardener,
that, despite the high expenditures for my gardens, I could not obtain
fresh asparagus from them even at the end of the month of February,
while the Europeans had already received the same from Europe long
before.  The court gardener answered me, that the thiing was easy to do,
only first a hothouse for growing the asparagus must be built, in order
to fulfill my wish.  The glass house was built in the past year at a
cost of 80,000 francs, naturally for the purpose of providing me with
asparagus at the end of the month of February.  We are just at bhe
beginning of the month and already, not my French court gardener, but a
poor Arabian gardenerj's helper, brings me today this bunch of
asparagus, because he heard that I wished to eat it at this season.  I
asked himhow he had gone about it, to grow such excellent stalks.
'Effedina,' he answered me, 'I stuck asparagus quite secretly in a
corder of the garden, covered it with palm branches as soon as raw wind
set in and cold prevailed, but lifted the branches every time the
bright, warm sun shone.  This asparagus is the product of my care.' 
You understand," the Viceroy turned to me, "that this fact gives me
something to think about, for I have failed to recognize the good
qualities of my subjects, underestimated their efficiency, and bestowed
confidence only on the European.  The former provides me with the best
asparagus without cost in the beginning of the month of February, the
latter has an expensive hothouse built, with the promise to deliver the
asparagus to me at the end of the month.  That
is   (X        0*0*0*  the picture of the fate which has
befallen me." In the Orient, it is not easy to express one's self in
opposition to the reigning sovereign by way of the press, for it is at
th risk of the author's neck.  Even though in Egypt, according to the
wish of the first Khedive, a parliament was created in which the
SchechelBeled, or village magistrates, formed the majority of the
delegates, it never occurred to the h ouse to set itself in opposition
to the government.  The representatives of the people found it improper
to doubt the wisdom of the leaders of state affairs even in the smallest
points.  Outside the Chamber, to be sure, there was no lack of mangy
sheep who, by the roundabout way of Paris, felt compelled to deliver
rebellious opinions even in print.  To them belonged an Egyptian
afflicted by Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity who regularly
corresponded from Cairo, anonymously and in the Arabic language, with
the opposition newspaper on the Seine, and who cast the darkest shadows
on the actions of the Khedive. One day I found myself with Monseigneur
when the person under discussion, a young Egyptian, was brought forward
by a kawasse, after he had been tracked down.  Pale of face and
trembling in his whole body, he stood before his Prince, who put the
question to him, whether he confessed to the authorship of the malicious
articles.  "I have requested Brugsch Bey," he interposed, "to be witness
to our conversation.  Answer my questions, therefore, without
hesitation.  I assure you of my protection."  The unhappy
one   (Y        0*0*0*  stammererd a few apologies which,
however, only increased his guilt. "You have spoken ill of my government
and defined my measures as tyrannical.  If your allegations are true,
you have only done your duty.  Yet you owe me the proof.  I therefore
challenge you to state to me what I, as Regent of Egypt, must do or not
do, in order to deserve, in your opinion, the name of a just and wise
Prince.  If you convince me of the justness of your advice, I promise
you, in the presence of the Bey, to follow it.  I do not punish you for
your boldness.  Leave me now and always remember, that it is easier to
criticize and to blame another while hidden, than to discharge a
difficult task one's self and at the same time to please everyone." Like
one freed from a ightmare, the Egyptian critic bowed in deepest humility
before his master, and I have never heard anything of his attacks since
then.-    MY JOURNEY TO NORTH AMERICAă Hardly two
years had passed since the Vienna World Exposition, when, in the State
of Pennsylvania of the United States, the idea emerged and developed to
create, for the hundredth anniversary of its existence, a World
Exposition in the Quaker city of Philadelphia.  The invitation was also
issued to the Khedive of Egypt to contribute to it in the most extensive
way, in order to win new laurels in the competition for world industry.
Asked for my own opinion, I tried to advise the Viceroy against letting
Egypt enter this   (Z        0*0*0*  competition.  I based
my view on the fact that his country possessed no industry ready to
participate in the competition of the nations, that the former
collections from the regions of the Sudan had been presented to Austria
as a gift, and the time no longer sufficed to plan a second, which at
best would pass as a curiosity; furthermore that it was not advisable to
allow selected monuments from the Museum to make the long journey to
America, and finally that, in the momentarily difficult financial
situation, the required cost was to be considered.  My arguments were
wrecked by the urging of the American Consul General, and I was once
more entrusted with the task of organizing an Egyptian exhibition,
although on a smaller scale.  A credit of 10,000 pounds sterling was
opened for me at a banking house in New York. The preparations and the
assembling of the objects destined for the exhibition again claimed all
my time and activity.  Moreover, an incident occurred which threatened
to make the exhibition impossible at all.  As the crates stood ready to
be transported to America, a bailiff of the International Tribunal
presented me with a legal order, according to which the sealing and
confiscation of the exhibition cases were to be transferred to him.  In
case of refusal, military help would be drawn upon, to lend emphasis to
his order.  I asked for an hour's time for reflection and hurried to the
Viceroy, who flew into a great rage, all the more so, since the court
had made the same attempt at his palace with threat of the military.
"My own soldiers" he   ([        0*0*0*  exclaimed, "are to
march in hostility against me?  That is impossible!  A Khedive stands
above the International Tribunal." Fortunately they were prevailed upon,
in consideration of the international interests of an exhibition, to
deliver the cases to me, with the shipment of which I did not delay a
moment.  I myself made my way to Gottingen, to take leave of my family
which was there, and without a longer stay to continue the journey on a
Bremen steamer.  As I was on the point of going to the nearby station to
take the early train leaving for Bremen, I received a telegram, which I
opened at once, to learn its contents before departure.  It was short
and to the point:  "The Khedive begs you to return to Cairo instantly."
By the next express train, I set out in the direction of Trieste, in
order to go back to Egypt on the Lloyd steamer due to leave.  I had not
read a newspaper since my departure, and was not a little surprised when
the news was given me by the captain of the ship that on the last Bremen
steamer, the same one on which I wanted to make the voyage, a bomb
constructed by an American named Thomas had exploded prematurely and
several travellers and other persons had been killed and wounded.  I
silently thanked God, to have escaped possible danger to life and limb
through my recall, and on my arrival in Cairo presented myself to the
Viceroy immediately. In the expectation of receiving from him special
additional orders which he could only give me verbally, I was not a
little astonished to receive from his lips the assurance
that   (\        0*0*0*  he was highly pleased to see me
sound and healthy, but had absolutely nothing to say to me.  He had felt
induced to call me back immediately by cable because in the night a
vision had advised him to have me come at once, since otherwise a great
disaster would befall me. With the next steamer I set out on my return
trip to Europe, reached Gottingen once more, and preferred this time to
travel across the Atlantic Ocean to the west not by way of Bremen but
via Liverpool on a ship of the Cunard Line. It was a sea voyage which I
shall remember all my life. The waves rolled high as houses across the
strong ship, for which a stiff west wind during the entire twelveday
voyage rendered smooth movement difficult.  No one was able to leave his
cabin without holding fast to stretchedout ropes. Already on the second
day, the mountains of water had washed away the kitchen from the deck,
so that our food during the entire passage consisted only of bread and
fried fish.  Toward the end of the month of December, 1875, we entered
at last the harbor of New York, and a few hours later I reached the goal
of my journey, the city of Philadelphia. Work for the exhibition began
at once.  With the help of my brother, who was attached to me as
commissioner, I drew up the requisite plans and signed contracts, in
order to insure the punctual delivery of the articles, at the same time
with the obligation to pay for them on the day of delivery. Who can
describe my horror when, on a trip to New York, I received from the
banker to whom my letter of credit
had   (]        0*0*0*  been directed, in place of the sum
of money to be advanced, a telegram with the fateful brief French words:
"Credit suspendu."  I returned in an indescribably troubled mood to
Philadelphia, dashed off the costly cable to distant Cairo, sent letter
upon letter to the Egyptian government, without receiving even a single
line in reply.  I had incurred obligations, saw myself surrounded by
five officials for whom I had to provide, was finally compelled to
borrow large sums of money and to leave Philadelphia again after a
sevenmonth stay, in order to hasten from New York by way of Bremen to
Egypt, and personally to make my complaint known on the spot. The voyage
was favored by the most beautiful weather, so that after fifteen days'
travel, I entered Cairo safe and sound toward the end of the month of
September.  It was natural that my unexpected arrival afforded no
particular pleasure to the Finance Minister, for he had to pay
promissory notes and to fulfill all the obligations toward me whichthe
government had imposed uponhim before my departure.  I well understood
that the Mufettisch and Vizier of the Fiinances refused me any audience,
and I felt the embarrassment of the Khedive, when I complained and
didnot refrain from describing my own distress.  The period in which the
bills were due threatened to expire shortly, and so there remained
nothing else for me to do, than to call upon the help and interventionn
of the representative of Germany, in order to have my just demands
recognized and to abolish the debt
problem.   (^        0*0*0*  Ԍ  THE DEATH OF THE
MUFETTISCH | AND THE BEGINNING OF THE FINANCIAL CRISISă
Now began a difficult period for Egypt and still more for the Khedive,
after the coffers were emptied and the coupons of the creditors could no
longer be paid.  The burden of debt had by this time piled up to two
billion marks.  The creditors demanded settlement of their claims, and
finally appealed to the International Tribunal for their
protection.  They went to court for the claims, and ways and means had
to be devised in order to find reimbursement for them.  As for the
expenditures themselves, which had led to such an enormous burden of
debt, few trustworthy accounts, or none at all, had been kept, and least
of all was the Mufettisch in the position, or perhaps he did not want to
be, to give information concerning appropriation or payment of the
individual items. I have already indicated above, what a questionable
role the Mufettisch, a foster brother of the Viceroy, played in all
money matters, and what sums he had unjustly withdrawn from the
Viceregal coffers, in order to employ them for h is own profit.  He
himself felt that the requital for  his deeds would shortly reach him,
and so he grasped at the last straw to avoid the threat of punishment.
In true Oriental style he began to address inflammatory, inciting
speeches to the assembled crown of the faithful in the mosques, and to
accuse the Viceroy of having done, through his patronage of the
Europeans, the most unspeakable wrongs to the country and of having sold
it outright to Europe.  He conspired in the
most   (_        0*0*0*  contemptible way against the
Khedive, whose abdication or downfall he regarded as an already settled
matter.  His unjust conduct against his benefactor, the Viceroy, did not
remain concealed from the latter, who, however, laid a trap for him,
which the Mufettisch entered, to atone for his avarice by death. On a
visit which in this course of events I paid to the Khedive in his castle
of Abdin, he put to me in the middle of the conversation the curious
question:  "Do you believe, my Bey, that a man can die from a bottle of
cognac?"  Without waiting for my answer, he continued with the words:
"There has occurred an event painful for me, which I impart to you in
order, if it must be, to make public use of its contents and to
forestall any false interpretation beforehand.  The Mufettisch Ismali
Pasha planned to weave a plot against me, after he has cheated the
government out of millions and behind my back has misused his office as
Finance Minister in the most deceitful way, only in order to suck the
blood of the fellahs through unjust tax levies which he even collected
in advance. Not until the past weeks has his activity come to my
knowledge.  Instead of presenting himself personally, he was so
imprudent as to address rebellious speeches, which were aimed at my
person, to the assembled crowd in the mosqu3s. With inflammatory words,
he described the miserable condition of the country, brought about
solely through me, because I favored only the Europeans, in order
to deliver Egypt into their hands.  A few days ago, he sent me a letter
through his   (`        0*0*0*  nephew, in which he was so
shameless as to repeat the same reproaches, at the same time challenging
me to depart from my erroneous way and to restore the confidence of the
population in me. "Do you know what is written in this letter?' I asked
the bearer.  At his answer, which he gave me trembling: 'Effendina, I do
not know,' I ordered him to summon his uncle to me instantly, in order
to take a drive in company with me in my carriage through the most
populated streets of Cairo. The Mufettisch presented himself promptly,
pale and trembling in his whole body.  He took his place with me in the
carriage and I ordered the coachman to take the road to my castle in
Gesireh.  I spoke not a syllable to him until he, like a child,
anxiously addressed to me the words:  'Effendina is silent, is Effendina
angry with me?' 'That you will best know whuy.' I replied to him
abruptly and tersely.      "The carriage drove up before the
entrance of the garden castle, on the steps of which my son Hassan Pasha
was already awaiting us.  He begged the Mufettisch to alight along and
led him into the interior of the entrance hall.  My second son Hussein
Pasha seized the sinner after his entrance, had him bound by several
kawasses and conducted to the heated steamer at the garden leanding.
His abode was assigned to him in the salon of the steamer, and he was
informed that he would be transported to Upper Egypt, to be put on a
camel in Edfu and sent into exile in Dongola. "According to the reports
that have come to me from Upper   (a         0*0*0*  Egypt
and the main stations of the steamer, he refused to take any food and
satisfied himself solely with drinking cognac. Upon his debarkation in
Edfu, he mounted his camel, asked for a bottle of cognac, drained it
with one gulp and, bending backwards convulsively, fell dead from the
camel down onto the sand." The Viceroy's narrative had shaken me deeply.
I knew the Muffetisch personally.  He had risen from a fellah to the
position of a Finance Minister, and distinguished himself by anything
but amiable conduct.  He was coarse and uncultivated, loved to drink,
and understood in a masterly fashion the art of feathering his own nest,
in spite of the financial straits of his country.  His death, to be
sure, freed the Khedive of a faithless official in whom he had placed
his complete confidence, but the financial difficulty of the government
was thereby not removed. To my remark that the confiscation of the
property of the Muffetisch would restore at least a part of the
embezzled sum of money to the Viceroy, he replied:  "I have done that,
of course, but not a plaster has come to light, although I even had the
marble slabs of the floors of his palace ripped up, in order to search
for possible hidden money.  I suspect that he has deposited his entire
stolen wealth in the Bank of England and had it entered in the books
under a false name." I could only sincerely commiserate with the
Viceroy. Whatever judgment onemight bring down upon him, one thing
remains certain to me, that he never had the intentin to be
a   (b        0*0*0*  deceiver, but that his innate
credulity, good nature, ambition and his magnanimity, besides his
undoubted keenness and cunning, laid the ground for all the later
financial misery. Speculating banking  houses, well served by spies and
agents from the Court, insipid flatterers, fortunehunters with brillian
names, and other creatures of the European society knew how to exploit
the weak sides of his character and his generosity in an indescribable
way, or to lead him into enterprises whose success, to the initiated,
must have been doubtful from the start.  Each one thought of filling his
own pockets, unconcerned about the future, which could only be an end
full of financial horror.  Driven into the corner by the army of his
creditors, at the same time too proud to permit a control of the
Egyptian finances by European commissioners, and not convinced that even
a Khedive must submit to the legal decisions of the International
Tribunal convoked by him and sanctioned by the great European Powers,
Ismail Pasha had to bear the consequences of his own obstinacy.  It may
have been hard for him to give up his independence and to submit to
European control in all financial affairs, but after all, prudence
demanded that he prefer a lesser evil, in order not to suffer a far
greater one.  The distresing qestion was only for the Great Powers  and
in the first rank, England and France were involved  to offer an
indubitable guarantee for the regular payment of the coupons to the
creditors of the Egyptian state and possessors of Egyptian loans. In the
last two yers of the reign of the deposed
Khedive   (c         0*0*0*  the financial difficulties in
which the government incessantly found itself had reached their highest
point.  For months, indeed even for years, the officials and officers
waited for thepayment of their salaries, andit was no wonder that the
dissatisfaction evoked revolutionary intentions, which broke out, for
example, among the officers of the Cairo garrison in the armed assault
on the Finance Ministry and actual insuits to the Minister on February
18, 1879.  Even the English Chief Comptroller, a Mr. Wilson, until then
an employee of the British Office of Finance in London, could not
protect himself from the insults, in spite of his status as English
subject and delegate, and only the sudden appearance of the Viceroy
prevented the outbreak of further violence.  Those in the know even
asserted that the Khedive had been the actual instigator of the whole
comedy, for the purpose of diverting the odium from himself to the
British Investigation Commission. `	`	 `	`
 Ã$ THE END OF THE SONG      Meanwhile things took their
further course, and measures were taken next to create a system of
saving, by which a great number of employed Europeans were hit the
hardest.  In return for a small compensation, they were discharged.  At
the same time, the army of Egyptian officials was reduced, or a
considerable part of the salary hitherto paid was struck off. I myself
was also not spared by the new measures.  I must remark beforehand that,
after my great success attained in Vienna on behalf of the Egyptian
government, the Khedive had most urgently invited me to remain in his
service.  My five   (d        0*0*0*  ԫyear imperial leave of
absence had expired, and my decision was firm, to return to Gottingen
and take up my lectures once more.  The Viceroy was so little in
agreement with my resolve, that he entreated me to hasten home
immediately, and at his expense, in order to lay at the feet of the
Emperor Wilhelm I my petition to extend the leave for an indefinite
time. At my arrival in the Fatherland, both Their Majesties, the Emperor
and the Empress, were in Goblenz.  I made my way to the Rhine, had the
distinction to be received and invited to the table, and seized the
opportunity toexpress to my Emperor the wishes of the Khedive in regard
to my humble person.  "I wish it myself" came the answer from his lips,
"that my subjects bring credit to the German name also in the East and
in the service of Oriental princes.  Remain with the Khedive as long as
circumstances permit it."  In the further course of the conversation, I
felt deeply ashamed whhhhhen my Emperor and master, in his wellknown
kindness smilingly remarked: j "I am almost afraid to converse with you.
I am only a soldier, and you a thoroughly learned man."  I think that I
turned bloodred.  It seemed to me, the son of a simple soldier, that I
should fall at the feet of the heroic Emperor and kiss his hands in
deepest emotion and gratitude.  Had I, one of the lowest, deserved such
recognition of the magnanimous sovereign to whom all the world looked up
with admiration? I went back to Egypt, after I had dissolved my
household in Gottingen and had out of hand sold my mighty home fortress.
   (e        0*0*0*  As the summer abode for my family of
children I had chosen Graz, the capital of the Austrian Province of
Steiermark, so rich in scenic beauty, for the special reason that the
journey to and from Egypt was considerably shortened.  I procured the
socalled Hallerschlossi on the Ruckerlberg outside the town, since the
rent asked for it was moderate and the panorama across the mountainous
country from the balconies of the widespread building ws thoroughly
delightful. The disadvantages of my European residence my family was to
experience with all thoroughness in the course of the next seasons.  In
the summer the heaviest thunderstorms and cooling torrents of rain
alternated in a moment with the most scorchiing heat.  In the winter the
most bitter cold set in, and the fallen snow lay meterhigh in the
castle garden andon the highway close by.  The provisions, which were
procured from the town, were taxed at the customs close to the house,
and there were other evils.  In return for this, Graz, the Austrian
"pensionopolis," offered me not the slightest intellectual pleasures;
but "Tratsch," or gossip, flourished in full bloom, and no one felt safe
from the tongue of his nearest neighbor.  To the Berliner it was hard,
moreover, nowhere to run into a compatriot or to hear native sounds. The
Steier dialect, in spite of its originality, could offer me no
compensation, and if I came into close contact with the country folk, I
could not understand their words in the slightest.   To me it was as if
I were hearing an unknown Negro
language.   (f        0*0*0*  Ԍ     The bottom of the barrel
was completely knocked out when, at a Graz social gathering of the best
style, I was introduced as Br. Bey from Egypt, a professor of history
from whose pen have issued many books of historical content.  At the
table conversation, he casually brought the discussion to the Egyptian
King Rameses II with the empithet 'the Great.'  JWhen I took the liberty
of correcting some of his boldest statements, he was obviously
confounded and stared at me. Upon my allusion to my own historical
studies in the ancient Egyptian field and to the basis of my
hieroglyphic experiences, he seemed to be quite beside himself.  "What!
You have occupied yourself with this and have even written about it?"  
"At your service, Herr Professor, since I myself am a university
professor."  His astonishment was so extraordinary, that he asked for
my closer acquaintance, in order to hear more details of my works. When
I left the hospitable house and had hardly stepped out the door, I asked
my wife the serious question:  "Is it agreeable to you, if we leave
"Pensionopolis'?"  "But why, dear husband?"  "Because!"   "And
whither?"  "To the city of intelligence, to Berlin!  In Graz I am a
dead manin a living body." After my arrival in Cairo, to resume the
thread of my narrative at the right place, I found the Viceroy in the
best mood, and he solemnly promised me to confirm in writing to the
Emperor of Germany his thanks for the gracioussanction of my unlimited
leave of absence.  I myself belonged thenceforth
to   (g        0*0*0*  the Court of Khedive, even though my
salary came from the funds of the Ministry of Education. The next few
years slipped by in peaceful scientific activity, until the hour had
come, when my name too fell under the eye of the British investigation
commissioner and a decision was made concerning my future employment.  I
received the polite request to place myself at the disposal of the
Ministry of Finance as a future official.  Mr. Wijlson seemed to be
little plesed by the expression of my misgivings concerning my
qualification for a financial official.  After I had made the honest
confession to him that I understood as good as nothing about it, there
ensured between us a dialogue which for me did not turn out pleasantly.
From my recollection, I quote its essential points. "What are you
really?" "A loyal subject of His Majesty the Emperor of Germany." "No, I
mean what have you learned, whereby you are useful in the service of the
government?" "I am a scholar, and in my native land a university
professor." "Here we cannot use them; in England there are people of
your knowledge by the hundreds." I felt this utterance like a stab in
the heart, for its originator so little displayed the courtesy of an
English gentleman, as it had been shown to me everywhere on my travels
by his countrymen, that I almost doubted recognizing in him a true son
of Albion.  There remained nothing further to do
than   (h        0*0*0*  to bid farewell, hurry home,
present immediately in writing my departure from Egyptian service, and
to make preparations for my return from Egypt to Europe. I left my house
behind in safe custody, took my place on the next Lloyd steamer, and
with the bitterest feelings left Egypt, which, in the days of Ismail,
had become a second home to me. After my departure, disaster overwhelmed
the Khedive. His eldest son, Mohammed Tewfik, was named his successor
according to the changed right of succession, and a new, although
difficult period was soon thereafter to begin across the land. I
hastened to Graz to my family, and immediately carried out my previous
resolution to move my permanent residence to Berlin in order to forget,
in the midst of my countrymen, the insult which had been dealt to me in
Cairo by an English commissioner.  With all my flock, I moved north and
breathed more freely only when the train from Vienna pulled into the
Anhalt Station, and the first sounds of home struck my ear. Even if they
came from porters, I had the feeling of being among my own, and with
true delight I shook the dust from my feet. But what a changed picture
offered memy beloved Berlin! OUt of my old native city with its confined
and cramped conditions, with its rough stone pavements and odorous
gutters, its modest, smoothwalled houses and unadorned marketplaces,
its so wellknown to me rows of streets along with its stiff,
oldfashioned gates which pierced the
half   (i        0*0*0*  ԫruined encircling wall with its
customshouses and sentryboxes, and not lest, its old Berliners, among
whom I came across so many known faces on my walks, with all those
recollections which had remained indelibly fixed in my memory from youth
 out of this native city of mine there had come into being not only the
capital of the German Empire and the Residence of a German Emperor, but
a true worldcity, which had begun to enter into competition with Paris
and London, as to size and beauty.  Everything I found changed in the
conscious assault to achieve perfection, and in the immensely mounting
growth of a population to which the constant immigration from outside
brought from month to month an almost unbelievable increase.  The
circular wall had fallen down; Berlin was too much confined by the old
wall.  New streets appeared as if by magic on the grounds of the former
suburbs, of which the lion's share belonged to the west; in a word,
Berlin had sprung up like the phoenix out of the ashes of the old, only
it had become larger, more beautiful than the father.  Railways were
run through the middle of the city and around it, and a widebranching
network of streetcars and omnibus lines was created almost overnight in
order to facilitate traffic in the youngest metropolis, and to transport
its inhabitants in the shortest time to the most distant points.  A city
of a million, full of wealth, good living and luxury, had just
celebrated its resurrection, and even though the true Berliner, down to
the witty shoemaker's apprentice, belonged only to the minority in the
population,   (j        0*0*0*  the essence of Berlin
overflowed into the flesh and blood of the newcomers, and the Berlin
spirit was transmitted even to the strangers. Don't ask whether I felt
happy in my native city.  Living long years abroad, I had learned to
appreciate its worth to its full extent, and it felt like a reward,
after the struggles in three continents, to be permitted again to stay
among my countrymen as one of them.  Of course, many of my older friends
had entered the harbor which grants no return; even my own dear mother
had departed this life right after my return, happy to find her last
restingplace in the Fatherland but I was no longer anxious at heart,
after I had established my home once more on the banks of the Spree. I
settled in Charlottenburg, owned my own house with a little garden
behind it, andin undistrubed peace, I planted my cabbage, that is, I
opened my chests, in order to take out my old Egyptian papertreasures
and resume my studies with youthful enthusiasm, and before evrything, to
bring to an end my great dictionary. Then there reached me a letter from
France, written by the hand of my friend Mariette.  He felt himself to
be ner death, and implored me to come to Paris or Egypt, in order to
discuss important questions with him.

Chapter Vii.

Free As a Bird

My friend Mariette Dies


     My Egyptian savings and a small compensation paid me by the
government in Cairo enabled me at that time to make the journey to the
Nile Valley at my own expense.  At the same time, it offered me the best
opportunity to sell my property I had left behind, after I had set up a
home for a short time in a modest rented house in the vicinity of the
Sweetwater Canal, which leads from Cairo to Suez by way of Hellopolis.
On my arrival, Mariette had not yet come, but the latest news announced
his arrival soon, while at the same time, contained the sad message that
his days were numbered and his demise imminent. When he finally landed,
a violent hemorrhage robbed him of his last strength.  In Cairo I daily
sat at his sickbed, to clasp his hand and to raise his completely sunken
vitality through comforting words.  Plans for the immediate future and
for the scientific explorations of the latest excavations still occupied
him. Two Arabian sheiks, old people who were still known to us both from
the excavations in the Serapeum, had undertaken the task to open a row
of smaller pyramids in the vicinity of the excavations uncovered
earlier, in order to look for coffins of ancient kings in the tomb
chambers.  The entrance of three pyramids was laid bare with the
greatest danger for the workers, but their labors were richly rewarded,
for the sides of the long corridors and the surfaces of the walls in the
actual tomb chambers were found covered from top to
bottom   (        0*0*0*  with hieroglyphic inscriptions in
the oldest style, and the discovered coffins, of Nubian granite, were
furnished with engraved royal texts.  Of course, there was also
convincing proof that, already in the Middle Ages, the pyramids had been
opened by bootyseeking Arabs, inhabitants of the nearby villages, but
nevertheless, the scientific gain was enormous. Inscribed pyramids had
not previously been known, and Mariette had constantly denied their
existence. The impressions of the inscriptions from the pyramid opened
first had reached Mariette already in Paris.  He considered the
frequently appearing king's name Piope (Phiops) in them to be that of a
private man.  The texts of the two remaining pyramids he did not yet
know.  They had only been by the sheiks at the time of his landing in
Egypt, and the inscriptions had to decide the important question whether
private persons also, or only the kings, had been buried in pyramids.
With a weak voice, my sick friend begged me to do him the favor of
setting out for the spot in the company of my brother Emil, who had been
employed as conservator in the Museum for about fifteen years, in order
to examine the opened pyramids and to bring him a report on them. On the
next morning, we took the road to the south on the railway that runs on
the left side of the Nile a onehour distance as far as the ruinsite of
old Memphis, mounted the donkeys standing ready at the railroad station
of Bedreschein, and after a ride of two hours, arrived at the pyramid
area, west of the village of Sakkarah.   (        0*0*0*  Ԍ
Together with the Egyptian sheiks of the excavations we went laboriously
into the passage of the western pyramid, in constant danger of being
crushed and ground to pieces at the slightest touch, by the stone blocks
suspended above our bodies.  At last we obtained air in the innermost
tomb chamber, whose walls were covered with the richest inscriptions in
vertical columns.  I recognized in many passages of the text the name
and the title of Pharaoh Methesuphis, of the sixth dynasty of kings of
Old Memphis. At the west wide of the chamber stood a well preserved
sarcophagus in the form of a chest, made of a dark, redspeckled
granite.  The inscriptions on the shovedback lid and on the upper edge
of the stone chest bore the same name of the mentioned king, along with
his title and auxiliary designations. There was no longer any doubt that
the inscribed pyramid, like its other sisters with inscriptions,
belonged in fact to a king of the oldest dynasty. Beside the stone
coffin, on the floor of the tomb chamber, lay the well preserved mummy
of Pharaoh Methesuphis, as he is named in Manethos' Lists of
Kings, a fairly exact transcription of his true Egyptian name,
Mehtemsuf.  According to its outer appearance and bodily structure, the
corpse could only have belonged to a person who died at a youthful age.
The very fine byssus bindings, with which it had once been wrapped, the
Arabian treasureseekers had torn off the body, so that the shreds of
the almost transparent and cobweblike linen material lay strewn about
everywhere.   (        0*0*0*  Ԍ     After I had searched
through the two remaining opened pyramids, and had discovered in their
inscriptions the names of their builders, I set out with my brother on
the return trip, in order to inform Mariette on the evening of the same
day the results of my investigations on the spot.  Perhaps, I said to
myself, it will afford the dying friend a last pleasure, to be able to
see with his own eyes the mummy of one of the oldest kings of Egypt and
indeed of the world. I had it laid in a narrow wooden coffin, which the
excavations in the desert floor had brought to light besides dozens of
others at a place in the Memphis necropolis.  My brother laid the
strange burden diagonally in front of him on his mounted donkey and so,
after a twohour ride, we reached the railroad station near the Nile a
few minutes before the departure of the train for Cairo. Great
astonishment of the railroad officials concerning our dead companion,
whom we designated as a very old embalmed magistrate (Schechelbeled)
of the village of Sakkarah. Since we did not want to be separated from
our fellow traveller, we did not travel first class, but boarded the
baggage car with him. The train started moving, but stopped long before
the actual terminal of Dakrur, in sight of the Caliph city of Cairo.
Some kind of damage to the iron rails prevented any further movement
toward the station.  Each and every one was obliged to get out, in order
to make the long, halfhour way as far as the
carriagestand.   (        0*0*0*  Ԍ     We brothers grasped
the wooden coffin at its two ends, to carry it as far as the station.
The sun went down, the perspiration ran from our foreheads, the dead
Pharaoh seemed to become heavier from minute to minute.  In order to
lighten the load, we left the coffin behind and held His dead Majesty at
the head end and at the feet.  Then the Pharaoh broke through in the
middle and each of us took his half under his arm. After half an hour
walking, we two Berliners with the halved Pharaoh climbed into a
droshky.  A new obstacle met us at the customs building directly in
front of the great iron bridge of Kasr enjNil. "Nothing taxable in the
carriage?"  asked the customs officer in the Arabic language. "No,
nothing at all, nafisch!" "But what is this here?"  Diedi,
and with these words he pointed to the two halves of the royal corpse.
"Salted meat," I answered, and secretly pressed a coin into his hand.
"Jallah, go on!"  called the officer to the coachman, and our
carriage with the three of us rolled across the bridge. My story seemed
to entertain Mariette, yet the sight of the corpse of the king in two
parts made a repulsive impression on him, whereas formerly a mummy left
him completely indifferent. "And so there really are inscribed kings'
pyramids!" he exclaimed with a hoarse voice, "I had never been willing
to   (        0*0*0*  believe it." A few days after the
event described, the most frightful deathstruggle set in for my poor
friend, until finally on January 17, 1880, he took leave of this world
forever. Born on February 12, 1821, in Boulognesurmer, he died in the
sixtieth year of his life as a result of diabetes, which had tortured
him unspeakably the entire second half of his earthly journey.  His
vigorous body offered the strongest resistance up to the last moment,
but the mental sufferings in the last years of his life had shaken his
nervous system, which hastened the progress of the treacherous illness
and brought about his death.  Of eleven children, seven had been
snatched away from him by death in the bloom of their existence, and
ultimately, one year before his own death, a beloved son full of
promise, who had just on the point of devoting himself to an honorable
profession. The death of Mariette was the sign for the French present in
Cairo to solemnize in the most noticeable manner his funeral taking
place the next day.  The entire population of the city, native and
foreign, was to learn that France was determined to take possession of
the ancient Egyptian legacy of the Museum, and not to give up to any
outsider the now empty position of the Director of the Museums and
Excavations. Already on the day of Mariette's death his successor,
Professor Maspero, a French subject, though of Italian origin, had
arrived in Egypt, to place himself at the head of the administration of
the "Antika."   (        0*0*0*  Ԍ     The Egyptian
government and the Khedive let themselves be intimated, and my own
person which, according to the intention and the declaration of the
Viceroy himself, alone possessed the right of succession, was pushed
back for the sole reason that I had the honor to be a German, and only
as such to displease the great nation.  Lesseps' opinion on this subject
I have already described word for word. I attended the funeral; going
alone I accompanied the body of Mariette from the Museum to the Catholic
Church, regarded askance by all the French, even those who, at the times
of the exhibitions, belonged among my officials and had been overwhelmed
with favors by me.  I granted them the small national triumph and
thought with melancholy of the faithful thirtyyearold friendship which
had bound me with the deceased.  In more than a thousand letters he had
addressed to me there was mirrored his heart, which beat fully and
completely for me, and which he had so often unburdened to me in the
most touching way, in order to describe his mental torments and to
direct to me his calls for help.  And I had never deceived him in his
hopes, for I remained at all times 'le Prussian de son coeur," as he in
words and in writing preferred to describe me.  Peace be to his ashes!
$	 MY JOURNEY WITH THE CROWN PRINCE RUDOLPH OF AUSTRIAă
A few months had elapsed since the death of Mariette, when Crown Prince
Rudolf of Austria addressed the inquiry by telegraph to me in Cairo,
whether I would agree to escort him on his forthcoming Nile journey to
Upper Egypt.  To decline   (        0*0*0*  such an honor
could all the less occur to me, since the recollection of his father's
sojourn in Egypt and my humble services during it imposed on me the due
obligation of warmest gratitude.  The reputation of high intellectual
endowment and the love of knowledge which was connected with the person
of the Crown Prince could only heighten my own wishes to approach more
closely the young Prince whose first acquaintance I had the good fortune
to make at the time of the Vienna World Exposition.  Unforgettable to me
had remained the last hour in which Crown Prince Rudolf and the young
Prince Wilhelm, my present Imperial Lord and Master, took leave of each
other in the court of my Egyptial buildings with words of heartiest
friendship and with the promise on both sides of a frequent exchange of
letters in the future. The Egyptian journey of the Crown Prince has been
recorded by his own hand and published.  It forms the first volume of
his vivid and excellently composed work Eine Orientreise," which
was published in Vienna in the year 1881. The words which the Crown
Prince wrote with his own hand on the first page of the copy destined
for me:  "To the faithful guide and teacher in the land of the Pharaohs,
the helpful collaborator, in grateful friendship!  Rudolf" provide the
most eloquent evidence, with what kindness and indulgence the amiable
Prince understood how to recognize my humble services. A series of
letters which he later addressed to me and which, especially after h is
departure from this earth, I read again and again not without the
deepest feeling, confirms the   (        0*0*0*  unassuming
character and the sober view of the world of their princely author, who
found his highest satisfaction in the purely human and his richest
enjoyment in intellectual work. For the journey to Upper Egypt as far as
its end point, the island of Philae on the southern border, a viceregal
steamer had been placed at the disposal of the Imperial Prince.  Among
the companions of His Highness were his uncle, the Grand Duke of
Tuscany, the General Count Waldburg, member of a Wurttemberg family, the
Court chaplain Abbot Mayer, the Major von Eschenbach, a cavalier
handsome as a picture, and furthermore the Hungarian Count Josef Hoyos
and the painter Pausinger from Salzburg.  All the members of the
expedition, only my humble self excluded, were excellent huntsmen, and
the Crown Prince himself enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most
successful shots. The hunting of predatory creatures alone seemed to him
worthy of a real hunter, since it contributes to exterminating
destructive animals, and above all things, to protecting the cultivated
fields of the countryman and his herds of cattle. He assured me that he
felt not even the slightest pleasure in hunting red deer and chamois,
since the killing of harmless animals, but most of all a mass
destruction, was downright repugnant to him.  His inclination to study
the animal kingdom, especially the winged inhabitants of the air, had
been richly nourished through his acquaintance with "TierBrehm,."  The
well known scholar of this name, whose zoological works and books still
enjoy a world reputation, had   (	        0*0*0*  already
for several years been close to Crown Prince Rudolf. He had contributed
to awakening in the young Prince a hardly believable inclination for his
own investigations, and I myself can testify with what zeal the studious
pupil applied himself, after finishing a hunting expedition, to examine
scientifically, according to Dr. Brehm's tables, the booty brought home.
Neither fatigue nor hunger and thirst could cause him to let his booty
wait even for a moment.  He measured the length of the bodies and
wingspread of the hawks, eagles, and falcons he had shot, he entered the
numbers in his huntbook, added other peculiarities in the bodily
structure or in the coloring of the birds, and kept as exact a register
as though the Crown Prince of Austria were furnishing the model of a
thoroughly learned zoologist. On the other hand, he revealed his grasp
of science in the eagerness with which he listened to my daily
discourses on ancient Egyptian history, geography, mythology,
architecture, etc.  His remarks, which he interposed here and there,
were to the point, and comparisons with other branches of the history of
the peoples of Antiquity or of modern times showed the expert who was
sure of his subject.  A special feature which I discovered with real
pleasure in the character of the Crown Prince, and found confirmed
daily, was the simplicity of his manners and expressing no wants, a rare
quality of the great ones of the earth.  Far from life at Court, the
stay in Egypt offered  him an incredible enjoyment, since at every step,
he met in the natives the simplest human beings with whom he   (
        0*0*0*  conversed in the kindest way through my
mediation, and he always gave friendly answers and information to their
questions.  His slim body was like steel and he was able to endure the
greatest exertions with ease.  Hunting expeditions lasting for hours in
the sand of the desert or on the steep paths of the rocky mountains,
covered with boulders and bare of vegetation, mostly in the burning sun,
gave him not the slightest trouble, while I myself lost my breath, so
that I frequently begged him to adopt a slower tempo. In his
conversation the Crown Prince displayed intelligence, keenness and wit.
At the same time, he maintained a calm which had to impress even the
older man. When he found himself in official company, he suddenly
changed his nature as though by magic; his entire bearing showed a stiff
formality which otherwise was not at all characteristic of him.  From
head to foot, he revealed the Crown Prince, the future Emperor, and his
conversations were measured and brief in their sentences. When I left
Egypt, I had to give him the promise to pay him a visit any time I was
in Europe, and to spend a longer time with him as a guest.  The first
opportunity offered itself when, in the spring of the year 1881, I
returned home, and in my letter I informed him that I was ready to
deliver to him the contributions he wished for the publication of his
travel book.  Even the smallest communications of scientific content,
which had reference to our joint journey, were printed verbatim by the
Crown Prince, and with citation of   (        0*0*0*  their
author, and he found this such a matter of course, that not even one
passage in his work could be found, in which he had tacitly made use of
my own knowledge. As one knows, directly after his return from Egypt to
h is home, his marriage to Princess Stephanie, daughter of the King of
the Belgians, took place.  Soon after the wedding, the crownprincely
pair moved to Prague, the capital of the kingdom of Bohemia, to set up
their residence there for some time in the old castle of Hradschin.
Following a handwritten invitation of my princely patron, I took up my
abode for a few weeks in the Prague castle, whereby I had the honor to
have daily contact with the noble princely couple.  In this way, I had
the opportunity to learn to know both in their domestic life and to
admire the cordiality of their mutual relations. The wife of the Crown
Prince, at that time only seventeen years old, was charming not only
through the grace of her aristocratic youthful appearance, but still
more through the modesty, almost shyness of her nature, a consequence of
her cloistered upbringing in the parental house, far from the noisy
pleasures of the great world.  On the excursions we made together by
carriage or by railroad, it was neither village nor city, neither forest
nor mountain, which held my attention, but rather the intimate
relationship of the young couple, which I had the fortune to share. In
the Prague castle the working hours and the social meetings were
strictly separated from one another.  The Crown Prince made use of every
free period to indulge in his scientific
studies and his literary activity with all fervor. It is generally known
that his productions have been as fruitful according to their content as
they were tasteful and pleasing in their form.  The magnificently
projected work on the peoples of Austria originated under his aegis, and
many contributions from his pen have lent it a distinguished
embellishment. Not infrequently, it happened that the Crown Prince
appeared in my room close to midnight and often sat at my bed in order,
while enjoying a good cigar  he smoked a great deal and with pleasure 
to talk for hours about the most serious problems and to get my own
opinion on the most difficult questions.  Science and art, politics and
religion furnished the material, and I was astonished to encounter the
most liberal views in the prince who had grown up under the strictest
protection  views which he represented with all warmth in his
"academic" dialogues. The recollections of our days together bring back
to me many unforgettable hours, of which I could not call one of them
wasted.  Even the ordinary life and activity of men and their social
condition elicited from the Crown Prince judgments which revealed the
keen and good observer and affirmed his widerange view. During my stay
in Prague, occurred my first acquaintance with the painter Canon, an
artist of great talent and reputation who was close to the Crown Prince
(the latter had drawn him out of his voluntary isolation) and who at
that time   (         0*0*0*  had received the commission
from him to execute the lifesize oil portrait of the Crown Princess in
the Hradschin.  It was not only a good likeness but also in
comprehension and execution a model of perfection.  When I made the
acquaintance of the artist, who has died in the meantime, he was in a
state of suffering.  As a result of a fall during a hunt which the Crown
Prince had arranged, he was forced to stay in bed.  I saw him surrounded
by an entire library, which did not pertain in any way to entertaining
literature, but consisted only of philosophical works and treatises.
Canon was well versed in all the systems of the older and modern
philosophers, and I was frankly astonished to recognize in the painter
my master in this field.  "What do you want?"  he exclaimed to me at my
expression of surprise, "My life and my entire existence have thrown me
into the arms of philosophy.  Listen to my sad fate and you will
understand that I had to become a philosopher." And I listened to his
story, which could provide a writer with the material for a novel of
several volumes.  Three women, one after another, play a decisive role
in it, and each time to plunge the painter into the most bitter despair.
For two hours he unburdened his overflowing heart to me, happy to have
relieved his soul, as he assured me, and to have found in me an
understanding listener.  The Crown Prince, to whom I later imparted
Canon's relieved frame of mind, could not resist an almost unbridled
merriment.  He too had been initiated into the mental distress of the
philosophical painter, yet he viewed the chief events in Canon's fate
from   (        0*0*0*  a less philosophical standpoint.
"He was always a good fellow," said he, "whom the women treated
abominably."  The appearance of the perhaps fiftyyearold man taught me
that Canon was unwillingly in a position to exert a certain power of
attraction on women.  He was of stately height, and his features still
showed the traces of a former masculine beauty, which a yardlong beard
served as a special ornament. My relations with the Crown Prince Rudolf
were later terminated by my transfer to Persia.  When having returned
home again, I learned from the newspapers of the death of the
unfortunate Prince in the year 1889, I felt it like a stab in the heart.
Whatever may have been the causes of his tragic end, he died in any case
as victim of a terrible destiny whose secret will never be lifted.  It
fills me even now with deepest grief, to have lost a sincere patron and
friend in the Crown Prince, although the differences of position and of
age seemed to have created an unbridgeable gulf between us.

WITH PRINCE FRIEDRICH KARL OF PRUSSIA

     I had carried out
my move to Charlottenburg and set up my permanent residence in a
onestory house on Leibniz Street in the hope of spending the rest of my
days in the lap of my family and at the side of my second wife, the
daughter of an Austrian gendarmerie major.  In Egypt, I had been obliged
to keep open house throughout eight months of the year, since already at
that time foreign visitors swarmed in the dark country and the city of
Cairo in particular had become a rendezvous of the most distinguished
European world.  My   (        0*0*0*  residence in the
Fagala, or "Radish Street" seemed to be a kind of dovecote, for the
foreign birds flew in and out of my house for the best part of the day,
and my wife, moreover, had great difficulty and trouble when invitations
were issued, to satisfy the anticipated demands and to supervise kitchen
and cellar.  When it was a question of princely persons and their
entourage, there was added the really difficult task of committing no
blunders in the seating arrangements at the table.  All of that all at
once came to an end, and only the memory of the great world compensated
us for the missing guests in our own quiet home.  Travelling also, as I
had intended, was once and for all to be put on the shelf, and my
wanderings were to remain limited only to the road between
Charlottenburg and the nearby young metropolis of Berlin. Fate again
ordained it otherwise, for shortly after my settling down was completed,
I had to grasp the pilgrim's staff once more and renew my acquaintance
with Egyptian Africans and Persian Asiatics. The other guests present
belonged in the majority to the military.  As war comrades or as able
officers, they had become loved and esteemed by the Prince, who recalled
common campaign memories and exchanged with all of them his ideas on
modern warfare, or interwove into the conversation persons and things of
the past and the present. The conversation at the princely table at
which twelve persons took their places each according to rank, was led
by the princely host, who allotted its fitting place
to   (        0*0*0*  seriousness and to jesting, and who
plainly exerted a beguiling spell upon those present through his simple,
straightforward nature.  To the guests who were far from military status
belonged scholars, schoolmasters, artists, writers and poets, who
received an invitation from time to time and through their instructive
communications brought the charm of variety into the conversation.
Whoever came to the hunting lodge of Dreilinden for the first time to
take his place at the table, had to write his name in an open memory
book and do justice to the old custom by drinking his first champagne
out of the stag horn chosen for it.  The interior of the mighty horn was
hollowed out for this purpose, and at various places between the prongs,
openings were made, close to which the drinker had to bring his mouth in
order to let the flowing contents wash over his tongue.  That was not
easy at any time, according to the placing of the prongs.  The military
order of rank determined the choice of the imbibinghole.  I was given
the privilege of being permitted to bring my lips to the general
bunghole.  I set to and drank, in my opinion, about a halfbottle of
champagne, while in fact there was only one full glass in the stag horn.
With this welcome, I joined the round table in Dreilinden as a guest of
equal birth, to enjoy the presence of the princely hero and his paladins
through a series of years. My unforgettable protector led a
contemplative, quiet life in the confined rooms of  his hunting lodge,
interrupted at the most twice a week through the presence of the
invited   (        0*0*0*  guests.  Among the nonmilitary
guests I count, in the foremost rank, Master Anton von Werner, the
Doctors Gussfeldt and Schottmuller, the poets and writers von
Bodenstedt, Fontane and Mollhausen, to recall only the most prominent
spirits.  Among the officers, there were not a few who distinguished
themselves not only in their profession, but equally through their
literary productions.  I mention only General von Spitz, the poetically
highly gifted author of "Udo mit dem Tuchlein." The conversation, as I
said, turned to all fields of human knowledge and understanding, and it
was always a true pleasure to me to admire the keen and pertinent
judgments of the noble host.  Many fine remarks of his have remained
alive in my recollection.  Although a warrior of the first magnitude, he
hated war and regarded it only as a necessary evil.  His modesty led him
even to the confession that he had really missed his calling, that he
was in fact born to be only a seaman.  As such he would have
accomplished something really significant.  One must know that he loved
the navy above all, and in seamanship, even to the technical terms, he
possessed quite extraordinary knowledge.  In this respect, the Prince
had everything to find fault with in me, and the only thing he could
praise, on the occasion of a later voyage we took together, was my
complete indifference to the spectre of seasickness. After rising from
the table, the Prince felt an incredible pleasure in the presentation of
folk songs, which,   (        0*0*0*  with piano
accompaniment, resounded through the halls of Dreilinden from the rich
choral voices of officers  Baron von Dincklage was a master of this.
The power of the singing occasionally had so deep an effect on the
fieldmarshal Prince, that I saw a quiet tear in his veiled eye.
Otherwise, concerts and theater left him completely indifferent, so that
many doubted the musical taste of the great CommanderinChief. All
those, like my humble self, who were closer to him could tell of his
kindness, his childlike heart, and his lack of pretension, which stood
in noticeable contrast to the strict fieldmarshal.  Compassion was
enthroned in his inner being, and the many benefactions and quiet
support which he provided to the oppressed and those in need of help are
known only to the ones who received the commission to transmit them. He
strictly forbade talking about it at all. In the summer, the Prince used
to make his abode for a few weeks in Sassnitz on the island of Rugen,
and to invite his privileged friends for a longer or shorter stay in his
company.  The living quarters consisted of three Swedish wooden houses,
which were erected in the green meadow on the steep edge of the seashore
and afforded the widest view across the Bay of Sassnitz.  German
warships used to lie at anchor in the middle of the Bay.  Early in the
morning, even in spite of storm and tempest, they received the visit of
the Prince and his guests.  Sea maneuvers and military inspections took
the entire morning, after which, about one o'clock, the
return   (        0*0*0*  trip to land took place.  The
idyllic life on the beach gave the noble lord unequalled pleasure, yet
he scrupulously avoided going outside the enclosed space of his
settlement, to be greeted by bathing guests and honored by ovations.  I
shall later cite a striking proof of the way in which the Prince avoided
directing public attention to himself. My invitations to Sassnitz were
repeated through several years, and I need not assert with what joy I
complied with them.  The quiet hours I spent in earnest conversation
beside the Prince, who used to sit under the front of his Swedich house,
have remained unforgettable to me.  Often, in sight of the agitated sea,
he unburdened his whole heart to me, and not infrequently confided to me
a secret sorrow which oppressed his mind at the moment.  Each time there
came over me the sensation of deepest melancholy, since my own grounds
for consolation did not suffice to sweeten the bitterness of his painful
feelings.  In the never empty conversation, Prince Friedrich Karl, who
has made history himself through his exploits, loved to have me instruct
him concerning the most ancient history of the Orient, especially Egypt,
and I might be justly proud to be able to reveal to the unconquered
fieldmarshal my humble knowledge on the background of Antiquity. It is
known to only a few that the Prince engaged in very serious numismatic
studies and possessed a choice collection of coins and medals from the
periods of Antiquity.  From the Roman Imperial Period, there were unique
pieces in gold among them, which had been presented to him by King
Victor Emmanuel   (        0*0*0*  of Italy and which in
themselves along formed a small treasure.  The Prince regarded
numismatics as a particularly important part of history and collected
eagerly, as soon as the opportunity for new acquisitions offered itself
to him. It was generally noted that the General Field Marshal possessed
a curious shyness before the eternal feminine, and when, one fine day
facing the calm mirror of the sea in the Bay of Sassnitz, I took the
liberty of making a gentle allusion to his aversion, he smilingly
admitted it, but then his features assumed the expression of deep
gravity, and he openly confessed to me that his strict upbringing in the
paternal house was solely to blame for it.  And yet it was well known to
all those who were closer to him what pleasure the mostly unexpected
visits of the charming young princesses, daughters of the then Crown
Prince, afforded him in Dreilinden, and with what tenderness he loved
his own daughters.  His eyes shone when he spoke of them and he felt
proud to be the father of such splendid children. Toward the end of the
year 1882  his "Herr Vater" was already at that time beginning to be
ill  he decided upon a journey to the East if I, "the Basse," as he
used to call me in jest, could decide to count among his companions.  I
gladly agreed to the proposal, and toward the close of the same year
(from December 27th on) the Prince, along with his fellow travellers 
Colonel von Natzmer, Major von Garnier, Captain von Kaickstein, and my
own humble self  was already on the way to the port city of
Trieste.   (        0*0*0*  Ԍ     The Prince made the
journey in strictest incognito, and not one of the Orient travellers,
either boarding or leaving the train, suspected what noble person was
among them on the railway.  Even upon arrival in Trieste any reception
was forbidden, and early on the morning of December 29, 1882, the Prince
went on foot, in my company, from the station to the Lloyd ship
"Ettore," which was steaming in the harbor, to set out on his voyage to
Alexandria at the hour of midnight.  In the vicinity of Ithaca, of
Odyssean memory, on the stroke of twelve o'clock midnight, the New Year
was celebrated by punch and "Krapfen," and Herr von Garnier competed
with the Lloyd Captain Goll, a native of Steier, in drawing forth
melodious songs from the zither. I cannot consider it my task to reprint
for the reader in this place the description of the Prince's journey,
even if only the chief events and chief stoppingpoints.  The travel
book published later, which I wrote under the title: Prinz Friedrich
Karl im Morgenlande, and to which the drawings of our
travellingcompanion, Major von Garnier, lent the highest value through
the rich, artistic contributions made on the spot, tells all the
experiences with all possible fidelity and minuteness of detail.  The
Nile trip in Egypt ended at the first waterfall between the town of
Assuan and the Isis Island of Philae.  Hardly had this southern boundary
been reached, on January 23, 1883, when the sad news, announced by
telegraph, of the death of Prince Karl in Berlin cast a heavy gloom over
the journey, and above all, changed h is princely son into
a   (        0*0*0*  silent, taciturn man.  Under these
circumstances, the immediate return home would have been undertaken, had
not the Emperor's wish advised its continuation. During an eightday
rest period, which I spent in Cairo, the Prince and the members of his
retinue had set out on their way by water and by land to the Sinai
Mountains, whereby Lieutenant Wissmann, just back from his crossing of
Africa and fortunately happening to be in Cairo, filled the gap caused
by my absence.  It is not necessary especially to state that the
acquaintance of the intrepid traveller afforded the highest pleasure to
the Prince, and that all of us, still during our joint stay in the city
of Caliphs, devoured, as it were, with understandable eagerness the oral
reports of Wissmann, for which my friend Schweinfurth had made a special
map. After the departure of the Prince for the Sinai the French papers,
which appeared in Alexandria and Cairo and pursued not merely
antiEnglish but also antiGerman tendencies, spread the false report
that the German CommanderinChief, along with his companions, had been
killed by the desert Arabs.  Naturally, there was no truth in the
matter, and it bordered upon permitting the wish to be regarded as the
father of the report.  Thank God, the Prince enjoyed the best of good
health.  He had entered his name in the visitors' book of the Sinai
monastery under that of the murdered Englishman Palmer, and had appeared
on the German gunboat "Cyclop" at the right time on the blue Crocodile
Lake near the Ismailia Station of the Suez Canal, in order to take me
aboard and also   (        0*0*0*  the Major Baron von
Maltzahn, who had just landed in Egypt. It was on the 18th of February
about ninethirty in the evening, and early the next day, in the most
beautiful weather, the journey continued by way of Port Said to Jaffa.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of the following day, the landing on
the rocky roadstead of the old city of Joppe took place, and the journey
through Palestine began, under the wettest weather conditions, to be
sure.  In Palestine, the month of February and the period until March
belong, as we know, to the dominion of Jupiter Pluvius, and the king of
the gods did not fail to let us experience his worst temper for almost
thirty days. The Prince was travelling as guest of the Sultan, and an
adjutantPasha, in the name of his master, rendered the Prince the
highest honors:  a troop of Turkish gendarmes and Tscherkessen served as
escort on the long way through mountain and valley, and the imposing
train of riders with the Prince at the head trotted at a jolly pace,
despite rain and bad weather, through the Holy Land from the Dead Sea as
far as beirut in the North.  At Mt. Tabor the road turned into an
absolute morass; therefore, the course by way of Nazareth to the
Phoenician coast had to be taken, on the sandy shores of which, from
Akka on through Tyre and Sidon, we at last reached the wavewashed foot
of snowcovered Lebanon.  After a oneday rest, we reached Damascus on
the French postroad, and there the horses were waiting for us, to carry
us through the Syrian steppe to the ruins of the city of Palmyra.  In
Damascus the   (        0*0*0*  Prince's visit with Emir
AbdelKader formed the high point of his stay in the city of
Fanaticism.  The return across AntiLebanon, above all to Baalbek,
through the midst of snow and ice, will remain unforgettable to me all
my life. The entire journey as far as the chief site of the veneration
of the ancient SunBaal resembled a campaign, at least for me.
Nevertheless, I held out bravely, and I was finally astonished myself,
that my strength resisted it and had suffered only little under the
daily hardships.  For a scholar whose chief activity belongs to the
studyroom, it was in fact no easy task, in wind and weather and high on
a horse to storm the most untrodden ways in flight, as it were, but a
look at the Prince steeled my wavering courage anew, and quickly
dispelled my worst mood. A holiday for us came on the 20th of March,
which was celebrated in the most elated frame of mind in Baalbek, at the
conclusion of our life of riding.  It was intended to give to the
honored Prince an expression of joy at the return of his birthday in the
presence of the Temple of Baal.  We learned from him that he had been
born at eleven o'clock "during the parade of the guard," whereby he
added:  "Bellona sometimes arranges it peculiarly."

     On the French postcoach from Baalbek by way of Schtora we reached
the city of Beirut just on the birthday of our Emperor and King, which
was observed in the most exalted mood and with due ceremony in the house
of the German Deaconesses.    (        0*0*0*  The sea ran
high and a stiff wind blew from the land side.  On the roadstead rocked
a German corvette, His Majesty's ship "Nymphe," which had received the
order to bring the Prince by way of Rhodes and Athens to Genoa.  The
voyage to the island of Rhodes was the worst imaginable.  The warship
danced on the waves and sometimes progressed only one knot per hour.
Notwithstanding, the customary maneuvers on the corvette were carried
out by the ship's company, and even shootingpractice was set up.  My
poor brain throbbed each time, but I consoled myself with the honor of
being numbered among the guests of the "Nymphe."  On the 25th of March,
one of the worst days, not even the observance of Easter Sunday could be
celebrated, and not until the second holiday did the divine service take
place in uplifting manner on deck.  Soon after that, the island of
Rhodes came into sight, the weather changed for the better, and toward
three o'clock in the after, the "Nymphe" entered one of the two harbors
of the picturesquely situated city. On the 27th of March the corvette
flew along on waters which had become calm.  A strong southeast wind
swelled the spread sails, and the "Nymphe" whizzed between the islands
of the Greek archipelago as fast as an arrow, for she made up to sixteen
knots per hour.  In twentysix hours we reached Athens, and two hundred
sixty knots from Rhodes lay behind us. In Athens the arrival of the
princely fieldmarshal was celebrated in the most cordial manner by the
royal family and the entourage shared the honor of being presented to
the King   (        0*0*0*  of the Hellenes, the Queen, and
the other members of the royal house.  The exceedingly bright and witty
Grand Prince Constantin of Russia was also there.  As a former student
of the Oriental Academy of Petersburg, he was intimately familiar with
Eastern languages and studies, and I had the opportunity to carry on
long and searching conversations with him concerning the Orient and its
future. Among the other persons with whom the Prince and his companions
came into contact with were Dr. Luders and the honorary citizen of
Berlin, Dr. Schliemann.  Naturally, both served as guides through
ancient Athens, with its valuable collections in the newlybuilt
museums.  Schliemann's house also enjoyed the visit of our Prince, who
inspected with interest the antiquities displayed there from
Schliemann's finds in Troy.  For myself, seeing Schliemann again in his
second home afforded a great pleasure.  Already in the first years of my
settling in Charlottenburg I had the opportunity for his closer
acquaintance, and a cordial friendship had sprung up between us, which
only shortly before his death suffered a decline for reasons unknown to
me.  The celebrated man, whose discoveries have rightly caused such an
extraordinary sensation, possessed the naive views and childlike
disposition of an Odysseus, which alone procured for him his later
renown, even though strict philologists, at least the classical ones, at
first denied to his finds the significance which the lucky discoverer
himself assigned to them.  His firm belief was hardly shaken by it, and
he   (        0*0*0*  joyfully undertook the struggle to
defend his views and opinions against the host of unbelievers. Since the
departure from Rhodes the weather and the ocean passage had changed for
the better, and in five days the "Nymphe" travelled the distance from
Athens to Naples.  A stay of barely two days in sight of the smoking
Vesuvius had to suffice, in order to inspect the chief objects of
interest in the city, above all, the antiquities of the National Museum.
An excursion by carriage was also made to Pompeii.  The curiosity of the
Neapolitan populace to see the evervictorious fieldmarshal face to
face was extremely repugnant to the Prince, and he commissioned me to
remain on his right during the visit in Pompeii, in order thus to arouse
the notion that I myself was Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia.  I did
not dare to resist or make any remonstrance at all, and so the
unbelievable happened, that my humble self was most respectfully greeted
by the military sentries and civic officials in Pompeii in place of the
celebrated Prince. By way of Livorno and Genoa we reached Berlin again
on the 11th of April, 1883, full of unforgettable impressions and
recollections of all that had passed before our eyes in the short space
of four and a half months in the region of the East.  But in the center
of all experiences on the widely extended travels, stood the image of
Prince Friedrich Karl, to whom, according to God's inscrutable decree,
it was unfortunately not to be granted to spend further long years among
the living, in full possession of health which seemed
to   (        0*0*0*  be equal to even the strongest
exertions.  Despite his moderation in partaking of food and drink, the
Prince suffered from a plethora, which with time visibly gave him
trouble.  It was like a premonition of his imminent departure from this
world, when he asked me the often repeated question:  "Isn't it true,
old man, we two shall live a long time together?"  I always replied to
that with an Oriental "Inschallah," or "Please God!" and, satisfied, he
laid his hand on my shoulder with a smiling expression.  His friendly
features were able to exert an overpowering impression on me, and I felt
it as the highest favor of fate, to be permitted to look into his
faithful eyes. For a long time, the journey to the Orient formed the
subject of conversation at the round table of Dreilinden or wherever
else the Prince used to stay, and his routinely kept diaries in
miniature format were frequently looked into and consulted by him.  The
arrival in Berlin of the purchases which he had acquired in the Eastern
countries he had visited, and their distribution to his humorous
friends, belonged to the happiest moments of his life.  Not a single one
of them had been forgotten.  MY SECOND JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF
THE SUNă In August of the year 1885 I was in the Bohemian town of
Marienbad, in order to find a cure for an incipient liver ailment in the
waters of this highly renowned healthresort. It is the distressing
consequence of a longer stay under the Oriental sky that liver and
kidneys of European settlers
not   (        0*0*0*  infrequently become seriously
afflicted by pains.  In such a case the abovementioned healthresort
near Karlsbad offers the almost certain prospect of deliverance from
suffering. I had hardly drunk the first cup from the Kreuzbrunnen, when
an official inquiry came to me from Berlin, whether I would be willing,
for Emperor and Empire, to place my Persian knowledge and experience at
the disposal of the Foreign Office and become a member of the first
extraordinary delegation to the court of the Shah of Shahs in the land
of Iran. I must openly confess that the honorable proposal at first
plunged me into a certain embarrassment.  I had already left behind me
the fiftyeighth year of my life; besides, the dismal recollections of
my first Persian journey were not of the sort to arouse particular
enthusiasm in me for the distant trek to the heart of Asia.  Also the
expected long separation from my family troubled me a little, and yet
the call to Emperor and Empire gave the decisive stroke in all my
considerations.  I sang with the French grenadier:  "Was schiert mich
Weib, was schiert mich Kind," slammed shut my old Egyptian writings,
packed my few things together, and prepared for the approaching
departure to the distant land of Iran. I almost regretted my decision
when, directly before my departure, an event occurred which I could
hardly have foreseen.  The Old Master of Egyptology, Professor Lepsius,
had ended his pilgrimage on earth, after he had finally enjoyed the
happiness, along with his honor as member of the Royal Academy, of
occupying in the last years of his life
the   (        0*0*0*  positions of Head Librarian of the
Royal Library, Director of the Egyptian Museum, and full Professor of
Egyptology at the Friedrich Wilhelms University.  Was it presumptuous of
me to hope that one of the two lastmentioned positions would be
transferred to me, the corresponding member of the Academy? Through my
numerous works in the ancient Egyptian field I believed I was worthy of
consideration, but my hopes deceived me again this time most profoundly,
and to all earlier defeats which I had endured, was added a new one for
mein my own Fatherland, of which I did not know how to say:  was it
deserved or not?  I know only that it caused me deep sorrow, because it
impressed upon me the conviction that I had completely overestimated the
value of my nearly fifty years' labors.  I bitterly deplored, at that
time, having wasted all my energy, so to speak, on useless things, and
until the evening of my life pursued an empty phantom. My noble patron
Prince Friedrich Karl was frankly dismayed when I informed him of my
intention to travel to Persia.  But considerations of state stood higher
for him than feelings of personal friendship, and so he gave me his
parting blessing, in the hope of a happy reunion.  "Who knows, my dear
Basse," sounded his last words of farewell, which he addressed to me in
his rooms in the royal castle in Berlin, "whether you will again find me
living.  Here (and he laid his right hand on the left side of his
breast), here it has not felt right, singe  you know very well .  I
beg you in the meantime to cheer me often with news by letter, and to be
certain of my   (        0*0*0*  answers."  He pressed my
hand at parting, without my having a presentiment that I had looked into
the faithful eyes of the noblehearted Prince for the last time.  For
myself, it was very painful upon stepping out of the castle, for the
recollection of the past brought back to me all the abundance of
benevolence with which the fieldmarshal had overwhelmed me, and I
almost repented the hour in which I had obligated myself to undertake
the assigned mission to Persia. The extraordinary delegation,
consisting, in addition to its chief, of three members, a first
secretary of the legation, a military attache, and my own person,
started off in September of the year 1885, in order to take the road by
way of Breslau to Odessa, and on one of the Russian steamers which
navigate the Russian coast of the Black Sea to reach the seaport of
Batum its east side.  I was not a little astonished to find, in the same
place which I had come to know twentyfive years before as a wretched
Turkish spot covered with only a few houses and huts, a flourishing
Russian commercial town in which, to judge by the business signboards,
the French element was represented in the foremost rank.  From the
seacoast and the landingplace of the steamships a railway ran in the
direction toward the east.  It connects the Black Sea by way of Tiflis
with the Caspian Sea, at which it ends near the oil city of Baku.  The
journey from here to the land of Iran is made on small steamers whose
boilers are heated with burning petroleum.  Such cheap fuel, because of
the proximity of Baku, proves to be quite advantageous, yet suffers
the   (         0*0*0*  disadvantage that an unbearable
smell permeates the entire ship, even to the food and drink. Everything
was new to me on this part of the journey and surprised me to the point
of the most justified astonishment. I could not conceal from myself the
fact that, since my last presence in the Caucasus region, Russia had
made extraordinary efforts to open to traffic the formerly desolate
steppe on the Kura River as far as Baku,. and at individual places to
create absolute miracles.  Even the Russian coastal region on the west
bank of the Caspian Sea, in whose backwoods the Persian tiger has
established its northernmost lair, showed wellbuilt settlements in the
customary country style, whose neat, bright appearance must entice the
foreign traveller to a visit. From the Persian port city of Enseli, at
the southwest corner of the Caspian Sea on, the journey of the first
German delegation resembled a true triumphal march, and its members
could feel proud to be enjoys of the first German Emperor and belonging
to a mighty Empire.  The names of Emperor Wilhelm and Schahfadeh
(meaning actually King's son, then as much as prince) Bismark were on
all lips, and I had plenty to do to answer in the Persian tongue the
countless questions as to the wellbeing of the great Emperor and his
valiant Chancellor. I must mention, by the way, a special circumstance
which concerned myself, and which in the beginning caused me
embarrassment.  Many Persians, who knew the Prince only from pictures,
as they are plentifully circulated in the Persian cities and villages,
took me for even a brother or a son
of   (!        0*0*0*  the great Chancellor.  The similarity
of my features to those of the Chancellor struck even the Shah of
Persia, and he came back to it again and again in his conversations with
me.  Even my acquaintances and friends in Europe give me the same
assurance still today, to which I want to add that only a few years ago
the illustrious ruler of two great empires in the north of Europe
remarked to me in a conversation that I was quite similar to an only
"toneddown Bismarck." From the city of Kaswinan, on the other side of
the Elburs Mountains, the Persian domain as far as the capital, Teheran,
was well known to me from my first journey, yet it surprised me that in
this earlier residence city of the future Great King, a splendid hotel
in the European style had been build on imperial order and at state
expense, a regular postal service to Teheran had been set up as well,
with the help of fourwheeled vehicles on rather well maintained
highways.  The Shah, after returning from his second journey abroad, had
given the order for this improvement in public transportation, and also
in other respects in the present capital of Teheran itself, he had made
many renovations for which his visit in the capitals of Europe had
offered the inducement.  The paving of the streets with blocks of stone
and their illumination by gas, and, in some places at least, electric
light was alone enough to astonish me and to make me sincerely admire
the energy of the Shah of Shahs.  That not everything worked as it ought
to, or sounded as well as it ought to, need not diminish his merit, nor
furnish ground for sarcastic ridicule
by   ("        0*0*0*  European critics.  Let it suffice to
know that to me Persia appeared in a decidedly new light, even to the
advanced degree of education in which the majority of the higher
officeholders confronted me in the most favorable light.  They had
shaken off a great number of traditional old prejudices, become
completely familiar with European views, and gained a fluency in the
knowledge and in the oral expression of European languages which only
increased my astonishment from day to day.  I even learned to know
younger Persians  they were the two sons of the Persian Minister of
Education  who mastered our German mother tongue in its full range and
were better acquainted with Berlin and Charlottenburg than with Teheran
and the immediate surroundings.  Both children of Iran had acquired
their wonderful Germanness in the family of my old friend Professor
Dieterici in Charlottenburg. But since the arrival of the first German
delegation in Persia my mind was captivated by other impressions also.
They gave me the pleasure of being able to feel proud to be a German,
even in the heart of Asia.  Under the rule and leadership of Emperor
Wilhelm, I, at whose side his paladins, Prince Bismarck and Count
Moltke, stood loyal guardians and protectors of the United German
Empire, the Fatherland had attained an importance over the entire globe
which evoked the feeling of admiration and respect among its many honest
friends, envy and fear among its few foes.  The name "Aleman" was known
in the most remote Persian village, and had become a watchword for all
greatness and every virtue.  Alemania
sat   (#        0*0*0*  at the head in the council of
nations, and Iran must have felt in its deepest being that the German
friendship was not merely an empty illusion.  Hence the sincere
cordiality and the highest honors with which the first German Delegation
was received in Teheran by the Shah and the entire population.  It need
not be said that every member of the Delegation bore his share of the
sincere enthusiasms of the Persian people.  Even our Persian servants
received their small part of it, as soon as they let themselves be seen
on the street with the embroidered German Imperial Eagle on their
servicecoats. My short diplomatic career was not without a poetic
flavor, at least I sought to embellish the prosaic daily life with the
flowers of Persian poetry.  The cradle of my book Die Muse in
Teheran was in the modern residence of the Shah of Shahs.  Thus I
almost forgot my ancient Egyptian researches. Not a single sheet covered
with hieroglyphics had accompanied me to Persia.  Only the Persians, and
at their head "the center of the universe," Shah Nasreddin, and with
them all the cultured Europeans  only a single one was excluded, to my
sorrow  reminded me that the name of the German "musteschar," as they
entitled me in Persian, was inseparable from Egyptian Antiquity. To my
closest friends in Teheran belonged the Russian Ambassador Meinikoff and
the French physicianinordinary of the Shah, Dr. Tholozan.  Our
friendship dated back to the years 1860 and 1861.  It was old, and each
of us three had become old and gray with it, but it rejuvenated us
again, and   ($        0*0*0*  our hearts were bound to one
another.  We felt happy in the recollections of the long vanished past,
of our youth. A heavy fever seized me and confined me to the sickbed for
weeks.  My life hung on a thread.  From all sides, I was shown proof of
the greatest sympathy; the Shah, the Viziers, and "The pillars of the
Government," even the Princesses of the Court had daily reports on my
condition brought to them. In the meantime, I lay in feverish dreams on
my bed of pain and longed for the end of my sufferings.  The care of Dr.
Tholozan and of the German physician Dr. Albu, who at that time was
teacher at the medical school in Teheran, and the dedicated nursing of a
faithful German servant saved me from the claws of death.  With the
curious longing for a Berliner  potato soup began my recovery.  Frau
Albu satisfied my culinary desires day after day and I gained health in
order, weeks later, to be sure, to make weak attempts at walking while
supported by two servants, before I regained the old strength. All the
winter was devoted to embassy life.  Work in one's own house, audiences,
visits, banquets, balls and large and small social gatherings formed the
chief activities of the international world, which in toto consisted of
about sixty persons of both sexes.  Also, the military furnished its
contributions to the official invitations; German, Austrian, Italian,
Russian, and French officers along with their Persian colleagues helped
to glorify the festivities. After a stay of seven months, I preferred to
return to my   (%         0*0*0*  family and to the old
Egyptian wisdom at home.  I had discharged the chief task connected with
my mission to the best of my powers, and fulfilled my obligations to
Emperor and Empire.  At the end, I still celebrated the glorious spring
festival of the Persians, I still heard the nightingale singing in the
thicket, breathed the fragrance of roses in paradise gardens, lamented
having to part from dear friends, but absolutely did not let myself be
moved to prolong my stay further. A chief reason for the haste with
which I took my departure came from a postcard which was covered with
closely written lines by the hand of Prince Friedrich Karl.  It informed
me of his treatment in Marienbad and asked me to return home with all
possible speed.  I read between the lines and rushed back to Germany. On
the same route by which I had come, I finally reached Breslau, Hawkers
in the station were selling blackbordered printed sheets.  I hardly
trusted my ears when their voices announced the death of the Prince.
The printed words on the sheet confirmed their words. I had arrived too
late to find the Prince still living, and could only participate in the
church consecration of the body in Potsdam and in its solemn burial.
Deeply shaken, I followed in the procession and tried to suppress my
tears as well as I could.  Why did he, too, have to be snatched from me?
The great lights which brightened my path of life with their glow were
being extinguished, one after the other,
and   (&        0*0*0*  it was becoming darker and darker
around me. Three years after my departure from Persia and my return
home, the newspapers announced the arrival of the Shah in Berlin.  It
was the third time that the Iranian Majesty had decided to pay a visit
to the capital.  The Castle of Bellevue, on the cool bank of the Spree,
was prepared as headquarters for him and his numerous entourage during h
is stay.  I did not consider it fitting, as a retired legation
councillor, to make an official call on the King of Kings, and remained
modestly in the background.  That I had thereby made a mistake, I
recognized unfortunately too late. Already on the second day of his
Berlin stay there appeared, to my surprise, two royal carriages in front
of my house.  From one alighted my old friend, the physicianinordinary
of the Shah, Dr. Tholozan, from the other, the highly cultivated Persian
under State Secretary MohammedChan.  Both were fulfilling a commission
of the Shah, in which they requested me to present my entire family,
wife and children, to his Majesty. My embarrassment was as great as my
surprise, yet the order had to be followed.  In the castle of Bellevue
there appeared the family of eight, consisting of six male and two
female members, to be received in the most gracious manner by the Shah,
surrounded by his noblest retinue of Persian stock, and for half an hour
to be distinguished by conversation and questions. My harem and our
children had fabulous conceptions of
a   ('         0*0*0*  Persian Shah and trembled like aspen
leaves when his fiery black eye rested on them one by one.  Gradually
they lost their fear, for they looked into the cheerful and smiling face
of the King of Kings who, far from Persian etiquette, conversed with
them most intimately and held up the learned father as model for his
children. It is understandable that in my house there was talk for weeks
about the visit with the Shah of Shahs, whereby we all reached the
conviction that a human heart beat in the bosom of the dreaded ruler of
Iran.  How otherwise, would it have occurred to him to call us all to
him, in order to address friendly and amiable words to the German
Musteschar and his entire family?   Ã\
 AFTER MY MOVE FROM CHARLOTTENBURGă Throughout eight years
I had made my home in Charlottenburg, and during this time had realized
the little sorrows and joys of a quiet, settled burgher.  Finally it
became too confined for me in the rooms we occupied.  With time there
turned out to be faults which I first began to realize when, at the
homes of my friends in the capital, I became better acquainted with the
advantages of a Berlin domicile.  Not even running water was at the
family's disposal.  Besides, new buildings later began to limit the
freedom of my view.  Dustraising wagons and carts filled with stones
and building material rattled daily past my otherwise quiet retreat, and
even the little garden behind the house, with my favorite spot in my
family's leafenclosed arbor, was   ((        0*0*0*  not
spared, by a neighbor's building which robbed the trees and plantbeds
of the necessary light.  I sold my property, even at a loss, and moved
to the west of Berlin, although to that section which was still situated
in the Charlottenburg district.  Thus I have the honor, until now, to
have remained a Charlottenburger in Berlin. As private scholar and
private tutor at the Alma Mater in Berlin, I sought to disseminate my
ancient Egyptial studies through written and oral instruction.  I did
not shrink from going like a travelling preacher through the provinces
of the German Fatherland, and as speaker presenting in an understandable
and rounded form, to an eager and educated audience, the most
outstanding results of intellectual work in the various branches of my
science, or the impressions of my travels and my stay among the peoples
of the presentday Orient.  The lecture evenings on my circuit generally
fell in the winter season, but neither cold nor bad weather could make
me give up my voluntarily assumed obligations, even at the risk of
occasionally sounding my voice for several days in succession. I know
very well that many learned heads were shaken at my decision to unveil
the ancient Egyptian secrets before profane eyes, and that highsalaried
priests of wisdom, who lived in clover in their warm rooms, indulged in
sharp words concerning the paid wanderings of the father of a family.
But I myself was of the opposite opinion, since to me no truth of any
sort of scientific knowledge stood too high, not to
be   ()        0*0*0*  understood in its simple form,
without learned embellishment, even by the uninitiated of my people. For
the same reason, I did not cease from reprinting, in the most
widelyread journals, the same subjects which I used to treat in my
public lectures, often accompanied by pictorial representations which
were derived from photographic prints and drawings in the regions I had
visited.  Above all, it required no particular art of persuasion on my
part, to convince my old friend from student days, Friedrich Stephany,
editorinchief of the widely read "Vossische Zeitung," which covered
all fields of art and science, that the legacy of the oldest civilized
people on earth had a right to be understood and comprehended by the
youngest epigones of human history. And so, for a decade now, the
Vossisch "Sunday Supplement" has opened its columns to print my
regularly arriving contributions.  Oral and written communications or
inquiries from a great number of readers gave me the proof that my seed
had fallen onto good soil.  Should I conceal, incidentally, what joy it
afforded me, to make use of my rich and pregnant mother tongue in all my
works, and to strive, as far as it was admissible, to reject foreign
word forms?  In German literature I occupy no place in the foremost
rank, yet I have the conviction that nobody will deny me the praise of
having written down my thoughts in all possible clarity and purity of
language. It cannot be wondered at, that at home as well as abroad, I
have been given numerous demonstrations of the
fullest   (*        0*0*0*  recognition of my purely
scientific productions in the course of a more than fiftyyear activity.
From three continents I received honors such as are customarily bestowed
upon other deserving benefactors of science by their appointment as
members of academies and scientific societies.  The distinctions, I
willingly confess, afforded me great pleasure, for they compensated me
for the bitter disappointments which I encountered in life, put to rest
my own quiet doubts as to the value of my scientific endeavors, and gave
me the courage to remain true to the banner to which I had sworn an
oath. The past years 1891 and 1892 granted me a surprise for which I am
obligated with the deepest gratitude to its originators in the name of
the science I represented "privatim."  Enlightened spirits and managers
of the Ministry of Education, headed by the three last Ministers, tested
my Egyptian wisdom and my knowledge of the ancient land of the Pharaohs,
to place me twice, through special support, in the position to enrich
the royal museums in a suitable way through purchases of valuable
papyrus and through independent excavations for the seeking of monuments
(a nobleminded Berlin citizen and provided the funds for it).  I took
this mission with all ardor, and the mummypictures, paintings,
sculptures, bronzes, and other remains of Antiquity, mostly belonging to
the GrecoRoman period, which have been exhibited in the lightcourt of
the Egyptian Museum in Berlin in the past years, have offered the
numerous visitors the opportunity to form their judgment on the
individual finds of my   (+        0*0*0*  excavation work.
The fact that the Emperor inspected the collection I brought home, and
with the judgment of the true connoisseur distinguished individual
outstanding pieces in it from an artistic standpoint, consecrated it for
me for all time. The two years in which I had the good fortune to stay
in Egypt for the last time offered me the favorable opportunity not only
to view the region of the ancient ground, but also to give my whole
attention to the present conditions in the modern land of the Pharaohs.
I had already at the time of Prince Friedrich Karl's journey in the
historic Nile Valley reached the conviction, step by step, that, since
the occupation of the country by the British troops conditions had
undergone a thorough change compared to earlier times.  I saw my second
homeland, in which I had stayed and worked, in all, almost a
quartercentury under the most varied living conditions, showing the
sign of real progress under the English administration.  The French
veneer had already as good as completely faded, and British energy,
combined with the necessary strictness, had worked hardly believable
wonders.   From a conversation which I had the honor to hold with
Lord Dufferin in January of the year 1883, I could already make out with
all distinctness the direction of the political course which England had
decided to enter upon with regard to the inner administration of the
severely indebted country. On my later journey to Egypt, in the year
1891, I had the pleasure, immediately after my arrival in Cairo, to be
invited   (,        0*0*0*  to the breakfast table of the
Khedive Mohammed Tewfik, who unfortunately died soon after.  I had known
him from his tenth year, often spent time in his company in the crown
prince's castle of Kubbeh, in the vicinity of the once highly renowned
Suncity of On, and had thereby had the opportunity to learn to
appreciate highly his honorable disposition and his love for the
Egyptian people.  To be sure, he lacked the liveliness of spirit and the
force of will of his shrewd father; on the other hand, he distinguished
himself by the calls and prudence with which, right at the beginning of
his rule, he knew how to become reconciled to the changed state of
things after the landing of the English troops in Alexandria and after
the battle of Tell elKebir.  He confessed to me openly that only the
British intervention was to be thanked for the deliverance of the
country, and that he felt the obligation to provide h is honorable
support to the mediations, even to the reestablishment of orderly
conditions.  The fact that the hitherto existing administration of  his
country was having to undergo thorough reforms was quite clear to him,
although the difficulties in pleasing the Britons on the one hand, and
the natives at all times on the other, did not escape him. What
beneficial influence the British power had exerted upon the Egyptian
population in the course of hardly ten years could escape me all the
less, as I had become sufficiently acquainted with the earlier slovenly
management in the French period.  Even though until now it does not seem
evident to the young Egyptians that, under the British influence, the
well   (-        0*0*0*  ԫbeing and the welfare of the
country has risen in a hardly believable degree, this fact is no longer
in any way to be denied.  Trade in general is engaged in increasing
growth; the administration, freed from the former humdrum timewasting
and baksheesh excesses, goes its regulated way, thorough improvements in
canalization conditions will, from year to year, encourage agriculture 
in a word, the European standard according to British style has been
applied to Egyptian conditions, as I may affirm, to the true blessing of
the country.  My judgment on this matter may be regarded as all the more
impartial, the less I have had personal grounds to congratulate myself
particularly concerning my own treatment on the part of a British
official. The residence of the Khedive, the city of Cairo, above all,
teaches every newcomer with what success the British influence has
worked in the past ten years.  The old Caliph city has become, as
overnight, an African metropolis, new buildings and street layouts
according to European model extend their range from year to year, and it
reminds the foreigners of home, not to miss in any direction the
benefits of being in their own country.  Public security leaves nothing
to be desired, and if the inexorable strictness of the British
authorities, at their head the allpowerful Cromer, is felt to be hard
by the Egyptians, it may be remembered that, already under Greeks and
Romans, a similar procedure had to be taken, in order to keep in check
to some degree the people who were constantly inclined to revolt and
insurrection.  One easily   (.        0*0*0*  understands
that the present sons of Mizraim, dissatisfied with the existing
conditions, bear a bitter resentment in their hearts against everything
European, and that they would like to let their religious feelings,
actually nowhere and never violated, take the field against the
Christian opponents in the dispute over the unlimited domination of the
land, in order to invoke fanaticism as a confederate.  But they do not
understand that it is the European spirit of progress which exerts its
effects on the new Egyptian "Agathodaimon (good genius)" with
irresistible power. Of my Egyptian Islamic acquaintances, I saw only a
few again.  Everywhere I encountered a new young world, which confronted
me as courteous as it was reserved.  My former pupils were scattered
everywhere, and only one I had the pleasure to greet again as one of the
conservators of the Museum. Even the Museum had not remained in its old
place in the suburb of Bulak.  The pressing abundance of monuments which
had piled up after the death of Mariette dictated its move to large and
extensive rooms.  The earlier castle which the former Khedive Ismail had
erected in the vicinity of the village of Gizeh, at a cost of one
hundred million marks, was decided upon for the saving of the monuments.
The great fire danger of the extensive building, mostly of wooden
construction, before whose main entrance a granite sarcophagus encloses
the body of Mariette, has recently brought up the question of the
fireproof monumental construction of a museum.
   (/        0*0*0*  In any case its fate, that the mummies
of the most famous kings of Egyptian Antiquity rest in the middle of the
castle of Gizeh, in a wooden room in which beautiful harem ladies led
their gilded existence, unconcerned about the boundless banter of being
consumed alive by fire in the space of a few minutes. In the year 1891
the learned French Egyptologist M. Grebaut officiated as General
Director of the Museum and the excavations in Egypt.  In the following
year, 1892, he was relieved by his compatriot Mons. de Morgan, who
lacked any knowledge of the old Egyptian language and literature.  "The
less I understand of the hieroglyphics, the more I shall be able to take
care of the real administration of the Museum," M. de Morgan remarked to
me, and perhaps he was not wrong, since the administration was stuck in
a dubious bog.  I feel obligated to both gentlemen for the permission
granted me, to conduct excavations in Lower Egypt and in the Fayum, and
to take to my homeland without any interference the monuments found.
"On ne refuse rien a notre cher maitre" they remarked to me with genuine
French amiability. Egypt in the winter season has become a rendezvous of
the travelloving world.  In the first rank and in overwhelming number
appear the English and Americans; as soon as the socalled season
begins, they are followed by the migrating birds from the states of
Europe, to which Germany furnishes an annually growing contribution.
For a long series of years, Strangen's wellknown travel bureau has been
contending most successfully also in Egypt with the English travel firm
of   (0        0*0*0*  Cook.  On my last trip I found in
Cairo no small number of Berlin friends and acquaintances, meeting whom
gave me the greatest surprise.  I discovered that Germany too, had begun
to share the wanderlust of the other nations of Europe and to let its
sons, like Greeks and Romans of yore, travel to the school of the past
in Egypt and other regions of the historic East.  But one reunion
remains unforgettable to me.  A benevolent fate had reserved for me the
most heartfelt joy, after a fiftythreeyear separation, to meet Hermann
Gruson in the city of Caliphs.  To him may the concluding chapter be
dedicated in grateful friendship. The one whom heaven's decree has
allotted to attain two generations and more, is not spared the bitter
experience that year out, and year in, the ranks of the old guard grow
thin. The acquaintances and friends of our youth, one after the other,
forsake the scene of their live and works.  We accompany them on their
last journey.  It begins to become more and more lonely around us.  The
young generations are not able to fill the gaps that have formed; our
recollection clings to the companions of our youth, and the past appears
with its bright and lively pictures in vivid strokes before our minds.
Wherever they find each other again, the old men of the mountain, be it
in Berlin, be it out in the great world, they come closer together and
their talk is drawn, best of all, from the well of common recollections
of the old days.    (1         0*0*0*  Ԍt* T
0 t) AT THE BROCKENă And evening is coming.  I am
sitting in front of the open window in the west wing of a stately,
extensive wooden building, on a beautiful autumn day in the year of
grace 1893. Balsam breezes pour into my room.  The melodious tinkle of
bells of the returning cattle alone interrupts the sacred stillness
which prevails in the entire neighborhood of the building.  The sun is
sinking, and with its flaming rays gilds the crowns of the darkgreen
pines and fir trees which, behind the house from the edge of a meadow,
climb like forest above forest as far as the peak of the "Wurmbgerg."
On the left hand, above the forest range are enthroned the rocky cones
of the two "Snorers," of Goethe memory, while opposite them to the
north, the mountain road winds its serpentine course at the foot of the
stony clearing behind the village of Schierke, past the little church,
up as far as the Brocken. The Brocken house and the new observation
tower show from here in fullest clarity to the glance of the passing
wanderer, while at its feet, at the beginning of the valley, the wooden
structure in simple but tasteful style and in charming form stands out
against the green background.  That is the villa of Hermann Gruson,
which has hospitably opened to me forever its gates with the thoughtful
inscription above:  "Gruss Gott, tritt ein, bring 'Gluck herein!" My
noble friend, whose name I have just mentioned, can easily do without
the report of renown from my pen.  At home as well as abroad the
inventor of steelcasting who, for
the   (2        0*0*0*  defense and defiance of the German
Fatherland, has made refractory iron subject to his will, is deservedly
celebrated. Withdrawn from the noisy activity of the great world, and at
the side of a beloved wife  both generous benefactors of suffering
humanity outside  Gruson seeks in the idyllic forest solitude to gain
the requisite time for the quiet work of the mind.  Enthusiastic for the
brightcolored children of mother earth, for whom he had erected a
series of splendid glass houses in Buckau near the industrial location
of the Gruson works, he roams all over his green preserve at the foot of
the Brocken with the delight and joy of the sportsman familiar with
plants.  At the same time, his eye is directed to the sky, whose miracle
of light it has long been a chief problem of his existence to unravel.
The red hot, fluid masses of iron in the caldrons of his workshops
elevated him, as if by magic power, to the sun, the source of all heat
and all light. In February of the year 1892 we met again on Egyptian
soil, as though fate had decreed it so, after a fiftythree year period
of separation.  Things long since past and almost forgotten gained fresh
form and new life.  Gruson the young man  I have described him in the
beginning chapters  saw the boy Heinrich standing before him again, and
as the poet sings, so it happened in reality.  "In den Armen
lagen sich beide Und wein ten vor Lust und vor Freude." Even though
inclination and profession had separated
our   (3         0*0*0*  paths of life in opposite
directions, our aspiration was directed to the same goal:  to truth and
clarity, to the good in its most perfect form, in spite of Typhon and
his companions. As a seventytwoyear old full of youthful energy and
fire, Gruson had undertaken the journey to Egypt in order to put under
closer examination the wonderful phenomenon of the triangular form of
the Zodiac light on the clear sky over the Nile Valley.  According to
his more than merely probably comprehension, the remarkable pattern of
light is caused by the reflection on the earth's atmosphere of the first
rays of the morning sun in the east, and the last rays of the evening
sun in the west, each depending in its height according to the
attraction of the sun and the moon.  His conjecture of the reproduced
appearance of this triangle of light on the ancient Egyptian monuments
was completely confirmed by my own investigations, after having devoted
the past year of my life to them.  Gruson's most recently published
work:  In Reiche des Lichtes, written in clear, excellent language
understandable to every layman, contains at the same time my first
modest contributions on the subject, and with them the gratitude of the
onetime pupil to his great master. The mutual interest of the
investigations concerning the enigmatic lightformation, which linked
the very old with the very new, and led to the same results by different
routes, became the firm cement of an indissoluble bond.
   (4         0*0*0*  Ԍ     From then on, I became a dear
member of his house, over whose gate my eyes read the invisible words:
"Here dwells happiness!" Yes, the evening is coming, but the dark clouds
in the west are burnished by the glowing red of a friendship which put
down its first roots in the morning gleam of youth. The splendor of the
evening sun on the Harz reconciles me to everything hard I have endured
in life.  It gives me back the lost courage, the almost broken strength,
to stand up once more for light and truth, as long as it pleases God.


"This is the end of the Project Gutenberg Edition of"my life and my
travels". . . ."


