The Cairo donkey-boy shows some sense of fun in the names he keeps in store for his donkey. If the man whose custom he desires to secure appears to be an American, the donkey will, perhaps, be recommended under the name of Yankee Doodle: ‘No donkey, sir, like it in all the world.’ If an Englishman, it may become Madame Rachel: ‘a donkey that is beautiful for ever.’ This will be inappropriate to the gender of the beast; but that is a matter of no consequence. If a Frenchman—the French are very unpopular in Egypt—it will assume the name of Bismarck: ‘a very strong donkey that can go anywhere.’ This must be meant to repel a badly-paying customer, or it may be used to attract a German. The unmercifulness of these boys to their donkeys—travellers would do well to discourage it—arises partly from a wish that the present engagement should be got through as quickly as possible, in order that the boy and donkey may be ready for another, and partly from a wish that you should think so well of the donkey’s pace as to be induced to hire it again. You see what is passing in their little minds, by their frequently asking you whether the donkey is not a good one. Should they carry their way of making their poor beasts appear good too far for your humanity, it may be allowable to administer to them the means for understanding that you think the donkey ill-used, and the boy bad, and that, for this purpose, it is the stick that is good. Theoretically, they may not disagree with you, for they hear at home a saying that the stick came down from heaven—by which is inculcated on the youthful mind the lesson that it is a great gain to get off a payment that is demanded of one, by submitting, instead, to the bastinado.