ABSTRACT
I did not think that to study in one woman of the Orient what was probably the character of many others was a useless proceeding, and should hate to attach too great an importance to matters of detail. But you may imagine my surprise when, one morning, entering the slave's room, I found a garland of onions hanging across the door, and other onions symmetrically arranged above the place where she was sleeping. Thinking that it was but a childish fancy, I took down these ornaments which seemed to me ill fitted as a decoration for the room, and threw them out carelessly 157into the courtyard. The slave got up in a rage and a terrible state of distress, and went out in tears to pick up the onions and put them back again with every sign of devotion. I had to await Mansour's arrival for the explanation. Meanwhile I was deluged with curses, the most obvious of which was clearly the word Pharaoh. I was not quite sure whether I ought to be angry or sorry. At last Mansour arrived, and I learned that I had interfered with a spell, and that I should be the cause of most frightful misfortunes which would fall upon both her and myself. After all, I said to Mansour, we are living in a country where onions once were gods, and if I have offended them, I ask nothing better than to recognise the fact. There must be some way of appeasing the resentment of an Egyptian onion. But the slave would not hear a word and kept on looking at me and repeating " Pharaoh !" Mansour told me that this word meant " an impious and tyrannical creature." I was grieved at such a reproach, but very glad to learn that the name of the ancient kings of this country had become an injurious epithet. However, there was nothing to get angry about; I was assured that this onion ceremony was customary in the Cairo houses on one particular day of the year, and that it was directed against epidemics.
