India revisited . ,except those due to the nocturnal yelling of theEgyptian and negro coal-heavers, who, by the light ofblazing beacons, fill up the bunkers of the steamshipswhich are for ever arriving and departing. That therestill exist thieves, however, in Port Said was ratherpainfully proved to us by the fact that on the nightof our stay in the poj:t a new hemp hawser was carriedoff by marauders from the ship. It had been stretchedas a warp from the Parramattas stern to some bollard-heads on the eastern bank; and during the darkness aboat with Arabs or Greeks must have glided alongside,cut
India revisited . ,except those due to the nocturnal yelling of theEgyptian and negro coal-heavers, who, by the light ofblazing beacons, fill up the bunkers of the steamshipswhich are for ever arriving and departing. That therestill exist thieves, however, in Port Said was ratherpainfully proved to us by the fact that on the nightof our stay in the poj:t a new hemp hawser was carriedoff by marauders from the ship. It had been stretchedas a warp from the Parramattas stern to some bollard-heads on the eastern bank; and during the darkness aboat with Arabs or Greeks must have glided alongside,cut the cable close to the ship, coiled it silently intotheir stern sheets, cast the shore end loose, and dis-appeared with the plunder. The thieves would doubt-less bury it for a while in the sand on the Canal-bank,until the hue and cry had subsided, and afterwardsrealise heavily upon their spoil at Damietta, or perhapsAlexandria. Honest folk may find plenty of work inPort Said with the perpetual coming and going of. THE CANAL AND THE RED SEA. 29 passengers and the ever-increasing commercial businessof the town. The interest of it to a visitor is soon streets are well laid out as regards proportion; onthe bare sand, however, without any attempt at road-making, except where the stone carts and donkeystread the middle of the way into hard ground. Thereare cafis, of the third-rate Continental sort, with ladiesfrom third-class Smyrna and Naples music-halls, whonightly sing and act, dividing the attention of theirpolyglot customers with roulette tables, where thevotary of Fortune stakes florins and two-franc pieces,arriving at the usual result of promptly and regularlyenriching the proprietors. There is a small publicgarden, feebly nourishing some locust trees and plan-tains, for the soil is hereabouts all mere fruit and fish markets are, nevertheless, wellsupplied, the former from Damietta; while the portswarms with large and small fish, which at night glid
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