Miscellany

A correspondent of Noah's Saturdny linies vho lat-ely travelled in Hgvpt, relates t!io following nmusing incident of yankee enterprise. We soon found ourselves in the desrt, 'travetsing seas Qf sand. Tlie weather "as exceedingly pleMnWt, aud the heat not ïo oppressive as we apprehended. - j We had nn agree;ible party-, determined to be pfcaed with our journey, nud not i lo grumble hI whatevi piivalions we en-! countered. Early on the secoitd day, lifter camping mnong sottre ruins, and '■ boring in the niglil the howl of a sólita-! ry hverm - not a very pieasaiil sound - we saw a! a distance whnt appeared to be a shanty nenr a smal) dump of palm trees. It was ruciely c rnstrucied of rougli boards w tli ar. nwkwurdly formed door, the whole looking like anyihing else but gyplinn Architecture J but it occuri-cdto' rne that it inigbt have been thus rudely thrown together as a shelter for sn-ans exploring the ruins in ilie neiybborhfiodi In front of the door, a Turk wns Bonted on a bench smt.king h s pipe. He lokec' like an oasis in the desert. He had on a pair of colton trowsers, sandals, nnd a tur ban wiih an ailaghan stur-k in i r'-d snsh ;it bis viiip, nd igainst ihe side of ihe ' slianty resled a long gun. Aswenp-! proached, he roee up, placed his hands on j his turban, and said in Arabic, 'Bash cha-lief ühook hand wilh my dragomán, nnd e.vhanged a salütation with ihe jini- Zaries, who appeurcd to know him. Ilis bair, complexión, and manner, satisfied me Ihat he was not a mussulraan. 1 rode up to liim. 'Hallo V 'Hallo to you ." said he, in good English. The tone and tnanner in which he spoke created a suspicion that he was one of us. Afier shaking hands with him, ho looked inquisilively at me and said - 'Stranger, mought n't I have seen you before V 'Where?' 'Whv, in New York.' 'I belong there ; but where do you come from V 'I trnded in a sloop from Stonington to N. York, and am rightsartin that l've seen you often.' 'Pray what ore you doing here in this barren and naulated spot?' I keep this hotel.' 'Hotel !' 'Yes, sir, - nothing ele ! It is n't the Aslor House ; but 1 entertain man and beast traveling from the Red Sea. They reckon sometimes to stop the night witli me, and get a cup of cofiee and chicken now and then, and a pipe.' Where will the enterprise of the universal yankee notion end ? In what pari of he world will they not be ? 'But, my friend,whatoriginally brought you here V 'I went up to the second cataract on the Nile to look arter a two-horned rhinoceros for June, Titus, Angevine & Co. 's menagerie, but I couldn't get the tarnel creeier ; they wouldn't sell him for no price. So I resolved to stop here a while and keep tavern.' 'Is there much traveling on Ihis route V 'Quile considerable. I reckon this to be a mighty country for trade from din. They bring consideiable goods across(and when we get our Railroad - ' 'Raüroad V 'Sar tin, sir. Tlie roule has been explored, and this is the depot, and I'm to be the agent - so Leftenant Wnghorn says j and when we get our locomotive, we shall streak it from Cairo to the Red Sea in six hours. Won't I scare the lions, hyenas, and other varmints away with lliat ere whisile !' So snying he set u) a yl'liislle as loud na n locomotive's, evidently showing that he had been praclicing. 'Strangef, won't your company stop for breakfnst V I proposed a halt for an hour or two, which was agreed to, and we rolled oíT our donkeys and fastened our Camels. - Josh Judson - Cor I learned that was his name - brought out a large wooden mortar, into which he emptied soít.c lonsted mocha coffee, which he pnunded fine and boiled n a tin kettle over a charcoal furnace, andserved up to us as we sat únder ihe palm tices, with some eggs, quite comfortably. We filled ourpipe3and looked round at the bairenness which met our eye in evel'y directioni At a distance theré wefe some mounds, some brokpn frogments bf marble, here and there ihe remnins of totnbs and buildings denoling that at some time it had been a place of note. Josh bustled about and filled the pipes with sweet tobáceo. 'Moughln't you like to buy amummyí' he inquired. 'Whv; do ydu deal In antiquities, my friend V 'Occasionally. I've got a mumrny, ah ibi.-sj and some glass beadsj which I tuck IÍ-om a toihb aboüt a milo off; but the heas's in llie neighborhood are tronblesoliits and t diro not venture ofien.' 'Wcll, l.-indlal-d, whaí's to pav I' Josh re -koned the nmount on the tips of his fisgeMj wliich carne to a Spanish I dollar, which we paid wilh grent cheerfulness, and .shouk hnnds wílh liitn on our departure. As Doclor Pangloss snys in the play, j 'the human mind naturally looks forward,' Ihis cníerpMsing man, no doubt awnre 1 i lint the overlni'd rouie lo India would soon be eslalilished, and that great traffic and commerce would grow out of this new enlerpriso, was deterrnined lo take his posilion n lime ; so commenced squatting on a spot in a central position, nnd be ready to tuke advantage of the traVeling and also tlie tráde in transitu, and havo a monopoly of his position. 'There is slun enough ih the neighborhood,' said he, 'to build a smart hotel ; and whén I can get hands, I'li surely put it lip.' This once the great higliíayof nations, when the commsrce o f India poured ís weal'th into the Medilerranean, when t he gold ofOphir, was brotight to enrich the coílbrs oT King Solomon ; when the whole route was one continuous line of noble cities, f1i)urishing villages, cultivaled fields, and euterprising inhabitants, n the midst of whicli the Nile ñawcd majestidally, as it now does nmidst barren sands. This is the vanity of ni! carthly afTairs. i