Note 45 — Chapter XVII

The title which all travellers, who remain any time in Egypt, generally take, is that of Effende. There are two great advantages in assuming a Turkish name:—it affords greater facility to the natives in recollecting it, and it likewise prevents your being called Howwajee, merchant, or, rather, pedler; and as that class of persons are, in this country, rarely respectable, either from their morals or station, an Englishman submitting to such a title, of course, lowers himself, both in the eyes of the Turks and natives. The Arabs, among themselves, often have other names for Europeans. I was called Abou Toweel, Father of the tall. Rosellini had a name in reference to his beard (Abou Dagan); Champollion (Abou Galeed), from his corpulency; and a noble traveller, who has surpassed us all in the extent of his journey up the Nile, was called, I am told, Abou Dagegah, or Father of the Minutes, from the report having spread that he had a dollar every minute. The Turks and Arabs of these provinces, where travellers are more rare, sometimes honour me with the title of Bey Zadé, or, Son of a Governor.