As a compliment to Abdallah [the Sherif of Mecca] we had borrowed the Turkish band and instruments taken at Tayif: with very remarkable results. After a while Aziz Ali said there was a piece called "The Echo" they could render with great skill, and shouted down from the window an order to that effect. The result was two notes of an ineffable tristesse on the trombone, followed by a pause, in which we consumed more than half a course. Then a few more disjointed and incoherent notes from the rest of the orchestra, and so on da capo. Even the Egyptians - indeed all but Abdallah- were striken with the horror of the melody and the effort to contain myself reduced me to a very dreadful state of prostration. After a while Said Ali Pasha asked: "Is not this the music that is played for he dead?"- an ill omen I had to explain to Abdallah as being for the death of his enemies. << less