Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman and Hall “Tales of AllCountries” edition , email
In the happy days when we wereyoung, no description conveyed to us so complete an idea ofmysterious reality as that of an Oriental city. We knew itwas actually there, but had such vague notions of its ways andlooks! Let any one remember his early impressions as toBagdad or Grand Cairo, and then say if this was not so. Itwas probably taken from the “Arabian Nights,” and thepicture produced was one of strange, fantastic, luxurious houses;of women who were either very young and very beautiful, or elsevery old and very cunning; but in either state exercising muchmore influence in life than women in the East do now; ofgood-natured, capricious, though sometimes tyrannical monarchs;and of life full of quaint mysteries, quite unintelligible inevery phasis, and on that account the more picturesque.
And perhaps Grand Cairo has thus filled us with more wondereven than Bagdad. We have been in a certain manner at homeat Bagdad, but have only visited Grand Cairo occasionally. I know no place which was to me, in early years, so delightfullymysterious as Grand Cairo.
But the route to India and Australia has changed allthis. Men from all countries going to the East, now passthrough Cairo, and its streets and costumes are no longer strangeto us. It has become also a resort for invalids, or ratherfor those who fear that they may become invalids if they remainin a cold climate during the winter months. And thus atCairo there is always to be found a considerable population ofFrench, Americans, and of English. Oriental life is broughthome to us, dreadfully diluted by western customs, and thedelights of the “Arabian Nights” are shorn of halftheir value. When we have seen a thing it is never somagnificent to us as when it was half unknown.
It is not much that we deign to learn from theseOrientals,—we who glory in our civilisation. We donot copy their silence or their abstemiousness, nor thatinvariable mindfulness of his own personal dignity which alwaysadheres to a Turk or to an Arab. We chatter as much atCairo as elsewhere, and eat as much and drink as much, and dressourselves generally in the same old ugly costume. But we dousually take upon ourselves to wear red caps, and we do ride ondonkeys.
Nor are the visitors from the West to Cairo by any meansconfined to the male sex. Ladies are to be seen in thestreets quite regardless of the Mahommedan custom which presumesa veil to be necessary for an appearance in public; and, to tellthe truth, the Mahommedans in general do not appear to be muchshocked by their effrontery.
A quarter of the town has in this way become inhabited by menwearing coats and waistcoats, and by women who are without veils;but the English tongue in Egypt finds its centre atShepheard’s Hotel. It is here that people congregatewho are looking out for parties to visit with them the UpperNile, and who are generally all smiles and courtesy; and herealso are to be found they who have just returned from thisjourney, and who are often in a frame of mind towards theircompanions that is much less amiable. From hence, duringthe winter, a cortége proceeds almost daily to thepyramids, or to Memphis, or to the petrified forest, or to theCity of the Sun. And then, again, four or five times amonth the house is filled with young aspirants going out toIndia, male and female, full of valour and bloom; or with otherscoming home, no longer young, no longer aspiring, but laden withchildren and grievances.
The party with whom we are at present concerned is not aboutto proceed further than the Pyramids, and we shall be able to gowith them and return in one and the same day.
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