CHAPTER XXVIII.
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CHAP. XXVIII.
CAIRO. -- RIDING THE HIGH HORSE. -- THE STREETS AND PEOPLE. -- THE NEW MOSQUE. -- MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASSAN. -- THE NILE. -- MEHEMET ALI. -- ALEXANDRIA. -- EGYPTIAN MEN-OF-WAR. -- CHANGE OF CLIMATE. -- MALTA.
WE got to Cairo about the middle of the following day, having been about eighteen hours "en route."
The greatest changes have taken place here within the last few years, and the traveller particularly feels the benefit of it in the choice of some half-dozen English, French, Italian, and German hotels, instead of being obliged to put up with the wretched caravanserai, which was a few years ago the only shelter the city afforded.
The principal hotels are on the splendid square of the Ezbekieh, and in sight of the pretty gardens, promenades, and avenues where the "beau monde" of Cairo most do congregate. Beneath the trees were groups of Turks, Jews, and Giaours, black-robed Copts and Armenians, thick-lipped Nubians, Abyssinians, Arabs, sharp-looking Greeks from the
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CAIRO.
Morea, veiled women, children, ragged beggars, bearded Muftis and Moolahs, ambulant musicians, and representatives of nearly every nation find profession in the world, with costumes and physiognomy as various as their nations.
Baths, hot, cold, and Turkish, were ready for us at the hotels, and within five minutes of my arrival I found myself in a marble bath, in an elegant room, boiling out the dust of the desert, and, at the same time, ruminating on the wonderful changes so quickly brought about in "El Musr," the city of victory, the stronghold of Islam, where, a few years ago, the Giaour dare not appear in the streets mounted on anything more pretentious than a slow-going donkey. Now we come in with four horses at full gallop, making more clatter than a caliph of old, scattering the true believers to the right and left, unmindful of their muttered curse, and careless even if we damaged their faithful toes.
Not long ago, for a Christian to be kicked, or cuffed, or spit upon, might be considered rather a polite attention from the favoured of Allah, which the unhappy dog was obliged to acknowledge by a pleasant and gratified look. Now one sees the unbelieving "Kelb" mounted on an Arab horse, the holy turban on his brow, the "ataghan" at his side,
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and, horror of horrors! an unveiled she-dog, his wife, riding at his side! And for these heathenish hounds, whelps of Sheitan, the holy Mufti, the learned Moolah, the expounders of the sacred word of Allah and of the Prophet's law, must give way or be rode over, even though every bristle in their venerable beards curl in scorn and hate.
After my bath and a tiffin of dates and fruit, I started for a ride through the bazaars and town, and saw everywhere the marks of an improving hand in the new public buildings, in the busy and well-behaved crowds, in the shops full of wares, and the men of all nations and creeds jostling one another in the crowded bazaars without quarrel or interruption.
The streets of Cairo are exceedingly picturesque, and afford much that is amusing and interesting to the traveller, from the number of various and gay costumes: the shops open in front, with all the wares exposed to view, the windows of the houses projecting over the street, and covered with a curiously-carved and elegant lattice work of wood, which baffles the scrutiny of a prying eye; the mechanic cross-legged at his work, the shopkeeper and merchant with all his merchandize within reach, smoking the pipe or narghile while awaiting customers.
We passed guard-houses, cafes, and schools, all open
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THE NEW MOSQUE.
to the street, where one might see the soldier lounging or sleeping away his time, or the bearded pedagogue squatted on his heels in the midst of a set of urchins, all shouting their lessons at the top of their voices, as if for the edification of the passer-by.
Groups of Arab women and girls, lightly clad and with their veils generally flying over their shoulders, allowing one often to see a pretty face with fine black eyes and good teeth, were in groups at every street corner, gossiping, chattering, or selling dates and other trifles.
The new mosque, which was only just commenced when I was last here, is now nearly completed. It is a glorious building, rich in alabaster and the most beautiful marbles, in elegant columns, domes, and Saracenic arches. It is worthy of the glorious site on which it is built, a precipitous and isolated hill, overlooking the beautiful city, with its minarets and domes, their outlines sharp and distinct in the brilliant and pure atmosphere. Farther distant are dark cypress groves, and the palaces, villas, and gardens of the princes and wealthy men dotting the emerald green of the valley of the Nile; the Nile itself, like a silver thread, bearing on its bosom thousands of graceful boats: and in the distance the Great Desert, with the huge and mysterious pyramids
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on its nearest edge, looking like emblems of its vastness and uselessness. A more lovely panorama it is impossible to imagine, or one more suggestive of reminiscences of the past, whether gleaned from the pages of old Herodotus, of sacred history, or of the captivating fables of the East, the fairy-land of our youthful imagination, so full of gorgeous splendour and of poetry.
Besides the mosque, there is, on the same hill, the Pacha's palace, the citadel and its batteries, and Joseph's Well, said to have been the work of Sultan Saladin.
The palace is a small building, that gives one the idea of the establishment of a luxurious bachelor, which in some measure it is, as the harem is in an adjoining building, impervious to curious eyes.
My next visit was to the square and mosque of Sultan Hassan, built nearly seven hundred years ago. We were allowed to enter without even taking off our boots, cheating the Devil, the Prophet, and Sultan Hassan by allowing a piece of rag to be tied round each foot, and were then invited into the most sacred adyta to inspect the Koran and relics of the Sultan; while one of our lady passengers went tripping about as quietly as if In a chapel of ease. Skinning alive or impalement would, a few years ago,
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CAIRO.
have been scarcely punishment sufficient for such a profanation, or one might have looked to see the old Sultan himself start from his cerements to denounce us, but now "on a change tout cela," and the only annoyance is the servile clamour for "backshish." A few paras scattered among the faithful set them by the ears with one another, and rid us of their further attendance.
Cairo is certainly a most interesting and picturesque city; and I should be delighted to be able to spend a winter here, particularly as the climate at that season is delightfully genial and healthy. About an hour before sunset, the promenades of Ezbekieh gardens were crowded with "flaneurs," European and Asiatic. The chairs round the small cafes were all in requisition, and we, with many others, enjoyed the fine evening, the novelty of the passing crowd, and our pipes and coffee at the same time. An excellent dinner at the French Hotel sent us perfectly contented to bed; and when next day I had to bid adieu to Cairo, I did so with regret at leaving behind me, on so short an acquaintance, so much that was pleasant and beautiful.
We embarked on the Nile from the picturesque little town of Boulak, not as formerly, from the muddy banks of the river, but from a good stone quay. Two steamboats took the whole of our passengers
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and about half a million in specie on its way from India to London, and carried us along at the rate of eighteen miles an hour: seven or eight miles of this, however, we might fairly lay to the account of the current, there being a strong fresh in the river from the subsidence of the inundations.
A few miles below Cairo we saw the commencement of a gigantic undertaking to make locks and dams across the river, so as at all seasons to have sufficient water for navigation and irrigation, and to render the agriculturists more independent of the inundations than they have ever yet been. A bridge is also to be built on the same spot, and this, with a road and a canal from Cairo, will complete the undertaking. Numerous steam-engines are employed in the work, and not less than 70,000 labourers; so that when they are encamped here with their wives and families, there is a population of not less than 200,000 souls.
It must require no slight foresight and management to provide for the wants of so large an army, suddenly-transplanted from distant provinces to a district where no provision had been made for such an accession to its population. It is one of those gigantic schemes that could only be undertaken by a despotic government, and by such men as Bonaparte or Mehemet
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MEHEMET ALI.
Ali -- iron men in their own age, but, in reality, the greatest benefactors to their nation and to succeeding generations, by crushing with a strong hand the prejudices of ages, carrying out a great principle with utter recklessness of the present cost and suffering, and regenerating a whole nation by the sacrifice of a holocaust of its degenerate children.
It is a pity that some such men cannot arise in Spain and Italy, to wake the people from their long slumber, and compel them to shake off the indolence, ignorance, and prejudice that has been growing for ages, till they have, like parasites on a noble forest-tree, almost stifled it in their poisonous embrace. Weak men tremble to touch the parasites, fearing that without them the tree must fall; but the strong one attacks them root and branch, till the noble tree is restored to the wholesome influence of sun and air.
It was an unhappy day for Spain when Bonaparte was driven across the Pyrenees; a few years of his strong rule would have done more to remove the mists of prejudice and arouse their energies than a century of their own factions, interested quarrellings, and drivelling pretence of liberalism.
But to return to the Nile, where we saw numerous evidences of increasing wealth in improving towns and villages, and all the activity and bustle of pros-
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perity. Numerous steamers were plying on the river, and we met no less than four carrying the mail and one hundred and fifty passengers, that have just arrived from England on their way to India.
We arrived at Atfeh in the evening, and were transferred to a fine, large, roomy canal boat. Here, too, immense changes have taken place, and one sees capital quays, warehouses, and shops, instead of the excavations in mounds of mud, in which the inhabitants formerly lived more in the style of rabbits or water-rats than anything human.
At about eight o'clock on the following morning we landed at Mahmoudieh, where there are now numbers of elegant mansions, villas, and gardens, the residences of nearly all the European merchants and consuls, and where the pacha and his family have their palaces.
Half-a-dozen well-horsed, comfortable omnibuses were waiting under the trees at the landing-place, ready to take us to the different hotels, to which we drove along roads, through fortifications, and by streets, barracks and public buildings, that seem to have sprung up by magic.
The shops and streets of Alexandria are more European than those of Cairo; its hotels and cafes are numerous and good, and it has all the bustle of a busy and prosperous sea-port town.
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ALEXANDRIA.
The bay was full of merchant-ships, steamers, and men-of-war, and from it the city has a very imposing appearance, from the number and extent of the public buildings, palaces, fortifications and moles, which look upon the harbour, and the greater part of which have been built within the last five years. Among the Egyptian men-of-war were some very handsome frigates and line-of-battle ships looking very gay, their rigging covered with flags and streamers in honour of the "Feast of the Prophet."
Near the shore were numbers of dismantled line-of-battle ships, having a very forlorn air in the absence of yards and rigging. Some of them were of very large size, and probably the oddest specimens of naval architecture extant; others were being repaired to serve as hulks for workmen, soldiers, and prisoners.
We left the harbour of Alexandria in the afternoon, and I drank a quiet bumper to the health and long life of Mehemet Ali. They say the poor old fellow is already trembling on the verge of the other world, where the Houris are beckoning him into the seventh heaven, but where he will ungallantly let them wait for him as long as there is virtue in medicine, or skill among Frank physicians.
His step-son, Ibrahim Pacha, 1is also dangerously
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ill, and with their death will probably be extinguished the dawning prosperity of Egypt, either by civil strife, or by its becoming a bone of contention among European nations.
Nothing can exceed the ease and security with which one can now travel through Egypt, and even women and children find no inconvenience. The mails and large sums of money, amounting sometimes to nearly a million sterling, are forwarded with as much security as between London and Liverpool; and some of the passengers' baggage accidentally left open was transmitted from Suez to Alexandria without a single article being lost or stolen, though for three days, and in a distance of three hundred miles, it must have gone through the hands of numbers of poor boat-men, porters, and camel-drivers. The Pacha himself undertakes the transit, and manages it on a very liberal scale; and one meets everywhere with civility, attention, and despatch. From my experience of it when managed by Europeans, I should say that the present is by far the best administration, and better than it would be in any other hands.
From the moment one leaves the harbour of Alexandria, the homeward voyage is divested of all its Orientalism. English tars take the place of Lascars;
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MALTA.
Indian servants are replaced by English waiters; mulligatawney and curry are seen no more, or if they should be introduced, are left untouched, for they have no resemblance to their Indian namesakes. Linen jackets and white trowsers are exchanged for good honest broad cloth, and instead of crawling about the deck in search of a cool place, the passengers may be seen stepping out at their best pace to keep themselves warm. Calls for beer and soda-water are rarely heard, and the want of ice is not regretted; but "en revanche" the port wine, porter, and whiskey-punch begin to be in great demand. Debilitated invalids gradually straighten out; men with the liver begin to be reckless of consequences; and by the time the steamer arrives at Malta, a complete revolution has been operated in the habits and appearance of the greater part of the passengers.
At Malta we were in quarantine, so that our peregrinations were confined to the walls of the lazaretto; and, for want of other occupation, most of us managed, with the intervention of sundry pairs of tongs, to spend our loose cash in gloves, lace, and trumpery jewellery, to the infinite advantage of the Maltese shopkeepers, who manage to appropriate a good round sum from every cargo of passengers.
At Gibraltar we were in the same predicament as
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at Malta, and could not land on account of the quarantine regulations, which limited our communication with the "Rock" and its inhabitants to a distant view; this was the more tantalising to me as Gibraltar was my first station abroad, and the two very pleasant years I passed there have left many agreeable reminiscences of persons and places, with both of which I would have gladly renewed my acquaintance.
