Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-24 00:00:00

CAIRENE LADIES.

CAIRO.—The romance of Eastern life has lofig singe
ceased. The veiled women still haunt the streets„ and
you nay dream as you please of the hidden beauties that
no one may see ;:but some accident will expose the face
of the woman whose dark eyes have enthralled you, and
lo! she is hideous. Tut Cairene costume is unchanged in
any respect, and men and women walk the streets or ride
on horses and donkeys dressed as their forefathers and
mothers dressed two, three, five hundred years ago. The
ladies ride astride, usually oa a saddle elevated high upon
the donkey's back. A min leads the donkey, and care-
fully watches the lady lest she fall. The face is never
exposed. The immense mantle of silk, almost always
black, is lifted over the forehead and held by the two
hands, which are elevated, one cn each side, the elbow pro-
jecting as far as possible. Tne result is to give an
appearance of enormous size to the lady, for the air fills
the silk as she moves along and it bags out, making her
look like an immense sack of silk. From the forehead to
the ground falls the white veil, thick and impenetrable to
any curious gaze, leaving an opening across the eyes,
through which you see the flashing orbs of Egypt. or the
softer glances of Circassian beauties. Not unfrequently
the veil is drawn aside. I have passed many groups of
ladies, who had met in the street or in the garden of the
Ezbekieh and stopped to converse, and who were so
earnestly engaged in their talk that they did not hear my
footsteps until I was among them. The beauties (com-
paratively speaking, I mean the young and good-looking
ones) usually stare complacently and smile. The older and
less vain invariably drop the veil and spit on the ground to
curse me. Sometimes you will see a veiled lady, wearing
white from head to foot instead of black ; and when yon
approach her you will be tolerable certain to find that she
herself is inteusly black. I never saw such dark complex-
dons. They are shining ebony, these women from Nubia.
The dress of the lower classes is simple in the extreme. The
women wear but a single long loose gown, open at the neck
and down to the waist. The breast is al ways exposed. and lit-
tle thought of modesty or decency troubles them. The scene
around the opening of tha well on the east side of the
Ezbekieh, on the most crowded thoroughfare in front of
the door of the Oriental Hotel, is alwks amusing. The
water is raised front the well by an endless chain of stone
jars, the usual manner in Egypt. Two bullocks turn
the rode cog-wheels, walking in a circle around the, well.
and the water falls into an open trough, from which it
runs into a little pool some six feet square, and thence
across the street and into the gardens. There are always
a dozen or more women washing clothes in this pool. They
are half naked themselves, and are accompanied by their
children, who are entirely naked, and who lie and roll in
the water and the dry dust of the street alternately, chasing
each other back and forth, heedless of their want of clothes
or their unpicturesque appearance. Beauty, if it exists at
all in Egypt, is exceedingly short lived. I should not
doubt is existence, for I have seen among the copper-
colored countenances of the native girls some whose mould
was of the fineat, whose features were chiseled with great
regularity ? but the downcast look—the worn and weary
air—the sad eyes and heavy lips, indicate the early decay
of all that is lovely. They are usually married at twelve
or thirteen years of age, and life then, among the lower
classes, becomes more a burden than.a joy. Among the
wealthy who live in luxury and ease I am told it is not
very different. The.form does not retain its roundness
and elasticity even to the ordinary age of young beauty
with us. Women are old here at twenty, vary old at
thirty ; and yet they live to be much older, of course ; and
at sixty or seventy they are not very different in appear-
ance from thirty or forty. Married life is precarious. The
wife is at the mercy of the husband. He has but to utter
the wards, " I divorce you," and she ceases to be his wife.
Hence she lives in constant terror and apprehension. Yet
sometimes she tubes here, and I have found one man who
would not make a bargain unless he could consult his wife
first. But the old stories of the romance of the harem
have long ceased to be worth the telling and new ones
seldom replace them. You may hear one. You may
perhaps be standing on the island of Rhola looking at the
dark rush of the water, and some one will whisper to you
the sad tale of the beautiful favourite of Abbas Pasha's
younger days, who loved and was loved by a foreigner, a
young Enelieh nobleman. You may hear, perhaps, how
he swam the river, Lean.ler like, to meet her, how he sat
by her side and spoke in low, soft words all the right long,
while the slave who had admitted him watched at the
door. How this was a passionate dream of jay in the life
of the young and beautiful girl, in which her soul's perfect
love for him grew up and flourished gloriously. How she
was to have gone away with him, and all was arranged for
their flight, and then—and then—no one knows what
next ; but they tell of a Nile boat and a sack, and that
the fair limbs of the beautiful Fatima were swept with
mud and filth and all the abominations of Cairo, down to
the unknown depths of the Delta. Here is the founds
tion for a story, but it is only hinted at. You cannot get
any one to relate it to you. It is one of those histories
that no man is willing to know anything about.
Women have no names in Cairo. They of course
have their names at home, bet no man knows the
name of his neighbour's wife or wives. A woman is
spoken of as the wife of such a person, er the sister of
such a person, but never by her own name. The daughter
of Mehemet Ali, the sister of the present Viceroy, is the
first lady is Egypt. Her history is almost a romance:
This is not the place to speak of the private incidents in
it which have long made her to be spoken of with contempt,
even by the Egyptians, the vilest race of men on earth.
But her husbaadrs name is still a terror in Cairo, and
men will hardly believe that he is deal. The Defterdar,
as he is always called, was the son-in-law of Mehemet Ali,
and the realisation of all the stories of Turkish bratality
and tyranny. His palace is in front of the Ezbekieh, but
since his death has passed into other hands. He it was
who heard the complaint of a poor woman that a man had
drank milk from her measure 'and then refused to pay her.
The man denied it entirely. " When was it ?" demanded
the Defterdar. " This moment ?" " Well, now, woman
—listen—l will rip this man open. If I find the milk in
him, it is well—you shall be paid. If not, I will rip you
open in the same way." It was done instantly on the
fleor of his room by his men, he and the woman looking
on complacently. The milk was found in the man's
stomach, and the Defterdar ordered the value of the milk,
tea pares, or about one cent, to be taken from the dead
man's gown and paid to the woman. In another instance,
a tax collector had levied on a poor man's cow, his sole
possession, for one of the onerous taxes of Mehemet Ali.
The saw was worth two hundred piastres. The tax was
forty. The collector took the cow, sent for a butcher,
made him kill the cow and cut it into ten pieces, and then
sent for ten men and forced them to take and pay for the
pieces six piastres each. It Wl3 cheap meat, but they
would never have touched it except under force. Thip
man complained to the Defterdar that his cow, worth
two hundred, had been in this manner, sold for sixty, and
by the oppression of the collector he was left destitute.
The Defterdar sent a boat to the village, and brought all
the parties and witnesses to his palace. It was a clear
case of oppression. " How dared you kill this man's cow?"
said he to the butcher. " I was afraid of the collector.
He made Inc do it." "Do, then, what I tell you. Kill
that main the collector, and cut him into ten pieces."
It was done on the spot, and every than. who had the beef
at six piastres,, was made to buy a piece of the collector at
twenty, and so the poor man had the value of his cow.
These instances are both on the side of justice—but others,
countless stories of his cruelties are told, which are
perfectly reliable. His horse was badly shod, so that a
nail pricked his foot, not an uncommon occurence with the
best of blacksmiths. But he went to the shop, and
bad a hot shoe nailed on the foot of the smith. These
and other similar accounts may be relied on. Every one
in Cairo knows a hundred such. When Mehemet Ali and
the Defterdar were both dead, Nazli, the princess, had
reason to doubt the affection of her nephew, Abbas Pasha,
the reigning Viceroy. She was afraid that she might die
of some sudden disease. Coffee might disagree with her,
or pantegranates might produce a worse and more severe
complaint than cholera. So she went to. Constantinople,
and has resided there until, by invitation of her brother,,
the present Viceroy, she returned to live in Egypt. We
i
shall see how long she will remain. The Viceroy s
anxious to win favour front the people for his sister. But
it is hardly probable he will succeed, when he is himself
so thoroughly hated. Travellers are beginning to arrive
in Cairo, but no Americans yet, beside ourselves, and we
leave to-day. Our boat is ready for us, and the American
ensign, and our private signal-flag, are flying. We hope
to sleep to-night on the Nile. We have bean for a week
surrounded with heaps of provisions, of one sort and
another, !Or a two mouth's voyage. Everything imagina-
ble in the way of eatables has gone to make up our list,
and it is only a subject of wonderment to me in what part
of the boat the dragoman has succeeded in stowing
barrels of flour, meal, potatoes, and all the ordinary
necessities of housekeeping, to the extent that our pur-
chases have gone.—New York Daily Times.

ELEctao.r LATE Goons.—There are few branches of art that snore
perfection has been attained in than in this portion of our manufac-
ture, and the most beautiful specimens of spoons, forks, goblets, and
other table articles of the sort, may be seen at Mr. E. T. Hall's, of
South John-street, who, to his other branches of business, has added
a department for the sale of these articles, having been appointed
ag'nt to one of the first manufacturers in Birmingham. The desiffoo
in these articles are beautiful, the quality very superior (nearly as good
as silver), and the price, considering all these, moderate to a degree•
An inspection of the goods will prove the above facts.—Northern
Times.

Tel Spoons • I Of,
Dessert Do. ....
Table Do. •••• .••• •••• 000000 •• •••• •••• 245. 00
Dessert Forks ......
Tabli Da ,14. s as, "II". •••49,11011•g•••• Kg/ GI

ift:P "4.4.1:*i:41 Canis.

TheSUBSC4,` ....... s. ~...5.e....................w.*••••••••*
lURRS issue Weekly (on Friday)
* *. :: .i' \ a PRIN,TE:a LIST, with full particulars of the SHIPS
if, ''.7l.A. new an'.Old) and STEAMERS they have on SALE,
"' both I.a Liverpool and the Outports, from 50 to 1,500
to;„,g; and Monthly, a return of Sales made, State of
Buildl'
Markets, which --
may be had on application., N.B.—Contractors
43
Iron Ships and Steamers.
CURRY, BELLOCK & CO.,
I"nokers for 'the Purchase and Sale of Ships, 1311,p Valuers, and
llPPointed Brokers to the high Court of Admiralty, Wahner-
"Ulna, Water-street, Liverpool.

UUNARD, WILSON & CO.,
5, YORE BUILDINGS, LIVERPOOL;
r!4itL
AND
CUNARD, AUSTEN & CO.,
59, FENCHURCH-STREET, LONDON,
(Late Cunard, Brett St Austen)
tAOKER3 FOR THE PURCHASE AND SALE Olr
SHIPS, SHIP VALUERS, &c.,

ROBERT A. MUNN & Co.,
-Z." (Late Cunard; Munn, & C 0.,)
..t.a, BROKERS FOR THE SALE OF SHIPS,
1"---4 STEAMERS, &C., AND SHIP VALUERS,
iteitillbo
3, YORK-BUILDINGS, DILBAITRELT,
LIVERPOOL.

NOTICE OF REMOVAL.

TONGE & CO.,
"BROKERS FOR THE SALE AND FUR-
MAit CHASE OF SHIPS,
RINE AUCTIONEERS AND SHIP VALTJERS,
HAVE REMOVED TO MIDDLETON BUILDINGS,
1, PI7MFORD STREET (comer of Water Street).

PATON AND I\f`-14. I C(.,
s- ,
00';\ SHIP BROKERS, AND BROKERS FOR
ifs-* RW; THE SALE AND PURCHASE OF SHIPS,
17, WATER STREET,
_r___LIVERPOOL.

Datc4 bp auctfon.

Byfrtue of adecree of sale of the High Court of Admiralty of England.
FOR SALE BY AUCTION, on Thursday,
))e,t, , the instant, at Two o'clock, at the Brokers' Sale-
-1,1,4,'A room, 3, York-buildings, Dale-street, the fine Americus
Barque JONATHAN GOODIIUE, 381 41-95 tons
American measure per register. This superior vessel
Was built at Ilobbinston, State of Maine, in 1-43, of carefully-selected
materials. She underwent a heavy repair about Seven months ago at
Calcutta, when she was sheathed with copper and p..it in first-rate
order ; shel is a large carrier; is said to la eve de;ivered over 630 tons
of guano, sail well, and shift without ballast. Her stores are of good
quality and abundant, and she may proceed to sea at a trifling out ay.
—For invent,ries :And farther particulars app'y to ROBE it A. MUNN
And CO., Brokers for the Furness and SaTe of Ships, 3, York-buildiags,
Dale-street.

To ShlpbniHots, Shipwrig'• ts, Shipsmins, Boatbuilders, Bloekmakers

- and others.
i FOR SALE BY AUCTION, on Thursday next,
t.'s.4 the 27th instant. and In the following day, at Eleven
r`w%o,<, o'clock, on the Promises, west side B.nnswiek DOZIT, the
. whole of the remaining STO 'K and TOOLS of the
owl) and Boatbuildlng Yard, Ship Smith's Factory, Bock Shop, and
Storeroom of Messrs. Johnson, Morrow, and Co., consisting or two
new Masts, couplet:, end able fora ship of 1,200 tons, and tops; Larch
Spars, English Oak, Yel ow Pine, Punks, ant a gnantity of other
Timber. Also, Feckrnatac and English oak, treenals, new and old
boats, bar a-id roil iron, nails, shackles, and all kinds of ships' iron
Work and materials, new and old blocks, sheaves, &c., magnificent
purchase blocka, stage ropes, felt for shea'hing, anvils vices, furnaces,
tools, benches, crane., chains, 6.c —For cetal goes and other par-
ticulars apply to CIJ,tRY, OCK, & CO. Brokers for the Sale
and Purchase of Snips, Walm.r-btuldings, Wat,e--street: