The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1874-04-18
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wIErERrHo IN CAIRO.

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les. To all intents and purposes YOU are
going to sun yourself in the country Of
"Lalla Rookh' and "The Arabian Nights"
for naturally when you indulge 10 roman
tic raptures over your preparations, you did
not split hairs about the niceties of geo
graphical detail. From the hour when you
rise to the time you go 10 bed--for, Of
course, you carry with you your indolent
Western habits--you expect to be disport-
ing yourself in bath of perpetual sun
beams.
Norar your earliest experiences Of the
land Of promise by any means unsatisfac-
tory. You are wakened of Alexandra by
the hoarse rattle Of the anchor-chains run
ming out through the hawse-holes, aud you
hasten, in the airiest Of morning toilets,
on to the decks that are being washed BY
streaming bueketfuls of water. You see
blood-red sun rising through bank of
cloud into cloudless heaven, behind a
line ofsandy beach, broken here and there
by a house or palm tree The light
breath of the morning scarcely stirs fold
Of your dressing gown. From that time,
until you arrive at Cairo, very probably all
is pleasure, provided you have secured an
intelligent dragoman TO see you safe through
the ordeal Of the beggars and the donkey
boys. If Alexandria appeared to be a re-
aectiOn of the Bagdad of your boyhood,
although the Oriental life there was 80
largely diluted with commonplace Lcvan-
tine rascality, Cairo is absolutely enchant-
ing. In the general sense of light and
brightness, in the exhilaration Of an at
mosphere more buoyant than you have ever
breathed before, you fancy that its gorgeous
novelties will never pail You are trans
ported into the most picturesque Of pic.
lures by Roberts, glowing in the golden
lights of landscape by Hildebrandt. In
the gardens of the UEbekeeh that stretch
before your windows, you feast your eyes
on the rich vegetation which you had as
sociated hitherto with hothouses ut Kew.
The heavy masses Of the velvety green are
relieved by brilliant bursts of bloom on un.
familiar shrubs. The costumes Of the
people strike you even more than the gay
flowers of that brilliant winter garden.
Particular turbans may be dingy, not to
say dirty; many of the flowing robes may
be ragged, but to your dazzled eyes the
general effect is unimpeachable.
And, after all, the Uxbekeeh is of the
Franks Frankish, as you begin to find out
when you stray into the Moskee, the for
mer Frankish quarter, and further yet
into the genuine Egyptian city. You are
lost in admiration as you make your first
solemn progress toward the bazaars, where
the bright light comes glittering down
through hanging coverings of many-hued
carpets, from the strip Of azure sky high
overhead between the hanging roofs. You
stare in delighted wonder at the various
attractions displayed in a succession Of
stalls. The articles are 80 novel and so
quaint in themselves that you scarcely
realize how many Of them are common in
material and coarse in texture. Now il is
the paraphernalia Of the smoker--carved
mcerschaums and amber mouth-pieces,
gorgeous hookas and narghileys; now it is
show Of fantastic slippers, worked in all
manner of golden embroidery, and the
morocco dyed in such colors as the West
will never initiate until ii learns to forget
the value of time Again, it is display
of many colored handkerchiefs with their
broad fringcs, or striped coverings Of goat
wool and camel hair, or fimsy burnouscs
with their mcandering veins of silk. Or,
more Characteristic still, it is show of
pottery ware, whose gnccfnl designs have
been disinterred from prehistoric tombs.
The merchants impress you almost more
than their goods Each time that You
are brought to a standstill, you are caught
by the glittering eye Of some impassiye old
Turk or Copt, squatted cross-legged on the
the well-worn cushions Of his diyan and
gazing listlessly from behind his coffee-cup
cut Of a floating cloud Of latakia.
Nor is 1t only the life of the city that
you see about you in the bazaars. Con-
spicuous in the crowd are types Of wild
African life from distant oases and remote
deserts. II is the season when the Be-
dOuins come in to dispose of the shearings
Of their focks and the garments they
weave from them; and for months before
the departure OF the annual caravan for
the Holy City, there are pilgrims collect
ing from all Northern Africa in the hope
Of paying their expenses by trade. You
have opportunities Of studying Oriental
customs, too, for most of the rights and
ceremonies come of out of doors. Here
Is a group of musicians and mummers Cd
ding and screaming before house where
a wedding feast has been in progress
for days. There you are entangled in a
group Of professional mourners, wailine
and bowling like jackah among the tombs.
And when you have had enough Of the
town for the time being, there is plenty
that is picturesque 70 be found above il or
in the environs. You mount by the steep
streets that lead to the citadel, and look
out at eventide 70 where the sun Is sink
in the Libyan desert beyond the Nile and
behind the Sphinx and the Pyramids. As
an American might say, the glow Of the
sunrise which you admired on lnna;po