The Worthington advance., 1882-09-28
THE MAMELUKE'S LEAP.

on all SIDES but one ny hldeOuS cllaSm
five hundred feet in depth. But in its
picturesque mingling of the past and the
present, of quaint eastern barbarism
and jaunty western civilization, Carlo
stands alone.
1t must be owned, however, that the
late khedive's efforts to make his capi.
tai a cheap edition of Paris have had
anything but satisfactory result. Mos
lem cities are as conservative as their in
habitants, and do not take kindly to the
bustling, new-fangled notions of the
west. The Shubra Gardens, indeed
(Which form the Park OF Cairo), are a
charming foil to the hot, dusty plain all
around; and 80, too, is the long aven-
ue OF date palms extending from the
Nile almost to the point where the
mighty crests Of the Pyramids are seen
looming again. he rich tropical sky on
But there is garish, offensive smartness
about every street of the new "Ismai!i-
yeh Quarter" will, its tall white hotels
and bride-cake-villak, and enclosed
grass plots sOrely in need of watering;
and it is quite relief to turn from this
''made to order" town into maze Of
dark, narrow, Oriental streets around
the base Of the citadel hill, where one
may still see what the great city was in
the days when she first received her
Arabic title Of "Al Kahira."
Here, indeed, you may take your fill
of eastern associations. You seem to
he looking up from the bottom of a well
at the bright summer sky, which is only
visible as a little ribbon of burning light
fair overhead, between the fat, heavy
battlemcnted roofs of the strange, OLD
houses, with their blank, massive walls
and deep, tunnel-like doorways. All
around you the quaint, old-world life,
the arabian Nights" is in full swing
The gray-bearded barber is chatting to
his Arab customer as he shaves bis
crown. lhe.laden camel, striding up the
narrow, rubbisll-heaped street, almost
trampled upon q turbaned loafer who
vas too lazy to get out of the way. The
"kabooki" (seller of cooked meaD sets
his little squares of smoking mutton,
each impaled upon its own tiny spit.
The deformed beggar extends the shape
less mass Of sores which serves him as q
hand, with shrill petition for charity.
The bare-limbed water carrier Waddles
past under his dripping bag of skin eyed
obviously by the tattered, dusty pilgrim
from Mecca, who is looking round in
search of a bath-house. The yelled wo-
man glides listlessly past in shr0ud-like
robe, like risen corpse, while the gaunt,
half-clAd, wiltl-eyed dervish (religious
dcvotee) stalks thrOugh'the crowd yell
ing like mailman, and tossing his bare
arms frantically in the air.
Amid such scene, one would hardly
be surprised to come upon Khojah Has
san, or Sinbad, the sailor, snugly seated
in a shady corner and recounting to a
circle of admirine listeners one of those
interminable stories which delighted the
Caliph Haroun Al. .Raschid. Before you
reach the foot Of the winding path lead
ing upward to the citadel you will be
quite ready to assent to the old saying
tina, "He who hath not seen Cairo hath
not seen the world"
But the gem of the whole panorama
is the citadel itself, which stands upon
rocky bluff overlooking the town.
True, the massive walls are fast crum-
bling to decay, and a military engineer
would be anything but satisfied either
with the condition of the defenses or
with that of the guns mounted upon
them. But the most resolute fault fin
der could hardly object to the stately
white front and tapering minarcts of the
great mosque, or to the wealth of color
ing Iavished upon the graceful columns
and fretted cornices and deep, shadowy
archways of its beautiful interior-a fit
! monument for the greatness of its foun.
der. Mehemet Ali Pasha, the Napoleon
Of Egypt, who ruled the country with a
rod Of iron in the earlier part Of the
present century.
Beyond the mosque, in the outer an
gle of the fortress, and just at the point
where the rocky face Of the hill upon
which it stands falls away into a sheer
precipice, lies spacious quadranguIar
courtyard, paved with broad flat stones
and encircled by aquet, shady colonade
the back of which is formed by the ram.
parts themselves. As yom enter this
! quadrangle, a gray-haired Arab, who
seems to haunt it, tells you in tone OF
| sombre meaning that it is the court Of
the Nlamelukes. s.'
The name recalls at once the half.for-
gotten details of one of the grandest and
! gloomiest tragedies of modern times,
and, for any one who wishes to know
| what Egypt really is, it is worth while to
look back and see what deeds were done
i'll this last quiet spot on a certain fine
summer evening within the memory Of
men who are still alive.
The evening sun is just beginning to
redden the bold ridges of the Mokattam
Hills (Which flank Cairo on the easO as q
troop of horsemen, mounted on supert
Arab coursers and arrayed in all the bar
baric splendor Of Eastern warriors, ride
calamity up the winding path leading tt
the gate of the citadel. All are stout and
stalwart men, armed to the teeth, ant
seemingly quite ready to use their weap
ons at moments notice against either
friend or foe.
These are the famous Egyptian Name
1ukes, the hereditary aristocracy of thu
land, who once faced the best soldier,
of Bonaparte himself beneath the shadow
of the Pyramids, and from whose ranks
came the renowned Sultans that former
ly ruled oil Egypt from the sea to thu
cataracts of the Nile. Proudly do the,
fle in through the gloomy old gateway
rejoicing to think that even Meheme
! Ali Pasha himself, the dreaded Cover
nor of Lower Egypt, thinks it pruden
to stand well with the Mamelukes and I,
bid them to feast in his own citadel q
Cairo. ,sss=
Little do they dream what manner o
feast it is to be. Mehemet Ali is no
the man to let any one stand in his wav
and these naughty chiefs, with thei
fierce courage and uncomfortable notion
Of independence. have long been bur
! den to him. II he intends (as ho does