Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1882-12-14
THE MAMELUKE'S LEAP.
A Story Of Modern Egypt.

There are few more striking city land
scapes in the whole of Africa, though
there may be many handsomer, than the
panorama of Cairo, where ancient and
modern .Mohammedanism stand repre-
sented side by side. As mere picture,
the traveller may perhaps give his prefer
ence to the towering red cliffs and ter
raced streets of Oran, the magnificent
crescent of white houses surmounting
the green sloping hills and sparkling
waters of Algiers Bay, or the strange
little eagles nest of Constantine perched
on all sides but one by hideous chasm
five hundred feet in depth. But in its
picturesque mingling of the past and
the present, of quaint Eastern barbar-
ism and jaunty Western civilization,
Cairo 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
inhabitants, 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
charming foil to the hot, dusty plain all
around; and so, too, is the long avenue
of date palms extending from the Nile
almost to the point where the mighty
crests of the Pyramids are seen looming
against the rich tropical sky on the bor-
der of the everlasting desert. But there
is a garish, offensive smartness about
every street of the new "Ismailiyeh
Quarter" with its tall white hotels and
bride-cake-like villas, and incloscd
grass-plots sorely in need of watering;
and it is quite relief to turn from this
.'made to order town into the 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 Ar.
abic title of "Al Kahira."
Here, indeed, you may take your fill
of Eastern associations. You seem to
be looking up from the bottom of
well ct the bright summer sky, which is
only visible as little ribbon of burning
light far overhead, between the flat,
heavy-battlemented roofs of the strange
old houses, with their blank, massive
walls and deep tunnel-like doorways.-
All around you the quaint old-world life
of the "Arabian Nights is in full swing.
The gray-bearded barber is chatting to
his Arab customer as he shaves his
crown. The laden camel, striding up
the narrow, rubbish-heaped street, al
most tramples upon turbaned loafer
who is too lazy to get out of the way
The 'kabobki'' (seller of cooked meat)
sets out Upon the narrow board before
him his little squares of smoking NUT
ton, each impaled upon its own tiny
spit. The bare-limbed water carrier
waddles past under his dripping bag OF
skin. eyed enviously by the tattered,
dusty pilgrim from Mecca. who is look.
ing round in search of bath house.
The veiled woman glides noiselessly
past il her shroud-like robe, like risen
corpse, while the gaunt, half-clad, wild
eyed dervish (religious devotee) stalks
through the crowd yelling like mad
man. and tossing his bare arms frantic
ally in tho air.
Amid such q scene, enc would hardly
be surprised to come upon Khojah Has
san, or Sindbad, the sailor. suugly seat
ed in a shady corner and recounting 10
circle of admiring listeners one OF
those interminable stories which delight
ed the Caliph Haroun Al-Raschid. Be-
fore yea reach the foot of the winding
path leading upward to the citadel you
will be quite ready to assent to the old
saying that HE who hath not seen Cal
70 hath not seen the world"
But the gem of the whole panorama
ID the citadel itself, which stands upon
q steep rocky bluff overlooking the
town. True, the massive walls are fast
crumbling to decay, and military en-
gineer 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-fnd-
er could hardly object to the stately
white front and tapering minarets of the
great mosque, or to the wealth of color
ing lavished upon the graceful columns
and fretted cornices and deep, shadowy
archways of its beautiful interior-a fit
monument Of the greatness Of its found
or, Mehemet Ali Pasha, the Napoleon Of
Egypt, who ruled the country with a
rod Of iron in the earlier part of the pres
ent century.
Beyond the mosque, in the outer angle
Of the fortress, and just at the point
where the rocky face Of the hill upon
which it stands falls away into o sheer
precipice, lies a spacious quadrangular
courtyard, paved with broad fiat stones
and encircled by a quiet, shady colon
made, the back of. which is formed by
the ramparts themselves. As you enter
this quadrangle, graY-haired Arab,