The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-10-01

QUARTER with its tall white hotels and
bride-cakc-lke villas, and nclosed
grass-plots sorely in need Of watering;
and it lis 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
able title of "Al Kahira.N
Here, indeed, you may take yoar fill
of Eastern associations. You seem to
be looking up from the bottom of n
well at the bright summer sky, which is
only visible rs little ribbon of burning
light far overhead, between the Hat,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 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 rs he shaves his
crown. The laden camel, striding up
the narrow, rubbish-heapcd street, al
most tramples upon n turbaned lOafer
who is too lazy to get out of the way -
The "kabobkin (seller of cooked meaD
sets out upon the narrow board before
him his little squares of smoking NUT
ton, each impaed upon its own tiny
spit. The bare-limbed water carrier
waddles past under his dripping bag OF
skin, eyed enyiously by the tattered,
dusty pilgrim from Mecca, who is look
ing round in search of bath house $500
The yelled woman glides noiseleSsly
past ia her Shroud-like robe, like risen
corpse, while the gaunt, half-clad, wild
eyed dervisE (religious devoted stalks
through the crowd yelling like II mad
man, and tossing his bare arms frantic
ally in the air.
Amid such scene, one would hardly
be surprised to come upon Khojah Has
san, or Sndbad, the sailor, snugly seat
ed in shady corner and rccounting to
a circle Of admiring listeners one OF
those interminable stories which delight
ed the Caliph HToun Al-Raschid. Be
fore you 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
is the citadel itself, which stands upon
steep rocky bluff overlooking the
town. True, the massive walls are fast
crumbling to decay, and a military en-
gincer 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 lavshed upon the graceful columns
and fretted cornices and deep, shadowy
archways of its beautiful interiT--a fit
monument of the greatness Of its found
err, 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 bill upon
which it stands falls away into sheer
precipice, lies spacious quadrangular
court yard, paved with broad flat stones
and encircled by a quiet, shady colon
made, the back of which is formed by
a. Co. G''o th,9nenlvnS AS YOU enter
this quadrangle, a gray-baired Arab,
who seems to haunt it. tells you in a
tone of sombre meaning that it is the
Court of the Mamelukes,
The name recalls at once the half-for-
gotten details of one of the grandcst
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 in this quiet spot on n certain
fine summer evening within the memory
Of men who are still alive.