Mexico weekly ledger., 1902-04-03

sixteen 10 one c0lneS 0 Eg9pt.
At least when the Nile rises sixteen 70
ellis on the Nilometer It means a pros
porous season and abundant crops.
The Nile-god might well have furnish.
ed the ancient inhabitants of the land
with an object Of generation, depend
ert as Egypt is upon the rising Of the
river for its very life. In Old Cairo
we visited the Nilometer, stlll used t.
mark the rivers inundation. It bear.
upon a granite column inscription in
all the languages Of the polygloi
country, present and past, and Of ali
the ruling monarchs recording tine in.
In the water at different peri
DDS. A Sheikh has the Nilometer in
charge and the banks are cut with
large ceremony in the fall time when
the great inundation comes.
Here said the dragoman, as we
walked through the garden Of the Is
land Of Roda in the Nile, near the
Nilometer, "ls where Moses was found
with the bull rushinglp The Moham-
medan dragoman had his English OF
his scriptural history mixed. He
meant bulrushes but persisted in say.
ing something entirely different.
There are no signs Of bulrusl1es now at
the tabled spot, and II Pharaoh's
daughter now went down to bathe
here, she would be in full view Of the
fashionable Ghezireh drive on the
bank Of the Nile opposite.
BOoK-MAkING IN THE OPEN sTREEs.
The street OF the bookseller is a
fascinating sight In Cairo. We visit
ed the government printing Office at
home and was not nearly so interest
ing as the book-making and book
selling in the Arabian quarter. The
chief street Of this sort is near the
Mohammedan mosque Of El-Azhar.
Here books are bound and volumes
are sold in the open street. The
bookbinder sits OF squats down cross.
legged in the street and binds togeth-
er the Loose sheets Of the volume
while camels, donkeys and a motely
crew Of noisy humanity make their
way past him two feet away. Most
Of the books are bound in red. The
Koran is shown with much reluctance
to on-Muslims who are not supposed
and rightly-to give it much reyer'
ence. The binding Of Arabic volumes
is much inferior to that of othel
countries though the leather is otter
Of superior quality.
Strangely enough, the great Ara.
bian library, containing many of the
most precious copies Of the Koran, On'
in particular, being the earliest speci
men extant, is thrown open freely ant
without charge, in the Viceregal
Library, to anyone interested in book
OF manuscripts.
ARABIC htNdlNos
The Arabs believe they can sing
After a somewhat careful study OF thu
music Of Egypt the Missourians conf
IDENTIFY assert to the contrary. Thei
songs have absolutely no tune. Their
is a certain rhythm but very little 0
that and all their singing has a mourn
full cadence that reminds one Of funeT
al marches.L Last evening as we went Z
a lively entertainment upon I'll bus
XII the d~onkey-boys sang for us a speci
al serenade song. 1t sounded like
voice from the tombs but, TO our SUI
prise, when we investigated, W foun'
instead 1t was an Arabic love-song,
kind Of "There is Only One Girl nth
World for Ne"
LANGUAGE AND STREET SCENES.
The confusion OF tongues is bette
illustrated in Cairo than in any cit
we have yet visited. Egypt isa poll
glot country. The d~onkey-boys talk
half-dozen languages and the mel
chant can talk to you in any know
dialect. Ask a question Of a casui
street acquaintance and be will likel
reply in a sentence composed of word
from Arabic, English, French an
other tongues. To an individual VIII
has devoted bis life to mastering th
intricacies Of his native language an
not succeeded-this linguistic abilit
appears little short of marvellous.
The street scenes of Cairo surpass j
novelty those Of any other great cap
tai. The visitor never tires Of watcf
ing the queer admixture Of Orients
and Occidental. Just now a stree
huckster drove a flock Of turkey
through the street In front Of 90
hotel, herding them with a palm
ranch, and stopping under ever
window to cry out turkeys" in Arr
bic and IL possible make a sale. A Re
lab woman brought geese to town i
baskets on a donkey. And this morr
ing the herd Of COWS was driven dow.
the street TO be MIXED in front OF th
customers house. A queer custom
and in Egypt custom rules-is for
small boy to go before the COWS with
stuffed calf made Of straw and cotto
cloth which is believed to make tn
COW give milk more readily.
The mosques OF Cairo deserve
whole letter which we will not write
The man who has been TO Mecca shaI
have the concluding paragraph Of thi
epistle. Every Mohammedian make
this journer at least once in bis life
II he can secure even by mortgaginI
his house the funds for the journey
We saw many such fortunate Mus
Inns upon Cairo streets-easily dis
tingulshabie by their green turbans
BY the way, the proper length Of
Mohammededan turban is seven time
the length Of the wearer's head, and !
worn TO remind him Of death and i'm
mortality.
To the average western visitor the!
look like dishclOthes wrapped aroun,
the forehead while the other typica
Oriental ~bead-dress, the fez, resemble
a section or red stove pipe with a blacl
tassel. When the Mohammedan re
turns from Mecca he is given the q
tie Of Hadji-a kind Of Egyptian colo
mel. He is also entitled 10 announce
pictcrially upon his house front tn
features Of his trip TO the sacred city
This he does in hls own unique way
Down in this corner be portrays az
impossible locomotive In indigo blu,
drawing a train Of pink cars. This /,
the story Of his tourney from Calm II