The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-09-10
CAIRO ~ 1917.
BY FRANK ID. CARPENTER.

FOUR gallon crock. does the same. and
/ venture the name Of the Deity IS
uttered here more frequently than IN
any other part Of the world Il -
through this custom Of religious pre-
text that l am able to get free OF the
DeGgars Of the city. ! nave learned
" Arab words. Allah yatik. which
mean: May Cod give thee enough
ana 10 spare" When a beggar pes
tiers me I say these words gently He
looks upon me in establishment and
then touches his forehead in a polite
Mohammedan salute and goes away.
y City of the Egyptians.
The tourist who passes through
Cairo and stavs at the big hotels is
apt 70 think that the city is fast be-
coming a Christian one. He is told
that the British are It's real govern
ors, and as he drives over asphalt
streets lined with the fine buildings
Of the European quarters il seems al
together English am French. II he
is acquainted with many foreigners
ne flnds them living in beautiful vii
las, or it may be in apartment houses
such as would not be out Of place
IN any city Of Europe or Of the United
states. He does his shopping in mod
ern stores, and gradually comes TO the
conclusion that the Arab city is fast
passing away. This is not so. Cairo
Is a city of the Egyptians. Not one
tenth Of its bitants are Christians.
and it is the eight or nine hundred
thousand natives who make up the
life blood of this municipality. They
are people Of \ different world from
ours, as we can Nee if we go down and
stroll through the city. They do
business in different ways. and they
trade much the same now as they
have been trading for generations
back. Their stores are crowded along
narrow streets which wind this way
and that, SO that n might lose him
self in them. Every branch Of bust
ness has its own section. In one place
there are nothing but SaddlerS, in an
other ~shoemakers, and in another the
workers in copper, silver n brass.
The booksellers and .bookbinders have
q street of their own; and so have
the clothiers and tailors. Nearly
every store is a factory as we'll. and
most of the goods offered you are
made in the shops.
| have been in most of the great ba-
Zaars of the world. and / know of
none more interesting than those OF
Cairo. In them thousands are buylng
and selling, and each narrow street
has a stream of color which flows back
and forth all day long. From the top
of ones donkey this stream is red and
white uDon a bed of black and blue.
The red is the fez caps and the white
the turbans. while the blacks and
blues are the gowns of the people be-
low them. The sides of the streets
are bright will the goods hanging
out Of each little shop. and the whole
is like wandering through a worlds
fair in which the exhibitors are dark
faced, %turbaned, long-gowned men,
who sit cross-legged on carpets. with
all the treasures of the orient piled
about them.
/ The Cairo of the Arabian Nights.
Although the foreigner and his in
~novations are almost everywhere IN
evidence. native Cairo is much the
same now as it was in the days of the
Arabian Nights. These people be-
lieve the same as they did then; they
wear the same costumes; the women
are as closely yelled, and all the char
acters of the days of Haroun Al Ras-
child are to be seen. Here the vision
ary Alliascher quats in his narrow,
! cell-like store, with his basket of glass
before him. He has a long water pipe
in his mouth and is musing on the
profits he will make from peddling
his glass, growing richer and richer,
until the khedive will be glad to Of
fer him his daughter in marriage, and
he will spurn her as she kneelS before
him. We almost expect to see the
glass turned over as it was in the
story, and his castle in the air shat
tered with his kick. Next to him is a
turbaned Mohammedan who reminds
us of Sinbad the Sailor, and a little
L oIi . e. A'C hSSAo c%oA
his hands with invisible soap in in
visible water, and apparently inviting
his friends to come and have a great
feast with him. Here two l~ong-gown-
ed, g~ray-bearded men are sitting on
a bench drinking coffee together: and
there a straight, tall maiden, robed
in q, gown which falls from her head
to her feet and with a long black
veil covering all of her face but her
eyes, looks over the wares of a hand
some young Syrian, reminding us of
how the hours shopped in the days
of the past.
Donkeys and Camels
Oriental Cairo is a city of dOnkeys
and camels. In the Frenchquarter you
may have a odern cab for Is cents
q ride. or you may jump on the cleo
trio street cars and go a long distance
for from , LIZ to 5 cents, or you may
even hire an automobile to carry you
over the asphalt. The streets of the
native city are too narrow for such
things, and You are crowded to the
wall again n again for fear that the
spongy feet of the camels may tread
upon YOU. You are grazed by loaded
donkeyS, carrying grain, bricks or
bags on their backs: and the donkey
boy Who is trOtting behind an animal
rldden by some rich Egyptian or his
wife calls upon you to get out of the
way. The donkey is the best means
of getting around through the ma
tive city and the cheapest. You may
hire one for two hours for 20 cents.
for a half day for so or so cents, and
all day for a dollar. Every riding ami
NAL is numbered. My donkey of to-
day was named california; and the
number on his saddle was OFT.
Some Queer Citizens.
The characters of these bazaars are
odd to an extreme and one must have
an educated eye to know who they
are. Take that man in a green tur-
ban; he is looked up to by his fell
lows. Your dIagOman will tell you
that he has d sure passport to heaven,
and that the turban is a sign that he
has made the pilgrimage to Mecca
and hus earned the right 30 the col
ors Of the prophet. Behind him comes
q fne-featured. yellow-faced man in
a blue gown wearing a turban of blue.
You ask your guide who he NAV be
and are told, with a sheer. tina he is
a Copt. He is one of the Christians
Of modern Egypt, n has descended
from the fanatical band which
Charles Kingsley describes in his