The herald., 1922-05-25
View Of Cairo.
prepared by the National Geographic

NitpdItI Dy tnc NdtlONal NIeORTaphi
Society, Washington, D. c.
1t is difficult to shake the Gust O
the ages from the land of the Nil
and 10 realize that there is an Egyp
Of the vibrant present. The recen
announcement of the withdrawal o.
the British prOtectorate from til,
country, however, and the setting VI
of its first king in. more than 100,
years turns the spotlight squarely Oh
the modern aspect of this long civil
iZed region.
The map lacks much of giving one
the true picture Of Egypt. The cOun
try Is shown covering a large area OF
northeastern Africa. This is the nom
inal Egypt. The real Egypt is mar.
row, tOrtuOuS strip on either side of
the Nile and the fan-shaped delta sur
rounding its mouth. Save for few
Oases outside the river valley. the rest
of Egypt is but sea Of sand prac-
tically uninhabited. Figures confirm
this, for of the more than 10000
square miles of Egyptian territory
WHY oDNul 1-iNV ever Dt
waited: and a considerable part of this
tillable area has not yet been re-
claimed.
Looking only at the surface of
Egypt's institutions, one is likely to
decide that the changes since the days
of the Pharaohs have been great, but
when certain fundamentals are con-
sidered the wonder may well be at
the lack of change. To be sure, the
Egyptian Of today speaks Arabic in
stead of his old tongue; and Osiris,
Isis and HOrus have been long forgot
ten for Allah and Mohammed. But
In spite of numerous invasiOns. the
blood of the great majority of the
population has been altered hardly at
all.
Egypt's resources are almost wholly
agricultural, and in the agricultural
scheme the millions of fellaheen are
the ultimate units. They work long
hours scratching the soil with crude
implements, or tediously raising water
in skin buckets attached to pivOted
poles that the thin stream may save
their plants from parching. Taxes
are heavy, and 1t is the lowly fellaheen
who keeps the treasury supplied. Liv-
Ing conditions are very poor: mud
huts house most Of Egypt's thirteen
millions. In the fields they wear lit
tie more than q lOin cloth, and the
younger children of the villages 90
naked. When the fellah is dressed
up" he wears rough shirt and loose
trousers.
Cairo the Wonder City.
The stamp of the outside world and
Of the Twentieth century on Egypt is |
to be seen chiefly in Cairo. that won
derland which has superseded Bag
dad as "the city of Arabian Nights" |
Cairo is living kaleidoscope, with |
its cleaning and drab human frag- |
ments tumbling into changing pat
tern not merely from East and West,
but from North and South as well.
White-robed BedOuin, ill-clad fellah,
Soudanese and central
African negro, swarthy Turk, Persian,
Hindu, MongOlian, dusky Moor, Ital-
ian, Greek, Jew, Armenian, and the
whittier folk from Europe America
and the antipOdes-all are jumbled
together in Cairo, their various tongues
making a babel that can hardly be
duplicated at any other spot on earth.
The life that flows along the streets
of Cairo could not be duplicated any,
where else in the world. At times
Lhe western observer is likely TO be
1u1Rded fOrcibly Of circus parades
in street back home. Swaying
move along with brightly
essed riders perched upon them or
with suspended cars in which are |
relied damsels, while drummers thun-
Ter their rhythm and fife blowers emit
heir shrill notes. Snake-charmers
'ass nlong with their bags of snakes
nagicians perform In some nook.
and laden donkeys COM
ete for space with shining limou-
ines.
Cafes In the Streets.
The al fresco cafe is one of the '
lost characteristic marks of Cairo. {
is not the more or less well-ordered S
fair of the bOulevards of Paris.
dewalks and streets overflow with I
innumerable chairs and a
bles until often a single file of pedes- t
ians can hardly force its way r
rough. One gets the impression t
at few people need to work in Cairo. /.
zen in the mornings the chairs are @
led with apparently prosperous r.
IN slipping coffee or sweetened wa p