108 A Letter from Cairo, 



ing to his own account, forcibly initiated into Mohammedanism. He has 

 risen to the rank of Effendi, and wears, as the ensignia of office, a gorgeous 

 inkstand, pendant from his neck. He lias put us in possession of a house 

 lately depopulated by the plague, where we have monte menage, with our 

 travelling gridiron, pot, frying-pan, teapot, and tea kettle, as our hattcrie 

 de cuisine, and our light mattrasses as the rest of the furniture — a raised 

 seat, or divan, running round the hall, and superseding tiie necessity of chairs. 

 I am now in a city bearing evident marks of a great metropolis. Very 

 closely built, the streets being generally as narrow as those of Alexandria, 

 it yet covers a great extent of ground, and contains, it is said, eighty thou- 

 sand inhabitants. It is under a rigorous military police, and the prompt 

 and uncompromising severity of the government crushes at once all incipi- 

 ent disturbance. 'J'he division of the city into review?, surrounded by high 

 walls, with gates always guarded, which, being suddenly closed, cut off all 

 inter-communication, facilitates this purpose, and illustrates the maxim, 

 "Divide et impoa." The arcliitecture is superior to any remaining in 

 Alexandria. Richly-wrought portals, such as, in arch and ornament, we 

 should call in England Gothic or Norman, are frequently seen _: and there 

 are some remains, of apparently great antiquity, as decidedly of that style 

 of architecture as are the ruins of any of our ancient abbies. It is Clarke, 

 I think, who describes a cliurch, built under Justinian, in the island of 

 Cyprus, as of the most perfect style of Norman building ; — setting at rest, 

 I should say for ever, the long vexed question of the origin of the pointed 

 arch. There are a few wide streets, but the greater number are, as in 

 Alexandria, covered and crowded beyond measure : Charing Cross at 

 its full tide is not comparable to them. Here and there, as at the ap- 

 proach to a mosque, the passages widen, and the various ingredients of the 

 confluent mob become separate and distinguishable. The eye has then the 

 power of gazing at, and admiring, the polished marble, and richly-gilded 

 facades of these buildings, and of looking ujjwards to their slender and 

 beautiful minarets. But the glance of the Frank must be rapid, and with- 

 out a pause, as the dogs of the country are said to drink of the Nile ; for 

 an insult would certainly be the fruit of protracted observation. You may 

 suppose that we did not long delay to pay a visit to the pyramids. They 

 are about three hours distant, on the opposite or left bank of the river. 

 At about two miles from the walls we passed througli the ruins of old 

 Cairo ; but, except some immense cisterns, which go by the name of 

 Joseph's granaries, and the famous Nilometer, which is now so encumbered 

 with mud and rubbish that we could scarcely descry it, we saw nothing 

 worthy of observation. Our donkies were passed, by swimming, over the 

 river, which we crossed in a ferrj boat. VV^e then wound our way over a 

 great and cultivated plain, lying between the Nile and tlie desert, which 

 was intersected by long stripes of water, the yet unevaporated relics of the 

 last inundation. As we approached tlie pyramids, the rich black mould 



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