216 



CAIRO. 



Cairo. by land. This ceremony of opening the canal, when 

 V'^i'J the whole population of Cairo turn out, presents one 

 of the most interesting spectacles to be met with in 

 Egypt. 



The population of Cairo is composed of a great 

 many different races. The most numerous class are 

 the Arabs, who constitute the body of the people. 

 The other races are the Copts, who are Christians, 

 and are the original people of the country, Albani- 

 ans, Mamelukes, Turks, Jews, Syrians, Armenians, 

 and Greek and Roman Catholic Christians. Besides 

 these, there are Persians, Indians, Muggrebina, or 

 western Africans, Abyssinians, and individuals of al- 

 most every nation under the sun, together with mul- 

 titudes of negro slaves. To many of these races dis- 

 tinct quarters of the city are assigned, particularly to 

 the Jews, Muggrebins, and Europeans. The 

 amount of this mixed and motley population it is im- 

 possible to ascertain, as the Mahometans neither keep 

 registers, nor permit a numeration of the people. 

 Some have stated it so high as 700,000, asserting 

 that in one season 300,000 have been swept off by 

 the plague ; while others reduce it to 250,000 souls. 

 Niebuhr justly contends, that the immense circuit of 

 the town is no criterion of its population, containing 

 as it does so many vacant spaces of canals, gardens, 

 reservoirs, mosques, and public edifices, not to men- 

 tion the lowness of the houses, which are, in general, 

 but one story high ; so that the population cannot 

 by any means be supposed equal to that of a Euro- 

 pean city of the same extent. Browne, however, thinks 

 it cannot be less than 300,000. The dress of the com- 

 mon people is simple, and adapted to the climate. The 

 men wear a shirt of coarse calico, which hangs down 

 to the knees ; above this they have another larger and 

 longer, of a blue, or rather black colour ; and the 

 addition of a broad leathern girdle completes the bo- 

 dy dress. Their legs are bare, their feet sometimes 

 protected by coarse shoes of untanned leather, while 

 their heads are covered with a red cap, wound round 

 with a piece of calico. The women are dressed much 

 in the same style, but without the girdle and shoes ; 

 the most remarkable difference consisting in an ugly 

 thick veil, which entirely covers the face and breast, 

 with two holes in it, opposite the eyes, to see through. 

 This piece of dress, together with the brown arms 

 and ragged drapery of the Egyptian women, gives 

 them somewhat of a hideous appearance in the eyes 

 of a European. The people of condition, particu- 

 larly those in any office, are remarkably gorgeous in 

 their dress, and affect a good deal the Turkish cos- 

 tume. There is no place in the world where the tra- 

 veller meets with a more remarkable contrast in point 

 of condition than in Cairo ; splendid palaces in the 

 midst of mud hovels ; horsemen clad in the most 

 costly apparel, with their horses magnificently capari- 

 soned, rushing through crowds of squalid wretches, 

 emaciated with famine, and fluttering with rags. 



The women of Cairo are upon the whole well 

 formed, though not tall. Those of the upper ranks 

 sometimes rival in point of complexion our European 

 ladies ; and this quality, in conjunction with fatness, 

 constitutes the perfection of Egyptian beauty. They 

 marry at the a^e of 14- or 15, and at 20 are already 

 past their prime. The Coptic women are remarkable 

 6 



for their interesting features, black eyes, and genteel Cairo, 

 form. " The female Greeks born in Egypt," says 

 Lord Valentia in his description of Cairo, are 

 pretty fair, and well made, when young ; but child- 

 birth destroys their figures by relaxation, and their 

 bosoms become large and flaccid. Their head dres 

 is Asiatic, and richly adorned with gold, pearls, and 

 diamonds : their robes are of the same style, and con- 

 sist of satins and velvets, faced or lined with fur. Un- 

 fortunately in the same proportion in which the out- 

 side is adorned, the inside is neglected." The fe- 

 male love of finery is here so excessive, that, accord- 

 ing to Niebuhr, the ladies retire, several times, from 

 the same company, to appear again in a new dress, 

 still more splendid than the former. The following 

 sketch by Lord Valentia is no less descriptive of the 

 Mahometan ladies of the Harem, than it is of the 

 other ladies of Cairo. " In the morning I returned 

 Mr Macardle's visit, and accepted an invitation from him 

 to be present in the evening at an Egyptian dance. I 

 went, but was not amused. The dancers were veiled, 

 not from modesty, but to conceal their ugliness. 

 They were somewhat in the manner of the Indian 

 nautch girls, but never raised their voices to an arti- 

 ficial pitch. The dances were infinitely too indecent 

 even for description. Mrs Macardle, a pretty Greek, 

 and a great number of ladies, were there ; none of 

 them seemed the least discomposed ; but, on the con- 

 trary, laughed excessively : yet unquestionably this 

 was by no means the effect of vice, but solely of ha- 

 bit, which had rendered the scene so familiar, that 

 they did not perceive its impropriety, and even when 

 asked, danced themselves in as indecent a manner. 

 In the intervals the dancing girls went round, de- 

 manding money from each person." The dancing 

 girls here alluded to, called almeh, are those who 

 make a profession of dancing, singing, and relating 

 tales for the amusement of company. Their gestures 

 and songs are to a European disgusting in the extreme, 

 and the frantic movements to which they are some- 

 times excited by their own ideas, with the help of 

 brandy, make them no bad representatives of the an- 

 cient bacchantes. These are the governesses at Cairo 

 who instruct the wretched wives of the Mahometans, 

 and teach them in their Harems, with great assiduity, 

 those accomplishments in which they themselves are 

 so infamously eminent. The lower orders also have 

 their almeh, who are, if possible, still worse than the 

 former. 



Life, at Grand Cairo, partakes largely of that in- 

 dolence which characterises the manners of warm cli- 

 mates. For nine months in the year, the body is 

 oppressed by heat, and the mental faculties experi- 

 ence a corresponding languor. Hence it is, that you 

 every where find sotas, cushions, and every conveni- 

 ence of repose : in every garden you have charming 

 arbours and seats, but no walks ; and tobacco, cof- 

 fee, and sherbet, occupy the dreaming intervals of 

 sleep. An Egyptian rises with the sun to enjoy the 

 ccol air of the morning ; and having performed his 

 ablutions and devotions, he receives his pipe and cof- 

 fee, reclining indolently on his cushions. At the 

 farther end of the apartment, his slaves, with their 

 arms crossed, stand in silent, attention before him, 

 v/atching his eye, and anticipating his smallest wants-:. 



