SCIOPTICON M A NU A L. Ill 



A TRAVELER'S NILE BOAT, OR " DAHABEEK." The 

 traveler who visits Egypt can avail himself of public 

 conveyance as far as Cairo, but if ho desire to visit the 

 remains of ancient grandeur that lie to the south, he 

 must engage a Nile boat, which becomes, for the time 

 being, both the means of locomotion and his home; and 

 as all the points of interest are near the river, a more 

 commodious plan for visiting them could hardly be de- 

 vised. As there are no towns above Cairo everything 

 in the shape of comforts and luxuries must be provided 

 before setting out. 



STREET IN CAIRO. The streets in Cairo, like those of 

 most Oriental towns, are narrow, being some eight or ten 

 feet wide. The houses are mostly three stories in height, 

 each story projecting over the other, and the plain stone 

 walls are either whitewashed or striped with horizontal 

 red bars, as seen in the picture. 



The beautiful latticed windows, " masharobeahs/' are 

 the chief ornament of the old Mameluke houses in Cairo. 

 The wood seems rather woven in the loom than cut with 

 the saw and chisel.* Through these lattices of fine net- 

 work, with borffofs worked in lace-like patterns, and 

 sometimes tipped with slender turrets, the Cairo ladies 

 sit and watch the crowd passing to and fro, themselves 

 unseen. " The mother of Sisera looked out at a window 

 and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long 

 in coming?" Jud. 5 : 28. Donkey-riding in the streets, 

 and bazars, is almost universal. The animals are small 

 but strong. The driver runs behind, gives the donkey 

 a punch, cries "O man, take care! O boy, get out of 

 the way !" and the rider is hurried into a confusion of 

 other donkeys, loaded camels, water-carriers, and foot- 

 men. To one unaccustomed to donkey-riding it seems 



