232 



The Review of Reviews. 



When voung and rich he had travelled in Europe, 

 there saw and married her mother, but, losing all his 

 money, Abu-el-Leylah returned to Cairo and sus- 

 tained life as the keeper of one of the filthiest o]iium 

 dc-ns in the filthiest quarter of the city — which is 

 saying a good deal. No one knew anything about 

 liim : " the Berberine servants who stole along the 

 winding maze of narrow ways which led to his den ; 

 who, shoes in hand, padded along in the dust, their 

 white galahichs gleaming ghostlike through the 

 gl<«m ; who spent the long warm nights in gambling, 

 or forgot them in the dreams of hashish — what did 

 they care for his past? What concerns of theirs 

 so long as he did not disturb the regular play of 

 their vices?"' Ariha had ever been full of fright 

 and cursed and teaten ; left to steal her food how 

 she could, she had become as cruel as such a little 

 slave might well be. Always hated, and familiar 

 with mi.serv, her great wonderment was " why 

 ])cople ever laughed." The dwelling in which her 

 father kept her day by day was " about twelve feet 

 s(]uare and of blocks of rough-cut stone, covered 

 with the marks of ages of human use; the ceiling, 

 high and dome-shaped, was black from the smoke 

 of fire and the crude oil-lamps burnt by those for- 

 gotten occupants, who had scorned to alter their sur- 

 roundings save to add an occasional coating of filth. 

 The uneven floor was covered with a litter of torn 

 newspapers pieces, fruit skins, and an evil multitude 

 of bits and scraps half trodden in upon other like 

 layers." It was Ariha's business to scrape off the 

 u()permost dirt from these unutterable rooms ; but 

 she was a dreamer of dreams, and in the.se found 

 her sole solace, and, oddly enough, the instrument 

 of her future success. 



CAIRO IN JULY. 



Cairo itself is well desef'bed. We are first intro- 



duced to Ariha at mxm ^ fcilv, when — 

 ^■n ^~* ■ 



The sun shone iii »vi V'J"-'le88 8k,v. burning the very lilue 

 so that it paled to hi^;^- yellows and faint greens- The 

 nii,rrow dust-cohmred street shinunered and baked in the 

 fervid beams, save where (he rani8ha<kle rouiih stone and 

 wooden shops cast a sharpV"* 'ine of shade. 



The hot air huiiK staKiian^l.v. heavy with the rich nialo- 

 ibiurs of huniiil earth, decaying veeetaiile matter and 

 (Towdwl atiineil life. 



The hum of the oity's life had sunk to silence, and but 

 a few distinct noises ilistJjrbed the burnine siesta hours. 

 \ belated mule-i'art carrjiinu stone from tlie Mokattam 

 Hills quarries passed ah/hg some far street, its ujioiled 

 wheels <'rick-cra'cli-crackint:' an intensely sharp staccato. A 

 vendor of drinkw rhythmV<'ally <-lanl(ed and clapped his 

 hr.isB saucers, his cries uiielloweti by tlu' diHtarn-e. Slow 

 lircliii^ above the houses \\ half-dozen kites screamed, and 

 one 8W4M>ped down with tla^pping wings to snatclt a tit-bit 

 from out of ,a. pile of refn3(e. 



Tliere were jio other jsounde. Man and iiie beasts 

 swooned aiid suffocated btjneath the golden flood of heat 

 and light. ' ^. 



But its great beauty Ms at night, for then — 



Th« burning glare and wViite heat of d.iy liad long since 

 given way to the summer * night, that soft, odorous tune 

 when the t)reeze from ttie. .Mediterranean, sweetened an(i 

 fragranceti ;ls it sweeps o\er the Delta <-roi)B. blows tlii-ough 



THE FASCINATION OF THE EAST. 



.\riha goes to Europe, taken there through the 

 self-sacrifice of two teachers in the Berlitz School 

 in Cairo, a big-hearted man and woman whose 

 friendship dated from their rescue of Ariha. Then 

 comes her great triimiph, when she takes London by 

 storm. Marrying, she has two happy years, but, 

 losing her husband from a fall when mountain- 

 climbing, Ariha becomes numbed to all her interests 

 and blind and deaf to all about her. Urged bv the 

 d<x;tor, the two friends take her back to Cairo, 

 where (jn Christmas Eve she again awakens to life 

 and its possibilities, and we leave her in her own 

 city, sure that her fuller life is but just beginning. 

 For, as Mr. Flatau says: — 



The charms of the East are many and varied; they 

 weave themselves into a dazzling paicliwork of memory, 

 miatily veiled wiili imagination; and the result is a mitgic 

 carpet, eiitiuuited ;tnd irresistible, which we name "The 

 CaJl of the E.ist." Egypt works this spell with tunning 

 hands. There is no etlacing it, and no hope of happiness 

 or content in disobeying it. 



There a.re a few Englishmen wdio lt\e their lives in that 

 sea of sand and flo^^d of sunshine, and who curse e\ery 

 grain and liea.m. Tliey will swear at the yell^iw-brown 

 land whose glaring desert tiLitness levels their hopes ad it 

 t)rown8 their skins -and their souls. They will rave of 

 green fields and white <diR8; of fogs, rain, and tiie exhilarat- 

 ing ea.8t wind; of tlieatres, hansoms, and their once 

 favourite restaurants. 



But they will never remain away from the burning 

 k}iam^in!^ (liot ilesert wind) and the creak of the ^u^/,(u 

 I w.xter-wheel w.oke^l by oxen). -\ month in Engt;iud. and 

 they a.che and pine for tlie part of them left in that hot. 

 waveleas sea 



The ■■ Soul of the Dancer" is an original and 

 uiiconvenlional stor\ . Iireathing the verv essence of 

 vouth. 



the streets and lanes and ,maze of crooked, ii.irrow w:iys. 



■ IB " 

 that ric)) and 8m<H>th balm, that warmth and freshness 



irid .maze or crooKen. 

 leansing the city of its sMveating, fa-tid airs. Tliere w'; 

 hat ricn and 8in<H>th balm, that warmth 

 whit-h more than :ttones for the heat of the day. 



GOOD STORIES OF A OOOD 



ACTOR.- 



From thinking over the influence a popular 

 l)la\er must wield to being obsessed by a desire to 

 know all the phases through which such a man must 

 pass liefore he attains eminence is not a long pro- 

 cess. Mr. Edgar went farther still : he thinks there 

 are many people who would desire a peep at the 

 many personalities included in such a man as Martin 

 H.irvey, and hence the l)ook before us. We mu.st be 

 prepared for a little hero worship — heroine worship, 

 loo, in this case, for the beloved wife who has been 

 the actor's inspiration in many cases, and who, as 

 Miss (le Siha, shared in the benefits of the Lyceum 

 RMching, was the w'riter's mainstay in getting his 

 materials. There are more heroes than one; Mar- 

 I in Harvey's story could not be given without in 

 chuling Irving. The actor was the son of a man 

 who loved the theatre, and who, being well-to tlo, 

 helped his son through his novitiate. But he could 

 not, even if he had so desired, save him from the 

 trials and agonies of such a man as the creator of 

 " The Only Way." So we get tragedy as well as 

 comedv in Mr. Edgar's pages. 



'Mintni Harvt^y; .Sonic VuQi^y nf Hi» Life. By Oeorge 

 Kdg.ir idraut Kioharda. 7b. 5d. net.) 



\ 



