GRAND CAIRO. 103 
mice, flies, vermin, and dust, which infested us chap. 
III. 
from the quay, and prevented our rest. But, ■ 
after a short time, we procured a large house, 
which had been inhabited by French officers, in 
a very populous part of the city, near to the 
residence of Signer Rosetti. This greatly in- 
creased our facility of seeing the city, and of 
observing the manners of its inhabitants. 
The best houses in Cairo correspond with the Houses. 
description given in a former part of this work, 
of the palace of an Armenian merchant, at Nicotia 
in Cyprus'^. The taste shewn in decorating their 
apartments is of the kind called Arabesque: 
this, although early introduced into England 
from the East, is not Saracenical, but Egyptian^. 
It is a style which the Greeks themselves 
adopted ; and it was received amongst the 
Romans in the time of Augustus. Where the 
windows are glazed, which more frequently 
exhibit an open lattice-work, they are orna- 
mented with coloured glass ; representing land- 
scapes and animals, particularly the lion, which 
seemed to be a favourite subject in works of 
(2) See Part II. Sect. 1. Chap. xi. of these Travels. 
(3) See the observations oi Deno7i, Trav, in Egi/pl, \o\. 1. p. 211. 
Lond. 1803. 
