CURIOUS CAIRO.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VII, Issue 10, 7 March 1891, Page 3

CURIOUS CAIRO.

NE of the most interesting and attractive towns in the world is Cairo. All time and all the nations of to-day seem to be represented here, g re »t museum presents to us statues of • wonderfn l life and real beauty and artistic ? "V-,* * merit older than the pyramids— not less than five thousand years old now—whilst we can see the same type of men exactly, walking in the streets of Cairo. Besides the great annual influx of winter visitors, principally English and Americans, there are some regular residents in Cairo, of which twenty or thirty thousand are Europeans of all the nations of Europe. The rest are Orientals from all parts of Africa, with a good many from Arabia and other parts of Asia. The first thing that strikes the eye on entering the city is the charm and novelty of seeing nearly all the men and boys dressed in long white or pale blue garments. These hang quite loose and look like long night-shirts, coming down to the feet. The feet are covered, when covered at all, with bright yellow or bright red slippers, and the head is enveloped in a white turban, generally wound round a cap, which shows above it. This is either the well-known red fez with its black tassel, or the pale brown felt cap characteristic of the fellaheen.

Next to the very picturesque effect of these airy, pretty garments, perhaps the most surprising thing was the great number of donkeys, carrying large bright-colonred cloth saddles, that thronged the streets. Each of these is attended by a boy in the dress described above, who runs behind it and shouts at it and whips it. At first sight it looked as thongh there were almost as many donkeys as people in the streets. The native women constantly ride donkeys and very curious figures they look in the saddle. Of course a woman in this country thinks it as great a disgrace, unless one of the very lowest class of the people, to expose her face as to expose any other part of her person. The eyes only are visible, the mouth being kept most scrupulously coveied. Very large, loose garments, generally of shiny, black silk, are worn by ladies when out of doors, and they ride cross legged, but with stirrups so short that their limbs do not hang down at all, but are in an almost horizontal position. In fact, they rather suggest trussed chickens. In this way they have hardly any hold on the saddle, and one or often two men run beside them and suppoit them. Some of the donkeys are magnificent, proud-looking white or grey animals as large as a rather small mule, and carry gorgeous embroidered saddles and saddle-cloths of red' velvet or blue cloth. Most of the hack donkeys, on the other hand, are insignificant-looking little animals, which are most inappropriate when carrying some great fat Turkish merchant, or a long-legged, red-coated English soldier. The wealthy Egyptians will often pay five bundled dollars for a really good donkey, while excellent ponies can be bought for a quarter or a third of the money. The most remarkable sight, perhaps, is the number of camels to be seen slowly marching through the streets of Cairo. Camels in the desert one expect to find, but few people are prepared to see so many of them in the city. The fact is they largely supply the place of carts, of which very few indeed are to be seen, and nearly all the alfalfa used in Cairo is brought in, stacked on anil around camels. Both donkeys and the numerous horses in small hack carriages, which abound here, seem to be fed almost entirely on alfalfa. Till one is accustomed to the sight, it is most strange to see a stream of large stacks of this bright, green herb perambulating the streets, with a little bit of four legs shown beneath each, a weak, foolish - looking head, rather like an ostrich’s, at the end of a long neck, peering out in front and carelessly chewing thecud.and thesmallest possible piece of the camel’s rather slight hind quarters just visible behind. The alfalfa is so stacked at either side of the animal in nets of rope, and on his back, that no more of the camel than I have described is visible from a side view. The camels may often be seen going about singly, but very often as many as six of them are tied together by a slight string and march along, always in single file, very silently, for their great soft pads of feet, intended for walking on sand, make no noise, yet by their very size and character clearing a path for themselves without difficulty through the swarms of humanity, whose noise and excitement contrast most unfavourably with the dignity and quiet of these great, tall denizens

of the desert. Another strange sight to see is the water carriers going about the streets. Water is laid all through Cairo, but the water rate is high, and many of the poor people prefer to buy their water from the carriers, as they or their ancestors have been doing from time immemorial, rather than impoverish themselves by adopting such new fangled European fads as mysterious jets coming out of iron pipes.

Some of the water - sellers carry the water in large earthenware vessels with brass spouts, that are strapped on to their backs, and from which they pour the water very cleverly over their shoulder byjnst stooping forward, into a cup which they hold in their hands. The majority, however, stul use goatskins, which look most uninviting, being black skins with the hair only roughly shaved off them and with the four legs and tail cut off' not very short, and tied up, while the water runs out through the neck of the skin,

where a small orifice only is left. These large skins are sometimes on the backs of donkeys, but more often the men carry them on their own backs, yet looking most cheerful, and clinking two brass cups in one of their hands to call the attention of the passer-by to the fict that a drink of the good water of the river Nile may be obtained on payment of a very small piece of money.