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68 Oriental Cairo
cane-scllers and hedazvin, it has at any rate a certain
spaciousness which is denied to the Musky.
The kodakcr will have plenty of time to photograph the
humours of the Musky even if he is driving, for the traffic
is never untangled. The Musky of Cairo is a familiar name
to many who have never, and will never set foot in the
city. It was once, in the days before the flood—of tourists,
the principal shopping street of Cairo ; it is still the chief
avenue leading down to the native city, and not so many
years ago was full of picturesque native houses.
Now it is as shoddy as it is squashy. Where it debouches
into the Ataba it has shops like the hosiers' and jewellers'
in the Strand would be if they were kept by Levantines.
But as it approaches the bazars it gets lower and lower in
the scale of commerce. What scanty remains there are of
the old mansions are faced with shallow shops of the toy,
button, and baby-ribbon type ; shops where German socks
with undeveloped heels and music-hall umbrellas are flanked
with scarlet cotton handkerchiefs and shoes on strings ;
shops
of slop-tailors and chemists who live by the sale of no.xious
drugs and other less reputable commodities, for chemists
cannot live by drugs alone in the Musky. TarhilsJi-s^W^xs,
that stainps a cheap street.
There are almost as many stalls as there are shops, though
of course there are :
there is no room in the street at all; the most popular are
the spectacle stalls—spectacles are almost as much part of the
costume as watches and chains in Egypt. Stalls for nougat,
Turkish delight, Arab sugar, small cucumbers and oranges,
lemonade, boots and shoes, idiotic cutlery, coffee cups and
glasses, turquoises and inousetraps are their nearest rivals.
The street is absolutely packed with Arabs flowing from
their city to goodness knows where. They are all of them
incapable of getting out of your way, and the worst are the
women, whether they are Egyptians with veiled faces and
rather unveiled legs, or the pretty Arish women, who have
skirts like trousers coming right over their feet but leave
their faces uncovered except for jewellery. The Egyptian
woman is content to adorn her face with the little gilt