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Cairo at Night 1 1
chairs that you can hardly pass along them ; and the road
near the cafes, where the Arabs are sitting, is crowded with
their gay little white asses patiently waiting for them. All
sorts of street musicians wander about, many of them little
boys about ten years old, who pick out popular airs on
tinkling instruments. Sellers of foreign stamps are much in
evidence.
Were it not for the little white asses standing with their
forefeet on the pavement, or speeding down the street with
a pitter-patter of their tiny feet and a jingle and flash of
their silver neck-chains, and for the galloping white horses
of the arabeahs, the Arab-haunted cafes of Cairo would be
woefully inferior in picturesqueness to the cafes of Tunis ;
the street is so confined compared to the broad Avenue Jules
Ferry, up which the Tunisian Arabs seem to float like
gorgeous butterflies in their light, bright, elegant robes. The
Cairo Arab does not dress elegantly—at his best, his clothes
are only clean and dignified. And one misses the trees.
There are other streets, like the Sharia Kamel, which have
long lines of brilliantly lit cafes ; but the dullest kind of
people frequent them. The glittering bars of Cairo are not
really more interesting than other bars, though they are
florider, and are tended by very grand young ladies. The
Abbas theatre has its Covent Garden Balls. Here the British
subaltern, especially he of the Guards, is fancy-free ; and he
is sometimes extremely funny when he is " ragging " to the
top of his bent.
When the moon hangs out her lantern, people make up
large parties to ride out on donkeys to the Pyramids or the
Tombs of the Caliphs. This is both picturesque and charming,
though it is a long ride for donkeys to the Pyramids. The
Tombs of the Caliphs look fairylike in the cool, white light
under the dazzling sapphire sky ; and if you see it by
moonlight, you know the full pregnance of the saying, As
mysterious as the Sphinx.
The thing I enjoyed most in Cairo by moonlight was
to take an arabeah and drive to the deserted streets of
the Arab city. To sit in the Sharia el-Nahassin with not
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