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Cairo at Night 113
spectacle late that night, for the richly decorated tabernacles
which surrounded the vast square were a blaze of light, and
full of holy men reciting the Koran, and of dancing and
singing of religious natures, I supposed, the costumes being
very fine. I have never seen Ramadan in Egypt. In a
rich city like Cairo the Arabian nights of Ramadan must
be worth a book to themselves. About the most Arab and
the least Arab spectacle I ever went to was the Opera in
the Arab theatre. It was un-Arab, because it was all
so perfectly done. It might have been a chef d'oeuvre of
mimicking the Orient in a Paris theatre. It was so Arab
because its plot depended on a breach of Eastern etiquette.
The scene was laid in the Sheikh's house in Mecca, and the
actors all wore the dress of pure Arabs of Arabia. The
scenery was very simple, the costumes were very gorgeous.
Where the cloven foot of Christian civilisation showed was
in the sentimental sentiment of the love-songs and the importance
accorded to the women. The end would have
come so much sooner in real life.
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