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2i8 Oriental Cairo
of the palace of the Khedives on the Citadel, they are strik-
ingly beautiful, for they stretch a long finger into the desert
under the shadow of the rocky Mokattams, whose skyline is
broken once^ twice, by ancient ruins, and beyond them you
can see both the western and the eastern desert with the steely
ribbon of the Nile between.
The kodaker will find both the Tombs of the Caliphs and
the Tombs of the Mamelukes paradises, for they are full of
fantastic buildings in unbroken sunshine, and he can gener-
ally secure a clean background of desert. And this is, oh, so
important in Egypt, where the strength of the light and the
clearness of the atmosphere frequently make an object which
is a good distance off, come right behind and clash with the
object he is photographing.
And here perhaps I ought to say something about Mohammedan
funerals. Their prime feature is that there is never any
hearse. The body is invariably carried upon a bier. In
theory the bier is always borne by the friends of the deceased,
who acquire merit by performing so pious an office. It is a
plain wooden affair, shaped like a coffin, with a high horn at
one end, on which the turban is sometimes hung. The bier is
nearly always covered, including the horn, with a rich cashmere
shawl as a pall. The women of the family are allowed
to accompany it if they wish, but the women who wail round
it arc generally hired mourners. The procession is sometimes
limited to a few friends, who surround the bier, taking turns
in carrying it. It is generally headed by banners, and its
presence becomes known before it is seen by the noble and
dignified chanting.
In my novel, "The Tragedy of the Pyramids," I give a
description of the funeral of the Descendant of the Prophet
with all the ancient ceremonies, using Lane's inimitable trans-
lations of the words of the prayers. One hardly ever sees
such a funeral nowadays, although many thousands of people
attend the funeral of a popular hero, and the whole route is
lined with crowds, who make demonstrations of grief, which
are striking and picturesque when they are delivered by men
with flowing beards and Oriental robes, but seem extravagant,