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The Holy Carpet and Celebration of Bairam 239
and other necessaries (to the perverse native mind) wandered
round with the connivance of the police. The bands did not
play ; natives do not need to be amused while they are waiting
; they spend most of every day in waiting ; Arabs would
take a prize for waiting anywhere.
A place had been roped off for the carriages of foreigners
and unofficial Egyptian notables opposite the Khedivial
pavilion. The official Egyptian notables stood in front of the
pavilion, and there was a sort of tribune for the Diplomatic
Corps, who most of them had, or pretended to have, left Cairo.
They had seen too much of the MaJinial.
The soldiers, horse, foot, and artillery, had all arrived ; the
cavalry very smart in their light blue, the staff conspicuous in
white and gold ; the steps of the pavilion were getting lined
with court uniforms and gay sashes. The pavilion was a
three-arched mak'ad, like one sees in the court of a great
Arab palace ; it was filled with chairs occupied by dignitaries,
such as Pashas with gold bands round their turbans, in the
midst of whom, clad in his robes of the sacred green, was the
Sheikh-el-Bekri, the Descendant of the Prophet.
The Khedive was not to be present ; he had grown tired of
waiting for the Ma/mial ; he had something which he wished
to do in Alexandria ; and various things had conspired to
postpone the arrival of the Carpet until long after its usual
time. The pilgrims were suspected of bringing back cholera,
and the wild Mohammedans of Arabia had no respect for the
sanctity of the pilgrimage, and had exposed it to incessant
skirmishes. So when the band played the Egyptian Anthem
—no more like the original than jugged hare—Egyptian
bands have no idea of music—and the guns thundered out,
and the Army stood at the salute, it was only the Prime
Minister driving up in a green sash to take the Khedive's
place.
This was at nine-fifteen, a quarter of an hour after the
Mahmal ought to have made its appearance, and almost
immediately afterwards a burst of Oriental kettle-drums and
hautboys from the entrance of the square proclaimed taht
the procession was approaching. As it came into sight the