orientalcairocit00sladuoft

300 Oriental Cairo
" Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle.
" Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; even lift them up, ye
everlasting doors ;
and the King of glory shall come in.
" Who is this King of glory ? The Lord of hosts, he is the
King of glory. Selah."
Clouds of incense rolled forth meanwhile, and then a priest
cried out (our schoolmaster friend translating to us) : " Now
rise and stand in the fear of God, to hear the Gospel read by
the venerable Patriarch in Coptic."
It seemed to me a little unfortunate that after this majestic
announcement the venerable Patriarch should not feel equal
to reading it, but should order a Priest, in quite matter-of-
fact tones, to do it for him.
But the scene was a splendid one, for the priest who took
his place was one of those who were wearing those splendid
robes like a.bedazvin sheikh. And as he stood at the reading-
desk between the flickering candles he was silhouetted against
the screen, with its glittering ikons, under that vast crystal
chandelier which bounded our view.
The boys crowded up the pulpit stairs while this was going
on, and while a blind man read something in Arabic from a
blind man's book for a reason which the schoolmaster could
not make clear to me. I hoped that his school was able to
follow him better than I could.
The service was now drawing to an end, and he recommended
us to go on to the Greek church. The Copts and
Greeks, he told us, differ only in one dogma. They are
allowed to pray in each other's churches by their religions.
We drove off as quickly as we could to the Greek cathedral,
which lies behind the Musky on the right-hand side just off
the long street which ends rather picturesquely in the Scentmakers'
bazar. Long before we could get near it, we had
to dismount from our arabeah and proceed on foot past
the stalls where they were selling candles and fireworks for
the celebration. The fireworks were presumably for use outside.
But the Greeks are very indiscreet at Easter time, and
were letting off revolvers in a most alarming way in the street