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Appendix II 357
country has more to offer to the wearied Londoner ;
nowhere
is Hfe more restful than on the bosom of the Nile, among the
palms and temples of Luxor, or in Philcc's enchanted isle.
The whole atmosphere breathes tranquil contentment. It is
not merely the quest of the sun that takes us to Egypt ;
total change of scene, of ideas, of manners, attracts us.
the
We
are glad to shake off our stereotyped habits and conventions
or at least to see how others can do without them ; and this
it is, as much as its picturesque confusion and its romantic
associations, which lends Cairo its imperishable charm.
" For Cairo is still to a great degree the city of the Arabian
Nights. Wc can still shut our eyes to the hotels and
restaurants, the dusty grass-plots and villas of the European
quarter, and turn away to wander in the labyrinth of narrow
lanes which intersect the old parts of the city, just as they
did in the days of the Mamluk Sultans. And as we thread
the winding alleys, where this streak of sky marks the narrow
space between the lattice-w indows of the overhanging stories,
and dive under a camel here, or retreat into a narrow recess
there, to escape destruction under the feet of the apparently
impassable crowd of beasts of burden, we may fancy ourselves
in the gateway of Aly of Cairo, and in that stall round the
corner we may perhaps find the immortal Barber Brothers
within the grated lattice over the way, the three Royal
Mendicants may at this moment be entertaining the Portress
and her fair sisters with the history of their calamities ; and
if we wait till night we may see the good Harun Er-Rashid
(newly arrived from Baghd&d) stealthily pursuing his midnight
rambles, with Ja'far at his heels, and black Mesurzx
clearing the way. That old man sitting in his cupboard of a
shop may be able to exchange ' new lamps for old,' in the
manner of Aladdin's Moorish sorcerer. A few streets away
from the European quarter, it is easy to dream that we are
acting a part in the veracious histories of the Thousand and
One Nights— which do, in fact, describe Cairo and its people
as they were in the fourteenth century. In its very dilapidation
the city helps the illusion. Its ruined houses, which no
one thinks of repairing, are full of the superstitious sentiment
;