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Street Life in Cairo 47
that very instant to the Siwa Oasis or the Peninsula of
Sinai, both of which mean journeys for weeks on camels.
Of course you do not wish to come to a decision of such
magnitude while you are only on your way to buy a news-
paper, so you mutter some feeble excuse about going
to-morrow perhaps, or something like that, and pass on to
the pavement. There is an instant rush of boys for you,
all waving papers at you. " You buy Egypt, Egy'ptiati
Gazette, Egyptian Stayidard, Spinkiss, good paper for Cairo
nice one ? Daily Mail comes from London— yes, nice. Paris
New York Herald, Mr. American?" You buy a paper— papers
are cheap in Egypt, a halfpenny one only costs a penny
farthing— and having one in your hand secures you the right
to breathe for a minute or two before the postcard-sellers
have organised their campaign. The Cairo postcards are
fascinating. But the same postcards cost you anything
from three piastres to six piastres a dozen, according to
your ignorance. I never saw more charming coloured postcards
; there is one of the tombs of the Caliphs which
makes you believe that the Caliphs are still going, and that
all the talk about the Khedive and the British Occupation
is mere moonshine. The Egyptian sunset is introduced into
nearly all of them with the very best effect. Most people
suffer from postcard fever badly for about a week. I never
got over it.
Every postcard-dealer tries to thrust a collection into
your hands. He wants to know how many dozen you'll take,
offering them at twice the price he means to accept. If you
could have one dealer at once in a quiet corner you might
enjoy the inspection, but you are the victim of trade rival-
ries, in which there is one advantage—that the rivals are
perfectly shameless about cutting down each other's prices.
You begin to think that the dragomans, clean, handsome
men, with charming manners and robes of silk, or spotless
white with fine black cloaks, are very nice, though they do
want to hurry you to the uttermost ends of Egypt.
The boys who attack you with " I say matchess " are very
persistent. They consider that every foreigner ought to be
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