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THE
CHAPTER III
The Humours of the Esbekiya
Esbekiya, which lends its name to doubtful pro-
ceedings, is believed to be a garden. It certainly has
railings, which are among the accepted features of a garden,
and you pay to go into it, the pcnny-farthing small piastre.
Also there are some trees, some grass, and some birds—crows
and others. Here the resemblance ends except that nursemaids
use it.
Why it is not a garden in a land where anything will
grow with a little water (which they have on the spot)
Heaven knows— perhaps if Cairo had a municipality ' its
public gardens would have flowers. But the Law of Capitu-
lations, or the religious law of the Mohammedans, or
something, stands in the way of there being a Municipality,
so the Esbekiya instead of being a glorious tangle of
tropical vegetation, like the gardens at the Delta Barrage, is
like the dullest bit of Hyde Park—railings and all. The
railings are the most popular part of it, as will be seen
hereafter.
Not so many years ago it was a birkct, which means
that it was a pool of stagnant water, whenever the Nile was
high enough to soak into it. At other times it was a sort
of common, where they held popular festivals like the Birth-
da}' of the Prophet. Traces of its birkct days reinain in
a meandering ditch, which serves to collect mosquitoes, and to
show that it is not the water difficulty which prevents the
' The
Cairo Municipality may be 2^ fait accompli hy llie time that these words
see the light.
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