An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids

An Unprotected Female at the
Pyramids
by Anthony Trollope

In the happy days when we were young, no description conveyed to us
so complete an idea of mysterious reality as that of an Oriental city. We
knew it was actually there, but had such vague notions of its ways and
looks! Let any one remember his early impressions as to Bagdad or
Grand Cairo, and then say if this was not so. It was probably taken
from the "Arabian Nights," and the picture produced was one of strange,
fantastic, luxurious houses; of women who were either very young and
very beautiful, or else very old and very cunning; but in either state
exercising much more influence in life than women in the East do now;
of good-natured, capricious, though sometimes tyrannical monarchs;
and of life full of quaint mysteries, quite unintelligible in every phasis,
and on that account the more picturesque.
And perhaps Grand Cairo has thus filled us with more wonder even
than Bagdad. We have been in a certain manner at home at Bagdad, but
have only visited Grand Cairo occasionally. I know no place which was
to me, in early years, so delightfully mysterious as Grand Cairo.
But the route to India and Australia has changed all this. Men from all
countries going to the East, now pass through Cairo, and its streets and
costumes are no longer strange to us. It has become also a resort for
invalids, or rather for those who fear that they may become invalids if
they remain in a cold climate during the winter months. And thus at
Cairo there is always to be found a considerable population of French,
Americans, and of English. Oriental life is brought home to us,
dreadfully diluted by western customs, and the delights of the "Arabian

Nights" are shorn of half their value. When we have seen a thing it is
never so magnificent to us as when it was half unknown.
It is not much that we deign to learn from these Orientals,--we who
glory in our civilisation. We do not copy their silence or their
abstemiousness, nor that invariable mindfulness of his own personal
dignity which always adheres to a Turk or to an Arab. We chatter as
much at Cairo as elsewhere, and eat as much and drink as much, and
dress ourselves generally in the same old ugly costume. But we do
usually take upon ourselves to wear red caps, and we do ride on
donkeys.
Nor are the visitors from the West to Cairo by any means confined to
the male sex. Ladies are to be seen in the streets quite regardless of the
Mahommedan custom which presumes a veil to be necessary for an
appearance in public; and, to tell the truth, the Mahommedans in
general do not appear to be much shocked by their effrontery.
A quarter of the town has in this way become inhabited by men
wearing coats and waistcoats, and by women who are without veils; but
the English tongue in Egypt finds its centre at Shepheard's Hotel. It is
here that people congregate who are looking out for parties to visit with
them the Upper Nile, and who are generally all smiles and courtesy;
and here also are to be found they who have just returned from this
journey, and who are often in a frame of mind towards their
companions that is much less amiable. From hence, during the winter, a
cortege proceeds almost daily to the pyramids, or to Memphis, or to the
petrified forest, or to the City of the Sun. And then, again, four or five
times a month the house is filled with young aspirants going out to
India, male and female, full of valour and bloom; or with others coming
home, no longer young, no longer aspiring, but laden with children and
grievances.
The party with whom we are at present concerned is not about to
proceed further than the Pyramids, and we shall be able to go with them
and return in one and the same day.
It consisted chiefly of an English family, Mr. and Mrs. Damer, their

daughter, and two young sons;--of these chiefly, because they were the
nucleus to which the others had attached themselves as adherents; they
had originated the journey, and in the whole management of it Mr.
Damer retarded himself as the master.
The adherents were, firstly, M. Delabordeau, a Frenchman, now
resident in Cairo, who had given out that he was in some way
concerned in the canal about to be made between the Mediterranean
and the Red Sea. In discussion on this subject he had become
acquainted with Mr. Damer; and although the latter gentleman, true to
English interests, perpetually declared that the canal would never be
made, and thus