Peeps at Many Lands: Egypt | Page 5

they are sailing on the canals which intersect the
country in all directions, and by means of thousands of water-wheels
and pumps supply the land with water. Though the Nile overflows its
banks, its inundation does not cover the whole land; so great arterial
canals which are filled at high Nile have been constructed throughout
the country. From these, smaller canals branch right and left, carrying
the water to the furthest corners of the land, while such boundary marks
as exist to separate different estates or farms usually take the form of a
watercourse.
These canal banks form the highways of the country, and are thronged
by travellers and laden camels, while large flocks of sheep and goats
are herded along their sloping sides. Every here and there are little
enclosures, spread with clean straw or mats, and surrounded by a fence
of cornstalks or low walls of mud. These are the holy places where in
the intervals of work the devout Moslem may say his prayers; and,
often bowered by shady trees, a whitewashed dome marks the
burial-place of some saint or village notable.
The scenery of the delta, though flat, is luxuriant; for Mohammed Ali
not only introduced cotton into Egypt, but compelled the people to
plant trees, so that the landscape is varied by large groves of date-palms,
and the sycamores and other trees which surround the villages and give

shade to the paths and canal banks. It is a pastoral land, luxuriantly
green; and how beautiful it is as the night falls, and the last of the
sunset lingers in the dew-laden air, wreathed with the smoke of many
fires; and, as the stars one by one appear in the darkening sky, and the
labour of the field ceases, the lowing cattle wend their slow ways
toward the villages and the bull-frogs in their thousands raise their
evensong. No scenery in the world has, to my mind, such mellow and
serene beauty as these farm-lands of Lower Egypt, and in a later
chapter I will tell you more about them, and of the simple people whose
life is spent in the fields.
CHAPTER III
CAIRO--I
Usually its capital may be taken as typical of its country; but in Egypt
this is not so. Cairo is essentially different from anything else in Egypt,
not only in its buildings and architecture, but in the type and mode of
life of its inhabitants.
How shall I give you any real idea of a city which is often considered to
be the most beautiful Oriental capital in the world, as it is certainly one
of the most interesting? From a distance, looking across the fields of
Shoubra,[2] it is very beautiful, especially at sunset, when beyond the
dark green foliage of the sycamore and cypress trees which rise above
the orange groves, the domes and minarets of the native quarter gleam
golden in the sunlight. Behind is the citadel, crowned by Mohammed
Ali's tomb-mosque of white marble, whose tall twin minarets seem to
tower above the rosy-tinted heights of the Mokattam Hills. Even here
the noise of the city reaches you in a subdued hum, for Cairo is not
only a large city, but it is densely populated, and contains nearly a
twelfth part of the whole population of Egypt. Away towards the sunset
the pyramids stand out clearly against the glowing sky, and the tall
masts and sails of the Nile boats reach high above the palm groves and
buildings which screen the river from view.
[Footnote 2: A distant suburb of Cairo.]

Cairo consists of two distinct and widely different parts, the Esbikiyeh
and Ismailieh quarters of the west end, built for and almost entirely
occupied by Europeans, and the purely native town, whose streets and
bazaars, mosques and palaces, have remained practically unchanged for
centuries.
At one time the European quarters were in many ways charming,
though too much like some fashionable continental town to be
altogether picturesque; but of late years the shady avenues and gardens
of the west end have entirely disappeared to make way for streets of
commercial buildings, while the new districts of Kasr-el-Dubara and
Ghezireh have arisen to house the well-to-do. Our interest in Cairo,
therefore, is centred in the native quarters, where miles of streets and
alleys, rich in Arabesque buildings, are untouched except by the
mellowing hand of Time.
It is difficult at first to form any true idea of native Cairo; its life is so
varied and its interests so diverse that the new-comer is bewildered.
Types of many races, clad in strange Eastern costumes, crowd the
narrow streets, which are overlooked by many beautiful buildings
whose dark shadows lend additional glory to the sunlight. Richly
carved doorways give glimpses of cool courts and gardens within the
houses, while awnings of