The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Fourth. Thomas Wallace Knox
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and giving it the appearance of the Occident instead of the Orient. In place of the narrow and sometimes crooked streets of the East he caused broad avenues to be laid out and tall buildings to be erected. The new city was to stand side by side with the old one, and for a time it seemed as though the Eastern characteristics of Cairo would be blotted out. But the money to carry on the improvements could not be had, and the new part of Cairo has an unhappy and half desolate appearance. The natives preferred the old ways, and there was not a sufficient influx of foreigners to populate the new city. It had grown rapidly for a few years, but suddenly its growth was suspended, and here it has been ever since."
They passed several public and private buildings that would have done honor to any European city, and if it had not been for the natives walking in the streets, riding on donkeys, or now and then conducting a stately camel, they might easily have believed themselves far away from Egypt. Suddenly the scene changed; they passed the new theatre, where Ismail Pacha delighted to listen to European operas performed by European companies; they crossed the triangle known as the Square of Ibrahim Pacha, and containing a bronze statue of that fiery ruler; and by a transition like that of the change in a fairy spectacle, they were in one of the crowded and shaded streets of the City of the Caliphs. They had entered the "Mooskee," one of the widest and most frequented streets of the part of Cairo that has not succumbed to Western innovations, and retains enough of its Eastern character to remain unpaved.
The speed of their carriage was reduced, and a boy who had been riding at the side of the driver jumped down, and ran ahead shouting to clear the way. The boys thought they were travelling in fine style to have a footman to precede them, but the Doctor told them it was the custom of the country to have a runner, called a "syce," to go before every carriage, and clear the way for it. The syce carried a stick as the badge of his office, and when he was in the employ of an official he had no hesitation in striking right and left among those who were in the way. High officials and other dignitaries employed two of these runners, who kept step side by side, and were generally noticeable by the neatness of their dress. No matter how fast the horses go the syce will keep ahead of them, and he does not seem at all fatigued after a run that would take the breath out of an American.
They met other carriages; they met camels and donkeys with riders on their backs, or bearing burdens of merchandise, and they passed through crowds of people, in which there were many natives and some Europeans. The balconies of the houses projected over the street, and in some places almost excluded the sunlight, while their windows were so arranged that a person within was entirely concealed from the view of those without. The boys observed that the carving on the windows revealed a vast amount of patience on the part of the workmen that executed it, and they wondered if all the windows of Cairo were like those they were passing. Some of the walls were cracked and broken, as though threatening to fall; but the windows appeared so firmly fixed in their places that they would stay where they were when the rest of the building had tumbled.
While they were engrossed with the strange sights and sounds around them, the carriage halted at the head of a narrow lane, and our three friends descended to walk to the hotel.
Chapter IV.
STREET SCENES IN CAIRO.
Frank and Fred were up in good season on the morning after their arrival in Cairo. While waiting for breakfast they read the description of the city, and familiarized themselves with some of the most important points of its history, which they afterward wrote down to make sure of remembering them. Here is what they found:
"The city known as 'Cairo' (Ky-ro) to Europeans is called Masr-el-Kaherah by the Arabs, the word Kaherah meaning 'victorious.' It was founded about the end of the tenth century by a Moslem general who had been sent from Tunis to invade Egypt; he signalled his victory by building a city not far from Fostat; the latter is called Masr-el-Ateekah, or Old Cairo, and was formerly the capital; but the new city grew so fast that it became the capital very soon after it was founded. It has gone through a good many sieges, and had a prominent place in the history of the Crusades; the great Moslem conqueror, Yoosef Salah-ed-Deen (known to us as Saladin), built strong walls around Cairo, and founded the citadel on the hill at the southern end. The city is about two miles broad by three in length, and stands on a plain overlooked by the range of the Mokattam Hills; the new quarter of Ismaileeyah was recently added, and when that is included, the Cairo of to-day will be nearly twice the extent of the city of fifty years ago. Cairo was the city of the Caliphs, or Moslem rulers, down to 1517; from that time till it was captured by the French, in 1798, it was the chief city of the Turkish province of Egypt. The French held it three years, when it was captured by the Turks and English; ten years later Mohammed Ali became an almost independent ruler of the country, and from his time to the present Egypt has been ruled by his family, who pay an annual tribute to Turkey, and are required to do in certain things as they are ordered by the Sultan. Cairo is still the capital of Egypt; the Viceroy or Khedive lives there except during the hottest part of summer, when he goes to Alexandria, where he has a palace.
"The word 'Khedive' comes from the Persian language, and means 'ruler' or 'prince.' It was adopted by Ismail Pacha, and continued by his successor; the English word which is nearest in meaning to Khedive is 'Viceroy,' and the head of the Egyptian government is generally called the Viceroy by Europeans. He should be addressed as 'Your Highness.'
"Some of the most interesting stories of the 'Arabian Nights' Entertainments' are laid in Cairo, and the reader of those anecdotes will learn from them a great deal of the manners of the times when they were written. We are told that the translation by Edward William Lane is the best. Lane was an Englishman, who was a long time in Cairo. He learned the language of the people, wore their dress, and lived among them, and he wrote a book called 'The Modern Egyptians,' which describes the manners and customs of the inhabitants of Cairo better than any other work. When we are in doubt concerning anything, we shall consult 'The Modern Egyptians' for what we want. Lane's translation of the 'Arabian Nights' occupied several years of his time, and was mostly made while he lived in Cairo. We have read some of these stories, and find them very interesting, and often envy Aladdin, with his wonderful lamp and his magic couch, and would very much like to sit down with Sinbad the Sailor and listen to the account of his adventures.
"There are so many things in Cairo which we want to see that we will not try to make out a list in advance. We have engaged a guide to show us around, and shall trust to him for a day or two. At the end of that time we hope to know something about the city, and be able to go around alone."
Every evening, while the boys were in Cairo, was devoted to the journal of their experiences during the day. They have allowed us to copy from it, and we can thus find out where they went and what they did. As there were so many things to describe the labor was divided, and while Frank was busy over one thing, Fred occupied himself with another. Let us see what they did:
"It is the custom to ride on donkeys when going about Cairo, as many of the streets are so narrow that you cannot pass through them with carriages. We had the best we could secure, and very nice they were under the saddle, but we soon learned that it required some skill to ride them. The guide rode ahead, and we noticed that he did not put his feet in the stirrups as we did; while we were wondering