DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0038
20 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE,
whole attention. Looking down upon it from this eleva-
tion, it is as easy to believe that Cairo contains four hun-
dred mosques, as it is to stand on the brow of the Pincio
and believe in the three hundred and sixty-five churches
of modern Rome.
As we came away, they showed us the place in which the
Memlook nobles, four hundred and seventy* in number,
were shot down like mad-dogs in a trap, that fatal first of
March, A.D. 1811. We saw the upper gate which was shut
behind them as they came out from the presence of the
pasha, and the lower gate which was shut before them to
prevent their egress. The walls of the narrow roadway in
which the slaughter was done are said to be pitted with
bullet marks; but we would not look for them.
I have already said that I do not very distinctly re-
member the order of our sight-seeing in Cairo, for the
reason that we saw some places before we went up the
river, some after we came back, and some (as for instance
the museum at Boulak) both before and after, and indeed
as often as possible. But I am at least quite certain that
we witnessed a performance of howling dervishes, and the
departure of the caravan for Mecca, before starting.
Of all the things that people do by way of pleasure, the
pursuit of a procession is surely one of the most wearisome.
They generally go a long way to see it; they wait a weary
time; it is always late; and when at length it does come, it
is over in a few minutes. The present pageant fulfilled all
these conditions in a superlative degree. Wo breakfasted
uncomfortably early, started soon after half-past seven, and
had taken up our position outside the Bab en-Nasr, on the
way to the desert, by half-past eight. Here we sat for
nearly three hours, exposed to clouds of dust and a burning
sun, with nothing to do but to watch the crowd and wait
patiently. All Shepheard's Hotel were there, and every
stranger in Cairo; and we all had smart open carriages
drawn by miserable screws and driven by bare-legged Arabs.
These Arabs, by the way, are excellent whips, and the
* One only is said to have escaped—a certain Emin Bey, who leaped
his horse over a gap in the wall, alighted safely in the piazza below,
and galloped away into the desert. The place of this famous leap
continued to be shown for many years, but there are no gaps in the
wall now, the citadel being the only place in Cairo which is kept in
thorough repair.
whole attention. Looking down upon it from this eleva-
tion, it is as easy to believe that Cairo contains four hun-
dred mosques, as it is to stand on the brow of the Pincio
and believe in the three hundred and sixty-five churches
of modern Rome.
As we came away, they showed us the place in which the
Memlook nobles, four hundred and seventy* in number,
were shot down like mad-dogs in a trap, that fatal first of
March, A.D. 1811. We saw the upper gate which was shut
behind them as they came out from the presence of the
pasha, and the lower gate which was shut before them to
prevent their egress. The walls of the narrow roadway in
which the slaughter was done are said to be pitted with
bullet marks; but we would not look for them.
I have already said that I do not very distinctly re-
member the order of our sight-seeing in Cairo, for the
reason that we saw some places before we went up the
river, some after we came back, and some (as for instance
the museum at Boulak) both before and after, and indeed
as often as possible. But I am at least quite certain that
we witnessed a performance of howling dervishes, and the
departure of the caravan for Mecca, before starting.
Of all the things that people do by way of pleasure, the
pursuit of a procession is surely one of the most wearisome.
They generally go a long way to see it; they wait a weary
time; it is always late; and when at length it does come, it
is over in a few minutes. The present pageant fulfilled all
these conditions in a superlative degree. Wo breakfasted
uncomfortably early, started soon after half-past seven, and
had taken up our position outside the Bab en-Nasr, on the
way to the desert, by half-past eight. Here we sat for
nearly three hours, exposed to clouds of dust and a burning
sun, with nothing to do but to watch the crowd and wait
patiently. All Shepheard's Hotel were there, and every
stranger in Cairo; and we all had smart open carriages
drawn by miserable screws and driven by bare-legged Arabs.
These Arabs, by the way, are excellent whips, and the
* One only is said to have escaped—a certain Emin Bey, who leaped
his horse over a gap in the wall, alighted safely in the piazza below,
and galloped away into the desert. The place of this famous leap
continued to be shown for many years, but there are no gaps in the
wall now, the citadel being the only place in Cairo which is kept in
thorough repair.