DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0059
CAIRO TO BEDRfiSIlATN. 41
A Nile sailor's service expires with the season, so that he
is generally a landsman for about half the year; but the
captain's appointment is permanent. He is expected to
live in Cairo, and is responsible for his dahabeeyah during
the summer months, while it lies up at Bonlak. Ee'is
Hassan had a wife and a comfortable little home on the
outskirts of old Cairo, and was looked upon as a well-to-
do personage among his fellows. He received four pounds
a month all the year round from the owner of the Philas—
a magnificent broad-shouldered Arab of about six foot
nine, with a delightful smile, the manners of a gentleman,
and the rapacity of a Shylock.
Our men treated us to a concert that first night, as we
lay moored under the bank near Bedreshayn. Being told
that it was customary to provide musical instruments, we
had given them leave to buy a tar and darabukkeh before
starting. The tar, or tambourine, was pretty enough, being
made of rosewood inlaid with mother-of-pearl; but a more
barbarous affair than the darabukkeh was surely never con-
structed. This primitive drum is about a foot and a half
in length, funnel-shaped, molded of sun-dried clay like
the kullehs, and covered over the top with strained parch-
ment. It is held under the left arm and played like atom-
torn with the fingers of the right hand; and it weighs
about four pounds. We would willingly have added a
double pipe or a cocoanut fiddle* to the strength of the band
but none of our men could play them. The tar aud dara-
bukkeh, however, answered the purpose well enough, and
were perhaps better suited to their strange singing than
more tuneful instruments.
We had just finished dinner when they began. First
came a prolonged wail that swelled, and sank, and swelled
again, and at last died away. This was the principal singer
leading off with the keynote. The next followed suit on
the third of the key; and finally all united in one long,
shrill, descending cry, like a yawn, or a howl, or a combi-
nation of both. This, twice repeated, preluded their per-
formance and worked them up, apparently, to the necessary
pitch of musical enthusiasm. The primo tenore then led
°II in a quavering roulade, at the end of which he slid into
a melancholy chant, to which the rest sang chorus. At the
---------------------------------------------------------------r
*Arabic—Kemengeh.
A Nile sailor's service expires with the season, so that he
is generally a landsman for about half the year; but the
captain's appointment is permanent. He is expected to
live in Cairo, and is responsible for his dahabeeyah during
the summer months, while it lies up at Bonlak. Ee'is
Hassan had a wife and a comfortable little home on the
outskirts of old Cairo, and was looked upon as a well-to-
do personage among his fellows. He received four pounds
a month all the year round from the owner of the Philas—
a magnificent broad-shouldered Arab of about six foot
nine, with a delightful smile, the manners of a gentleman,
and the rapacity of a Shylock.
Our men treated us to a concert that first night, as we
lay moored under the bank near Bedreshayn. Being told
that it was customary to provide musical instruments, we
had given them leave to buy a tar and darabukkeh before
starting. The tar, or tambourine, was pretty enough, being
made of rosewood inlaid with mother-of-pearl; but a more
barbarous affair than the darabukkeh was surely never con-
structed. This primitive drum is about a foot and a half
in length, funnel-shaped, molded of sun-dried clay like
the kullehs, and covered over the top with strained parch-
ment. It is held under the left arm and played like atom-
torn with the fingers of the right hand; and it weighs
about four pounds. We would willingly have added a
double pipe or a cocoanut fiddle* to the strength of the band
but none of our men could play them. The tar aud dara-
bukkeh, however, answered the purpose well enough, and
were perhaps better suited to their strange singing than
more tuneful instruments.
We had just finished dinner when they began. First
came a prolonged wail that swelled, and sank, and swelled
again, and at last died away. This was the principal singer
leading off with the keynote. The next followed suit on
the third of the key; and finally all united in one long,
shrill, descending cry, like a yawn, or a howl, or a combi-
nation of both. This, twice repeated, preluded their per-
formance and worked them up, apparently, to the necessary
pitch of musical enthusiasm. The primo tenore then led
°II in a quavering roulade, at the end of which he slid into
a melancholy chant, to which the rest sang chorus. At the
---------------------------------------------------------------r
*Arabic—Kemengeh.