DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0030
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEII.
19
wore a light-blue robe; and we found him in company
with a number of other persons seated upon a handsome
divan, in a spacious apartment, in the lower end of which
there was, as usual, a marble fountain. He received us
with great civility, and being informed of the motive of
our visit he directed his brother-in-law, and a personage
lately arrived from Morocco, to conduct us into an adjoin-
ing apartment, which afforded a prospect of the prepara-
tions for the festa. After the usual refreshments, of
coffee, pipes, and sweetmeats, as the ceremonies had
commenced, we went out to see them. I did not observe
any persons in Frank dresses, excepting those of our
party; but, although a vast concourse of people had
assembled, we wandered about in every direction without
receiving the slightest molestation or insult. Triumphal
arches ornamented with coloured lamps, and with in-
scriptions taken most probably from the Koran, had been
erected near a high wall on the Esbequier, and also a
variety of tents and booths, where refreshments were
sold consisting of hot dishes prepared with oil, coffee,
sherbet, strong waters, pipes, &c.; but the principal per-
formances took place in a number of pavilions formed
with carpets suspended upon lines, and capable of con-
taining two or three hundred people; they were illumi-
With a few old sycamores, which have a venerable and picturesque ap-
pearance. A broad road, separated by a wide ditch from the ground
in the centre, is left in front of the houses, excepting on the southern
side, where they have the advantage of large gardens, which would bo
extremely delightful if they were irrigated, and kept in good order; but
the glowing ideas of oriental gardens exist only in the imagination,
although those at Shoubrah and at Rhoda are in some degree excep-
tions.
Kleber was assassinated in a garden belonging to an house in the
Esbequier.
19
wore a light-blue robe; and we found him in company
with a number of other persons seated upon a handsome
divan, in a spacious apartment, in the lower end of which
there was, as usual, a marble fountain. He received us
with great civility, and being informed of the motive of
our visit he directed his brother-in-law, and a personage
lately arrived from Morocco, to conduct us into an adjoin-
ing apartment, which afforded a prospect of the prepara-
tions for the festa. After the usual refreshments, of
coffee, pipes, and sweetmeats, as the ceremonies had
commenced, we went out to see them. I did not observe
any persons in Frank dresses, excepting those of our
party; but, although a vast concourse of people had
assembled, we wandered about in every direction without
receiving the slightest molestation or insult. Triumphal
arches ornamented with coloured lamps, and with in-
scriptions taken most probably from the Koran, had been
erected near a high wall on the Esbequier, and also a
variety of tents and booths, where refreshments were
sold consisting of hot dishes prepared with oil, coffee,
sherbet, strong waters, pipes, &c.; but the principal per-
formances took place in a number of pavilions formed
with carpets suspended upon lines, and capable of con-
taining two or three hundred people; they were illumi-
With a few old sycamores, which have a venerable and picturesque ap-
pearance. A broad road, separated by a wide ditch from the ground
in the centre, is left in front of the houses, excepting on the southern
side, where they have the advantage of large gardens, which would bo
extremely delightful if they were irrigated, and kept in good order; but
the glowing ideas of oriental gardens exist only in the imagination,
although those at Shoubrah and at Rhoda are in some degree excep-
tions.
Kleber was assassinated in a garden belonging to an house in the
Esbequier.