DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0056
CAIRO,
49
Qiitang and ape. Prices vary from twenty to a
hundred dollars ; but the sick, as carrying within
them the seeds of probable death, are coolly offered
for almost nothing, as so much damaged merchan-
dise which the seller is anxious to dispose of be-
fore it becomes utterly worthless on his hands,
There was one, an Abyssinian, who had mind as
well as beauty in her face; she was dressed in
silk, and wore ornaments of gold and shells, and
called me as I passed, and peeped from behind a
curtain, smiling and coquetting, and wept and
pouted when I went away ; and she thrust out her
tongue, to show me that she was not like those I
had just been looking at, but that her young blood
ran pure and healthy in her veins.
Cairo is surrounded by a wall; the sands of the
desert approach it on every side, and every gate,
except that of Boulac, opens to a sandy waste.
Passing out by the Victory Gate, the contrast be-
tween light and darkness is not greater than be-
tween the crowded streets and the stillness of the
desert, separated from them only by a wall. Im-
mediately without commences the great burial-
place of the city. Among thousands and tens of
thousands of Mussulmans' headstones, I searched in
vain for the tomb of the lamented Burckhardt; there
is no mark to distinguish the grave of the enterpri-
sing traveller from that of an Arabian camel-dri-
ver. At a short distance from the gate are the
tombs of the califs, large and beautiful buildings,
monuments of the taste and skill of the Saracens.
VOL. I.-E
49
Qiitang and ape. Prices vary from twenty to a
hundred dollars ; but the sick, as carrying within
them the seeds of probable death, are coolly offered
for almost nothing, as so much damaged merchan-
dise which the seller is anxious to dispose of be-
fore it becomes utterly worthless on his hands,
There was one, an Abyssinian, who had mind as
well as beauty in her face; she was dressed in
silk, and wore ornaments of gold and shells, and
called me as I passed, and peeped from behind a
curtain, smiling and coquetting, and wept and
pouted when I went away ; and she thrust out her
tongue, to show me that she was not like those I
had just been looking at, but that her young blood
ran pure and healthy in her veins.
Cairo is surrounded by a wall; the sands of the
desert approach it on every side, and every gate,
except that of Boulac, opens to a sandy waste.
Passing out by the Victory Gate, the contrast be-
tween light and darkness is not greater than be-
tween the crowded streets and the stillness of the
desert, separated from them only by a wall. Im-
mediately without commences the great burial-
place of the city. Among thousands and tens of
thousands of Mussulmans' headstones, I searched in
vain for the tomb of the lamented Burckhardt; there
is no mark to distinguish the grave of the enterpri-
sing traveller from that of an Arabian camel-dri-
ver. At a short distance from the gate are the
tombs of the califs, large and beautiful buildings,
monuments of the taste and skill of the Saracens.
VOL. I.-E