DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14563#0322
284
EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT.
main strength against wind and tide. Nobody went aloft
in that same innocent apparel to clew up the sail, making
every personal consideration bend to the crisis of the boat.
After all, Nile sailors are the sailors for the Nile ; and it
was not without emotion that, dropping our last huclcshish
into the hands of our crew, we bade them farewell, and
once more donkeyed along beneath the acacias to the gates
of Cairo the Magnificent.
The name Cairo is a curious illustration of the changes
that occur in proper names. Lepsius gives this account of
it: " The town is never called any thing by the Arabs now,
but Masr, and the country the same ; that is the old
Semitic name, which is more easily pronounced by us in
the dual termination, Mis'raim. It was only in the tenth
century, when the present city was founded, that the mod-
ern Masr, by the addition el Qdhireh, that is 'the victo-
rious,' was distinguished from the earlier Masr el Atiqeh,
the present Old Cairo. The Italians then omitted the h,
which they could not pronounce, mistook the Arabic article
el for their masculine il, and thus by its termination, also,
stamped the whole word as masculine. Hence, the French
La Caire, and our Cairo." *
Welcome, indeed, was the sight of " the Magnificent," on
our return from the Upper Nile, and thrice welcome was
the intelligence we there received from home. We devot-
ed in all a fortnight to the Egyptian capital. This was
none too much. I have seen no city which, in the winter
and spring, has a climate so delicious, and an air so beauti-
ful, or which, in all its phases, presents to the visitor so
many novelties and attractions. One never tires 6f stroll-
ing under the acacias or in the flower gardens of the Usbe-
ke'eh, of witnessing the game of the gereet, or throwing the
* Bolin, Letters, p. 44.
EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT.
main strength against wind and tide. Nobody went aloft
in that same innocent apparel to clew up the sail, making
every personal consideration bend to the crisis of the boat.
After all, Nile sailors are the sailors for the Nile ; and it
was not without emotion that, dropping our last huclcshish
into the hands of our crew, we bade them farewell, and
once more donkeyed along beneath the acacias to the gates
of Cairo the Magnificent.
The name Cairo is a curious illustration of the changes
that occur in proper names. Lepsius gives this account of
it: " The town is never called any thing by the Arabs now,
but Masr, and the country the same ; that is the old
Semitic name, which is more easily pronounced by us in
the dual termination, Mis'raim. It was only in the tenth
century, when the present city was founded, that the mod-
ern Masr, by the addition el Qdhireh, that is 'the victo-
rious,' was distinguished from the earlier Masr el Atiqeh,
the present Old Cairo. The Italians then omitted the h,
which they could not pronounce, mistook the Arabic article
el for their masculine il, and thus by its termination, also,
stamped the whole word as masculine. Hence, the French
La Caire, and our Cairo." *
Welcome, indeed, was the sight of " the Magnificent," on
our return from the Upper Nile, and thrice welcome was
the intelligence we there received from home. We devot-
ed in all a fortnight to the Egyptian capital. This was
none too much. I have seen no city which, in the winter
and spring, has a climate so delicious, and an air so beauti-
ful, or which, in all its phases, presents to the visitor so
many novelties and attractions. One never tires 6f stroll-
ing under the acacias or in the flower gardens of the Usbe-
ke'eh, of witnessing the game of the gereet, or throwing the
* Bolin, Letters, p. 44.