CHAPTER XVIII—­CAIRO AND THE PLAGUE {30}

Cairo and plague!  During the whole time of my stay the plague was so master of the city, and showed itself so staringly in every street and every alley, that I can’t now affect to dissociate the two ideas.

When coming from the Desert I rode through a village which lies near to the city on the eastern side, there approached me with busy face and earnest gestures a personage in the Turkish dress.  His long flowing beard gave him rather a majestic look, but his briskness of manner, and his visible anxiety to accost me, seemed strange in an Oriental.  The man in fact was French, or of French origin, and his object was to warn me of the plague, and prevent me from entering the city.

“Arretez-vous, monsieur, je vous en prie—­arretez-vous; il ne faut pas entrer dans la ville; la peste y regne partout.”

“Oui, je sais,{31} mais—­”

“Mais monsieur, je dis la peste—­la peste; c’est de la peste, qu’il est question.”

“Oui, je sais, mais—­”

“Mais monsieur, je dis encore la peste—­la peste. Je vous conjure de ne pas entrer dans la ville—­vous seriez dans une ville empestee.”

“Oui, je sais, mais—­”

“Mais monsieur, je dois donc vous avertir tout bonnement que si vous entrez dans la ville, vous serez—­enfin vous serez COMPROMIS!” {32}

“Oui, je sais, mais—­”

The Frenchman was at last convinced that it was vain to reason with a mere Englishman, who could not understand what it was to be “compromised.”  I thanked him most sincerely for his kindly meant warning; in hot countries it is very unusual indeed for a man to go out in the glare of the sun and give free advice to a stranger.

When I arrived at Cairo I summoned Osman Effendi, who was, as I knew, the owner of several houses, and would be able to provide me with apartments.  He had no difficulty in doing this, for there was not one European traveller in Cairo besides myself.  Poor Osman! he met me with a sorrowful countenance, for the fear of the plague sat heavily on his soul.  He seemed as if he felt that he was doing wrong in lending me a resting-place, and he betrayed such a listlessness about temporal matters, as one might look for in a man who believed that his days were numbered.  He caught me too soon after my arrival coming out from the public baths, {33} and from that time forward he was sadly afraid of me, for he shared the opinions of Europeans with respect to the effect of contagion.