This was done readily enough, for Asiatics, like Europeans,
enjoy the fine air of the desert after the rank atmosphere
of towns and cities. If the successor of His
Highness does not follow the usual Oriental method
of wiping away all vestiges of the predecessor, except
his grave, there will be, at no distant period, a
second Cairo on the site of the Abbasiyah. [FN#9]
One of our wants is a history of the bell and its succedanai.
Strict Moslems have an aversion to all modifications
of this instrument, striking clocks, gongs, &c., because
they were considered by the Prophet peculiar to the
devotions of Christians. He, therefore, instituted
the Azan, or call to prayer, and his followers still
clap their hands when we should ring for a servant.
The symbolical meaning of the bell, as shown in the
sistrum of Isis, seems to be the movement and mixture
of the elements, which is denoted by clattering noise.
“Hence,” observes a learned antiquary,
“the ringing of bells and clattering of plates
of metal were used in all lustrations, sacrifices,
&c.” We find them amongst the Jews, worn
by the high priest; the Greeks attached them to images
of Priapus, and the Buddhists of Thibet still use
them in their worship, as do the Catholics of Rome
when elevating the Host. [FN#10] Al-Ghada is the
early dinner: Al-Asha, the supper, eaten shortly
after sunset. (See Lane’s Modern Egyptians, Chap.
5.) [FN#11] Extra prayers repeated in the month of
Ramazan. (Lane, Chap. 25, “Tarawih.”)
They take about an hour, consisting of 23 prostrations,
with the Salam (or blessing on the Prophet) after every
second prostration. [FN#12] The Shisha, or Egyptian
and Syrian water-pipe, is too well known to require
any description. It is filled with a kind of tobacco
called Tumbak, for which see Chap. 4 of this Volume.
[FN#13] Strangers often wonder to see a kind of cemetery
let into a dwelling-house in a crowded street.
The reason is, that some obstinate saint has insisted
upon being buried there, by the simple process of
weighing so heavily in his bier, that the bearers have
been obliged to place him on the pavement. Of
course, no good Moslem would object to have his ground
floor occupied by the corpse of a holy man. The
reader will not forget, that in Europe statues have
the whims which dead bodies exhibit in Egypt.
So, according to the Abbe Marche, the little statue
of Our Lady, lately found in the forest of Pennacom,
“became, notwithstanding her small size, heavy
as a mountain, and would not consent to be removed
by any one but the chaplain of the chateau.”
[FN#14] Europeans compare “Kara Gyuz” to
our Chinese shadows. He is the Turkish “Punch,”
and his pleasantries may remind the traveller of what
he has read concerning the Mines and Fescennine performances
of the Romans. On more than one occasion, Kara
Gyuz has been reported to the police for scandalously
jibing and deriding consuls, Frank merchants, and
even Turkish dignitaries. [FN#15] Mohammed Ali drained
and planted the Azbakiyah, which, before his day,