Chapter XVII

Tombs at Benihassan — Boat aground — Cairo — The Esbekya — Abbas Pasha and the Porte — The Census — Cairene ladies — Their evening parties — Palaces of the Pasha — The Overland Route — An American — Mehemet Ali’s Palace.

At sun-rise we made a start, and so did a stiff breeze from the north, which presently brought us on a bank, where there were already two or three rafts from Keneh, laden with pottery. These are constructed of palm branches resting upon hundreds of large jars fastened together; on them are placed a similar layer of jars—above which a kind of canopy is raised to shelter the men. The voyage takes ninety days from Keneh to Cairo.

We had passed Manfaloot with its numerous fields of sugar cane during the night, and at three o’clock a large factory, where sugar is refined. For miles round, sugar canes grow in extraordinary profusion, the land being beautifully irrigated by a waterpump worked by steam, twenty miles up the stream.

At half-past seven we arrived at Benihassan. The sepulchre is situated at the base of a mountain, formed of regular steps or strata. There are, I believe, thirty tombs; but we satisfied ourselves with an inspection of the three most important ones. They are very similar, consisting of a portico of two fluted columns, and a large square room in the interior, with four or six columns of an extremely simple and elegant character, supporting an arched roof, painted red and white, chess-board fashion. The walls are coloured and covered with wonderful paintings, having such subjects as a galley sailing on the Nile, in the transparent water of which fishes are swimming, and a hippopotamus disporting—a series of wrestlers, in fifty different postures—then came flax-dressers and cloth manufacturers, glass-blowers and ironmongers—a barber operating on a young man, apparently for the first time, for the indications of a beard are very faint—a doctor bleeding an unfortunate wretch who appears to have drank too much nectar over night—men and women being bastinadoed—dwarfs in the trains of noble Egyptians: an example of that patronage of littleness which became fashionable in Europe two thousand years later—sportsmen catching ibex with a noose, and gazelles just caught by grey-hounds—herds tended by cripples, having but one leg or one arm, or exhibiting a withered and useless limb, reminding one of the verse in Genesis that describes every shepherd as an abomination to the Egyptians.

Our brilliant torch illumined these scenes splendidly; indeed, we beheld them to much greater advantage than we could have done by day: the door then giving the only light by which they can be seen. As we returned into the bright moonlight, the sand looked so much like snow, that the night air could scarcely dispel the illusion.

We passed Minieh in the night, and then a breeze sprung up, that shortly turned to a gale, which so alarmed our Reis, that he wanted to stop at Colosaneh, which we were closely approaching. This village being famous for lentils, we were suspicious that he thought more of soup than of wind, and were for proceeding, when the gusts came on sharper, and therefore we agreed to anchor. Unfortunately we were not quite quick enough, a gust drove us on a bank in the very middle of the stream, and the boat swung round in the wind. The crew soon got us off, and we were presently moored to the bank where we were glad enough to find ourselves in safety: not the less satisfied were we when we beheld a boat fill in the same place, a few minutes later, and in less than half an hour another capsize.

Some hours subsequently, we again made sail; but the wind just allowed us to get into the middle of the stream, when we received another taste of its quality, which sent us within a yard and a half only of some dangerous rocks. By all the men pulling lustily on one side, and having the sail hauled as tight as possible, we managed to escape. Once more we anchored, and did not again attempt to sail till the atmosphere had become cleared from the clouds of dust and sand that prevented our seeing a hundred yards before us, and it was nearly calm. Subsequently we passed a complete fleet of small boats that had been detained by the wind. With their large sails half-filled by the breeze, they came out beautifully from the background of the setting sun.

We continued to make good progress, sometimes with our sail, and then with our oars, till we had passed the false pyramid and the real ones of Dashour, and came in sight of the well-known Mokattam range of hills, and of the great pyramids of Gizah. At two o’clock, on the 18th of February, we anchored at Rhoda Island: the next day were at Cairo.

We had accomplished the voyage from Korosko to Cairo in seventeen days; considering the strong north winds we had encountered, a most unheard-of feat.

The bazaars were more crowded by Europeans than they had been before, and had a much gayer appearance, with winter-scarves, handkerchiefs and furs. There had been an order from the Pasha, that within six months the Mussulman ladies should dress entirely in white, to distinguish them from the Christian ladies, which had created no slight sensation in the hareems; and many having already obeyed the very despotic order, the clean white dresses made a most agreeable contrast to the gay amber and pink in which the less compliant ladies were habited.

The streets were more difficult of passage than ever, from the caravans of donkeys that were galloping about loaded with flour, sand, and water; they were abundantly watered, and unusually sure-footed was the long- eared beast that did not land its rider once at least in the mud.

The Esbekya, or place of the Franks, was in an unusually lively state from the droves of groaning camels, and eccentric Englishmen that favoured this locality—the latter dressed in that original style which is patronized by every true and enlightened Briton, whenever he happens to have placed the channel between himself and the only public for whose opinion he cares a rush.

Here a party are starting for Syria, and every description of box is being heaped on angry camels, whose rough and filthy coats contrast as strikingly with the appearance of our old friends, their relations from the South, as the delicate white turbans and flowing robes of their masters do with the manly bearing and state of semi-nudity of the camel- drivers of Berber.

Here an ingenious youth, clad in a suit of grey, is thrashing an impertinent donkey-boy for making an overcharge of five piastres for going to the pyramids; whilst at the next hotel there is a spectacle of a totally different character, in a young girl, of extraordinary beauty, setting forth on a ride, whose cough and hectic colour declare that she has only been brought here to die.

The lovely sky, the splendid sunset, and the numerous picturesque scenes of Cairo, are certainly well worth a visit; but in her position “the old familiar faces” of home, I should have thought, would have been preferable for the light of the fading eye to rest upon. Possibly she does not know her danger, or her friends are sanguine as to the effect of a change of climate; but it is melancholy to think that a creature so brilliant should be brought to a place so foreign in all its features, to wander a few days among its scenes of rainbow-tinted life, and then be hurried into an obscure nook among its gloomy dead.

I paid many visits, but had nothing to boast of in my reception at the hands of Mustapha Bey, son-in-law of Latiffe Pasha. There was reason for this: Latiffe is in disgrace here, Monsieur V—— having brought from Khartoum some startling accounts of his proceedings, which had their effect upon a government already sufficiently prejudiced against him, and it is said that he has received an impressive communication from Abbas Pasha.

I found Ekekyan Bey a great deal more cordial. He seemed anxious to learn the opinions we had heard of Latiffe Pasha on our route, especially among the inhabitants of his villages, and spoke highly of the Viceroy, who, from his statements, is evidently a man of both feeling and judgment. For the recruiting, which has brought so much odium on his name, he assured us that he is less liable to censure than the European Consuls, who urged him to the measure as soon as the Porte manifested hostile feelings to his government, and put forward pretensions to control his movements, to which it is impossible that he can submit without a surrender of those powers that have been guaranteed to him by treaties to which the English Government was one of the contracting parties.

Under these circumstances, he has been advised to raise his army from three thousand five hundred, to which low point he had suffered it to fall, to thirty thousand the maximum of the regular force he is permitted to maintain.

The number of the inhabitants of Egypt, so I was assured by Her Majesty’s Consul, according to the census of 1848, was four million five hundred thousand. As this is nearly double Sir Gardiner Wilkinson’s estimate, I will state the data on which it is founded.

Every Egyptian, as I have already stated, has the greatest possible horror of having his name put down in any list, which in his idea is merely introductory to taxation or conscription; he, therefore, does all he can to avoid so suspicious a distinction. Nevertheless there is an entry of four millions and a half of names on the register. Many Fellahs contrived to escape being included in the census, by presenting the Sheiks with money.

Near the house of a friend of ours, in the country, there is a small village, which he always thought contained from two hundred and fifty to three hundred inhabitants. When the census was published, he was surprised to find them estimated at five hundred. The Government was not satisfied. In the middle of the night a regiment surrounded the village, and at sunrise counted the people as easily as if they had been a flock of sheep; they amounted to seven hundred and twenty.

That the country has increased in population at least one-third since the death of Mehemet Ali, no one who knows Egypt, is disposed to deny. In his reign, the drain upon it was very serious; for in the war in Syria there perished hundreds of thousands, and in the construction of the Mahmoudieh Canal thirty thousand died in a few months, as has been stated before.

If the country is less gloriously, it is more wisely, governed; the taxes have decreased thirty per cent.; and though there remains room for much improvement, and a necessity for many wise laws, I do not despair that in due time a race, unused to regular or very productive labour, may rise to become a great commercial and agricultural community.

While calling upon Ekekyan Bey, I saw two or three Armenian ladies, from an hareem, who were visiting there, and according to custom had left their veils below stairs. They were at first disposed to hide their pretty faces from the Frank, but afterwards became social and very merry, and we had some pleasant conversation together.

It seems curious to our notions that the Eastern ladies should never be allowed to call on, or see any of the male sex; but perhaps it may be thought more so, that they do not wish it. No doubt they find sufficient social gratification in visiting among themselves, on which occasions they frequently have _réunions_ and supper parties, that are apparently quite as agreeable as those in which the two sexes associate in Europe.

Some of their evening parties are managed in a peculiar manner. An Egyptian gentleman gives a rout, at which two hundred of his male acquaintances attend; pipes, coffee, iced-sherbet and brandy-and-water are the only refreshments. An exhibition of dancing girls, tumblers, jugglers, or something of the kind, is sure to be provided. The ladies entertain, at the same time, a large party of their own sex, who witness the performances from a gallery, having contrivances closely resembling the nuns’ grating in Catholic churches. Here they can see perfectly, and hear also; but from what I have heard of such performances, I do not think they would be greatly edified.

A young man who is about to be engaged to some unknown beauty, can at these entertainments display all his mental and personal recommendations to the lady of his mother’s choice, who, silent and veiled, has an opportunity of judging of their extent.

No one can leave Cairo at night without a pass; which, however, Mr. Walne easily procures for his compatriots. I wanted to visit a friend at his boat, at Rhoda Island, and was sent the pass for the night, which was the word “Arish.” I met with no difficulty in reaching my destination with the assistance of this little word; and then found my way back with the same facility.

The Pasha’s masonmania continues. Since we saw him at the Kaisoon Palace, he has completed the Abbasia, the Suez Palace, and is now commencing a similar structure opposite Rhoda Island. He has now about nine palaces in ten square miles, and uses each rather more than one month every year, having a complete establishment in all.

He is said to have already expended £2,000,000, and the Porte wants to limit him to £400,000 a-year, as he is economical in every branch of the public service, except the palace and hareem items. The Abbasia is a magnificent range of building, about a mile out of Cairo, on the Suez side. It is painted green, red, yellow and white, with a very showy effect, though not exactly gaudy.

Abbas Pasha has encouraged all his grandees to follow his example; and already the Suez Road is becoming a street of Beys and Pashalic palaces. Then, half way to Suez, forty miles from any drinkable water, is the Desert Palace, every stone of which had to be carried there on camels from Cairo, and every drop of water for the mortar or cement. Had he the lamp of Aladdin he could scarcely have conquered greater difficulties.

Palaces, however, form but a small portion of his improvements. The Suez Road, now more than half completed, is a fine broad macadamized turnpike road, with trees on each side for the first few miles. This is undeniably a great work, as every Indian traveller who has been tossed about in the bathing machine vans will readily testify.

As regards the overland route, we were told that the Government had last year lost £4,300 by the transit. This seems incredible, when we recollect that each traveller pays £16: besides, the horses are used for the Pasha’s travelling carriages, and the steamers for the excursions of his friends. It should be remembered that Egyptian book-keeping is in its infancy—and I have heard, that as long as cash is forthcoming the _employés_ will not trouble themselves about keeping correct accounts. The charge to the traveller may be high—but then it ought not to be forgotten, that water for four hundred horses has to be carried on the backs of camels from Cairo to every station.

We met several intelligent travellers at the _table-d’hôte_—among others a Russian Prince, an American gentleman, and an Englishman—all of whom had visited different parts of the world; and their conversation was equally interesting and instructive. The latter had come from England by Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Syria, had been up to Assouan and back, and was about to return to England by the Lower Pyrenees and Spain. He considers the voyage down the Volga as extremely interesting.

Colonel W——, an American, who sat at the bottom of the table, a fine old man, with a magnificent white beard, was singularly characteristic in his conversation.

“Here now,” said he exultingly, drawing a frame about the size of a farthing from his pocket, “here is a greater wonder than anything you ever saw—beats the Pyramids hollow. It is the Lord’s Prayer written in the smallest hand that ever anything was written in—and I wrote it: with the finest crow-quill that ever was made—and I made it: from a crow, the smallest that ever was killed—and I killed it: with the best gun that ever was shot with—and I shot with it: the pen made with the sharpest knife that ever was bought—and I bought it.”

Everything he had, or had anything to do with, was the best and the fastest that could be found throughout the world. His boat passed everything on the Nile—and he had the fastest horse that ever was created. We could not test the qualities of his steed—because it remained in the States: but the boat, though it had had four days start, was subsequently passed by a friend of ours at Keneh.

The Greek merchant, a little dirtier than we had found him six months ago, and a lady and gentleman from India, whose politeness and conversation appeared to have been dried up by the climate they had left, made up our party.

The old Pasha’s palace in the citadel is a pretty country house, surrounded by about a hundred yards of English garden. It is built on a rock overhanging the city, just where the last Mameluke leaped his horse—preferring the small chance of life in the abyss below, to the certainty of death from Mehemet Ali’s Janissaries above. It is well known that his horse was killed under him, and that he escaped unhurt—this must appear “a hair-breadth ’scape” indeed, to any one who takes the trouble to examine the awful leap.

The palace is gorgeously fitted up, and is one of the prettiest places of the kind I have ever seen. The rooms are well shaped and admirably furnished—though it appears as if a housemaid formed no part of the establishment.

The large divan is fitted up completely with magnificent Cachmere shawling; though I quite as much admired the private sitting-room in red and gold damask silk. The Turkey carpets are the largest I have met with. The floors were as usual of polished alabaster, the bath most elegantly furnished, and the sculpture from Rome in the best possible taste. Ship pictures in panelling are in all the apartments—and in one there was a portrait of the Sultan, carefully covered with silk hangings, which might be thought good enough for the sign-post of a village alehouse.

Abbas has never been in this palace, though it exceeds in splendour any of his own which he is now furnishing. We had frequent opportunities of observing his acquisitions in this way, for we met loads of the costliest gilt cornices, beautiful statues, rich glass lamps, and other choice drawing-room decorations piled in bullock-carts, without springs, merely covered with silver-paper; and from their frequent collisions their route might be traced by the fragments of gilding they left in every street through which they passed.