They Are
The Villages Of Those Copts, Those Egyptians, Who Have Preserved The
Christian Faith From Father To Son Since The Nebulous Times Of The
First Martyrs.
*****
The simple Church of St. Sergius is a relic hidden away and almost
buried in the midst of a labyrinth of ruins.
Without a guide it is
almost impossible to find your way thither. The quarter in which it is
situated is enclosed within the walls of what was once a Roman
fortress, and this fortress in its turn is surrounded by the tranquil
ruins of "Old Cairo" - which is to the Cairo of the Mamelukes and the
Khedives, in a small degree, what Versailles is to Paris.
On this Easter morning, having set out from the Cairo of to-day to be
present at this mass, we have first to traverse a suburb in course of
transformation, upon whose ancient soil will shortly appear numbers of
these modern horrors, in mud and metal - factories or large hotels -
which multiply in this poor land with a stupefying rapidity. Then
comes a mile or so of uncultivated ground, mixed with stretches of
sand, and already a little desertlike. And then the walls of Old
Cairo; after which begins the peace of the deserted houses, of little
gardens and orchards among the ruins. The wind and the dust beset us
the whole way, the almost eternal wind and the eternal dust of this
land, by which, since the beginning of the ages, so many human eyes
have been burnt beyond recovery.
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