And This Same People, Which Was The First Of Any To Conceive
Magnificence, Whose Gods And Kings Were Formerly Surrounded With An
Over-Powering Splendour, Contrives, To Live To-Day, Pell-Mell With Its
Sheep And Goats, In Humble, Low-Roofed Cabins Made Out Of Sunbaked
Mud!
The Egyptian villages are all of the neutral colour of the soil;
a little white chalk brightens, perhaps, the
Minaret or cupola of the
mosque; but except for that little refuge, whither folk come to pray
each evening - for no one here would retire for the night without
having first prostrated himself before the majesty of Allah -
everything is of a mournful grey. Even the costumes of the people are
dull-coloured and wretched-looking. It is an East grown poor and old,
although the sky remains as wonderful as ever.
But all this past grandeur has left its imprint on the fellahs. They
have a refinement of appearance and manner, all unknown amongst the
majority of the good people of our villages. And those amongst them
who by good fortune become prosperous have forthwith a kind of
distinction, and seem to know, as if by birth, how to dispense the
gracious hospitality of an aristocrat. The hospitality of even the
humblest preserves something of courtesy and ease, which tells of
breed. I remember those clear evenings when, after the peaceful
navigation of the day, I used to stop and draw up my dahabiya to the
bank of the river. (I speak now of out-of-the-way places - free as yet
from the canker of the tourist element - such as I habitually chose.)
It was in the twilight at the hour when the stars began to shine out
from the golden-green sky.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 83 of 206
Words from 22268 to 22558
of 55391
