At Length We Arrived At A Court, Which Displayed A Door
And A Flight Of Steps At The Corner.
Upon knocking, we were admitted
by an Egyptian servant, who showed us up stairs into a room, where we
Found the master of the house seated upon one of the low stools which
serve as the support of the dinner-trays in Egypt, the only other
furniture that the room contained being a table, and the customary
divan, which extended all round. Coffee was brought in, served in
small China cups; but all the coffee made in Egypt was too like the
Nile mud for me to taste, and warm and fatigued with a walk through
places from which the fresh air was excluded, I felt myself unequal
to make the trial now.
Our friend's collection of antiquities appeared to be very valuable;
but I had been at the opening of a mummy-case before, and though
interested by the different articles which his researches had brought
to light, was more so in the examination of his house. It was very
oddly arranged, according to the ideas formed in Europe, many of the
rooms looking like lanthorns, in consequence of their having windows
on the stairs and passages, as well as to the street. This was
probably caused by a desire to secure a free circulation of air, but
it at the same time destroyed every idea of privacy, and therefore
looked exceedingly uncomfortable. There were glass-windows to several
of the apartments, but the house exhibited considerable quantities of
that wooden trellice-work, represented in Mr. Lane's book. Nothing,
indeed, can be more accurate than his descriptions; the English
inhabitants of Cairo say that, reading it upon the spot, they cannot
detect a single error; the designs are equally faithful, and those who
study the work carefully may acquire the most correct notion of the
city and its inhabitants.
The apartments at the top of the house opened, as usual, upon a rather
extensive terrace or court, but the surrounding wall was too high to
admit of any prospect; both here, and in a similar place at our hotel,
persons walking about could neither see their neighbours nor be seen
by them. We, therefore, gained nothing by climbing so high, and I was
disappointed at not obtaining any view of the city. I tried in each
place to make acquaintance with an Egyptian cat, but I found the
animal too shy. I noticed several, which seemed to be domestic pets;
they were fine-looking creatures of the kind, and I fancied larger
than the common English cat, but the difference, if existing at all,
was very slight. I returned home, so much fatigued with my walk, as
to be unable to go out again, especially as we were to start at four
o'clock for the desert.
Two of the ladies of the party, not having completed their purchases
at the bazaars, went out upon a shopping excursion, and passing near
the Nubian slave-market, were induced to enter.
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