Revel in the luxury of woe at the live man's wake.[FN#6]
Another cloud hung over Cairo. Rumours of conspiracy were afloat. The
Jews and Christians,-here as ready to take alarm as the English in
Italy,-trembled at the fancied preparations for insurrection, massacre,
and plunder. And even the Moslems whispered that some hundred
desperadoes had resolved to fire the city, beginning with the bankers'
quarter, and to spoil the wealthy Egyptians. Of course H.H. Abbas Pasha
was absent at the time, and, even had he been at Cairo, his presence
would have been of little use: the ruler can do nothing
[p.119]towards restoring confidence to a panic-stricken Oriental nation.
At the end of the Id, as a counter-irritant to political excitement,
the police magistrates began to bully the people. There is a standing
order in the chief cities of Egypt, that all who stir abroad after dark
without a lantern shall pass the night in the station-house.[FN#7] But
at Cairo, in certain quarters, the Azbakiyah[FN#8] for instance, a
little laxity is usually allowed. Before I left the capital the licence
was withdrawn, and the sudden strictness caused many ludicrous scenes.
If by chance you (clad in Oriental garb) had sent on your lantern to a
friend's house by your servant, and had leisurely followed it five
minutes after the hour of eight, you were sure to be met, stopped,
collared, questioned, and captured by the patrol.
