But This Is Not, Strictly Speaking, Correct. [FN#8] When The Late Pasha Of Egypt (H.H. Abbas Hilmi) Came

To power, he built a large pile of palace close outside the walls of Cairo, on the direction of Suez,

And induced his courtiers to follow his example. This was done readily enough, for Asiatics, like Europeans, enjoy the fine air of the desert after the rank atmosphere of towns and cities. If the successor of His Highness does not follow the usual Oriental method of wiping away all vestiges of the predecessor, except his grave, there will be, at no distant period, a second Cairo on the site of the Abbasiyah. [FN#9] One of our wants is a history of the bell and its succedanai. Strict Moslems have an aversion to all modifications of this instrument, striking clocks, gongs, &c., because they were considered by the Prophet peculiar to the devotions of Christians. He, therefore, instituted the Azan, or call to prayer, and his followers still clap their hands when we should ring for a servant. The symbolical meaning of the bell, as shown in the sistrum of Isis, seems to be the movement and mixture of the elements, which is denoted by clattering noise. "Hence," observes a learned antiquary, "the ringing of bells and clattering of plates of metal were used in all lustrations, sacrifices, &c." We find them amongst the Jews, worn by the high priest; the Greeks attached them to images of Priapus, and the Buddhists of Thibet still use them in their worship, as do the Catholics of Rome when elevating the Host. [FN#10] Al-Ghada is the early dinner: Al-Asha, the supper, eaten shortly after sunset. (See Lane's Modern Egyptians, Chap. 5.) [FN#11] Extra prayers repeated in the month of Ramazan. (Lane, Chap. 25, "Tarawih.") They take about an hour, consisting of 23 prostrations, with the Salam (or blessing on the Prophet) after every second prostration. [FN#12] The Shisha, or Egyptian and Syrian water-pipe, is too well known to require any description. It is filled with a kind of tobacco called Tumbak, for which see Chap. 4 of this Volume. [FN#13] Strangers often wonder to see a kind of cemetery let into a dwelling-house in a crowded street. The reason is, that some obstinate saint has insisted upon being buried there, by the simple process of weighing so heavily in his bier, that the bearers have been obliged to place him on the pavement. Of course, no good Moslem would object to have his ground floor occupied by the corpse of a holy man. The reader will not forget, that in Europe statues have the whims which dead bodies exhibit in Egypt. So, according to the Abbe Marche, the little statue of Our Lady, lately found in the forest of Pennacom, "became, notwithstanding her small size, heavy as a mountain, and would not consent to be removed by any one but the chaplain of the chateau." [FN#14] Europeans compare "Kara Gyuz" to our Chinese shadows.

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