Yet, Even On This Solemn Occasion, There Is, They Say, Not A
Little Flirtation And Love-Making; Parties Of Policemen Are Posted,
With Orders To Interrupt All Such Irregularities, With A Long Cane; But
Their Vigilance Is Notoriously Unequal To The Task.
I could not help
observing that frequent pairs, doubtless cousins or other relations,
wandered to unusual distances among the sand-hills, and that sometimes
the confusion of a distant bastinado struck the ear.
These trifles did
not, however, by any means interfere with the general joy. Every one
wore something new; most people were in the fresh suits of finery
intended to last through the year; and so strong is personal vanity in
the breasts of Orientals, men and women, young and old, that from Cairo
to Calcutta it would be difficult to find a sad heart under a handsome
coat. The men swaggered, the women minced their steps, rolled their
eyes, and were eternally arranging, and coquetting with their
head-veils. The little boys strutting about foully abused any one of
their number who might have a richer suit than his neighbours. And the
little girls ogled every one in the ecstacy of conceit, and glanced
contemptuously at other little girls their rivals.
Weary of the country, the Haji and I wandered about the city, paying
visits, which at this time are like new-year calls in continental
Europe. I can describe the
[p.117]operation of calling in Egypt only as the discussion of pipes
and coffee in one place, and of coffee and pipes in another. But on
this occasion, whenever we meet a friend we throw ourselves upon each
other's breast, placing right arms over left shoulders, and vice versa,
squeezing like wrestlers, with intermittent hugs, then laying cheek to
cheek delicately, at the same time making the loud noise of many kisses
in the air.[FN#3] The compliment of the season is, "Kull'am antum bil
khayr"-"Every year may you be well!"-in fact, our "Many happy returns
of the day!" After this come abundant good wishes, and kindly
prophecies; and from a "religious person" a blessing, and a short
prayer. To complete the resemblance between a Moslem and a Christian
festival, we have dishes of the day, fish, Shurayk, the cross-bun, and
a peculiarly indigestible cake, called in Egypt Kahk,[FN#4] the
plum-pudding of Al-Islam.
This year's Id was made gloomy, comparatively speaking, by the state of
politics. Report of war with Russia, with France, with England, who was
going to land three million men at Suez, and with Infideldom in
general, rang through Egypt, and the city of Mars[FN#5] became
unusually martial. The government armouries, arsenals, and
manufactories, were crowded with kidnapped workmen. Those who purposed
a pilgrimage feared forcible detention. Wherever men gathered together,
in the Mosques, for instance, or the coffee-houses, the police
[p.118]closed the doors, and made forcible capture of the able-bodied.
This proceeding, almost as barbarous as our impressment law, filled the
main streets with detachments of squalid-looking wretches, marching to
be made soldiers, with collars round their necks and irons on their
wrists.
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