The Joy Of His Heart Still Plainly
Lay In This, That He Had Three Shelves Of Books, And That The Books
Were Thoroughbred Scotch - The Edinburgh This, The Edinburgh That,
And Above All, I Recollect, He Prided Himself Upon The "Edinburgh
Cabinet Library."
The fear of the plague is its forerunner.
It is likely enough that
at the time of my seeing poor Osman the deadly taint was beginning
to creep through his veins, but it was not till after I had left
Cairo that he was visibly stricken. He died.
As soon as I had seen all that I wanted to see in Cairo and in the
neighbourhood I wished to make my escape from a city that lay under
the terrible curse of the plague, but Mysseri fell ill, in
consequence, I believe, of the hardships which he had been
suffering in my service. After a while he recovered sufficiently
to undertake a journey, but then there was some difficulty in
procuring beasts of burthen, and it was not till the nineteenth day
of my sojourn that I quitted the city.
During all this time the power of the plague was rapidly
increasing. When I first arrived, it was said that the daily
number of "accidents" by plague, out of a population of about two
hundred thousand, did not exceed four or five hundred, but before I
went away the deaths were reckoned at twelve hundred a day. I had
no means of knowing whether the numbers (given out, as I believe
they were, by officials) were at all correct, but I could not help
knowing that from day to day the number of the dead was increasing.
My quarters were in a street which was one of the chief
thoroughfares of the city. The funerals in Cairo take place
between daybreak and noon, and as I was generally in my rooms
during this part of the day, I could form some opinion as to the
briskness of the plague. I don't mean this for a sly insinuation
that I got up every morning with the sun. It was not so; but the
funerals of most people in decent circumstances at Cairo are
attended by singers and howlers, and the performances of these
people woke me in the early morning, and prevented me from
remaining in ignorance of what was going on in the street below.
These funerals were very simply conducted. The bier was a shallow
wooden tray, carried upon a light and weak wooden frame. The tray
had, in general, no lid, but the body was more or less hidden from
view by a shawl or scarf. The whole was borne upon the shoulders
of men, who contrived to cut along with their burthen at a great
pace. Two or three singers generally preceded the bier; the
howlers (who are paid for their vocal labours) followed after, and
last of all came such of the dead man's friends and relations as
could keep up with such a rapid procession; these, especially the
women, would get terribly blown, and would straggle back into the
rear; many were fairly "beaten off." I never observed any
appearance of mourning in the mourners:
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