Mentone, Cairo and Corfu . even the portrait of Cleopatra herself on theback wall at Denderah. If one is staying in Cairo afterthe tremendous voyage is over, one wanders to thebanks every now and then to gaze anew at the broad,monotonous stream. It comes from the last remainingunknown territory of our star, and this very year hasseen that space grow smaller. Round about it stand to-day five or six of the civilized nations, who have formeda battue, and are driving in the game. The old riverhad a secret, one of the three secrets of the world ; butthough the North and South Poles still remain un-
Mentone, Cairo and Corfu . even the portrait of Cleopatra herself on theback wall at Denderah. If one is staying in Cairo afterthe tremendous voyage is over, one wanders to thebanks every now and then to gaze anew at the broad,monotonous stream. It comes from the last remainingunknown territory of our star, and this very year hasseen that space grow smaller. Round about it stand to-day five or six of the civilized nations, who have formeda battue, and are driving in the game. The old riverhad a secret, one of the three secrets of the world ; butthough the North and South Poles still remain un-mapped, the annual rise of its waters will be strange nolonger when Lado is a second Birmingham. How willit seem when we can telephone to Sennaar (perhaps tothat ambassador beloved by readers of the Easy Chair),or when there is early closing in Darf ur ? At Cairo, when one rides or drives, one almost al-ways crosses the Nile; but Cairo herself does notcross. Her more closely built quarters do not even come i 2 I ^ [ Q 5 O. 193 down to the shore. The Nile and Cairo are two dis-tinct personalities ; they are not one and indivisible, asthe Nile and Thebes are one, the Nile and Philae. The river at Cairo has a dull appearance. Its onlybeauty comes from the towering snow-white sails of thedahabeeyahs and trading craft that crowd the is true that these have a great charm. DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE In the old quarters this is Arabian. The beauty lieslargely in the latticed balconies called mouchrabiyehs,which overhang the narrow roadways. These bay-win-dows sometimes stud the facades thickly, now large,now small, but always a fretwork of delicate wood-carving. Often from the bay projects a second andsmaller oriel, also latticed. This is the place for thewater jar, the current of air through the lattices keep-ing the water cool. An Arabian house has no windowson the ground-floor in its outer wall save small air-holesplaced very high, but above are these mouchrabiyehs,which are ma
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidmentonecairo, bookyear1896
