Cities Of The Dawn Part 6

It was the British garrison that established the Cairo Sporting Club, where good polo is played, and very fair cricket, 'squash' rackets, and lawn-tennis; where there are monthly race-meetings, and officers ride steeplechases on their own horses. The big lunches, the pleasant afternoon teas, the dances and flirtations so constantly in progress, are essentially British.

Out at Mena, under the shadow of the Sphinx, there is a golf-course, and the caddie is an Arab boy in a long blue bed-gown, and you can aim your ball from the putting-green straight at the Pyramid of Cheops. Out at Matarieh, just where Mr. Wilfrid Blunt lives the life of an Arab patriarch, under tents, surrounded by his flocks and herds, there is a training stable, and the British sporting subaltern keeps his 't.i.t'

there, and comes out to give him his gallops at early dawn.

But it is as you get away from the broad streets of new Cairo, and plunge into the bazaars and the narrow streets, that you realize what a bewildering place old Cairo is. The city of Cairo covers an area of three square miles, and greatly exceeds the limit of the old walls. On the south stands the ancient citadel, on a rock, memorable for the ma.s.sacre of the Mamelukes. Of the most perfect of the old gateways still remaining is the Gate of Victory. Above the archway is an Arabic inscription: 'There is no G.o.d but G.o.d, and Mohammed is His Prophet.' The streets are narrow and irregular, and badly paved, while the white houses, with their overhanging windows, are, at any rate, picturesque.

The bazaars are of all sorts: the leather-sellers have one, the carpet-dealers another, silk-merchants another, and everywhere purchaser and buyer seem to spend a great deal of time in smoking cigarettes. The gold bazaar is so narrow that three persons can scarcely pa.s.s; there, and at the silver bazaar, you see the artificers constantly at work. Coptic churches and mosques you meet everywhere. There is a good attendance at the English Church; there are also a Presbyterian Church, and two Roman Catholic churches. I saw the bishop of one of them, who was to preach, driving along in very grand style. The Wesleyans have also a chapel.

The howling dervishes have also their sanctum, where they exhibit their peculiarly unpleasant powers. I decline to go and see them, as everyone tells me they are a fraud; and if I want to be deceived, there is the Egyptian conjuror always ready with his little tricks. He comes daily to the hotel to give a performance; also daily resort there the Egyptian minstrels, whose performances we all greatly applaud.

The English have a party paper called the _Sphinx_, which, however, I fancy has little influence in the formation of public opinion. In Alexandria a daily English paper is published, which reaches Cairo about eight in the evening, but which gives little general news, and is chiefly devoted to trade and commerce. It was with a heavy heart I left Cairo and its bright and busy life for the gray skies and bleak winds of my native land. My consolation is that we breed better men than they do in southern climes-a fact of which the Roman Caesars were aware when they drew their best troops from Britain or Northern Gaul.

The French complain bitterly of English influence in Egypt-a country for which we have done much, and which, if it ever becomes prosperous, will owe its prosperity to England alone; and yet it is the fact that the Englishman in Egypt lies under peculiar disadvantages, and that as much as possible English enterprise is discouraged and destroyed. It ought not to be so. We who have made Egypt what it is, who have fought its battles, developed its resources, improved the condition of its people, destroyed its corrupting and enervating influences, put its finances in a healthy condition, may be expected to have, at any rate, fair play there.

That this is not so, the case of Mr. Fell, of Leamington, one of the few men who have raised themselves from the ranks and become honoured far and near, is a notorious ill.u.s.tration. In 1890 he obtained a concession from the Egyptian Government giving him the right to make tramways in the city of Cairo. The particular department of the Egyptian Government which has to do with such affairs has at its head a Secretary of State-at that time the office was held by Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff-and a financial adviser appointed by the Egyptian Government on the recommendation of the English Government. Mr. Fell went to Egypt, had the whole city surveyed, and the plans drawn, a difficult task which occupied a considerable amount of time. In August of the same year he bought the steel rails, ordered the cars to be built, and did all he could to hasten the fulfilment of his contract, and, as a security, deposited with the Egyptian Government twenty-two Egyptian bonds of the value of 100 each. To still further strengthen his position, he had a letter from Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff to the effect that he was quite satisfied that Mr. Fell had complied with legal requirements.

So far all was straight sailing, but in April the Egyptian Government confiscated the bonds Mr. Fell had deposited with them, and also declared the contract null and void, on the ground that he had failed to comply with the conditions under which the contract was made. Mr. Fell had a long correspondence with the Egyptian Government of a very unsatisfactory character. In 1893 he returned to Egypt, and interviewed the authorities. Lord Cromer advised him to go to law. In his action against the Government, he was defeated on the plea that the letters written by Sir Scott Moncrieff, as Secretary of State, were not valid.

In the meanwhile, the Egyptian Government advertised for a new concession in July, 1894, for which Mr. Fell again tendered, depositing a thousand guineas. In compliance with a request from the Egyptian Government, Mr.

Fell again returned to Egypt, but found, on his arrival, that the contract had been given to a Belgian firm, who frankly admitted that they had paid so much for the concession that it was scarcely worth having.

'My loss in consequence,' said Mr. Fell to me, 'is at least from 17,000 to 20,000, and this all through French intriguing.'

Such is a brief outline of a case of hardship, not to an individual, but the whole nation. Practically speaking, there is no British capital invested in Egypt except what was there previous to 1882. In the railway department, for instance, of late years all the works have been carried on by French and Belgian-to the exclusion of British-contractors. All the contracts for bridges which have recently been let have been let to Belgian contractors. The only companies that thrive in Egypt are French companies. Everything is in their favour. The law officers of the Crown are exclusively foreign, princ.i.p.ally Corsicans, and they are able to control the native tribunal, notwithstanding the fact that there are English judges upon it; and to these Corsican law officers it is due that so much anti-English feeling exists in Egypt at this present time.

a.s.suredly, Egypt makes us but a poor return for the money and blood we have spent in its behalf. We have a right to expect better treatment.

If John Bull stands this sort of thing, he must be a poor creature indeed.

Anthony Trollope gives us an amusing ill.u.s.tration of the official life of Cairo in his time. He was sent there by the English Post-Office to accelerate the mail-service to Suez, and it took him two months to do his business. 'I found, on my arrival,' he writes, 'that I was to communicate with an officer of the Pasha, who was then called Nubar Bey.

I presume him to have been the gentleman who lately dealt with our Government as to the Suez Ca.n.a.l shares, and who is now well known as Nubar Pasha. I found him a most courteous gentleman, an Armenian. I never went to his office, nor do I know that he had an office. Every other day he would come to me at my hotel, and bring with him servants and pipes and coffee. I enjoyed his coming greatly, but there was one point on which we could not agree,' and that was as to the rate of speed with which the mails should be carried through Egypt. The Post-Office said it must be done in twenty-four hours. The agent of the Egyptian Government contended that it would take forty-eight hours at the least.

For a long time they could come to no agreement. Both were equally obstinate. It was impossible, said Nubar, that the mail could be carried at such a rate. It might do for England, but would not do for Egypt.

The Pasha, his master, he said, would, no doubt, accede to any terms demanded by the British Post-Office, so great was his reverence for anything British. In that case, he, Nubar, would at once resign his position and retire into private life. He would be ruined, but the loss of life and bloodshed which would follow would not rest on his head.

Nevertheless, he gave way after many days' delay and a good deal of smoking and coffee-drinking. The twenty-four hours gained the day. It is to be hoped that official business is done more quickly now. A two months' stay in Cairo over such an affair may have been pleasant. It certainly was expensive, and someone other than Mr. Trollope had to pay the bill.

Lord Cromer's latest report of the state of matters in Egypt is cheering.

The finances are better. The income from railways, customs, and tobacco has improved. A great boon has been conferred on the fellaheen by the experimental money advances made by Government to tide them over till their cotton-crop is ripe. Hitherto they have had to borrow from Greeks, who, however admirable in the character of liberators, are not so lovely as money-lenders. They charge from 20 to 30 per cent. for their loans, and, in addition, always take back an Egyptian pound, equal to 1 0s.

6d., for the pound sterling. This is really more than an extra 2 per cent., for the loans are not for a whole year. There are Mohammedan lenders, too. Their religion forbidding usury, they take it out of the fellaheen in cotton. The Government in their experimental loans have charged a half per cent. per month, or 6 per cent. per annum. The experiment was successful. Of nearly 8,000 lent between February and July, all but 20 had been repaid with interest by the end of November.

The benefit that an agricultural bank would be to the smaller cultivators has been in this way realized by Lord Cromer, who suggests that private bankers should take the experiment in hand.

The Government has also been checkmating the money-lenders by sending them good seed at 58 pounds Turkish an ardeb, payable in three instalments, upon finding out that the usurers were advancing inferior seed at 70 to 100 pounds Turkish, payable at cropping-time.

The land-tax is now got in with certainty, whereas formerly the Government never knew what to estimate for arrears; the post-office revenue is improving; exports and imports have gone up by about two millions; the cotton-crops are better; the sugar industry is rapidly increasing in Upper Egypt; the railway receipts are the highest on record; railway extension is going on, and plans and surveys for light railways are well advanced; agricultural roads are constructed; there are electric tramways and lighting in Cairo. The light dues will be decreased this year. The only relic of forced labour is a yearly diminishing amount for the protection of the Nile banks during the period of flood. Crime is diminishing, and sanitary reform is progressing.

Education is advancing as far as possible, considering the deficiency of funds, and slavery is kept under.

As to the question when our work shall be done, and we English shall retire from Cairo, it is impossible, says Sir A. Milner, to give a definite answer. It would be difficult to over-estimate what that work owes to the sagacity, patience, and fort.i.tude of the British Amba.s.sador.

The contrast between the Egypt of to-day and the Egypt as it was when he first took it in hand is the best testimony to his efficiency and wisdom.

All writers on Egypt agree in this. 'There is not a native,' writes Mr.

Wood, 'that does not recognise at heart the benefits of the British occupation'-a remark which seemed to be to a certain extent true; but not quite to the extent Mr. Wood suggests. 'It is quite an anachronism,' Sir A. Milner remarks, 'to suppose that the interest of Egyptian finance centres in the debt, and that the financial authorities of the country are the mere bailiffs of the bondholders.' As a matter of fact, now that it has been established that the resources of Egypt can bear the interest of the debt at its present rate, the last people whom an Egyptian Finance Minister need trouble himself about are the bondholders. Except when an occasion presents itself to reduce the interest by the legitimate method of conversion, the debt need no longer have a foremost place in his mind.

'Even the Commissioners of the Caisse,' writes Sir A. Milner, 'who only meet to protect the creditors, and who from time to time, to justify their existence, get up a little fuss about some supposed danger to interests which in their hearts they know to be perfectly secure-even the Commissioners of the Caisse, I say, are more occupied now-a-days with employing their reserve fund in developing the wealth of the country than with needless anxieties about the coupon.' Sir A. Milner has no doubt well weighed his words. Of all the romances of finance there are few to be compared with the borrowings of Ismail, to whom is due the honour of having originated the Egyptian National Debt.

CHAPTER XV.

THE PYRAMIDS AND THE SPHINX.

There are two things in Egypt which amply repay the traveller for his trouble. One is the museum at Gizeh, and the other the pyramids, especially the Great Pyramid of Cheops. I did them both in one day. It is a pleasant ride from Cairo, on a road broad, well watered, and shaded all the way by large acacia-trees. I did the museum first, though it will be a matter of regret to me that I had only an hour to visit a collection where one might usefully spend weeks, and that our guide indulged in an English almost as unintelligible to us as

'The heathen Greek That Helen spoke when Paris wooed.'

The palace which shelters the museum is said to have been built at a cost of nearly 5,000,000 sterling. The edifice is placed in s.p.a.cious grounds close to the river, just opposite the spot on the other side where Pharaoh's daughter is said to have come to bathe when she discovered Moses. It was opened by the Khedive in 1890. The section devoted to the exhibition of papyri is remarkably interesting, but to most of us the gem of the collection is the splendid sarcophagus which contains the body of Rameses II., the persecutor of the Israelites. The features of his face are well preserved, but his head does not give you any idea of any special intellectual capacity; and the face of his father, who lies close by, is almost that of a pure negro-that is, as far as I could make it out. On one of the papyri is an inscription, of which I copy a portion, in order to [Picture: Colossal Statue of Rameses II] give the reader an idea of the piety of the ancient Egyptians:

'When thou makest an offering to G.o.d, offer not that which He abominateth. Dispute not concerning His mysteries. The G.o.d of the world is in the light above the heavens, and His emblems are upon earth. It is unto these that worship is paid daily. When thou hast arrived at years of maturity, and art married and hast a house, forget never the pains which thou hast cost thy mother, nor the care which she has bestowed upon thee. Never give her cause to complain of thee, lest she lift up her hand to G.o.d in heaven to complain of thee, and He listen to her complaint.'

It seems to me that we have a good deal to learn of the ancient Egyptians yet.

To the Pyramids it is a drive of about five miles. When we reached them it was too hot for most of us to attempt climbing; yet several of our party did so, and came back delighted with the view they had thus gained over all the country round. I need not describe the appearance of the Great Pyramid, standing as it does on the edge of the Libyan desert-an enormous pile of stones, up which it would be impossible to climb were it not for the help of the guides, who are remarkably skilful in aiding the traveller in the perilous ascent and the far more perilous descent, and at the same time remarkably pressing for backsheesh. There is no evidence to show that the Pyramids were built for astronomical purposes, and the theory that the Great Pyramid was built as a standard of measurement is equally worthless. Outwardly, they seem nothing but a pile of big stones, broad at the base, tapering at the top. A French savant has a.s.serted that the stones of the three Pyramids would make a wall round the frontier of France. The Pyramid of Cheops was built B.C.

3733. Its four sides measure in length about 755 feet at the base; its height is now 451 feet, but it is said to have been originally about 481 feet.

Of late, as I have shown, the trip to the Pyramids cannot well be easier or more agreeable. In 1868 Sir Stafford Northcote thus describes his experiences: 'We observed nothing particular till we reached the Nile, when the scene of crossing in the ferry-boats afforded us unmixed satisfaction. The usual amount of noise in the streets at Cairo was as silence to the noise at the waterside. Hosts of donkeys were being pushed, pulled, beaten, or shouted at, and eventually lifted into the boats, and then shoved off with loads [Picture: Pyramid and Sphinx] that looked very unmanageable. We had a boat to ourselves, and our donkeys took their places in it like old stagers. We had a pretty strong breeze in our favour, and sailed across easily enough, wondering how we were to get back again. Soon after crossing, we came into the fine new road which the Viceroy has made to the Pyramids, and which is perfectly luxurious. It is as wide as the Edgware Road, but not so hard, [Picture: The Great Sphinx. (From a photograph taken by Dr. W. Ogle, February, 1888)] and must be charming for a horse's foot. Avenues of acacias are planted all along it, and when these have grown to the size of those which line the earlier part of the road, the approach will be in delicious shade all the way. Avenues of trees are inferior in dignity to avenues of sphinxes, but make pleasanter travelling. We were seized on in the usual way and dragged up the Great Pyramid by the Arabs. I could have got up a great deal better by myself, but it would have been contrary to all precedent, and might have led to an _emeute_. It took me twenty minutes to go up, including a good stoppage for breath and another for a wrangle between two Arabs. The view from the top was good, but one could not enjoy it much in the presence of such a crowd. The first thing my Bedouin did was to go down on his knees and offer to cut my name, which I indignantly forbade. He then proceeded to tender some coins (genuine antique, of course) at a suspiciously low price, and finally he urged me to come down quickly, in the hopes, no doubt, of getting hold of another victim.'

Sir Stafford adds that he admired the Sphinx, which is, in some respects, more interesting than the Pyramids themselves. Now there is to be a tramway to the Pyramids. But I fear the nuisance of the Arab guides shouting and pushing will remain a nuisance still.

As I sit under what little shade I can find on the burning sand, I am badgered to death by the dealers in imitation antiques and the donkey boys. The white donkeys of Egypt are beautiful animals, and sometimes fetch a hundred pounds. I have seen a gentleman whose donkey cost him that sum. The value of the common donkey to be met with in the streets of Cairo is about seven pounds. The finest donkeys in the world come from Cyprus. The next best are those to be had at Syene, in Egypt. I could tell much of the artfulness of the donkey-boys. One of my companions was very stout, and did not think it right to gallop, on account of his weight. 'Me too fat,' said he to the donkey-boy. 'No,'

replied the latter-'not too fat; you fine man.' Again, one of the ladies of our party was enjoying a ride, when the boy plaintively remarked: 'Fine lady-fine donkey-poor donkey-boy!' And the boy secured a little extra backsheesh. I could fill a chapter with the smart sayings of the donkey-boys. So far as I can make out, there is no need for the donkey-boy to travel to Ireland to kiss the Blarney-Stone. Alas for him, I was deaf to all his flattery, and plunged on in the burning sand till I stood in the presence of the world-renowned Sphinx.

At first I was disappointed in the Sphinx, but, like Niagara, the more you look, the more you admire. Poets and literary men have told us how it stands in the desert, and has stood for centuries, overlooking the eternal sands as nations and dynasties come and go. In reality its position is by no means elevated, and you don't see it till you are actually before it. And yet one can in time realize something of that fine pa.s.sage in 'Eothen,' written half a century ago, which tells how this unworldly Sphinx has looked down on ancient kings of Ethiopian and Egyptian origin, upon Greek and Roman, upon Arab and Ottoman conquerors, upon Napoleon, dreaming of an Eastern empire, upon battle and pestilence, and how it will remain watching when Islam will wither away, and the Englishman will plant a firm foot on the banks of the Nile. Originally it was crowned with a helmet; the stone cap was only discovered as lately as 1896. Mr. John Cook runs a four-horse coach to the Pyramids and back during the season, and thus, at the foot of the Sphinx, the present and the past meet and mingle. The age of the Sphinx is unknown. All that is certain is that it was the work of one of the kings of the ancient empire. A stele discovered of the time of Thothmes, B.C. 1533, records that one day, during an after-dinner sleep, Hermachis appeared to Thothmes IV., and promised to bestow upon him the crown of Egypt if he would dig his image the Sphinx out of the sand. Another inscription recently discovered shows that the Sphinx existed in the time of Cheops.

The Sphinx is here hewn out of the solid rock, but pieces of stone have been added when necessary. The body is about 150 feet long, the paws are 50 feet long, the head is 30 feet long, the face is 14 feet wide, and from the top of the head to the base of the monument the distance is about 70 feet. Originally there were probably ornaments on the head, the whole of which was covered with a limestone covering, and the face was coloured red. Of these decorations scarcely any traces now remain, though they were visible towards the end of the last century. The condition in which the monument now appears is due to the savage destruction of its features by the Mohammedan rulers of Egypt, some of whom caused it to be used for a target. Around this imposing relic of antiquity a number of legends and superst.i.tions have cl.u.s.tered in all ages. A little to the south-east of the Sphinx stands the large granite and limestone temple excavated by M. Marriette in 1853.

And now I have done with the East, and my face is turned towards Ma.r.s.eilles. I am once more on board the _Midnight Sun_, the quiet and repose of which are infinitely refreshing after the tumult and bustle of Egypt. Long, long will I remember the gorgeous East-its heat, its confusion, its noise, its undying charm. To enjoy Cairo, you must go and stop there a winter. My fellow-pa.s.sengers seem to have been lavish in their expenditure. One gentleman alone of our party expended as much as 60 in the purchase of carpets and gold-embroidered cloths, and for the ladies the bazaars seem to have had peculiar charms. I am sure Dr. Lunn deserves the hearty thanks of all our party for organizing what has proved to be such a gratifying time. His brother and his secretary, Mr.

Wight, have done all in their power to make us comfortable. There was no hitch in any of the arrangements. Carriages and hotels were all of the very best, and the cost of the whole trip was really remarkably small.

The ordinary traveller, making the trip on his own account, must have had to pay a great deal more, and experienced an amount of trouble and fatigue, and consequent loss of temper, of which we pa.s.sengers by the _Midnight Sun_ have had no conception.

The Doctor calls his tours educational ones, and provides us with lectures. I did not much profit by the lectures, my hearing being, alas!

rather defective; yet we all of us got a good deal of education during the course of our visit-the education which comes to all of us from the use of our eyes and ears, and the gift, or, rather, exercise, of common-sense.

I ought to mention that there is a very good hotel on your right just as you get to the Pyramids; many gentlemen I met were staying there, and spoke well of it. Some years since a gentleman suffering from consumption built a house, and went to live there in the hope that the pure air of the desert would restore him to health. It did not. As is the case with so many consumptive people, the remedy was deferred too long. Many are those who have gone to the desert to recover, but fade away and die, to the sorrow of those who loved them, simply because they have deferred the remedy too long. On the decease of the builder of the house, it was greatly enlarged, and is now known as the Mena House Hotel.

Mena is the name of one of the most ancient Egyptian kings. All round it stretches the desert right away to the great Sahara, and there Byron might have realized his dream-which, happily, he never realized, nor ever, perhaps, wished to-of the desert being his dwelling-place, with some fair spirit for his minister,

'Where he might soon forget the human race, And, hating no one, love but only her.'

It was well for the n.o.ble poet, whose fame will grow when that of our Poet Laureate and his brother rhymesters will have collapsed, that the elements did not hear his prayer and accord him his heart's desire. But a fellow might do worse than put up at the Mena Hotel, of which I, alas!

only saw the outside. One ought to stop some time at the Pyramids. Mr.

Pollard, who devotes considerable s.p.a.ce to them-the last authority on the subject-says the rocks upon which they are built, 'and the stones with which they are constructed, abound with small fossil sh.e.l.ls, which, from their resemblance to money or coins, have caused this limestone to be called nummulite. Other round, small sh.e.l.ls, closely resembling lentils, are also found; the Arabs say that they were the food of the masons turned into stone. The flora is interesting, though limited: an anthromis bearing its strong characteristic scent, but without petals; a very pretty small plant of the herbage family; and an umbelliferous plant smelling strongly of aniseed, were all much appreciated by the camels and snails.'

While I was there I saw no flowers, nor heard of any. They had all withered under the scorching sun.