THE 'COURBACHE?

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does not flourish in Cairo, and these fierce warriors are safe from the derision and the 'tripping-up trick,' which would be the signal for their decadence in the destruction of their prestige. They are fully aware of their interesting and perilous position, and in order that they may not have to disarrange any of the arms of the museum which they carry on their stomachs, they carry immense flexible whips, made of hippopotamus hide, combining the suppleness of the horse-whip with the precision of the cane, and thus they keep their enemies and their admirers at a respectful distance. This formidable whip is called a 'courbache,' and it is a sceptre of authority which obtains everything, regulates everything, settles everything, when 'bakshish' has become powerless in a delicate question.

On issuing from the city, we fell into the midst of a mob of men, women, and children, who were all screaming with joy, shrieking, and dancing after a fashion, which offered an extraordinary contrast with the calm silence of the passengers we had met in the streets. We found that we had come upon a crowd assembled outside the walls for the enjoyment of a popular festival of a religious and national character; and we recognized at once, by the great variety of

the costumes, and the diversity of the types which passed before us, that many distant populations were represented on this special occasion. Numbers of the spectators must have come from afar, judging by the many-coloured tents which were pitched under the walls of the town. This motley crowd had been transported hither by the dromedaries and buffaloes which we saw standing about, in many instances still unsaddled, and harnessed to their carts. Enormous but insecure-looking swings were erected at several points in the great square in front of the Gate of Victory. Wooden horses-it seems to be decreed that this dear reminiscence of childhood shall pursue us everywherewere turning round, just as they turn round in the Champs Elyseés, ridden by children of all ages, and even by grown men, who appeared to take this simple exercise as the performance of an act of devotion. The festival of Baïram formed the pretext for these truly antique rejoicings. At every step we came upon the most amusing family scenes; the purchase of a toy for a baby; the trying on of a pair of boots, which were always too large; the distribution of doubtful sweetmeats by a hawker of the district. Several Turks were doing conjuring tricks, and exciting the crowd. to applause by the strangest contortions. Here, for

A DRAMATIC INTERLUDE.

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the first and last time, we saw one of those mimes, whose whole costume consists of a hat and a cord, and whose pantomime would assuredly not be tolerated in even the least decent place of public entertainment in Europe. Our attention was more agreeably attracted by a sort of little open-air play, performed by an old gray-bearded man, accompanied by a little girl of ten years old. Judging by the expressive gestures of the little girl they were playing a piece in several tableaux; the old man was ill, and the child was taking care of him; the old man was restored to health, and the child danced for his amusement, accompanying her movements by a harmless. little instrument, which, fortunately for our ears, gave forth a very feeble sound. This noisy, animated scene-composed of innumerable games and means of amusement—was, nevertheless, like all Egyptian festivals, a religious observance. The swings were solemnly erected solely in honour of the Most High, and the faster the wooden horses turned the more the Prophet was glorified. The feast of Baïram, to which we owed all this noise and amusement, is one of the most important solemnities of the Mussulman faith.

Leaving the festal scene, we followed a wide sandy track, bordered on the right by the remains of walls

and detritus of all kinds which had been accumulating there for years; and on the left by a modern cemetery, which stretched away as far as we could see—a forest of little white-washed tombs. Each of these tombs consists of a large slab placed on a kind of stand, formed of one or at most two steps. The principal stone, which forms the body of the tomb, is shaped like the back of an ass. At one end stands a little column, or simply an oblong stone, sculptured throughout its whole length, or only at the extremities, according to the importance of the person whose grave it marks, or the fortune of the relatives. The extremity of the stone, roughly carved in general, merely represents the turban worn in life by the dead man, and the material of the white ball is either marble or ordinary stone, according to the quality of the deceased.

We occupied a long time in crossing this interminable and strange-looking modern necropolis. The form of the tombs and the profusion of turbans which surmount them gave the place the aspect of an immense skittle-field, or of an army in battle array, which had been instantaneously petrified. From the road we could see that sundry remains of palm branches and ex votos were lying on certain tombs,

THE MOURNERS.

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more carefully decorated than the others. Occasionally we passed by women wrapped in long blue veils, squatting close by tombs, and whose forced groans, and methodical gestures, had a savage effect as manifestations of mourning. Sometimes we saw one sitting upon the stones, and occasionally one was lying flat upon the topmost slab, and apparently conversing with the dead man or woman beneath. This is actually the purpose of such visits, and I have been told on credible authority, that there is a kind of formula for such singular conversations.

'Is God great?'

'Do you see Him?'

'Are you happy in Heaven?'

'Wait for me, expect me. Do you hear me?' And so on for a long time they question the discreet, mute, unresponding dead.

Whole families may sometimes be seen gathered together upon tombs; a tent will be pitched over the stone, the children play on one side, the women weep, and the men make their coffee on the sepulchral slab, and drink to the repose of the deceased. we had wandered for half an hour about the sand hillocks under the citadel, we turned sharply to the

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After