Part 17

One of the Main Gates to Government House, Calcutta. This Gate is of Beautiful Proportions and Has a Fine Lion. Government House is Situated in a Fine Park of Six Acres]

A Street Scene in Calcutta. The New Building at the Right Has a Staging of Bamboo. On the Left is the Burka Bazaar, One of the Sights of India, Each Dealer Having a Small Shop of His Own. The Goods Are Classified As in An American Department Store]

The Great Burning Ghat at Benares. Here Are Four Funeral Pyres Arranged for Burning, the Heads of the Corpses May Be Detected Among the Wood. The Pyre in the Middle Foreground is Partly Burned. Relatives Watch the Cremation From the Temple Above]

View of the Bathing Ghats at Benares. Here May Be Seen Natives Bathing in Mother Ganges, While Above Are the Line of Splendid Palaces and Temples Built by the Maharaja Princes]

A Holy Man of Benares Under His Umbrella. Each of the Fakers at Benares Has His Own Clientage, But No One Bathes Without Yielding Tribute to Some Holy Man]

The Residency at Lucknow. This, the Most Impressive Relic of the British Mutiny In India, Is Now Only a Beautiful Ruin, But it Recalls the Heroic Defense Made By a Handful of English Against Hundreds Of Natives. In Front Is a Memorial Erected by Lord Northbrook to Loyal Native Soldiers]

Tomb of Itmad-ul-Daulet at Agra. This Tomb Was Erected in Honor of the Prime Minister of the Emperor Jahangir. It Is of Carved and Inlaid Marble and Overlooks the Jumna River]

The Mutiny Memorial at Cawnpore. This Memorial Was Erected Over the Well Into Which Were Thrown the Bodies of One Hundred and Twenty-Five English Women and Children, Butchered By Order of the Nana Sahib]

Detail of Carving in the Jasmine Tower, Agra. This View Gives a Good Idea of the Wonderful Work in Marble Carving and the Inlaying of Precious Stones, Which Makes This Little Pavilion a Rival of the Taj]

The Jasmine Tower In Agra Fort. This Is a Marble Pavilion, the Home of the Chief Sultana, Overlooking the Jumna River. The Lattice Work Decoration In Marble Is Remarkably Beautiful]

Snap-shot of a Jain Family at Agra. Mr. Upham's Camera Caught This Woman as She Peeked From Behind the Curtain of the Ekka, or Native Cart]

The Fort at Agra Which Encloses Many Palaces. This Fort Has a Circuit of Over a Mile, With Two Octagonal Towers of Red Sandstone. Enclosed are Mosques and Palaces Which Rival the Taj In Beauty of Design and Richness of Ornamentation]

Kutab Minar, the Arch and the Iron Pillar, near Delhi. The Arch Formed Part of a Mosque built by Kutab, a Viceroy, in 1193 A. D. The Pillar Stood in the Mosque and is of Wrought Iron, Twenty-three Feet High. The Monument is Two Hundred and Thirty-eight Feet High With Three Hundred and Seventy-nine Steps]

Shah Jehan's Heaven on Earth, Delhi. The Diwan-i-Khas, or Hall of Private Audience, Is One of the Most Richly Decorated Buildings In India. The Ceiling Was Originally Silver. Over the Two Outer Arches Is the Persian Inscription: "If Heaven can be on the face of the earth, It is this, oh! it is this, oh! it is this"]

Street View In Delhi, With the Juma Mashid. This Shows the Variety of Life In Delhi Streets. The Juma Mashid Is One of the Finest of the Mohammedan Mosques]

A Parsee Tower of Silence at Bombay. This Shows One of the Unique Burial Places at Malabar Head, Where Dead Bodies Are Exposed. Vultures Strip the Flesh From the Bones In a Few Minutes]

EGYPT, THE HOME OF HIEROGLYPHS, TOMBS AND MUMMIES

PICTURESQUE ORIENTAL LIFE AS SEEN IN CAIRO

The first impression of Cairo is bewildering. None of the Oriental cities east of Port Said is at all like it in appearance or in street life. The color, the life, the picturesqueness, the noises, all these are distinctive. Kyoto, Manila, Hongkong, Singapore, Rangoon, Calcutta, Bombay and Colombo--each has marked traits that differentiate it from all other cities, but several have marked likenesses. Cairo differs from all these in having no traits in common with any of them. It stands alone as the most kaleidoscopic of cities, the most bizarre in its mingling of the Orient and the Occident.

Ismail Pasha, who loved to ape the customs of the foreigner, made a deliberate attempt to convert Cairo into a second Paris, by cutting great avenues through the narrow, squalid streets of the old city, but Ismail simply transformed a certain quarter of the place and spoiled its native character. What he could not do, fortunately, was to rob the Egyptian of his picturesqueness or make the chief city of Egypt other than a great collection of Oriental bazars and outdoor coffee shops, as full of the spirit of the East as the camel or the Bedouin of the desert.

The ride from Port Said to Cairo on the train, which consumes four hours, is interesting mainly as a revelation of what the Nile means to these people, who without its life-giving water would be unable to grow enough to live on. With abundant irrigation this Nile delta is one of the garden spots of the earth.

The villages that we pass remind one somewhat of old Indian villages on the fringe of the desert in California and Arizona--the same walls of sun-baked adobe; the roofs of any refuse from tree pruning; the goats and chickens on terms of intimacy with the single living-room. But the people are not of the Western world. Dressed in voluminous black or blue cotton robes, which are pulled up over their heads to protect them from the keen wind of winter, they belong to the land as absolutely as the tawny, dust-colored camel. The dress of the women appears to differ very little from that of the men, but always the women gather a loose fold of their dress and bring it over the head, thus partially concealing the face. Men, women and children, all in bare feet, squat in the sand or sit hunched up against the sunny side of their houses. Beyond any other Orientals I have seen, these Egyptians have the capacity for unlimited loafing under circumstances that would drive an American insane in a few hours. Flies swarm over them; passing donkeys or camels powder them with dust; the fierce sun beats down on their heads; but all these things they accept philosophically as an inevitable part of life, as something decreed by fate which it would be useless and senseless to change.

The first walk down the Street of the Camel in Cairo is one not soon forgotten. Before you are clear of the hotel steps an Arab in a sweater and loose skirt, something like the Malay sarong, rushes up and shouts: "The latest New York Herald; just came this morning!" Although you tell him "no" and shake your head, he follows you for half a block. Meanwhile you are badgered by dealers in scarabs, beads, stamps, postal cards, silver shawls and various curios, who dog your heels, and, when you finally lose your temper, retaliate by shouting: "Yankee!" through their noses. These street peddlers are wonderfully keen judges of nationality and they manage to make life a burden to the American tourist by their unwearied and smiling persistence. This is due in great part to the foolish liberality of American travelers, who are inclined to accept the first price offered, although with an Egyptian or an Arab this is usually twice or three times what he finally agrees to take.

Custom and habit probably blunt one's sensibilities in time, but this constant annoyance by peddlers detracts much from the pleasure of any stroll through Cairo streets. To the new arrival everything is novel and attractive. The main avenues are wide, well paved and lined with spacious sidewalks, but here the European touch ends. After passing some fine shops, their windows filled with costly goods from all parts of Egypt and the Soudan, one comes upon one of the great cafes that form a distinctive feature of Cairo street life. Here the sidewalk is half filled with small tables, about which are grouped Egyptians and foreigners drinking the sweet Turkish coffee that is served here at all hours of the day.

Many of these Egyptians are in European dress, their swarthy faces and the red fez alone showing their nationality. The young men are remarkably handsome, with fine, regular features, large, brilliant black eyes and straight, heavy eyebrows that frequently meet over the nose. Their faces beam with good nature and they evidently regard the frequent enjoyment of coffee and cigarettes as among the real pleasures of life. But the older men all show traces of this life of ease and self-indulgence. It is seldom that one sees a man beyond fifty with a strong face. The Egyptian over forty loses his fine figure, he lays on abundant flesh, his jowl is heavy and his whole face suggests satiety and the loss of that pleasure in mere existence that makes the youth so attractive.

Walking down this main artery of Cairo life one sees on the left a large park surrounded by a high iron fence. This is the Esbekiyeh Gardens, which cover twenty acres, and are planted to many choice trees and shrubs. They contain cafes, a restaurant and a theater, and on several evenings in the week military and Egyptian bands alternate in playing foreign music. Beyond the gardens is an imposing opera house, with a small square in front, ornamented with an impressive equestrian statue of old Ibrahim Pasha, one of the few good fighters that Egypt has produced. From the opera house radiate many streets, some leading to the new Europeanized quarters, with noble residences and great apartment houses; others taking one directly to the bazars and narrow streets that give a good idea of Cairo as it existed before the foreigner came to change its life.

Although the modern tram car clangs its way through these native streets, it is about the only foreign touch that can be seen. Everything else is distinctively Oriental. It is difficult to give any adequate idea of the narrowness of these streets or of the amount of life that is crowded into them. As in many cities of India, all the work of the shops goes on in plain view from the street. The shops themselves are mere cubicles, from eight to ten feet wide and seldom more than from six to eight feet deep. In certain streets the makers of shoes and slippers are massed in solid rows; then come the workers in brass and metals; then the jewelers, and following these may be dealers in shawls and in curios of various kinds. The native shopkeeper sits cross-legged amid his stock and, although he shows great keenness in getting you to examine his wares, he never reveals any haste in closing a bargain.

Shopping in this native quarter and in the great Muski bazar that adjoins it is a constant source of amusement to the foreign woman who has a fondness for bargaining. These Arabs and Egyptians never expect one to give more than half what is demanded, except in the case of a few large shops in which the price is marked. If one of the silver shawls made at Assiut attracts a lady's attention and the polite shopkeeper demands five pounds sterling, she may safely offer him two pounds, and then, after haggling for a half hour, she will probably become the possessor of the shawl for two pounds ten shillings. Of one thing the traveler may be sure: he will never get any article from an Egyptian on which the shopkeeper cannot make a small profit.