Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/501

 CAIBO. 407 of the new town — which has been constructed between the native quarter and the Nile — includiug biirracks, government offices, palaces, and hotels, also presents u European aspect. The vegetation alone, enclosed by railings in the gardens, and the shady lebek acacias planted on both sides of the broad streets, remind the observer that ho is still in Kgypt. Elegant structures, 8urroundc>d by verdure, present a pleasant contrast to the commonplace buildings of this new quarter. Some broad and straight thoroughfares, lined by houses in a vulgar style of architecture, have recently been opened through the heart of the old quarters ; but with these exceptions, Cairo has almost everywhere preserved its characteristic physiognomy. These irregular streets, some broad, some narrow, winding at abrupt angles between buildings facing in all directions, present. an endless variety of perspective. Here we come upon irregular " squares " or open spaces, flanked by the painted arcade of some picturesque mosque ; elsewhere the two sections of a palace meet overhead by vaulted galleries thrown across the street ; right and left are gates leading through intricate byways to blind alleys, or traversing court- yards surrounded by overhanging balconies gay with strips of tapestry fluttering in the breeze. Here and there marble colonnades or carved porticoes project from walls of grey or red brick. The musbarabiehs all differ in the patterns of their gratings or lattice-work. Unfortunately these musbarabiehs (raeshrebiyehs) are gradually disappearing, at least from the more frequented thoroughfares. They are simply projecting windows or casements made of ingeniously designed lattice-work, or else, in the poorer houses, merely of rough boards ; and there are still not a few houses where the passenger stops to admire tier upon tier of these singularly picturesque contrivances. The name is derived from a root meaning to drink, as in " sherbet," and is applied to the musbarabiehs because the porous water-bottles are often j>laced in them to cool. " The delicately turned knobs and balls by which the patterns of the lattice-work are formed, are sufficiently near together to conceal whatever passes within from the eyes of opposite neighbours, and yet there is enough space between them to allow free access of air. The musharabieh is indeed a cooling place for human beings as well as water-jars, and at once a convent grating and a spying-place for the women of the harem, who can watch their enemies of the opposite sex through the meshes of the windows without being seen in return." * The different stories even of the same house at times present a variety of contrasts in their architecture and their projecting lines, corbels, and gables. In some quarters all the upper part of the structure spreads out like a huge Chinese folding- screen, furnished with numerous nooks and comers, whence the inmates may survey the passing scenes at their leisure. The very temperature is varied by the different character of these edifices, with their supporting beams and matting 8usix>nded at different elevations above the roadway. Gloomy passages are here and there sud- denly relieved by a flood of dazzling light, and the wayfarer's progress is constantly arrested by heaps of unsavoury refuse, pools of stagnant water, or whirlwinds of • "Social Life in E^ypl," p. 9.