palm-trees, the lateen yards clustered near a
port, and always and forever the women coming down the bank to get water
from the yellow tide. These processions of women are the most
characteristic "Nile scene with figures" of the present day. I am not
sure but that one of their jars, or the smaller gray kulleh (which by
evaporation keeps the water deliciously cool), would evoke "Egypt" more
quickly in the minds of most of us than even the portrait of Cleopatra
herself on the back wall at Denderah. If one is staying in Cairo after
the tremendous voyage is over, one wanders to the banks every now and
then to gaze anew at the broad, monotonous stream. It comes from the
last remaining unknown territory of our star, and this very year has
seen that space grow smaller. Round about it stand to-day five or six of
the civilized nations, who have formed a battue, and are driving in the
game. The old river had a secret, one of the three secrets of the world;
but though the North and South Poles still remain unmapped, the annual
rise of its waters will be strange no longer when Lado is a second
Birmingham. How will it seem when we can telephone to Sennaar (perhaps
to that ambassador beloved by readers of the Easy Chair), or when there
is early closing in Darfur?

[Illustration: THE DOCK AT OLD CAIRO

From a photograph by Sebah, Cairo]

At Cairo, when one rides or drives, one almost always crosses the Nile;
but Cairo herself does not cross. Her more closely built quarters do not
even come down to the shore. The Nile and Cairo are two distinct
personalities; they are not one and indivisible, as the Nile and Thebes
are one, the Nile and Philae.

The river at Cairo has a dull appearance. Its only beauty comes from the
towering snow-white sails of the dahabeeyahs and trading craft that
crowd the stream. It is true that these have a great charm.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE

In the old quarters this is Arabian. The beauty lies largely in the
latticed balconies called mouchrabiyehs, which overhang the narrow
roadways. These bay-windows sometimes stud the facades thickly, now
large, now small, but always a fretwork of delicate wood-carving. Often
from the bay projects a second and smaller oriel, also latticed. This is
the place for the water jar, the current of air through the lattices
keeping the water cool. An Arabian house has no windows on the
ground-floor in its outer wall save small air-holes placed very high,
but above are these m