e must furnish the mules, (or
donkeys I should have said), and pay all the contingent expenses. We
visited the Mosk of Mohamet Ali in the Citadel, the Mosk of Hassen and
others. Attendants at the doors provided us with slippers, for no one is
allowed to tread the fine carpet (or matting?) of these holy temples with
his shoes. Hats must be kept on, however. A large mosque generally
consists of porticoes surrounded a square open court, containing a
fountain or tank in the center. Here every Mussulman washes his hands and
feet before he goes to prayers. They sometimes would here bathe their
whole bodies in former times! It is not at all surprising that washing of
feet should have become a part of the religious ceremonies in countries
like Egypt, where washing is quite as necessary to existence, as eating
and drinking, even. I wish they had pure water enough to wash themselves a
dozen times a day. They would certainly be, what we consider very dirty,
more than half the time, even then. As it is, they must take their
untanned goat-skin bags and collect the luke-warm water which they find in
dirty pools, and take it home for drinking purposes! It is impossible for
the poor Egyptians to keep themselves clean. It rains only about three
days in a year, and the wind takes so much dust into the air that one can
often neither see or breath for a few seconds. This dust collected in such
a thick layer upon my body, the first day, that I could in the evening
plow furrows with my fingers upon any portion of my skin. I protected my
eyes, by hiding my face in my shawl, during the most dangerous busts; but
being ignorant of the necessity of putting cotton into my ears, I lost the
hearing of one of them, which I only recovered quite lately. Hundreds of
people in Cairo are blind, and certainly the majority of them have but
poor sight or have very sore eyes! What wretched houses they live in! Many
of the huts in their villages consist of but a single apartment, large
enough for a person to lie down lengthwise in it, but not more than 5 feet
wide. The walls and roof are all mud, and so low that a man cannot stand
erect in some of them! These mud-huts have no doors even! The men as well
as the women wear long flowing garments, like those represented in our
picture Bibles. Many of the poor women have but a single garment to cover
their bodies with. This consists of a hood-like covering for the head, and
a loose flowing robe, all in one piece; havi