And perhaps Grand Cairo has thus filled us with more wonder even than
Bagdad. We have been in a certain manner at home at Bagdad, but have
only visited Grand Cairo occasionally. I know no place which was to
me, in early years, so delightfully mysterious as Grand Cairo.
But the route to India and Australia has changed all this. Men from
all countries going to the East, now pass through Cairo, and its
streets and costumes are no longer strange to us. It has become also a
resort for invalids, or rather for those who fear that they may become
invalids if they remain in a cold climate during the winter months.
And thus at Cairo there is always to be found a considerable population
of French, Americans, and of English. Oriental life is brought home to
us, dreadfully diluted by western customs, and the delights of the
"Arabian Nights" are shorn of half their value. When we have seen a
thing it is never so magnificent to us as when it was half unknown.
It is not much that we deign to learn from these Orientals,--we who
glory in our civilisation.
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