Download the full version and explore a variety of ebooks

or textbooks at https://ebookultra.com

Handbook of dynamical systems 1st Edition A. Katok

_____ Tap the link below to start your download _____

https://ebookultra.com/download/handbook-of-dynamical-
systems-1st-edition-a-katok/

Find ebooks or textbooks at ebookultra.com today!

 We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit ebookultra.com
to discover even more!

Handbook of Dynamical Systems 1 Part A 1st Edition B.

Hasselblatt And A. Katok (Eds.)

https://ebookultra.com/download/handbook-of-dynamical-
systems-1-part-a-1st-edition-b-hasselblatt-and-a-katok-eds/

A Comparison of the Dynamical Evolution of Planetary

Systems Rudolf Dvorak

https://ebookultra.com/download/a-comparison-of-the-dynamical-
evolution-of-planetary-systems-rudolf-dvorak/

The General Topology of Dynamical Systems Ethan Akin

https://ebookultra.com/download/the-general-topology-of-dynamical-
systems-ethan-akin/

A Practical Approach to Dynamical Systems for Engineers

1st Edition Mellodge

https://ebookultra.com/download/a-practical-approach-to-dynamical-
systems-for-engineers-1st-edition-mellodge/
Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems 3ed Edition
Lawrence Perko

https://ebookultra.com/download/differential-equations-and-dynamical-
systems-3ed-edition-lawrence-perko/

Hybrid Dynamical Systems Modeling Stability and Robustness

Rafal Goebel

https://ebookultra.com/download/hybrid-dynamical-systems-modeling-
stability-and-robustness-rafal-goebel/

Dynamical Systems for Biological Modeling An Introduction

1st Edition Fred Brauer (Author)

https://ebookultra.com/download/dynamical-systems-for-biological-
modeling-an-introduction-1st-edition-fred-brauer-author/

Stability Regions of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Theory

Estimation and Applications 1st Edition Hsiao-Dong Chiang

https://ebookultra.com/download/stability-regions-of-nonlinear-
dynamical-systems-theory-estimation-and-applications-1st-edition-
hsiao-dong-chiang/

An Introduction To Chaotic Dynamical Systems 3rd Edition

Robert L. Devaney

https://ebookultra.com/download/an-introduction-to-chaotic-dynamical-
systems-3rd-edition-robert-l-devaney/
Handbook of dynamical systems 1st Edition A. Katok
Digital Instant Download
Author(s): A. Katok, B. Hasselblatt
ISBN(s): 9780444520555, 0444520554
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 5.55 MB
Year: 2005
Language: english
 H ANDBOOK OF
DYNAMICAL S YSTEMS
Volume 1B
This page intentionally left blank
 H ANDBOOK OF
DYNAMICAL S YSTEMS
Volume 1B

Edited by

B. HASSELBLATT
Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA

A. KATOK
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

2006
ELSEVIER
Amsterdam • Boston • Heidelberg • London • New York • Oxford • Paris
San Diego • San Francisco • Singapore • Sydney • Tokyo
ELSEVIER B.V. ELSEVIER Inc. ELSEVIER Ltd ELSEVIER Ltd
Radarweg 29 525 B Street, Suite 1900 The Boulevard, Langford Lane 84 Theobalds Road
P.O. Box 211, 1000 AE San Diego, CA 92101-4495 Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB London WC1X 8RR
Amsterdam, The Netherlands USA UK UK

© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This work is protected under copyright by Elsevier B.V., and the following terms and conditions apply to
its use:

Photocopying
Single photocopies of single chapters may be made for personal use as allowed by national copyright laws. Permission
of the Publisher and payment of a fee is required for all other photocopying, including multiple or systematic copying,
copying for advertising or promotional purposes, resale, and all forms of document delivery. Special rates are available
for educational institutions that wish to make photocopies for non-profit educational classroom use.

Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone (+44) 1865 843830, fax
(+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: [email protected]. Requests may also be completed on-line via the Elsevier home-
page (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

In the USA, users may clear permissions and make payments through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rose-
wood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA; phone: (+1) (978) 7508400, fax: (+1) (978) 7504744, and in the UK through the
Copyright Licensing Agency Rapid Clearance Service (CLARCS), 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP, UK;
phone: (+44) 20 7631 5555; fax: (+44) 20 7631 5500. Other countries may have a local reprographic rights agency for
payments.

Derivative Works
Tables of contents may be reproduced for internal circulation, but permission of the Publisher is required for external
resale or distribution of such material. Permission of the Publisher is required for all other derivative works, including
compilations and translations.

Electronic Storage or Usage

Permission of the Publisher is required to store or use electronically any material contained in this work, including any
chapter or part of a chapter.

Except as outlined above, no part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the
Publisher. Address permissions requests to: Elsevier’s Rights Department, at the fax and e-mail addresses noted above.

Notice
No responsibility is assumed by the Publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products
liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained
in the material herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of
diagnoses and drug dosages should be made.

First edition 2006

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record is available from the Library of Congress.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 0-444-52055-4

∞ The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Printed in The Netherlands.
 Preface

This second half of Volume 1 of this Handbook follows Volume 1A, which was published
in 2002. The contents of these two tightly integrated parts taken together come close to a
realization of the program formulated in the introductory survey “Principal Structures” of
Volume 1A.
The present volume contains surveys on subjects in four areas of dynamical systems: Hy-
perbolic dynamics, parabolic dynamics, ergodic theory and infinite-dimensional dynamical
systems (partial differential equations). These areas, with the exception of the last one, are
also represented in Volume 1A.
In Volume 1A the chapters in hyperbolic dynamical systems cover uniformly hyperbolic
dynamical systems (general properties, Markov partitions and Gibbs measures, periodic
orbits and ζ -functions) and hyperbolic dynamical systems arising in Riemannian geometry.
The present volume (1B) contains chapters on nonuniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems
(to which the survey on Hyperbolic dynamics and Riemannian geometry in Volume 1A is
closely related), on partially hyperbolic dynamical systems and on homoclinic bifurcations,
dominated splitting and robust transitivity (both of which have developed rapidly in the
last few years), as well as an account of random dynamics, which covers aspects of an
area related to hyperbolic dynamics and complements the survey on random dynamics in
Volume 1A. Taken together, this volume and Volume 1A thereby provide a comprehensive
overview of both the foundations and the current state of art in hyperbolic dynamics and
immediately adjacent areas.
In addition to an overview in the chapter “Principal Structures”, parabolic dynamics is
represented in Volume 1A by a detailed discussion of unipotent homogeneous systems in
Section 3 of the chapter on dynamics of subgroup actions on homogeneous spaces and by
the entire chapter on rational billiards and flat structures. The latter area has experienced
explosive growth in recent years and the existing expository literature is far from sufficient.
Anton Zorich showed great vision and exercised spirited leadership resulting in a cluster
of chapters in the present volume on the subject of parabolic dynamics written by leading
researchers in the area.
Volume 1A covers several aspects of ergodic theory, including the core subjects of en-
tropy, isomorphisms and Kakutani equivalence as well as the ergodic theory of smooth or
algebraic dynamical systems, and the chapter on actions of “large” groups. The present
volume expands the treatment of ergodic theory with four additional chapters covering
spectral theory, joinings and combinatorial constructions, ergodic theorems, multiple re-
currence and related topics, and relations with topological dynamics. The coverage of er-
godic theory in these two parts of Volume 1, while somewhat less comprehensive than that

v
vi Preface

of hyperbolic dynamics, is considerably more broad and thorough than that provided in
other existing sources.
The final cluster of chapters in the present volume, for which Sergei Kuksin provided
inspiration and leadership, discusses partial differential equations from the point of view
of dynamical systems. The first of these is about attractors, the other two are about Hamil-
tonian PDE in finite and infinite volume, respectively.
Some of the subjects introduced and outlined in the survey “Principal Structures” in
Volume 1A will be covered in the forthcoming Volume 3 of this Handbook. Among those
are certain aspects of elliptic dynamics, such as KAM theory and its applications, as well
as complex dynamics.
We would like to thank the authors of the chapters in this pair of volumes for investing
their time so generously in this project, and for writing surveys of such high quality. We
also owe much gratitude to Sergei Kuksin and Anton Zorich for the efforts they invested
in the sections of the present volume on infinite-dimensional and parabolic dynamics, re-
spectively. Numerous other mathematicians took interest in the project and read drafts of
various surveys or major portions thereof. This resulted in numerous valuable suggestions.
This interest also provided great encouragement for the authors and editors and helped to
bring this extensive project to successful completion. We are also grateful for the expertise
and craftsmanship that Elsevier and VTeX employed to produce volumes of the highest
quality.
We are indebted to Kathleen Hasselblatt and Svetlana Katok for their support and pa-
tience while we worked on this volume.

Boris Hasselblatt and Anatole Katok

 List of Contributors

Babin, A.V., University of California, Irvine, CA (Ch. 14)

Bambusi, D., Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy (Ch. 15/Appendix)
Barreira, L., Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa, Portugal (Ch. 2)
Bergelson, V., The Ohio State University, Columbus OH (Ch. 12)
Eskin, A., University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (Ch. 9)
Forni, G., Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
(Ch. 8)
Glasner, E., Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel (Ch. 10)
Hasselblatt, B., Tufts University, Medford, MA (Ch. 1)
Hubert, P., Institut de Mathématiques de Luminy, Marseille, France (Ch. 6)
Katok, A., The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (Ch. 11)
Kifer, Y., The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel (Ch. 5)
Kuksin, S.B., Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK; Steklov Institute of Mathematics,
Moscow, Russia (Ch. 15)
Leibman, A., The Ohio State University, OH (Ch. 12/Appendix A)
Liu, P.-D., Peking University, Beijing, PR China (Ch. 5)
Luzzatto, O., Imperial College, London, UK (Ch. 3)
Masur, H., UIC, Chicago, IL (Ch. 7)
Nevo, A., Technion, Haifa, Israel (Ch. 13)
Pesin, Ya., The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (Ch. 1, 2)
Pujals, E.R., IMPA, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil (Ch. 4)
Quas, A., University of Memphis, Memphis, TN (Ch. 12/Appendix B)
Sambarino, M., CMAT-Facultad de Ciencias, Montevideo, Uruguay (Ch. 4)
Sarig, O., The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (Ch. 2/Appendix)
Schmidt, T., Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR (Ch. 6)
Thouvenot, J.-P., Université de Paris VI, Paris, France (Ch. 11)
Weinstein, M.I., Columbia University, New York, NY (Ch. 16)
Weiss, B., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel (Ch. 10)
Wierdl, H., University of Memphis, Memphis, TN (Ch. 12/Appendix B)

vii
This page intentionally left blank
 Contents

Preface v
List of Contributors vii
Contents of Volume 1A xi

1. Partially Hyperbolic Dynamical Systems 1

B. Hasselblatt and Ya. Pesin
2. Smooth Ergodic Theory and Nonuniformly Hyperbolic Dynamics 57
L. Barreira and Ya. Pesin, with an appendix by O. Sarig
3. Stochastic-Like Behaviour in Nonuniformly Expanding Maps 265
S. Luzzatto
4. Homoclinic Bifurcations, Dominated Splitting, and Robust Transitivity 327
E.R. Pujals and M. Sambarino
5. Random Dynamics 379
Yu. Kifer and P.-D. Liu
6. An Introduction to Veech Surfaces 501
P. Hubert and T.A. Schmidt
7. Ergodic Theory of Translation Surfaces 527
H. Masur
8. On the Lyapunov Exponents of the Kontsevich–Zorich Cocycle 549
G. Forni
9. Counting Problems in Moduli Space 581
A. Eskin
10. On the Interplay between Measurable and Topological Dynamics 597
E. Glasner and B. Weiss
11. Spectral Properties and Combinatorial Constructions in Ergodic Theory 649
A. Katok and J.-P. Thouvenot
12. Combinatorial and Diophantine Applications of Ergodic Theory 745
V. Bergelson, with Appendix A by A. Leibman and Appendix B by A. Quas and
M. Wierdl
13. Pointwise Ergodic Theorems for Actions of Groups 871
A. Nevo
14. Global Attractors in PDE 983
A.V. Babin
15. Hamiltonian PDEs 1087
S.B. Kuksin, with an appendix by D. Bambusi

ix
x Contents

16. Extended Hamiltonian Systems 1135

M.I. Weinstein

Author Index of Volume 1A 1155

Subject Index of Volume 1A 1169
Author Index 1187
Subject Index 1205
 Contents of Volume 1A

Preface vii
List of Contributors ix

1. Principal structures 1
B. Hasselblatt and A. Katok
2. Entropy, isomorphism and equivalence in ergodic theory 205
J.-P. Thouvenot
3. Hyperbolic dynamical systems 239
B. Hasselblatt
4. Invariant measures for hyperbolic dynamical systems 321
N. Chernov
5. Periodic orbits and zeta functions 409
M. Pollicott
6. Hyperbolic dynamics and Riemannian geometry 453
G. Knieper
7. Topological methods in dynamics 547
J. Franks and M. Misiurewicz
8. One-dimensional maps 599
M. Jakobson and G. Światek
˛
9. Ergodic theory and dynamics of G-spaces (with special emphasis on rigidity
phenomena) 665
R. Feres and A. Katok
10. Symbolic and algebraic dynamical systems 765
D. Lind and K. Schmidt
11. Dynamics of subgroup actions on homogeneous spaces of Lie groups and ap-
plications to number theory 813
D. Kleinbock, N. Shah and A. Starkov
12. Random walks on groups and random transformations 931
A. Furman
13. Rational billiards and flat structures 1015
H. Masur and S. Tabachnikov
14. Variational methods for Hamiltonian systems 1091
P.H. Rabinowitz

xi
xii Contents of Volume 1A

15. Pseudoholomorphic curves and dynamics in three dimensions 1129

H. Hofer, K. Wysocki and E. Zehnder

Author Index 1189

Subject Index 1203
 CHAPTER 1

Partially Hyperbolic Dynamical Systems

Boris Hasselblatt
Department of Mathematics, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02144, USA
E-mail: [email protected]
url: http://www.tufts.edu/~bhasselb

Yakov Pesin
Department of Mathematics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
E-mail: [email protected]
url: http://www.math.psu.edu/pesin/

Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2. Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3. Other sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. Definitions and examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1. Definition of partial hyperbolicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2. Examples of partially hyperbolic systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3. The Mather spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3. Filtrations of stable and unstable foliations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1. Existence and subfoliation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2. Absolute continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4. Central foliations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.1. Normal hyperbolicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2. Integrability of the central foliation and dynamical coherence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.3. Smoothness of central leaves via normal hyperbolicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.4. Robustness of the central foliation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5. Intermediate foliations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.1. Nonintegrability of intermediate distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.2. Invariant families of local manifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.3. Lack of smoothness of the intermediate foliations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6. Failure of absolute continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
6.1. An example of a foliation that is not absolutely continuous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
6.2. Pathological foliations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

HANDBOOK OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, VOL. 1B

Edited by B. Hasselblatt and A. Katok
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

1
2 B. Hasselblatt and Ya. Pesin

7. Accessibility and stable accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

7.1. The accessibility property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7.2. Accessibility and topological transitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7.3. Stability of accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
8. The Pugh–Shub ergodicity theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
8.1. Conditions for ergodicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
8.2. The Pugh–Shub stable ergodicity theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
8.3. Ergodicity and stable ergodicity for toral automorphisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
9. Partially hyperbolic attractors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
play, thinking that was the proper thing to do. Mr. Beardsley
explained that we would offend nobody, not even the actors, by
paying no attention to the show, and as we could not understand
the dialogue, we very soon became as careless and unobservant as
anybody else.
Turkish comedy must be a tame affair according to Western ideas,
and I would not advise any enterprising manager to import a
company from Constantinople or Cairo under the belief that he could
make a sensation and with it a fortune. The recitations were
monotonous and the plot was exceedingly simple as Mr. Beardsley
explained it, and had the usual mixture of love and jealousy that we
find in comedies all over the globe.
“It is fortunate for you,” said he with a smile, “that you do not
understand Turkish dialogue. Your sensibilities might receive a shock
from some of the allusions which are rather too indelicate for the
English or American stage.”
“Where ignorance is bliss ‘tis folly to be wise,” saith the old
proverb. We drank our coffee and smoked our cigars undisturbed by
the improprieties we could not comprehend.
Cakes and sweetmeats were brought but we declined them, and
soon followed Mr. Beardsley to the outer gate where his carriage
awaited him. Bidding him good night we returned to the enclosure
and stumbled upon a large tent standing apart from the rest.
Investigating this we found that it was a restaurant with what a New
Yorker would call a free lunch standing ready, for those who were
hungry. The bill of fare was not extensive, but consisted of Arab
stews of mutton and goat’s flesh, and of two or three dishes in
which rice was a prominent ingredient. We were invited to enter but
declined as we had had all the Arab dishes we wanted during our
Nile journey.
When the hereditary prince was married the restaurants were
more numerous and better supplied than on the present occasion,
and I was told that in one of them there was a free service of
champagne to all foreigners. No really good Mohammedan drinks
wine—his religion forbids it—but they are not very straight-laced in
Egypt, and you not unfrequently find steady drinkers who between
their glasses repeat reverentially the Moslem formula “La illah, il
Allah; Mohammed yessul illah!” (There is no God but God and
Mohammed is the Prophet of God.) The East is fast becoming
civilized. As I have before said, many Orientals who would have
been horrified at the thought twenty years ago will now treat their
wives as though they were human beings, and do not hesitate to get
drunk when occasion offers. New England missionaries and New
England rum are more popular in the Orient than they were
formerly. But while I have been talking, the pyrotechnics have
burned out, the musicians—Arab and Occidental—have ended their
strains, the tent-lamps are burning dimly, the candles in the Chinese
lanterns are flickering, the acrobats and singers have disappeared,
and the crowd is dispersing. So we will to our donkeys and gallop
back to our boat moored against the bank of the lotos-bearing Nile,
and in the quiet of its cabins will fall into a well-earned sleep to be
filled with dreams of a gala night in Egypt.
CHAPTER LII—WOMEN AMONG THE
MOHAMMEDANS—LIFE IN THE
HAREM.
Polygamy Among the Turks and Arabs—A Full-Stocked Harem—
Unveiling the Women—Romantic Adventure—A Brief Flirtation—The
“Light of the Harem”—Love at First Sight—How Egyptian Women
Dress—Some Hints to the Ladies—Wearing Trowsers—Robes,
Caftans, and Peaked Shoes—Rainbow Colors—How they Dress their
Hair—Crowned with Coins—A Walking Jewelry Shop—The Pretty
Egyptienne Orange Girl—Street Costume—Paris Fashions in the
Khedive’s Ilarem—Beauties Riding Donkeys Man Fashion—How they
Go Shopping—Animated Bales of Dry Goods—Black Eyes in a Bundle
of Silks—Marriage Brokers—How they Dispose of their Daughters in
the East—A Turkish Courtship—A Donkey Driver Gives an Opinion—
The Wedding and the Honeymoon—Divorces in Egypt—An Easy
Process—Many-Wived Men.

T
HE Mohammedan religion allows four wives to each masculine
believer, but there is no limit to his number of brevet or
spiritual wives. Twenty-five years ago every well-to-do Turk
considered it necessary for him to have the legal complement in the
matrimonial line, and he was not up to the social high water mark
unless he had a well-stocked harem. But the West and its customs
have invaded domestic, as they have invaded commercial life Many
respectable Turks have adopted monogamous habits, and live
happily with one wife. True, they may have a liberal number of
slaves in their harems, and these slaves may be pretty and attractive
to an extent not approved by the lady of the house.
But the fact that monogamy is endurable, and has no social
stigma attached to it, shows to what an extent the East has been
influenced by western ideas. All Oriental women must go veiled in
public, but it is observable that the veil is thinner than of old, and a
woman of the upper classes may now go abroad with perfect
propriety, wearing a veil so diaphanous that the features are clearly
discernible through it.
Here is a little story—you may call it a confession if you like, but
please consider it confidential.
One afternoon two of us—my companion was a handsome young
man—were taking a stroll in one of these Oriental cities, and came
upon a blockade of vehicles, equestrians, donkeys, and pedestrians,
just as we might happen upon a blockade in Broadway or Fourteenth
street. There was a gay carriage, with a gorgeous driver managing a
pair of spirited horses, and in the carriage were two richly-dressed
and veiled ladies. A heavy and rather stupid looking eunuch was on
the box by the driver’s side, and both he and the driver had their
attention diverted by the blockade. We edged up to the carriage
under pretence of dodging a passing camel, and, rude foreigners
that we were, peered inside.
Through the faint gauze I could see that both women were pretty.
I said so in French to my companion; the ladies laughed and one of
them made an inclination of her head toward the black fellow on the
box. I nodded to indicate that he was not looking, and when
satisfied that all was right, she quickly raised her veil and showed us
a face as pretty as any we had seen for many weeks. We had only a
momentary glance, but it was enough to photograph that pretty face
on our memories.
There was a clear, transparent skin, finely-cut features of true
Circassian type; there were rounded cheeks, eyes of melting
softness, and eye-brows that slightly pencilled, gave the eye a
fullness it would not have otherwise possessed. She smiled as she
raised her veil, and the smile produced the most exquisite dimple
and revealed a set of teeth that a belle of London or New York might
have envied.
 “Bien merci, Madame,” said I, in a low tone; “Comme vous êtes
belle?”
She smiled again and nodded as she dropped her veil. Just then
the colored gentleman on the box caught sight of us, and shouted
“Empshy!” in no pleasing voice. Fearing to bring trouble upon the
fair lady who was destined to be the subject of our thoughts and
dreams until another pretty face should come in our way, we moved
off and left the carriage to emerge from the blockade.
But we looked back once and caught the flutter of a handkerchief,
and a glimpse of the delicate hand that held it.
Is not the East becoming civilized when such an incident as this is
possible? No fashionable girl in American society could show more
readiness for a flirtation with a stranger than did that pretty
Orientale.
While in Egypt I received a letter from an American lady, in which
I was thus commanded:
“How do the Egyptian women dress? I want to know all; and if
you don’t tell me, you shall never be forgiven.”
To hear, under such circumstances, is to obey.
Before receiving that letter I had contented myself with looking at
the pretty faces of the Egyptian women, for many of them are
pretty. They are rather vain of their beauty, and thus unlike their sex
in all other countries. Many of them keep the word of promise to the
ear, but break it to the hope, as I have already explained, by
wearing veils of such a slight texture that the features are clearly
discernible through it.
It is not considered polite to look at Moslem ladies when out for a
promenade; at any rate, such is the Koran’s injunction to the faithful,
and they are generally careful to observe it. But I was of the infidel
race, could not read the Koran, and furthermore was carried away by
that fatal attribute of my sex, curiosity. What wonder, then, that I
violated the Egyptian code of etiquette, and embraced every
opportunity to see the faces of the Oriental beauties?
 On the receipt of that letter I invoked the aid of an American lady
residing in Cairo, and set about the study of Egyptian fashions.
The Egyptian women display considerable taste in their dress,
quite as much as one could expect in a country where there is very
little change of fashion from year to year.
They wear an under garment, with very full sleeves reaching to
the wrist, made very loose and full, and which does not in the least
impede the movements of the wearer. Then comes a pair of very
wide trowsers, such as we see in pictures; they are held around the
waist by a running string, and the lower ends are fastened in the
same way just below the knee. The trowsers are made very long, so
that when fastened in the way described they hang down to the
feet. They are of colored, striped, worked, or plain material, and
may be of silk, cotton, or muslin, according to the taste and ability of
the wearer.
The next article of apparel, is a vest or wrapper of the same
material as the trowsers. It fits the body with reasonable closeness,
and is made to button down the front to a little below the waist,
from which point it is open, and it is also open at the sides from the
hips downward. According to the strict rule of the Orient, this
garment should reach to the floor when the wearer stands erect, but
many ladies wear it in the form of a loose jacket reaching only to the
waist and gathered in rather loosely.
For the girdle a shawl or embroidered kerchief is folded diagonally,
and tied loosely in such a way that the knots are not visible. The
sleeves of the vest are made much larger than the arm, but are cut
open below the wrist so that they do not interfere with the
movements of the hands. Sleeves not much unlike them, are
sometimes the fashion in Occidental countries.
Outside of the foregoing they wear a long dress or caftan of cloth,
silk, or velvet, entirely open in front, hanging loosely and open at the
sides like the vest, but having sleeves that reach only to the wrist. It
is sometimes plain, but is more generally embroidered with gold
thread or colored silk, and it should be of sufficient length to trail on
the floor when the wearer walks about. Sometimes a short jacket or
sacque of the same material as the above garment, and
embroidered in a similar manner, is worn instead of the caftan,
particularly in the warm weather when the latter would be too
heavy.
Shoes are of red morocco, pointed and turned up at the toes.
Stockings or socks are not generally worn, but in place of them the
Egyptian ladies make use of slippers that fit quite closely. The outer
shoes are large enough to go on over the slippers, and whenever a
lady has occasion to step off the carpet or matting of the inner
rooms of the house, she thrusts her feet into the
 large shoes, or into pattens or clogs that elevate her four or five
inches, and thus lift her skirts from the ground. These pattens are
very difficult to manage, and give the wearer an awkward mincing
gait. Adult novices find them especially inconvenient. In the few
times I attempted to wear them, I think I was never able to walk
more than a dozen steps, without falling down and bringing my head
so near them as to illustrate the French proverb, Les extremes se
touchait.
The hair is cut short over the forehead, and hangs on each side of
the face to a level with the chin. The rest of the hair is combed so as
to hang down the back, and it is divided into braids. These are from
eleven to twenty-five, according to the wearer’s taste, but the
number is always uneven, since the Egyptian ladies share the belief
of Rory O’More, as recorded in the familiar song. Each braid sustains
three cords of black silk, and to the cords are attached beads or
scales of coral, gold, or silver, and sometimes pearls or even
diamonds. Coins are attached to the ends of the cords, and the
general effect is not unpleasant.
The cords are sometimes attached to a band of silk, concealed by
the hair, and when thus arranged they can be removed without any
disturbance of the braids. The metal or other ornaments begin just
at the base of the neck, and the cords terminate about a foot farther
down.
 Among the lower classes other ornaments are attached to the
head, and hang down over the forehead and at the side of the face,
and sometimes there is such a profusion of them as to make you
think a whole jewelry store has started on its travels. There was a
pretty Egyptienne who used to peddle oranges around the hotel
where I stopped. Her entire head was spangled around with little
plaques of gilded silver, that rattled as she moved, and made a
brilliant effect when she stood or walked in the sunshine.
The head-covering of an Egyptian lady consists of a fez or
tarboosh—the little red cap with a silk tassel which is worn from one
end of Mohammeddom to the other. A kerchief of colored muslin or
crape is wound round the fez and forms a turban something like that
worn by the men, but higher and more conical. On the top of the
turban they frequently place a sort of inverted saucer of gold or
silver gilt, embossed or in filigree-work, and ornamented with
precious stones, or imitations of them. Every Egyptian lady that can
afford the expense has a supply of diamonds, often of a very poor
quality, and those who have not the genuine stones make a display
of artificial ones. Vanity and envy are not unknown in the land of the
Pharoahs.
So much for the indoor dress—the “at home” costume. Let us
follow our lady out of the house and into the street.
Outside of what we have seen her wearing, she puts on a loose
gown with very wide sleeves, and of rose, pink, or violet silk. Then
she dons her veil, a strip of white muslin covering the face below the
eyes and reaching almost to the ground. The corners are attached to
a band that passes round the head, and the middle is kept well up
over the nose by a narrow strip that goes over the forehead and is
fastened to the encircling band. Then she puts on, if she is married,
an outer covering of black silk that conceals everything but the white
veil and the eyes above it. An unmarried lady wears a similar
garment of white, not black silk, or she may wear a shawl instead of
it. This outer garment is exceedingly inconvenient for a pedestrian
excursion, and its use is obligatory only when the promenade is not
to be made on foot.
 For an out-door excursion the shoes give way to morocco boots,
at least in. theory. But the customs of Europe are gaining ground in
the Orient to the extent that many ladies of Cairo and
Constantinople have adopted the French boot and discarded the
Oriental one altogether. Even in Damascus, the centre of Islam, and
far more fanatical than the other cities of the Orient, the French boot
has found a foot-hold, (joke, poor and not intentional,) and its
popularity is increasing. And this may be a good place to remark that
the ladies of the Khedive’s family get a great many of their fashions
from Paris, and very often the yashmak, or veil, is the only thing
about them of a truly Oriental type. And this veil is not the muslin
one that I have described, but the light Turkish veil, descending only
a little below the chin and wound loosely about the face. Very many
of the women of the lower order never conceal their faces, and
many of the water-carriers and those who sell bread, oranges, and
other edibles, in the streets of Cairo, go barefoot, their dress
consisting only of a long gown reaching to the ankles, and a loose
cloak thrown over the head and shoulders.
 When our lady whose costume we have been examining goes out
for a promenade, she generally rides upon a donkey. Of late years
carriages have intruded upon the donkey’s domain, and the natives
use them considerably, but the patient animal is still regarded with
respect, and is a fashionable beast of burden. The saddle for
Egyptian ladies’ use is high and broad, and covered with a small
carpet, and our heroine is seated astride with both feet in the
stirrups. She appears to sit very high above the animal’s back, and
to be in danger of falling off, but is really quite safe and secure.
The donkeys are trained to their work, and move along very easily,
with a motion that inspires confidence in the rider. There is always a
man on one, and frequently on each side of the beast, and he is
very watchful, knowing the trouble that would come to him should
any accident befall his precious charge.
Generally all the ladies of a single harem go out together, so that
the sight of two, three, or four persons thus equipped is more
frequent than that of one alone. I do not mean that all the women
of a single group are necessarily wives of one man; they may be his
wife’s sisters, or mother; in fact, the same relation may exist as
among the feminine members of an English or American family.
Many Mohammedans are monogamous, and the notions of the
Occident in regard to plurality of wives are every year becoming
more and more in vogue through the Orient. Many of the Cairene
gentlemen have their mothers and sisters in their families, and some
few have their mothers-in-law. It is proper to remark that the views
of the Orient on the mother-in-law question do not differ materially
from those of the Occident.
A lady in her out-of-door dress, and mounted on a donkey,
appears far more like a bale of goods than like a human being.
Especially is this the case if a slight wind is blowing and she is riding
against it, or if the air is still and she rides faster than a walk. The
silken wrapper is puffed out like a balloon, and sometimes appears
to be three or four feet in diameter.
 At my first view of a private harem taking its promenade, I asked
a friend what those donkeys were laden with.
“The most valuable goods in Cairo,” he replied. “Without them
Egypt would soon cease to exist.”
“Really!” I said. “And what are they?”
Before he could answer, one of the bundles turned in my direction,
and I saw a pair of lustrous black eyes above a veil. I was
enlightened, and had no more questions to ask.
A stranger in a Mohammedan city is sure to have his curiosity
aroused, before he has been there many days, on the subject of
marriage. Wedding processions are quite numerous; in a single
afternoon’s promenade in Cairo I have seen as many as half a
dozen. Naturally, the sight of such a procession leads one to ask
about the marriage customs.
Among the Moslems, marriages are generally arranged by brokers,
though not always so. There are some love-matches in which the
parties become attached to each other without the introduction of a
third party, but they are by no means common. When a man has
reached the marrying age he is expected to enter the matrimonial
state, unless prevented by poverty or some other impediment, and it
is considered improper, and even dishonorable, for him to refrain
from so doing.
If a marriageable youth has a mother, she describes to him the
girls of her acquaintance, and enables him to decide whom to take
to his house and home. If he has no mother, and frequently when he
has one, he engages a woman whose profession is that of Khat-beh,
or marriage-broker; she has access to harems where there are
marriageable women, and is employed by them quite as often as by
the men. She receives fees from one party and frequently from both.
Observe the superiority of Christendom over Islam. In our own
country feminine match-makers are numerous, but they work
without pay. The only reward they expect or desire is the satisfaction
of having made two people happy—or miserable. For the result of
the marriages they cause, they generally care as little as do their
Moslem sisters.
The Moslem broker goes to the harems, accompanied by the
mother or other feminine relations of the young man; she introduces
them as ordinary visitors, but gives a sly hint as to the object of their
call. If they do not like the appearance of the maiden they plead
many calls to make, and cut short their stay, but if satisfied, they
come to business at once, and ask how much property, personal or
otherwise, the young lady possesses. When these facts are
ascertained, they depart, with the intimation that they may call
again.
It is a strange peculiarity of Moslem countries that a rich girl can
find a husband more readily than can a poor one. I am sure such a
thing was never heard of in England or America. The young man
hears the report of the broker, and, if satisfied, he sends her again
to the harem to state his prospects in life, and give a personal
description of himself.
 The broker is not particular to confine herself to facts, and
indulges in that hyperbole for which the Orient is famed. Her client
may be a very ordinary youth, with no property of consequence, and
whom she has never seen three times in her life. She strikes an
attitude before the maiden, and says:
“O, my daughter! he has heard of you, and his heart is heavy for
love of you. He is handsome as the moon, and his eyes sparkle like
the stars; he has a form and figure which all the world envy, and he
has wealth surpassing all that Aladdin’s Lamp could bestow. He will
buy the finest house in Cairo; you will be his thought by day and his
dream by night, and his whole time will be devoted to loving and
caressing you.”
It is customary for parents to obtain a daughter’s consent to a
marriage, but this is not at all necessary, and very often is
considered a mere trifle not worth regarding. Sometimes the father
interferes when he discovers that the proposed husband is poor, or
has a bad temper; any slight objection of this sort makes pater
familias whimsical, and serves as a stumbling block. He frequently
insists that a younger daughter shall not be married before an elder
one, and sometimes the broker describes a young and charming
maiden to the anxious youth while she negotiates the match for her
elder and less attractive sister. If he subsequently complains, she
assures him that it is all in the family, and says he can imagine that
he has wedded the beauty by wedding her sister.
Among the middle and upper classes the man never sees the face
of his bride until the marriage ceremony is concluded. This excellent
custom greatly facilitates business, as it does away with any absurd
notion he may have about beauty.
When the preliminaries are settled, the bridegroom calls upon the
girl’s “Wekeel,” or deputy, and concludes the contract. This deputy is
her nearest male relative, or her guardian, and his special duty is to
fix the terms of the dowry which the husband is to pay. This varies
according to the wealth and position of the parties; the least sum
allowed by law is equal to about five English shillings, and this is
indispensable.
Among respectable tradesmen and people of the middle classes,
fifty or seventy-five dollars will suffice, and there is almost always a
great deal of haggling before the amount of the dowry is fixed. From
the necessity of paying something to the bride’s family, the youths
not unnaturally speak of marriage as “buying a wife.” A donkey-
driver whom I employed occasionally in Cairo, used to discourse
upon the matter as follows:
“I save money for buy wife. When I save three pounds I buy wife,
one wife. I now have save two pounds. I have wife next year.”
The contract between bridegroom and deputy is nearly always
verbal, but in presence of three or more witnesses. The first chapter
of the Koran is recited by them in unison, and certain prayers or
other formulae are repeated, and the bridegroom is fairly “hooked.”
Before they separate they fix the night when the bride is to be taken
to the bridegroom’s house.
Eight or ten days pass away. He sends presents to her, and she
and her family are busy preparing linen, carpets, clothing, and other
items of an outfit for the bride, so that all the dowry and generally
much more is expended for her use. The articles thus bought belong
to her under all circumstances, and she takes them away in case she
is divorced.
Two or three nights before the wedding the bridegroom hangs
lanterns in front of his house to indicate what is coming, and these
lanterns remain there till after the wedding. On the last night of his
bachelorhood he gives a party, and it is a pleasing custom of the
country that the persons invited to this party are expected to bring
or send presents, so that the entertainment generally pays for itself,
and very handsomely, too.
Traces of this custom are found in American weddings, where the
relations and friends of the victims are expected to “come down”
with valuable articles that may be useful in housekeeping, and at the
same time will “spout” well at the pawnbroker’s.
 The day before the bride is to be brought home she goes to the
bath; her feminine friends and relatives accompany her in
procession. In front are the musicians; then come married relatives;
then unmarried girls and then the bride.
She walks under a canopy of bright colored silk, carried by four
men who sustain a pole at each corner. The canopy is open in front,
but closed on the other sides and the bride walking beneath it is
completely concealed by her dress which generally consists of red
silks or a red cashmere shawl over her ordinary clothing. Two of her
friends walk with her under the canopy, one on each side and the
procession is ended by a couple of musicians and the rag-tag of
small boys that adhere to processions in all parts of the globe.
The party remains several hours in the bath which is generally
hired for the occasion, and they sometimes have a grand feast there.
Then they return to her house and have another feast, and on the
following afternoon she is taken to the bridegroom’s house in a
procession similar to that of the bath. She is conducted to the
harem; her friends sup with her and then depart.
The same evening the bridegroom submits himself to the
manipulations of his barber, and then goes to one of the mosques
accompanied by musicians, torch-bearers, and friends.
He says his prayers, goes home, sups with his
friends and leaves them after a time to their pipes and
coffee while he proceeds to the harem. There he finds
the bride and her attendant. The latter retires; the
bridegroom lifts the veil from the bride’s head and for
the first time sees her face.
So much for the forms of courtship and marriage.
Another important element of matrimony is divorce,
and it is more prevalent than in our own country for
the reason that it is easier. Indiana and other states
famous for their facilities for unsplicing married couples might learn
something from benighted Egypt and something in the language of
the popular advertisement “to their advantage.” Divorce is
fashionable and every respectable man must indulge in it.
The first few days of my stay in Cairo our party employed a guide
whom we found at the hotel. He was an intelligent Mohammedan
speaking French quite well, and his certificates of character were
most flattering. While I was questioning him about marriage customs
he declared with no appearance of regret in any form: "I have had
nine wives and am now living with my tenth. When I don’t like a
wife I divorce her.”
The whole story is told in the last sentence of his remark—“When
I don’t like a wife I divorce her.” The only form of divorce necessary
is for the husband to say to the wife in the presence of a single
witness, “I divorce you.” No residence in Chicago or Indianapolis is
necessary; there are no lawyers to be engaged and no fees to be
paid; no troublesome affidavits about im-compatibility of temper and
the like are to be signed, nor must one stretch his conscience in
making oath to any document. Say only “I divorce you,” and the
work is accomplished.
As a consequence of these facilities the people of Egypt are very
much married. Men can be found in Cairo by the hundred who have
had as many as twenty or thirty wives in half that number of years,
and women who have had the same plurality of husbands in a
similar time. But divorced women are not considered as desirable as
those who have never been married, and consequently these
frequent divorces fall more heavily on them than upon men. The
Khedive is well aware of the debasing effect of the marriage laws
and has improved them in several ways.
Polygamy is becoming less popular every year, and would probably
die out altogether in course of time if it were not expressly
sanctioned by the Koran.
The legal number of wives is four, but not one man in five hundred
in Cairo or Constantinople avails himself of the privilege. A
Mohammedan whom I questioned one day on the subject of
polygamy made the following reply:
 “I have one time two wife. Now I have one wife. One wife make
house enough warm. Two wife make house so hot you bake bread in
all times and no fire. You have three wife,—Bismillah,—house hot so
no man live there.”
The mother-in-law has the same popularity among husbands in
Moslem countries that she enjoys in more western lands. Most men
there prefer to marry women whose mothers are dead and who
have no near relatives of their own sex, and some husbands forbid
their wives to see any women except those who are related to the
lord and master of the house. But this latter rule is very seldom
enforced.
 CHAPTER LIII.—WINTER ON THE
NILE—THE KHAMSEEN AND ITS
EFFECTS—BEDOUIN LIFE.
Winter in Egypt—A soft and balmy air—A Rainstorm on the Nile—
An Asylum for Invalids—The Month of Flowers—The “Khamseen”
What is it?—A blast as from a Furnace—Singular effects of the South
Wind—A Sun like Copper and a Sky like Brass—A cloud of Sand—
Eating Dirt—Fleeing from the Khamseen—How the Laboring classes
live—Hungry but not Cold—Oriental Houses—An Excursion to
Heliopolis—Habits of the Bedouins—A Fastidious People—Life in a
Bedouin Encampment—Among the Obelisks—How they were
brought Five Hundred Miles—The Madonna-Tree.

T
HE winter climate of Egypt is one of the most charming in the
world and some persons say it is the most delightful to be
found anywhere. I met invalids there who had been at all the
famous resorts of the West Indies, at the Sandwich Islands, in the
south of France, in Spain, anywhere and everywhere, and they give
the credit of superiority to Egypt.
Unfortunately the winter of 1873-4 was very bad, the worst ever
known in Cairo, so the old residents said. There was a great deal of
rain; altogether during the winter it rained on seventeen days;
sometimes only for a few minutes, and again there were several
hours of pouring rain. Ordinarily there will be from six to ten
showers in the course of the winter, and for the rest of the time
there is the clear sky of Egypt, day after day, and night after night. I
was there nearly four months and aired my umbrella only twice in
that time though there were two other occasions when I would have
been glad to air it; I was caught in heavy showers with no better
protection than my cane, and was forced to go home in a condition
like that of a cat after an involuntary bath.
While I was up the Nile there was one slight shower of five
minutes or so one evening and that was all; at the same time there
was a heavy rain in Cairo that converted all the streets into lanes of
mud and made it very difficult to get around. And in Alexandria it is
much worse as the rain falls there many a time when not a drop is
known in Cairo. The farther you go to the South in Egypt the drier
you find the climate until you get beyond the desert country and into
the region of the tropical rains.
Among the invalids who go there there are some who are greatly
benefited, while others find no relief or are positively injured. At my
hotel there were several ailing persons; some with difficulties of the
chest, others with bad circulation of the blood, others with cerebral
affections, others recovering from broken or sprained limbs, and
others with a shortness of bank account. For the last Cairo is not to
be recommended, as it is an expensive place and the habits of the
country require cash payments unless you can find somebody willing
to give you credit.
As for the other sufferers, some grow rapidly better, and some
grow rapidly worse until sent away by the doctors, and I have
known two cases of chest difficulty where one man recovered almost
entirely, and the other afflicted almost exactly as his neighbor was
obliged to leave in a fortnight under penalty of furnishing a fee to
the coroner if he remained longer.
A resident physician says that bronchial affections, chronic
diseases of the mucous membrane, debilitated circulation and
scrofulous diseases of all kinds are more likely to be subdued in
Egypt than most other maladies. Some consumptives have been
entirely restored by a voyage on the Nile and where a man is in
search of a dry atmosphere he can find it for three or four months
without trouble, provided he can undertake the voyage on the river
so as to spend a fortnight or three weeks in Nubia about the
beginning of the year. He will thus avoid the few rains of Cairo and
get back to the city in season for the delightful weather at the end of
March.
There is an end to the delightful winter climate of Cairo, a climate
with which I was enchanted and regretted exceedingly to leave. In
all the winter I did not need an overcoat except when going out for
a carriage ride, I did not need a fire in my room and there was no
place for making one even had I wanted it. Every day I was able to
sit at an open window and write—sometimes with my coat off—and
the thermometer from eleven o’clock till an hour before sunset was
rarely lower than 68°. The nights are cool and the mornings
particularly so, but as I do not rise early except upon compulsion the
morning freshness did not incommode me.
It is necessary to be very cautious about the night air, and one
should not go out in the evening without wrapping the throat in
something that will keep off the dew. But whatever the nights may
be, the days are warm and one can sit in the open air, without
danger and with positive comfort, provided there is no wind blowing!
The trees were in full leaf, and during the month of March there was
an abundance of flowers. But early in April comes the Khamseen.
“What is that?” you may possibly ask.
Well, early in April, though sometimes not till the middle or end of
that month, there comes a wind from the south, a hot debilitating
wind that makes you feel as stupid as a dead horse, and as cross as
a bear whose ears and tail were cropped yesterday. The mercury
goes above par in the shade, and is at a premium of twenty-five or
thirty per cent, in the sun. Every drop of moisture has been wrung
from the atmosphere in its passage over the desert, and the blast
upon you feels like the breath of a furnace. Everything dries up—
furniture cracks; the leaves fall from the trees; the hair crackles and
emits sparks in combing; your newspaper will rustle and crack as
though held over the flame of a lamp; the sheet of the letter you are
writing will curl up, and before you are at the end of a word of three
syllables, the first part of it will have the ink as dry as though baked
in a kiln; and a wet cloth hung at the window dries up almost
instantaneously. If you are in the house, you think you will walk out,
and if you walk out you will wish you had staid in. It is time for you
to settle your hotel bill, and get away from Cairo.
This wind is called here the “Khamseen,” but is better known to
the outer world as the simoon or sirocco. It begins generally by
blowing a single day, and then you have several days of pleasant
weather; then you will have two, three, or four days of wind in
succession, and then an interval of about the same length before
another blast sets in. The natives say there are usually about fifty
days of it altogether, and hence its name, Khamsecn being the
Arabic word for fifty. Some years it is very mild—not more than thirty
days of it—and the next year it may be mild or it may be worse. I
didn’t propose to stay there to find out. I had one day of the
Khamseen, and that satisfied my curiosity.
In addition to the heat, the air is full of the finest sand so that the
sun looks like a ball of burning copper, and the sky becomes yellow.
The sand finds its way everywhere; the furniture of the room will be
covered with it; you find it in your soup and in nearly every dish that
you eat; and I was told that it will get inside your watch-cases, even
though you wrap your timepiece in buckskin, and lay it away in the
bottom of your trunk till the sirocco is over. If you have a hollow
tooth you can take enough sand out of it at the end of the
Khamseen to fill an hour-glass.
Dost thou like the picture? Methinks I hear your emphatic
negation.
Strangers generally leave when this desert wind comes, and those
of the residents who can afford it make a trip to Europe, or if not
there, to Alexandria. On the sea-coast there is less wind, and the air
is several degrees cooler than at Cairo.
Alexandria is quite a pleasure resort in the summer; the court
generally goes there to put in the warm weather, and sniff the
breezes of the Mediterranean, and the foreign representatives do
likewise. The season at Cairo ends when the court takes its
departure; the city of the Caliphs becomes dull and uncomfortable.
What a contrast to the most delightful winter on the face of the
globe!
A great deal has been written about the sufferings of the lowest
classes in Egypt, and we have had some wonderful pictures of native
distress painted by travellers. The house of the fellah is a mud hovel,
his clothes are scanty and his food is coarse. He is not liberally paid
for his labor, and he eternally begs for “backsheesh,” not that he
expects always to get it, but from

force of habit. He might have a cleaner house if he would, but as

for his clothes they are more superfluous than necessary. If it were
not for the prejudices of education, he might go in nakedness and
would not suffer; he would be warm enough in the day time without
any clothing, and if he remained in doors at night he would be
equally comfortable. A strip of cloth around his loins would be
enough to protect him under ordinary circumstances, and if he
wants to get himself up luxuriously, he can mount a long shirt of
blue cotton, and the thing is accomplished.
 The laboring classes doubtless suffer from hunger—were there
ever any laboring classes anywhere that did not?—but they do not
suffer from cold and wet. Hunger here is not accompanied by its two
great allies, cold and rain, and to my mind it is robbed of much of its
terror. Is not the condition of the poor ten times as bad in our great
cities in winter as in summer, solely for the reason that there must
be heat and shelter along with food to keep away suffering? When I
look upon this careless people and remember the advantages of
their climate, I think they are to be envied perpetually by the poor of
London or New York.
The court is one of the characteristics of an Oriental house. Even
the meanest hovels of the lowest classes have something of the
kind. The passage from the doorway into the court is usually so
contrived that no view can be had from the street into it; this is
sometimes done by the erection of a wall, or by giving a turn to the
passage that leads into the court. Some houses have one court,
others two, and three are not uncommon. If a house has but one
court, it is generally an open space or quadrangle, round which the
apartments for the inmates, and in country places also the sheds for
the cattle, are arranged. In the very poorest of these there is merely
one apartment, and a shed for cattle, and the court or yard is
surrounded with a hedge of thorny boughs, having only one court,
of a far superior kind. Entering into the courtyard you see around
you a number of little buildings, not deficient in convenience, and
occasionally presenting a certain air of elegance—though frequently
constructed on no regular plan. In these are found various little
chambers, one piled upon the other, the half-roof of which always
forms a terrace for walking, from which a little flight of steps or
ladder leads to the dwelling-house, or to the upper terrace. This
court is well paved; on one side doors lead to the apartments of the
family, and on the other to those of the servants. They are often
beautified with a number of fragrant trees and marble fountains, and
compassed round with splendid apartments and divans. The divans
are floored and adorned on the sides with a variety of inlaid marbles
wrought in interlacing patterns. They are placed on all sides of the
court, so that at one or other of them, shade or sunshine can always
be enjoyed at pleasure. In the summer season, or when a large
company is to be received, the court is usually sheltered from the
heat and inclemencies of the weather by a curtain or awning, which,
being expanded upon ropes from one wall to the other, may be
folded or unfolded at pleasure.
I spent a day delightfully and profitably in making an excursion
from Cairo to Heliopolis, where, in remote antiquity an imperial city
stood, but whose site is now only marked by a few mounds, and by
an obelisk supposed to be the oldest in Egypt. The road leads
through fertile gardens, and irrigated fields of corn and rice, and
past many Bedouin encampments.
The Arabs are peculiarly sensitive to noisome smells, and in a city
they may frequently be observed hurrying along with their nostrils
closed by a corner of the kerchief, to avoid the effluvia which
surrounds them. This is one reason why they always prefer pitching
their tents without, to residing within the walls.
 The real Bedouin visits the city only to make purchases at the
bazaars, and he is the most picturesque of all the moving figures in
an Eastern crowd. Strong, but slender in frame, his striped abba
hangs easily in heavy folds over his shoulder, and his dark skin and
prominent features, and keen black eye, all mark the unchanged son
of the desert, who belongs not to the city, but passes through it,
indifferent to its conveniences and luxuries, and despising its
customs like his ancestors. In my journey up the Nile I saw many
encampments of genuine Bedouins, and I always found that an Arab
in his encampment is a different being from what he is when
wandering in the desert. Within the former his time is idly passed,
smoking, drinking coffee, and sleeping; yet his steed was always
ready caparisoned at the door of his tent; beside him in the sand
was planted his spear, and at the call of his chief he was ready to
vault into his saddle, and rush forth to battle with all the fire of his
nation.
From Cairo to Heliopolis the distance is only five or six miles, and
a donkey ride of less than two hours brought us to the foot of the
solitary obelisk that exists to remind us of the once famous “city of
the sun.” The obelisk is of red granite, and must have come from the
quarries of Syene five hundred miles away. It measures sixty-seven
feet in height, and its base is buried several feet in earth, gradually
deposited by successive overflows of the Nile. It is covered with
hieroglyphics and bears the name of Osirtesen I., the most illustrious
member of the XIIth Dynasty, who reigned over both Upper and
Lower Egypt. Who executed it, or sculptured it, or how it was
transported to its present site, and erected, are questions not yet
answered.
A taste for story-telling is still one of their leading characteristics.
They know no greater pleasure than to assemble together in their
encampment, and seated in front of one of their number, smoke,
and listen with the most intense interest to the exploits of warriors,
the adventures of lovers, or the enchantment of sorcerers, until want
of breath and want of sleep put an end to the tales.

Hard by there is an old sycamore tree—called the Madonna’s tree

—under which, tradition says, Mary rested with her infant when
flying from Herod. It looks like a stunted tree of enormous growth,
as if several trees springing up side by side had grown together.
That the tree as it now stands is of very great age, there can be no
manner of doubt.
 CHAPTER LIV—LAST DAYS IN
EGYPT.
The Last Stroll around the Mooskee—Talking to the Donkey-Boys
and Dragomen—A Queer Lot—A Pertinacious Customer—The Judge’s
Expedient—A Little Humbug—Rich American Tourists “in a Horn”—
The Dragoman’s Salutation “Sing Sing!”—Getting Rid of a Nuisance—
Buying Keepsakes—Out of the Desert into a Garden—Curiosities for
Farmers—A Mohammedan Festival—Curious Sights—Snake Charmers
—How they do it—Music-Loving Reptiles—On an Egyptian Railroad—
Pompey’s Pillar—A Ludicrous Accident—Alexandria, its Sights and
Scenes—Climbing Pompey’s Pillar—A Daring Sailor—An Arab Swindle
—Going on Board the Steamer—Farewell to Egypt.

T
HE hot wind from the desert made itself manifest early in
April, and said in terms that were not to be mistaken “Get out
of this.”
I took a farewell stroll around the Mooskee, the Esbekeeah, and
the Shoobra road and skirmished for the last time with the donkey
boys and dragomen who infest those places. Among the tribes of
ragged, dirty, vagrant urchins who swarm in the streets of Cairo, the
donkey boys head the list. Every traveller knows them and you hear
them spoken of as “Confounded rascals” or “Bright little fellows”
according to the luck the Frankish traveller has happened to meet
among the species. Occasionally you see boot-blacks with kits similar
to their cousins in more civilized countries, and the two who used to
hang around my hotel in Cairo always ready for “backsheesh”
whether they gave my boots a “shine” or not, were the most
unprepossessing little gamins I ever met.
One fellow used to annoy two of us greatly with propositions to
enter our employ; and half a dozen times every day he used to
pester us with proposals, and we endeavored to hire him to let us
alone but all to no purpose. He had performed a slight service for us
for which he would take nothing and he felt that this service entitled
him to hang around, and ask us for recommendations, and try to
make a contract with us. We could not shake him off and one day
the Judge hit upon a neat expedient.
On the whole I had no regret at parting with the donkey boys and
dragomen, particularly with the latter, who hang around the the
hotels at Cairo in great numbers, and were always ready to agree to
take you anywhere you wish to go.

One of them answered “yes” to my question as to the possibility of

accompanying me to the moon, and offered to undertake the job for
thirty shillings a day and furnish everything. As I was not then ready
for an aerial voyage I did not pursue the subject, and as he left me
alone after that I conclude that he must have felt offended.
 “I shall be much obliged,” said the dragoman, “if you will get me a
good party of Americans to go to Jerusalem. I take them cheap and
very well.” And twenty times a day he made this proposal.
One day when we saw him standing on the veranda of the hotel—
he had not caught sight of us but was evidently waiting for our
appearance—the Judge walked forward as if he were anxiously
looking for the dragoman, and said, “I have a good thing for you.
There may be a party of rich Americans coming down the Nile, and if
you can find them and make a bargain with them to pay a high price
you will be lucky.”
“Yes, yes,” said Mohammed, his eyes glistening with delight, “I
make good bargain with them, I take them cheap and very well.”
“Never take them cheap. High price, the highest,—fifty shillings a
day each, and there ought to be ten of them.”
Mohammed clapped his hands with delight as the Judge
continued,
“They will pay fifty, yes sixty shillings a day if they agree to. They
are very rich and would like to own half the money in America.”
“Bismillah! and that be so?”
“Yes, and you must do the thing in style; silver plated camel for
the old man, and dromedary with six legs for his daughter the
princess.”
“I give them everything, everything. I take them cheap and very
well. They pay me one hundred shillings a day and shall have what
they just want. When they come?”
“I don’t know,” said the Judge doubtfully. “But you had better go
to the landing at Boulak and wait for them.”
“No, I waits here in the hotel for them. They come here.”
“Doubtful,” said the Judge, “very doubtful. I don’t know what hotel
they will come to and don’t think they will come to this. You had
better go to the landing and wait for them, and then you will be
there all the time you stay in Boulak.” "I understand, I go to Boulak
and find ze rich American. And what shall I ask his name?”
 “The Grand Duke of Chicago; about fifty years old, lost his left ear
in a duel, and wears three pairs of eye-glasses. Was decorated by
the Prince of Hoboken five years ago, and always wears his
decoration. You will know him by that—as large as a soup-plate and
twice as greasy. When you see him, step up and say “Sing-Sing,”
and he will understand you know all about him. Sing Sing is one of
his palaces.”
“I understand and he pay a hundred shillings a day and extra for
ze camels.”
“Yes, a hundred shillings and camels, food, tents, and dragoman
extra. Will give five hundred pounds “backsheesh” to you before you
start.”
Mohammed could wait no longer. The prospect of such a mine to
explore was too good to be lost. He went to Boulak immediately, and
during the rest of my stay I saw him only once, and then he was
walking in the morning toward Boulak to take up his waiting station.
I understood afterward that we really did him a good turn as his stay
at Boulak was rewarded with a customer,—not as good as the Grand
Duke of Chicago, but yet a remunerative one.
The day at length arrived for my departure. So I paid a farewell
visit to our excellent representative, Consul-General Beardsley, and
to a few other friends and acquaintances, and in other ways made
ready for departure.
I spent a last morning in the bazaars and devoted an hour to the
purchase of an oriental necklace and a few other trifles. An hour was
the least time in which I could do the necessary bargaining; in
London or Paris it would have been all over in two minutes.
In buying the necklace I left the shop four times and gradually
beat the fellow down to a decent price; he asked less on each
occasion that I approached him, and if I had devoted half a day to
the business I might have done better than I did. I paid him for my
purchase a little more than fifty per cent, of what he demanded at
the outset and probably quite as much as he expected to receive. I
left Cairo by the slow train as I wished to see the stations along the
road, and was in no hurry to be whisked through by express. Two of
us offered a rupee, (fifty cents,) to the conductor if he would give us
the exclusive use of a compartment, and to make sure that he would
carry out his agreement we suggested that we would pay him at the
end of the journey.
He was entirely content with the arrangement and
carried out his part of it to perfection. He came to us
at every station to see if we wanted anything, and
when we left the car at places where the stops were
long, he carefully locked the compartment and
stationed a brakeman to watch it and make sure that
nobody else should enter it. We gave him his rupee at
the last station before reaching Alexandria and saw
him no more.
He was an Arab with a good-natured face, and as
soon as the money was promised him he appeared to regard it as a
sure thing. It is somewhat uncomplimentary to the natives of this
country, that they are more inclined to trust strangers than each
other. If an Egyptian official or merchant had made a promise like
ours the conductor would have paid little heed to it as the chances
would have been against fulfillment, but he accepted the word of a
stranger without hesitation. Carriage drivers, donkey boys, and
boatmen repeatedly told me “the foreigners always pay what they
agree to, but the natives don’t.”
“We like to deal with you even when you make very close bargains
because we feel sure of the money, but it isn’t so with the Egyptians
and Turks.”
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebookultra.com