BEIRA TRAM.
In Cairo, the old capital of Egypt, we find vehicles of all descriptions, for this city is a strange mixture of East and West. In the crowded streets motor-cars and buffaloes, splendid private carriages and long strings of clover-laden camels jostle each other, while steam tramcars carry tourists to the Pyramids and old Arabs on their tiny donkeys jog contentedly along the road in front of the great European hotels.
CAIRO CART.
The equipage of a rich Egyptian or high official is an imposing sight in the streets of Cairo. It is preceded by two or more gaily clad servants, or saises, who run in front of the horses with long sticks in their hands and shout to the pedestrians and the more humble conveyances to get out of the way.
Among these latter, which halt and draw back against the wall at the sais's command, we see some of the most curious of all the vehicles of Egypt, the little flat, two-wheeled carts on which native women of the poorer classes are conveyed. These carts are drawn by a mule or donkey, led by an Arab, and each carries a group of crouching women, who sit closely together with their black veils drawn over their faces. "An Arab taking out his wives for an airing"—that is how tourists often describe these quaint vehicles, but really they are public conveyances, and the native women, having paid their fares, are going on shopping expeditions to the bazaars or to visit their friends in some distant part of the city.
Nowadays, however, these picturesque conveyances are beginning to be considered old-fashioned, and the natives crowd into the electric trams which run in all directions through the town and into the suburbs beyond.