The opening of the canal had naturally a great influence upon Suez. Formerly it was but an insignificant little town built upon a small corner of land near the northern arm of the Gulf of Suez. A railway connected it with Cairo some seventy-six miles distant. The town was walled on all sides except that facing the harbor. This harbor was rather an insignificant one, though it had a fairly good quay. Great improvements have been made. French and English houses and various offices and warehouses have been erected in different localities, which lend an air of thrift and enterprise to the town. The shops, or bazaars, have become much more pretentious, and furnish such supplies as clarified butter from Sinai, and fowls, grains, and vegetables from an Egyptian province.
The town, in spite of its improvements, is not attractive. There is little to please the eye in the wastes of burning sand that stretch out on every side. Rain is seen so seldom here as to seem almost a phenomenon. Sometimes intervals of more than three years elapse between the rainfalls.
It is rather interesting, in considering the changes that have taken place in the conditions of the earth's surface, to read that, in the opinion of many learned men, the Isthmus of Suez, though now only a dreary waste of sand, contained, at some remote time, the far-famed land of Goshen. Accounts of its fertility have been handed down to us from antiquity.
As we approach nearer the vicinity of the Nile we find, about fourteen miles north of Belbeys, the ruins of the ancient city Bubastis, the Pi-beseth of the Scriptures, the Tel Basta of modern times.
The name Bubastis is said to have been derived from that of the Egyptian goddess. It is related, that upon the flight of the gods into Egypt, Diana Bubastis changed herself into a cat. Since then these animals have been held sacred.
Historians give interesting accounts of festivals held at Bubastis in honor of the goddess. It was the custom to embalm all cats that died and send them to the sacred city to be buried.
At the present time there is no trace of these unique tombs, but the memory clings to these ancient sacred rites rather tenaciously, and many of the present customs may be traced back to them. It but serves to show the influence of superstition even in the light of modern days.
It cannot be denied that some of these customs may be regarded, however, in the light of kindness to animals. Not so very many years ago quite a large sum of money was bequeathed in Cairo for the support of homeless and friendless cats.
Until within comparatively a few years pilgrimages were made to Mecca. Each caravan had for its leader an old woman who was accompanied by a number of cats. In all honor, she was named "The mother of cats."
Even at the present time a man laden with cats accompanies each band of pilgrims to Mecca—a relic of the old time ceremony, which doubtless grew out of the custom of carrying the embalmed bodies of cats to Bubastis.