The puppet show of “Kara Gyooz” has been introduced into Egypt by Turks, in whose language the puppets are made to speak.[[490]] Their performances, which are, in general, extremely indecent, occasionally amuse the Turks residing in Cairo; but, of course, are not very attractive to those who do not understand the Turkish language. They are conducted in the manner of the “Chinese shadows;” and therefore only exhibited at night.
CHAPTER XXI.
PUBLIC RECITATIONS OF ROMANCES.
The Egyptians are not destitute of better diversions than those described in the preceding chapter: reciters of romances frequent the principal kahwehs (or coffee-shops) of Cairo and other towns, particularly on the evenings of religious festivals, and afford attractive and rational entertainments. The reciter generally seats himself upon a small stool on the mastab′ah, or raised seat, which is built against the front of the coffee-shop:[[491]] some of his auditors occupy the rest of that seat; others arrange themselves upon the mastab′ahs of the houses on the opposite side of the narrow street; and the rest sit upon stools or benches made of palm-sticks; most of them with the pipe in hand; some sipping their coffee; and all highly amused, not only with the story, but also with the lively and dramatic manner of the narrator. The reciter receives a trifling sum of money from the keeper of the coffee-shop, for attracting customers: his hearers are not obliged to contribute anything for his remuneration: many of them give nothing, and few give more than five or ten faddahs.[[492]]
The most numerous class of reciters is that of the persons called “Sho’ara” (in the singular “Shá’er,” which properly signifies a poet). They are also called “Aboo-Zeydeeyeh,” or “Aboo-Zeydees,” from the subject of their recitations, which is a romance entitled “The Life of Aboo-Zeyd” (“Seeret Aboo-Zeyd”). The number of these Sho’ara in Cairo is about fifty; and they recite nothing but the adventures related in the romance of Aboo-Zeyd.
This romance is said to have been founded upon events which happened in the middle of the third century of the Flight; and is believed to have been written not long after that period; but it was certainly composed at a much later time, unless it have been greatly altered in transcription. It is usually found in ten or more small quarto volumes. It is half prose and half poetry; half narrative and half dramatic. As a literary composition, it has little merit, at least in its present state; but as illustrative of the manners and customs of the Bedawees, it is not without value and interest. The heroes and heroines of the romance, who are mostly natives of Central Arabia and El-Yemen, but some of them of El-Gharb, or Northern Africa, which is called “the West,” with reference to Arabia, generally pour forth their most animated sentiments, their addresses and soliloquies, in verse. The verse is not measured, though it is the opinion of some of the learned in Cairo that it was originally conformed to the prescribed measures of poetry, and that it has been altered by copyists; still, when read, as it always is, almost entirely in the popular (not the literary) manner, it is pleasing in sound, as it also often is in matter. Almost every piece of poetry begins and ends with an invocation of blessings on the Prophet.
The Shá’er always commits his subject to memory; and recites without book. The poetry he chants; and after every verse he plays a few notes on a viol which has but a single chord, and which is called “the poet’s viol,” or “the Aboo-Zeydee viol;” from its only being used in these recitations. It has been described in a former chapter. The reciter generally has an attendant with another instrument of this kind, to accompany him. Sometimes a single note serves as a prelude and interlude. To convey some idea of the style of a Shá’er’s music, I insert a few notes of the commencement of a chant:—
