[18]. Commonly similar to No. 1, or No. 5.
[19]. Some large houses have two courts: the inner for the hareem; and in the latter, or both of these, there is usually a little enclosure of arched wood-work in which trees and flowers are raised.
[20]. In the accompanying view of the court of a house, the door of the hareem is that which faces the spectator.
[21]. Apparently a corruption of the Persian “dargáh.”—The view of a ká’ah opposite p. 14 will serve to illustrate the description of the mandar’ah.
[22]. The “leewán” is not to be confounded with the “deewán,” which is afterwards mentioned.
[23]. One of the chief reasons of the custom here mentioned is, to avoid defiling a mat or carpet upon which prayer is usually made. This, as many authors have observed, illustrates passages of the Scriptures—Exodus iii. 5, and Joshua v. 15.
[24]. See Jeremiah xxii. 14.
[25]. In the larger houses, and some others, there is also, adjoining the principal saloon, an elevated closet, designed as an orchestra, for female singers. A description of this will be found in the chapter on music.
[26]. This word is said to be derived from “kamar” (the moon). Baron Hammer-Purgstall thinks (see the Vienna “Jahrbücher der Literatur,” lxxxi. bd., pp. 71, 72) that it has its origin from Chumaruje [or, as he is called by the Arabs in general, Khumáraweyh], the second prince of the dynasty of the Benee-Tooloon, who governed in Egypt in the end of the ninth century of the Christian era, and that it proves the art of staining glass to have been in a flourishing state in Cairo at that period.
[27]. Excepting in the kitchen, in which are several small receptacles for fire, constructed on a kind of bench of brick. Hence, and for several other reasons (among which may be mentioned the sober and early habits of the people, the general absence of draperies in the apartments, and the construction of the floors, which are of wood overlaid with stone), the destruction of a house by fire seldom happens in Cairo; but when such an accident does occur, an extensive conflagration is the usual result; for a great quantity of wood, mostly deal, and of course excessively dry, is employed in the construction of the houses.