[78]. Shubrah, a very pretty garden on the right bank of the Nile, about three miles below Cairo, which was planted and laid out with some taste by a Greek gardener under the instructions of Mohammed Ali. He built a small country house at one extremity, and a very handsome kiosk in the centre of it, containing a large basin of water. At the four corners of the kiosk were richly furnished apartments, in one of which was a billiard-table, at which the old warrior used sometimes to recreate himself during his latter days with his officers or guests. After his death the garden was neglected and almost destroyed.
[79]. Squinting is considered in the East an ill omen, and those affected by it are generally avoided. “May you be blind,” or “May you squint,” is not an unfrequent Arab curse. It is curious that the word for “squinting” is identical in the French and Persian languages, louche.
[80]. Every beled or village in Egypt has its sheik or headman, who is responsible for the payment of the taxes, rents, and dues, as well as for the military recruits leviable on its population. Generally speaking, these sheiks are the greatest rascals and tyrants in the country, though they themselves are frequently oppressed and beaten by their Turkish masters.
[81]. The Defterdar at the period of our tale was a relative of Mohammed Ali, and was an officer possessed of vast power and influence. It may be added that his cruelty was commensurate with his power. The re-mensuration of the cultivable lands had been intrusted entirely to him, and he was responsible for the revenues of the enormous extent of land which the mistaken policy of Mohammed Ali had led him to take into his own hands. Despite the energetic vigour of the Viceroy and the severity of the Defterdar, these lands never produced one-half of the amount which they would have returned had they been farmed to a number of tenants, or to the villagers themselves.
[82]. One hundred ardebs are equivalent to sixty-three imperial quarters.
[83]. The reader is doubtless aware that in oriental houses there exist neither tables, chairs, cupboards, nor shelves. The last are replaced by niches and recesses of various forms and sizes made in the walls of the room, and in well-furnished houses these niches exhibit goodly rows of china, glass, scent-bottles, &c.
[84]. Most of the finely-tempered oriental blades, especially those of ancient manufacture, have stamped upon them, near the hilt, “There is no God but Allah,” or some short sentence from the Koran.
[85]. Among the Orientals, Youssuf—i.e., Joseph—was and still remains the proverbial type of manly beauty in the prime of youth. In the Eastern legends the frail helpmate of Potiphar has been changed into a lovely and high-born maiden, called Zuleika. The loves of this couple are referred to in one of the most eloquent chapters of the Koran, and have since been celebrated by Arab and Persian poets innumerable.
[86]. A dark powder used in the East.
[87]. I suppose it is well known that on entering a carpeted apartment in the East it is customary to leave the slippers near the door, or at all events on the stone or marble floor at the outer edge of the carpet.