You may think this is drawing the donkey business to a considerable length, but you wouldn’t think so if you knew what a prominent place the animal has in the life and locomotion of modern Egypt. But through fear of wearying you, I will stop now; only let me tell you of the wit of one of the drivers.
One day I hired a donkey for a franc to make a journey for which the driver demanded three francs at the outset. When the bargain was concluded we started, but the beast was very slow, and I said to the driver that his steed was not good.
“Yes, donkey good,” was his reply. “Give donkey three francs, he good donkey; he no good for one franc.”
Soon after my arrival we had the pleasure of attending the horse races and noticing some of the peculiarities of the country.
The track for the Cairo races is two or three miles out of the city, on a large plain to the right of the Abooseer Road.
We left our donkeys in charge of their drivers, and bought tickets for the Grand Stand. The spectators were a mixed lot of natives and Europeans, nearly all the former being in European dress, with the exception of the fez or red cap, which covers the head at all times, whether in doors or out. A good many eunuchs were there and mingled freely with the crowd in and around the stand. They were nearly all tall—some of them unusually long in the legs—were clad a la European, and were rather gorgeous in the matter of watch chain. One who stood near me had a double length vest chain, a fob chain, and a chain around his neck. If there had been any other way of wearing a chain I presume he would have adopted that also.
Many of these neutral gentlemen were active in the discussion of the races; some of them made considerable wagers, and one of them, taller and rather older than the rest, appeared to exercise considerable authority over the jockeys, and superintended their mounting and weighing. The jockeys were of all colors and nationalities; there were English, French, and Italian jockeys; and there were Arab, Egyptian, and Nubian jockeys. There was comparatively little betting over the result, and quite an absence of the yelling and hooting heard at all races in England and at some in America.
