[262]. This is the first mention of coffee, apparently introduced by the scribe: the word rendered “coffee-makers” is “Kahwajiyah”; an Arab. plur. of a Turkish termination (-ji) to an Arab. word “Kahwah” (before noticed).
[263]. Picnics are still made to Rauzah (Rodah) island: I have enjoyed many a one, but the ground is all private property.
[264]. Arab. “Hosh,” plur. Híshán, the low courts surrounded by mean lodgings which in “native” Cairo still contrast so strongly with the “gingerbread” of the new buildings.
[265]. This is the Moslem equivalent of “thank you.” He looks upon the donor as the channel through which Allah sends him what he wants and prays for more to come. Thus “May your shadow never be less” means, May you increase in prosperity so that I may gain thereby! And if a beggar is disposed to be insolent (a very common case), he will tell you his mind pretty freely on the subject, and make it evident to you that all you have is also his and that La propriété (when not shared) est le vol.
[266]. I have noticed in my Pilgrimage (i. 51–53) the kindly care with which the stranger is treated by Moslems, a marvellous contrast to the ways of “civilization.”
[267]. Arab. “Dimyat,” vulg. pronounced “Dumíyat.”
[268]. Where the doorkeepers sit and receive their friends.
[269]. This is a traveller’s “Kit” in the East.
[270]. Arab. “Takht-rawán,” from Persian meaning “moveable throne.”
[271]. The use of the expression proved the speaker to be a Moslem Jinní.