File:Mentone, Cairo and Corfu (1896) (14781334674).jpg

Identifier: mentonecairocorf00wool (find matches)
Title: Mentone, Cairo and Corfu
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Woolson, Constance Fenimore, 1840-1894
Subjects:
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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mpared withthe free, effortless step of the Arab beside them. THE BAZAARS One spends half ones time in the bazaars, perhaps.One admires them and adores them; but one feels thattheir attraction cannot be made clear to others bywords. Nor can it be by the camera. There are athousand photographic views of Cairo offered for sale,but, with the exception of an attempt at the gatewayof the Khan Khaleel, not one copy of these labyrinths,which is a significant fact. Their charm comes fromcolor, and this can be represented by the paintersbrush alone. But even the painter can render it onlyin bits. From a selfish point of view we might per-haps be glad that there is one spot left on this earthwhose characteristic aspect cannot be reproduced, eitherupon the wall or the pictured page, whose shimmeringvistas must remain a purely personal memory. We cansay to those who have in their minds the same fantas-tic vision, Ah, you know! But we cannot makeothers know. For what is the use of declaring that a
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AN EGYPTIAN WOMANFrom a photograph by Abdullah Freres, Cairo 183 collection of winding lanes, some of them not morethan three feet broad, opening into and leading out ofeach other, unpaved, dirty, roofed far above, where thehigh stone houses end, with a lattice-work of old mats—what is the use of declaring that this maze is one ofthe most delightful places in the world? There is nouse ; one must see it to believe it. We approach the bazaars by the Moosld, a streetwhich has lost all its ancient attraction—which is, infact, one of the most commonplace avenues I know.But near its end the enchantment begins, and whetherwe enter the flag bazaar, the lemon-colored-slipper ba-zaar, the gold-and-silver bazaar, the bazaar of the Sou-dan, the bazaar of silks and embroideries, the bazaar ofTurkish carpets, or the lane of perfumes felicitouslynamed by the donkey-boys the smell bazaar, we aresoon in the condition of children before a magicianstable. I defy any one to resist it. The most tiredA

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