Life of Edward William Lane Author:Stanley Lane-Poole Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ALEXANDRIA. 19 mean and ragged clothing of many of the lower orders, contrasted with the gaudy splendour or graceful habit of some of their superio... more »rs, —the lounging soldier with his pipe and pistols and yataghan,—the blind beggar,—the dirty naked child, and the veiled female," afforded a picture beyond even what his dreams of the land of the Arabian Nights had conjured up. It is true the shady side of the scene was somewhat forcibly disclosed a few paces further on, by a brawl, a murder, and a decapitation, all occurring in the space of a few minutes before the eyes of'the young traveller. And as he examined Alexandria at leisure, he began to feel disappointed with it, and to long for Cairo. Notwithstanding the characteristic sights that first greeted him, the city was not Eastern enough, and he would have found his stay there wearisome but for the kindness, and hospitality of Mr. Salt, the British Consul-General, who received him like an old friend, although they were strangers to each other, and gave him a room in his country-house near the Bab-es-Sidr. Lane found a " delightful retreat" in Mr. Salt'sgarden, and plenty of entertainment in the company that visited the Consul. One of these friends, M. Linant, the indefatigable cartographer of Egypt, proposed that Lane should join his party to Cairo, an offer which, as a stranger and as yet unprovided with a servant, he gladly accepted. On the 28th September the Reyyis and crew chanted the Fat'hah, the beautiful prayer which opens the Kur-an, and M. Linant and his party, accompanied by Lane, set sail on the Mah- moodeeyeh canal for the El-Kahirah " the Guarded." The voyage was in no wise remarkable. Lane made his usual careful notes of every thing he saw, from the sarab to the creaking of the sakiyehs and the croak...« less