--Degraded State of the Women in the East.

The early hours kept in the Levant cannot fail to strike the European
stranger. At Cairo every one is up and about at sunrise; all business is
transacted in the morning, and some of the bezesteins and principal
bazaars are closed at twelve o'clock, at which hour many people retire
to their homes and only appear again in the cool of the evening, when
they take a ride or sit and smoke a pipe and listen to a storyteller in
a coffee-house or under a tree. Soon after sunset the whole city is at
rest. Every one who then has any business abroad is obliged to carry a
small paper lantern, on pain of being taken up by the guard if he is
found without it. Persons of middle rank have a glass lamp carried
before them by a servant, and people of consequence are preceded by men
who run before their train of horses with a fire of resinous wood,
carried aloft on the top of a pole, in an iron grating called a mashlak.
This has a picturesque effect, and throws a great light around.

Each different district of the city is separated from the adjoining one
by strong gates at the end of the streets: these are all closed at
night, and are guarded by a drowsy old man with a long beard, who acts
as porter, and who is roused with difficulty by the promise of a small
coin when any one wants to pass. These gates contribute greatly to the
peace and security of the town; for as the Turks, Arabs, Christians,
Jews, Copts, and other religious sects reside each in a different
quarter, any disturbance which may arise in one district is prevented
from extending to another; and the drunken Europeans cannot intrude
their civilization on their quiet and barbarous neighbours. There are
here no theatres, balls, parties, or other nocturnal assemblies; and
before the hour at which London is well lit up, the gentleman of Cairo
ascends to the top of his house and sleeps upon the terrace, and the
servants retire to the court-yard; for in the hot weather most people
sleep in the open air. Many of the poorer class sleep in the open places
and the courts of the mosques, all wrapping up their heads and faces
that the moon may not shine upon them.

The Mahomedan day begins at sunset, when the first time of prayer is
observed; the second is about two hours after sunset; the third is at
the dawn of day, when the musical chant of the muezzins from the
thousand minarets of Cairo sounds most impressively through the clear
and si