signification does not mean a
jet of water, but simply a place where water can be obtained. The
sebeels are beautiful structures, often having marble walls, a dome, and
the richest kind of ornament. The water is either dipped with a cup from
the basin within, or drawn from the brass mouth-pieces placed
outside. Nothing could represent better, I think, the difference between
the East and the West than one of these elaborate fountains, covering,
in a crowded quarter, the space which might have been occupied by two or
three small houses, adorned with carved stone-work, slabs of porphyry,
and long inscriptions in gilt, and an iron town pump, its erect
slenderness taking up no space at all, and its excellent if unbeautiful
handle standing straight out against the sky.

[Illustration: MOUCHRABIYEHS IN THE OLD QUARTER]

A narrow lane, leaving the Street of the Sycamores, burrows still more
deeply into the heart of the quarter, and at last brings us to a porch
which juts into the roadway, masking, as is usual in Cairo, the real
doorway, which is within. Upon entering, one finds himself in a
quadrilateral court, which is open to the sky. An old sycamore shades
several latticed windows, among them one which contains three of the
smaller oriels; this portion of the second story rests upon an antique
marble column. On one side of the column is the low, rough archway
leading to the porch; on the other, the high decorated marble entrance
of the reception-hall. For in Arabian houses all the magnificence is
kept for the interior. In the streets one sees only plain stone walls,
which are often hidden under a stucco of mud, more or less peeled off,
so that they look half ruined. In the old quarters of Cairo, among the
private houses, one obtains, indeed (unless one has an invitation to
enter), a general impression of ruin. At the back of the sheykh's court
is the stairway to the hareem, the entrance masked by a gayly colored
curtain. Across another side extends the private mosque, only half
hidden by an ornamented grating. One can see the interior and the high
pulpit decked with the green flag of the Prophet. The walls which
encircle the court, and which are embellished here and there with Arabic
inscriptions, are of differing heights, as they form parts of separate
structures which have been erected at various periods through the eight
centuries. The place is, in fact, an agglomeration of houses, and some
of the older chambers are cru