Books in [Boy' own library] series

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1865. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. WE SET BAIL. People accustomed to travel in the East require but a few hours' preparation for the longest journey; thus even the week we had to wait for the Arab boat that was to take us to Massawa seemed to pass very tediously. However, it did pass; and so one morning the Doctor, Peter, and I, having hired what has been called the "cab " of Egypt, -- that is, a donkey, and a donkey-boy,--found ourselves gliding, for we went at no greater pace, through that, to the European who has never read or has forgotten his "Arabian Nights," oddest of cities, Grand Cairo, with its streets so narrow M;hat the gayly-decked houses seem to be kissing each other at their tops. Yet scoff not at them; for that which would be a grave fault in England, in Egypt is the greatest protection from the burning sun. Then what a polyglot population we had to force our way through, -- Turks, Arabs, Persians, Jews, Armenians, Moors, Berbers, Abyssinians, and Europeans! What a discordant jabber of tongues! What quaint costumes ! -- the swarthy and almost nude camel drivers; ladies yashmak'd, --that is, swathed, like mummies, till nothing but their eyes and slippers were to be seen; old Turks, with huge turbans and beards of patriarchal dimensions, but sitting at their shop windows with a dignified air, and their legs crossed, regarding with something akin to contempt their younger countrymen as they passed in their nondescript, semi-Europeanized attire, smart fezzes, and black braided, chocolate-colored jackets and trousers; then the peasant women, clad in blue, and carrying upon their heads their water-jars ; -- truly, it was a scene not easily to be forgotten; for until then I had not witnessed it, as nearly the whole of the time I had been at Cairo I had been confined to the ho...