{"id":156,"date":"2020-03-26T20:18:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T20:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/?page_id=156"},"modified":"2021-07-12T19:31:23","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T19:31:23","slug":"charles-dickens-the-merry-men-of-cairo-603","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/household-words-2\/charles-dickens-the-merry-men-of-cairo-603\/","title":{"rendered":"Pg. 603"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Household<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charles Dickens.] THE MERRY MEN OF CAIRO. 603<\/p>\n\n\n\n

words of the choicest that our\nlanguage contains. The learned Abd-es-Sarf has written a large book on the\ndonkeys of Cairo alone, and the things appertaining; but, as he has forgotten\nto laud the perfection of the, saddles and the bridles, much remains to be\ndone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the chief excellences of Cairo\nare its wags or merry men. Like unto them are to be found in no country on the\nface of the earth. They are not drunkards, dike the merry men of Stamboul; nor\nlicentious, dike those of Damascus; nor dishonest, like those of Aleppo; nor\nriotous, like those of Bassora. They mingle a pleasant proportion of gravity\nwith their mirth; and their chief art is to pass their life in jollity, without\ndoing any harm to their fellow creatures\u2014or rather, without doing more than is\nrequired to keep themselves in pleasant humour, for it is im\u00adpossible to laugh\nwithout  seeing others suffer slightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most celebrated of these merry men is Hassan, who passes his time in piercing the skins of the water-carriers, and in enjoy\u00ading the rage  and tears of the unfortunate man who, on arriving at his destination, finds that he has nothing but empty bags of leather on his camels. He always follows his victim at a distance, and when he has sufficiently laughed, he comes forward, saying, \u201cPoor man, what is the matter? Here is the price of thy<\/a> water.\u201d Then the carrier replies, \u201cMay Allah shower blessings upon thee<\/a>, and curses on the man who pierced my skins!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another, named Chirza, chiefly\ndelights in putting dead dogs or cats into the water-jars of the women; and it is\nrelated that he once saw a woman set down a jar at a door and go into the house\nto gossip. He had a cat under his cloak, and slipped it in without being seen.\nIn the evening, he related his joke to several friends who dined with him, and\nall laughed. Suddenly, the servant came in and said that the jar, from which\nthe water they had drank had been taken, contained a dead cat; and it was\ndiscovered that Chirza had played off his trick on his own maid by mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all the wags of the present\nday are inferior to the one surnamed Abu Munchar, or the Father of the Nose,\nwho flourished under the reign of King Ali Mustapha. His real name was Abdallah;\nbut, as his nose was about the size and shape of a full-grown cucumber, first\nthe children, then the women, and, by degrees, everybody nicknamed him Abu\nMunchar. He was the son of a merchant, who bequeathed to him considerable\nproperty, charging him to increase it; but, as he loved ease better than\nlabour, and saw that he had sufficient to keep him in comfort all his life, he\ndetermined to abandon trade and to adopt the profession of a merry man. More\nthan fifty of his exploits have been handed down by tradition; but it is\ngenerally admitted that the one we are about to relate was the most amusing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He lived in a fine mansion near\nthe Zeyneb gate, and his neighbours talked of scarcely anything but the comical\nthings he said and did. In order to be more at liberty, however, he bought a\nsmall house at the other ex\u00adtremity of the city, and used often to go there\ndressed in mean garments, and concoct and carry out plans of amusements. His\nmysteri\u00adous way of living created great curiosity in the neighbourhood; and as\nsecrecy always irritates the inquisitive, many began to spread the report that\nhe was no other than Manrow, the celebrated robber, disguised by a nose that\nAllah had not given him. These reports at length induced the head of the police\nto pay a visit to the house. Abu Munchar was a little alarmed at first; but, as\nhe had heard of the reports that had been spread, he received the official with\na gay countenance, and without giving him time to speak, said: \u201cO my master,\nthis is a most fortunate occasion. I wished to see you; for, on going along the\nstreet this morning, I found a purse containing a hundred pieces of gold, and\nas it is not probable that I shall discover the owner so easily as you will, it\nis best to place it in your hands \u201d So saying, he drew forth a purse and handed\nit to the head of the police, who understood the whole affair, and who, after making\nsome mild inquiries as to Abdallah\u2019s way of life, went away. The merry man\naccompanied him into the street, where his visitor embraced him with great\ndemonstrations of affection, and con\u00adtinued his round, answering all curious in\u00adquirers\nby saying, \u201cA man who laughs is never dangerous!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the neighbours saw with what dis\u00adtinction Abu Munchar was treated by the dreaded Zabib, they changed their opinion of him and eagerly sought his acquaintance. Among those who had most vilified him previously, was a poor devil of a barber, who used to shave in a bath visited only by water- carriers, fish-men, donkey-boys, and beggars; and who could scarcely contrive to exist on the produce of his razor. It is true, that more than half his earnings were expended in coffee and hasheesh<\/a> (to which he was inveterately addicted), and that many would not trust their heads in his hands, because he had once, when very drunk, sliced off the ear of a patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This barber, named Ali, said to\nhimself one day: “The man with the nose is evi\u00addently a jolly fellow, and\nyet he seems as poor as myself, Perhaps he has the secret of happiness; and, if\nI could make his ac\u00adquaintance he might discover it to me. I am a pleasant wise\nfellow, full of learned sayings, and strange stories, and witty conceits, and\nready answers, and experience of the world, and elegance of manner and taste,\nand know\u00adledge of exceeding good stories and of song\u00adcraft\u2014in short, there is\nno more agreeable companion in the world than I am; and, if I can show my\ntalents to this man it is
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Charles Dickens.] THE MERRY MEN OF CAIRO. 603 words of the choicest that our language contains. The learned Abd-es-Sarf has written a large book on the donkeys of Cairo alone, and the things appertaining; but, as he has forgotten to laud the perfection of the, saddles and the bridles, much remains to be done. Among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":664,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-156","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":729,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/156\/revisions\/729"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}