Saturday 27 December 2014

27th December 1914

An aerial view of Cairo, c. 1918.
[Courtesy of Australian War Memorial - C02487]


Sunday 27th December

Major Hughes and party again went out shooting. They were the guests of an Englishman who is the manager of a large estate here. They came back with one duck and about a dozen waterfowl, the latter no good for eating. At 4 o’clock we left to visit an old gentleman in Cairo who is a most loyal subject and an influential Egyptian. Major Hughes & Martin, Capt McLennan and Lieut Jopp accompanied me. This man’s wife is a sister to the present Sultan’s wife, and he himself is the son of the late Governor General of the Soudan. Our chief interpreter here (Mr Bayley) has known him for many years and it was he who arranged the visit. On arrival we were shown into a fine hall, filled with most beautiful Oriental furniture and Turkish and Persian Carpets. He and his sons did all in their power to entertain us.

They gave each of us presents, drawing lots to ensure equal division. He gave me several interesting souvenirs and in addition has promised to frame my family photos in wood carved frames. My table will then look quite Oriental. We sat down to a sumptuous dinner of about 15 courses, all exquisitely cooked. The table was set out in faultless British style, but the foods were prepared in Egyptian style. We left at 9PM and were escorted on foot through old Cairo.

He showed us many old historic buildings. The streets are very narrow. I am hoping to get one of my Head Quarters men who is good at water colour work to do me a few sketches. Altogether it was an exceedingly interesting evening.

The house is fairly pretentious, of three floors. The basement is used for the servants, the ground floor for guests, and the upper floor as the family’s private quarters. The women folk do not appear. All servants on first floor are Soudanese Eunuchs. I was placed in the post of honour at the head of the table while the father sat on my left. The sons waited at table, this being an especial way of honouring a guest. They afterwards dined by themselves. The father made a very interesting picture smoking his "hubble bubble’. In fact I had a try but was not very successful. Reached camp at 11PM.





No comments:

Post a Comment