Very Soon After My Arrival I Went To The House Of The Levantine To
Whom My Credentials Were Addressed.
At his door several persons
(all Arabs) were hanging about and keeping guard.
It was not till
after some delay, and the passing of some communications with those
in the interior of the citadel, that I was admitted. At length,
however, I was conducted through the court, and up a flight of
stairs, and finally into the apartment where business was
transacted. The room was divided by an excellent, substantial
fence of iron bars, and behind this grille the banker had his
station. The truth was, that from fear of the plague he had
adopted the course usually taken by European residents, and had
shut himself up "in strict quarantine" - that is to say, that he
had, as he hoped, cut himself off from all communication with
infecting substances. The Europeans long resident in the East,
without any, or with scarcely any, exception are firmly convinced
that the plague is propagated by contact, and by contact only; that
if they can but avoid the touch of an infecting substance they are
safe, and that if they cannot, they die. This belief induces them
to adopt the contrivance of putting themselves in that state of
siege which they call "quarantine." It is a part of their faith
that metals, and hempen rope, and also, I fancy, one or two other
substances, will not carry the infection; and they likewise believe
that the germ of pestilence, which lies in an infected substance,
may be destroyed by submersion in water, or by the action of smoke.
They therefore guard the doors of their houses with the utmost care
against intrusion, and condemn themselves, with all the members of
their family, including any European servants, to a strict
imprisonment within the walls of their dwelling. Their native
attendants are not allowed to enter at all, but they make the
necessary purchases of provisions, which are hauled up through one
of the windows by means of a rope, and are then soaked in water.
I knew nothing of these mysteries, and was not therefore prepared
for the sort of reception which I met with. I advanced to the iron
fence, and putting my letter between the bars, politely proffered
it to Mr. Banker. Mr. Banker received me with a sad and dejected
look, and not "with open arms," or with any arms at all, but with -
a pair of tongs! I placed my letter between the iron fingers,
which picked it up as if it were a viper, and conveyed it away to
be scorched and purified by fire and smoke. I was disgusted at
this reception, and at the idea that anything of mine could carry
infection to the poor wretch who stood on the other side of the
grille, pale and trembling, and already meet for death. I looked
with something of the Mahometan's feeling upon these little
contrivances for eluding fate; and in this instance, at least, they
were vain. A few more days, and the poor money-changer, who had
striven to guard the days of his life (as though they were coins)
with bolts and bars of iron - he was seized by the plague, and he
died.
To people entertaining such opinions as these respecting the fatal
effect of contact, the narrow and crowded streets of Cairo were
terrible as the easy slope that leads to Avernus. The roaring
ocean and the beetling crags owe something of their sublimity to
this - that if they be tempted, they can take the warm life of a
man. To the contagionist, filled as he is with the dread of final
causes, having no faith in destiny nor in the fixed will of God,
and with none of the devil-may-care indifference which might stand
him instead of creeds - to such one, every rag that shivers in the
breeze of a plague-stricken city has this sort of sublimity. If by
any terrible ordinance he be forced to venture forth, he sees death
dangling from every sleeve, and as he creeps forward, he poises his
shuddering limbs between the imminent jacket that is stabbing at
his right elbow and the murderous pelisse that threatens to mow him
clean down as it sweeps along on his left. But most of all, he
dreads that which most of all he should love - the touch of a
woman's dress; for mothers and wives, hurrying forth on kindly
errands from the bedsides of the dying, go slouching along through
the streets more wilfully and less courteously than the men. For a
while it may be that the caution of the poor Levantine may enable
him to avoid contact, but sooner or later perhaps the dreaded
chance arrives; that bundle of linen, with the dark tearful eyes at
the top of it, that labours along with the voluptuous clumsiness of
Grisi - she has touched the poor Levantine with the hem of her
sleeve! From that dread moment his peace is gone; his mind, for
ever hanging upon the fatal touch, invites the blow which he fears.
He watches for the symptoms of plague so carefully, that sooner or
later they come in truth. The parched mouth is a sign - his mouth
is parched; the throbbing brain - his brain DOES throb; the rapid
pulse - he touches his own wrist (for he dares not ask counsel of
any man lest he be deserted), he touches his wrist, and feels how
his frighted blood goes galloping out of his heart; there is
nothing but the fatal swelling that is wanting to make his sad
conviction complete; immediately he has an odd feel under the arm -
no pain, but a little straining of the skin; he would to God it
were his fancy that were strong enough to give him that sensation.
This is the worst of all; it now seems to him that he could be
happy and contented with his parched mouth and his throbbing brain
and his rapid pulse, if only he could know that there were no
swelling under the left arm; but dare he try?
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