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Memories of Egypt
of a great many homes.
Notes on Cairo would be incomplete without alluding to the famous or more correctly infamous Wassaby, a hot bed of immorality.
Nearly every Australian passed along this street at some time or other. French and Egyptian girls with very much abbreviated skirts would wave to our men from verandas facing the street, and in full view of Shepherds hotel.
The weaker fell to this coquetry .
For various reasons, and on more than one occasion, the Australian set alight to these buildings, threw furniture into the streets, raided silk shops, expelling their contents into the streets.
This street was always crowded with lazy Egyptians selling fruit, ornaments etc., as well as British and Australasian troops. The traffic along the narrow thoroughfare was very congested, and many scenes of Egyptians having an heated argument in their guttural language were to be seen every day. They never seemed to come to blows. Perhaps they are too cowardly. They generally performed a series of eccentric movements. I saw one fellow in a fit of desperation remove his coat & thrice replace the same. He threw his hat on ground, picked it up again, only to throw it away once more.
Such is their temperament.