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[Page 21]
native streets of Cairo. The monkey cage attracted a great crowd and some of their antics were very laughable, for they seemed almost absurdly human, and we even saw one mother run up to the little one, catch him by the ear and pull him along to her corner, where the little fellow looking quite guilty and crestfallen received a lecture and a parting smack before he made a rather slippery escape. There were some fine specimens of girraffs and as they walked about with their little heads on their long great necks poked over the high railings looking at us almost as if we were the exhibits and not themselves. Further along the nose and eyes of a hippopotamus were to be seen just poking out of a large pond and as we wished to see him the keeper just spoke a few words and the great grey back gradually rose out of the water and to see the look of interest one would think it was a German submarine rising to the surface and viewed from a British liner. The great animal waddled on to dry land, walked up to the iron railing and had the bad manners to open a really huge mouth and wait patiently for the keeper to put some lucerne in. This he did but when the crater opened again the handful was still there and so he put another one in, but the result was the same and it took three handfuls to make enough lucerne to go down. Evidently, the other was like a crumb to him. We had afternoon tea at a delightful spot on the edge of a pretty pond filled with ducks and their little ducklings darting hither and thither around the stately pelicans, looking like hugh battleships with their mosquito like fleet of destroyers, on the other side on a little shady promontory some more pelicans were lazily trimming up their feathers, whilst the scene was fittingly completed by the officers and men in Khaki and nurses in their uniforms of grey and red all gaily chatting together over their cup of tea, and cream puffs, making it impossible for such a thing as grim war to enter their minds.
Monday – usual routine.
Tuesday – 15/2/16 – To-day we obtained leave from 3 p.m. and visited the Native Bazaars down Mooski Street. I engaged a native guide but he lead us to a Jews place which was very dear and so we started wandering off by ourselves, going into all sorts of queer corners and seeing sights which fitted them. The general aspects