Presently, however, I was set right upon this point, for
the man, seizing a kind of whip, which is generally carried in Cairo,
and flogging off his friends, dashed the poor creature on the ground,
and inflicted several severe strokes upon her prostrate body, not one
of the by-standers attempting to prevent him. The woman, screaming
fearfully, jumped up, and seizing him again, as if determined to gain
her point, whatever it might be, poured forth a volley of words, and
again the man threw her upon the ground and beat her most cruelly, the
spectators remaining, as before, quite passive, and allowing him to
wreak his full vengeance upon her.
Had I been dressed, or could I have made my way readily into the
street, I should have certainly gone down to interpose, for never did
I witness any scene so horrible, or one I so earnestly desired to
put an end to. At length, though the pertinacity of the woman was
astonishing, when exhausted by blows, she lay fainting on the ground,
the man went his way. The spectators, and there were many, who looked
on without any attempt to rescue this poor creature from her savage
assailant, now raised her from the earth. The whole of this time, the
veil she wore was never for a moment displaced, and but for the brutal
nature of the scene, it would have been eminently ridiculous in the
eyes of a stranger.
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