This saving clause makes the threat worse. The scene between the two brothers is written with characteristic Arab humour; and it is true to nature. In England we have heard of a man who separated from his wife because he wished to dine at six and she preferred half-past six. Footnote 369: Arab. "Misr" (vulg. Masr). The word, which comes of a very ancient house, was applied to the present Capital about the time of its conquest by the Osmanli Turks A.H. 923=1517. Footnote 370: The Arab. "Jízah,"=skirt, edge; the modern village is the site of an ancient Egyptian city, as the "Ghizah inscription" proves (Brugsch, History of Egypt, ii. 415). Footnote 371: Arab. "Watan" literally meaning "birth-place" but also used for "patria, native country"; thus "Hubb al-Watan"=patriotism. The Turks pronounce it "Vatan," which the French have turned into Va-t'en! Footnote 372: Arab. "Zarzariyah"=the colour of a stare or starling (Zurzúr). Footnote 373: Now a Railway Station on the Alexandria-Cairo line. Footnote 374: Even as late as 1852, when I first saw Cairo, the city was girt by waste lands and the climate was excellent. Now cultivation comes up to the house walls; while the Mahmudiyah Canal, the planting the streets with avenues and over-watering have seriously injured it; those who want the air of former Cairo must go to Thebes. Gout, rheumatism and hydrophobia (before unknown) have become common of late years. Footnote 375: This is the popular pronunciation: Yákút calls it "Bilbís." Footnote 376: An outlying village on the "Long Desert," between Cairo and Palestine. Footnote 377: Arab. "Al-Kuds"=holiness. There are few cities which in our day have less claim to this title than Jerusalem; and, curious to say, the "Holy Land" shows Jews, Christians and Moslems all in their worst form. The only religion (if it can be called one) which produces men in Syria is the Druse. "Heiligen-landes Jüden" are proverbial and nothing can be meaner than the Christians while the Moslems are famed for treachery. Footnote 378: