Queen Unique

Egypt's habitable land is chiefly a cobra-shaped ribbon stretching along the Nile from the broad delta at Alexandria to the narrow rocky cataracts of the Sudan border. Along that green cobra live 16,000,000 people, of whom 2,000,000 last week took advantage of fare reductions to journey to Cairo by train, steamer, felucca, autobus, camel and donkey. They went to celebrate the wedding of Farouk, their 18-year-old king, to Farida, meaning "unique," his 17-year-old Queen to be.

For three days Cairo's teeming population was tripled. To feed and clothe the visiting horde tons of mutton and beef were roasted and distributed in the city parks, untold galabiahs, the long cotton nightshirts which are the chief garments of the Egyptian fellaheen, were given away. Considering the excitement with which Egyptians approach such a simple problem as boarding a street car, it was a triumph for Cairo's police and details of the Egyptian Army that only 400 people fell from balconies, were trampled to death, pushed under cars, into the Nile, or otherwise injured.

Few guests may witness a Mohammedan wedding which is a business contract entered into between the groom and the bride's father.

In a small room in Cairo's Koubbeh Palace waited King Farouk. in the black & gold uniform of a field marshal. Opposite His Majesty, in the morning coat and red tarboosh of Egyptian officialdom, was the bride's father, Judge Youssef Zulficar Pasha, an old friend of Egypt's royal family and vice president of the Mixed Court of Appeals at Alexandria. Religious sanction was given by the presence of Egypt's supreme religious authority, Sheik Mustafa El Maraghi, of Ahzar University, and three other sheiks, all in purple robes and white turbans. Waiting patiently in an anteroom were all the princes of the royal family, the entire Cabinet, all surviving former Premiers.

The Royal Chamberlain handed the bride's father an envelope containing a check for 10,000,000 piastres ($257,000), half of the royal dowry (the other half to be paid in case of divorce). The father then reached out his right hand thumb upright to King Farouk, who pressed his own right thumb against it while the Sheik El Maraghi threw a green silk cloth over both hands. Intoned the bride's father:

"I betroth to Your Majesty my daughter, Farida."

Three times the King repeated: "I accept her betrothal to myself from thee, and take her under my care and bind myself to offer her my protection, and ye who are present bear witness."

Four copies of the marriage contract were signed, a white flag went up on the palace as token that the bridegroom had shaken hands with his father-in-law, first of 101 guns boomed out. Waiters rushed to the distinguished guests with trays of rose water and honey. All but the two officiating sheiks received solid gold candy boxes as wedding souvenirs. The two sheiks each got a Cashmere shawl.

Traditionally Queen Farida should have remained in her father's house in the suburbs throughout this ceremony, but "unique" is a young woman of advanced ideas. She not only peeked at her own wedding through a carved grill but afterward posed for her photograph as Queen, a shocking breach of Moslem custom, doubly shocking because Her Majesty not only was photographed but posed unveiled! The moment she was married she should have heavily veiled herself, and Court officials desperately maintained that she did, but Chicago Tribune's, Alex Small was among those who saw otherwise, cabled: "Farida wore no veil at all, revealing that she is of the pure Circassian type, more beautiful than has been represented in any of her pictures. Her short, slim, childish figure was clothed in a billowing white satin wedding gown." Worth of Paris charged the Egyptians $3,000 for this dress. Other eyes must have seen her too, for, still breaking tradition, she rode out incognito with Farouk to watch the fireworks.

As one of the richest of reigning Kings, Farouk I was able to give his bride a three-strand diamond necklace gaped at by thousands at the Paris Exposition last summer under a $120,000 price tag. Other notable wedding presents:

The Suez Canal Co.: a silver table service, an antique Turkish watch.

Kamal Ataturk of Turkey: hand embroidered table linen.

The French Republic: a dinner service and hand mirror for Queen Farida.

The Italian Government: a statue of the Emperor Diocletian.

Adolf Hitler: a Mercedes-Benz sport coupe.

The British Government: a pair of shotguns.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.