t stirred it up and made it unendurable.

Having accomplished this great feat he stands still, grinning and
holding out a broad palm. Officials on the trains are probably forbidden
to utter the wicked word "Bakshish," meaning tips, but they can ask
quite as well without it.

Having got rid of him, we turn in despair to the station at which we
have just pulled up. There is a fine mingled crowd on the platform.
Lying in the sun, awaiting their master's pleasure, are two beautifully
kept white donkeys, with their hides clipped in neat patterns, very
superior creatures indeed to what we know as donkeys, more like mules in
size. A group of children, fascinated by our strange faces, draw nearer
and gaze their fill unwinkingly; one poor little mite of about four has
a mass of flies crawling all over its face, especially about the eyes.
It never attempts to brush them off, for long habit has made it callous.
Formerly very many children were so afflicted, and the crawling flies,
carrying disease, made them blind; but since the British took the matter
in hand the evil is much less. Yet so indifferent are the mothers, that
in many cases even when lotion is supplied free for the children's faces
they will not trouble to use it!

There is nothing eatable being sold in the station except fruit, but
there seems plenty of that, and by the time the train starts again we
find ourselves with a fine assortment in rich colours of purple and
orange and scarlet. First there is a packet of dates which looks all
right on the top, but turning them out we find the purple side of one
had been placed carefully uppermost, and the rest are all hard, green,
and unripe, not in the least like the sweet juicy dates we are
accustomed to. The attendant, who is watching, scoops them up and
devours them as if he hadn't been fed for a month. Then comes a bit of
sugar-cane, stringy and sickly, which makes us feel as if we had bitten
into a piece of sweet wood when we try it. That great purple pomegranate
is, like all pomegranates, unsatisfactory and full of seeds, and though
the little green limes are refreshing for the moment while we suck the
juice, after a while our lips begin to smart as if they were raw, and we
both keep on furtively wiping them. It is a tantalising feast, and the
American smiles serenely as he smokes in his corner and refuses to have
anything to do with it. The only thing we do get out of it are some
really good green figs, which canno