grain merchant lying fast asleep on the top of his store of rice or
other grain. Outside many houses stands a wooden bedstead, and the old
people lie there asleep a great part of the day. The Cingalese are said
to be very kind to old people, which is a very good trait in their
character. I wish they were a little kinder to their animals, but they
never seem to think that poor bullocks have any feeling at all. The
carts in Colombo are drawn by bullocks, and they have a very hard time
of it. The rope used as reins is passed through a hole bored through
their nostrils, and a heavy beam of wood rests on their backs. Worse
still, they are branded all over, not only with the owner's initials,
but with all sorts of fanciful ornamental figures; the cruel people who
do this never caring what the unfortunate animals suffer while it is
being done. The houses are often painted outside with animals and birds
in the brightest colors; and some of these wall pictures are so absurd
that strangers always stop to look and laugh at them.

"Ho! 'Hamed! _dear_ 'Hamed, you _will_ let me ride Prince Albert Victor,
won't you?"

The speaker was a little, brown, black-eyed boy, with dark tangled locks
under his old red fez, and clad in a dirty white cotton garment, who was
coaxing a tall Egyptian lad in a very irresistible way. Children coax
much the same all the world over, to get their way, be they white or
black or brown. In this case little Hassan got his. And what was it he
wanted?

'Hamed, an Egyptian donkey-boy, was leaving home early in the morning as
usual, leaving his dim, dirty quarters in the native part of Cairo for
the European part of the city. And with him, as usual, was going Prince
Albert Victor.

Prince Albert Victor was only a donkey, a very nice, strong, well-fed
Egyptian donkey, but nothing more, in spite of his grand name. But all
the Cairo donkeys which stand about the streets for hire have very grand
names given to them by their owners to attract the European tourists.
For instance, some boy will call his donkey by an American name--such as
Washington, or Yankee-doodle--that the American travellers may fancy
him. Another, with a view to a Frenchman or an Englishman, will christen
his animal President Carnot or Lord Salisbury. 'Hamed had called his
Prince Albert Victor; for he found a royal name very popular, not only
with English travellers, but with the red-coated British soldiers who
pervade the streets of Cairo.