its
side like the mouth of a luminous cavern.

Ferragut, while his boat was discharging its cargo under Toni's
supervision, passed his days ashore, visiting the city.

From the very first moment he was attracted by the narrow lanes of the
Turkish quarters--their white houses with protruding balconies covered
with latticed blinds like cages painted red; the little mosques with
their patios of cypresses and fountains of melancholy tinkling; the
tombs of Mohammedan dervishes in kiosks which block the streets under
the pale reflection of a lamp; the women veiled with their black
_firadjes_; and the old men who, silent and thoughtful under their
scarlet caps, pass along swaying to the staggering of the ass on which
they are mounted.

The great Roman way between Rome and Byzantium, the ancient road of the
blue flagstones, passed through a street of modern Salonica. Still a
part of its pavement remained and appeared gloriously obstructed by an
arch of triumph near whose weatherbeaten stone base were working
barefooted bootblacks wearing the scarlet fez.

An endless variety of uniforms filed through the streets, and this
diversity in attire as well as the ethnical difference in the men who
wore it was very noticeable. The soldiers of France and the British
Isles touched elbows with the foreign troops. The allied governments
had sent out a call to the professional combatants and volunteers of
their colonies. The black sharpshooters from the center of Africa
showed their smiling teeth of marble to the bronze giants with huge
white turbans who had come from India. The hunters from the glacial
plains of Canada were fraternizing with the volunteers from Australia
and New Zealand.

The cataclysm of the world war had dragged mankind from the antipodes
to this drowsy little corner of Greece where were again repeated the
invasions of remote centuries which had made ancient Thessalonica bow
to the conquest of Bulgarians, Byzantians, Saracens, and Turks.

The crews of the battleships in the roadstead had just added to this
medley of uniforms the monotonous note of their midnight blue, almost
like that of all the navies of the world.... And to the military
amalgamation was also added the picturesque variety of civil
dress,--the hybrid character of the neighborhood of Salonica, composed
of various races and religions that were mingled together without
confusing their individuality. Files of black tunics and hats with
brimless crowns