t seem to be exaggerated.
There are donkeys at every corner, around every mosque, and in the most
deserted places there suddenly appear from behind a wall a donkey driver
and a donkey that place themselves at your service. These asses are very
pretty, spirited, and bright-tempered; they have not the piteous look
and the air of melancholy resignation of the asses of our own country,
which are ill fed, beaten, and contemned. You feel that they think as
much of themselves as other animals do, and that they are not the whole
day long a butt for stupid jokes. Perhaps they are aware that Homer
compared Ajax to an ass, a comparison which is ridiculous in the West;
and they also remember that one of their ancestors bore Miriam, the
Virgin Mother of Issa, under the sycamore of Matarieh. Their coat varies
from dark-brown to white, through all the shades of dun and gray. Some
have white stars and fetlocks. The handsomest are clipped with ingenious
coquetry so as to make around the legs patterns which make them look as
if they were wearing open-worked stockings. When they are white, the end
of the tail and the mane are dyed with henna. Of course this is only in
the case of thorough-bred animals, of the aristocracy of the asinine
race, and is not indulged in with the common herd.

Their harness consists of a headstall adorned with tresses, tufts of
silk and wool, sometimes coral beads or copper plates, and of a morocco
saddle, usually red, rising up in front to prevent falls, but without
any cantle. The saddle is placed upon a piece of carpet or striped
stuff, and is fastened by a broad girth which passes diagonally under
the animal's tail like a crupper-strap; another girth fastens the
saddle-cloth, and two short stirrups flap against the animal's sides.
The harness is more or less rich according to the means of the donkey
driver and the rank of his customers, but I am speaking merely of asses
which stand for hire. No one in Cairo considers it undignified to ride
an ass,--old men, grown men, dignitaries, townspeople, all use them.
Women ride astride, a fashion which in no wise compromises their
modesty, thanks to the enormous folds of their broad trousers which
almost completely conceal their feet. They often carry before them,
placed upon the saddle-bow, a small, half-nude, child which they steady
with one hand while with the other they hold the bridle. It is usually
women of importance who indulge in this luxury, for the poor fell