atutinal
ablutions, and his toilet is made for the day. Under these
circumstances it will be seen that many things which we should regard
as essential necessaries in our hostelry, would be pure superfluities
to our Turkish or Arab brother.

Of course, in these places you meet a great mixture of nationalities
and all classes and conditions, for the rich, in the absence of other
hotel accommodations, must use them as well as the poor; only, as
every man brings his own things with him, you find more luxury and
comfort in some of the arrangements than in others. You may see rich
merchants from Bagdad or Damascus sitting on piles of costly cushions,
attended by obsequious slaves, and smoking perfumed Shiraz out
of silver narghiles, whose long, snake-like tubes are tipped with
precious amber and encircled by rows of precious stones worth a
prince's ransom. Huddled together, in striking contrast to this
picture, you may see, crouched on their old rugs and smoking the
common clay chibouque, a bevy of street-beggars, also enjoying
themselves after their fashion.

These khans serve also as shops or bazaars for the traveling merchant,
Persian or Turk, who is ever ready to show you his wares, without
seeming to care much whether you buy or not.

The city khans are very simply built in a quadrangle, with small
rooms, like convent cells, running all round it. These are used both
as sleeping-rooms and shops. The stables for the animals and the
store-rooms are in a covered corridor beneath. As there are permanent
residents here, and valuable merchandise and other articles stored
away, there is a gate strongly bolted and barred, and often sheathed
in iron, and a gate-keeper, generally to be seen sleeping or smoking,
whose sole business is to prevent the entrance of improper or
suspicious persons.

The evenings at the khan used to be, and sometimes still are,
enlivened by the presence of the almes or dancing-girls, whose
ancestors may have danced the same wild and wanton dances before
Cleopatra. The singing-girls, monotonously chanting the same dolorous
and drowsy tunes, with imitation guitar accompaniment on the _saab_
were also wont to wound the drowsy ear of night for the diversion
of the guests. Drowsier and more sleep-compelling still were the
interminable tales spun out by the professional story-teller, giving
ragged versions of the _Arabian Nights' Entertainments_ for the
delectation of the tireless native listeners.

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