scaries. Here a water-seller,
laden with his goatskin vessel, tinkled his little bell; there an
orange-hawker, balancing a basket of the golden fruit upon his ragged
turban, bawled his wares. There were men on foot and men on mules,
men on donkeys and men on slim Arab horses, an ever-shifting medley of
colours, all jostling, laughing, cursing in the ardent African sunshine
under the blue sky where pigeons circled. In the shadow of the yellow
tapia wall squatted a line of whining beggars and cripples soliciting
alms; near the gates a little space had been cleared and an audience
had gathered in a ring about a Meddah--a beggar-troubadour--who, to the
accompaniment of gimbri and gaitah from two acolytes, chanted a doleful
ballad in a thin, nasal voice.

Those of the crowd who were patrons of the market held steadily amain,
and, leaving their mounts outside, passed through the gates through
which there was no admittance for mere idlers and mean folk. Within the
vast quadrangular space of bare, dry ground, enclosed by dust-coloured
walls, there was more space. The sale of slaves had not yet begun and
was not due to begin for another hour, and meanwhile a little trading
was being done by those merchants who had obtained the coveted right
to set up their booths against the walls; they were vendors of wool, of
fruit, of spices, and one or two traded in jewels and trinkets for the
adornment of the Faithful.

A well was sunk in the middle of the ground, a considerable octagon with
a low parapet in three steps. Upon the nethermost of these sat an
aged, bearded Jew in a black djellaba, his head swathed in a coloured
kerchief. Upon his knees reposed a broad, shallow black box, divided
into compartments, each filled with lesser gems and rare stones, which
he was offering for sale; about him stood a little group of young Moors
and one or two Turkish officers, with several of whom the old Israelite
was haggling at once.

The whole of the northern wall was occupied by a long penthouse, its
contents completely masked by curtains of camel-hair; from behind it
proceeded a subdued murmur of human voices. These were the pens in which
were confined the slaves to be offered for sale that day. Before the
curtains, on guard, stood some dozen corsairs with attendant negro
slaves.

Beyond and above the wall glistened the white dome of a zowia, flanked
by a spear-like minaret and the tall heads of a few date palms whose
long leaves hung motion