the least, remarkable.

I saw many gypsies in Egypt, but learned little from them. What I found
I stated in a work called the "Egyptian Sketch Book." It was to this
effect: My first information was derived from the late Khedive Ismael,
who during an interview with me said, "There are in Egypt many people
known as Rhagarin, or Ghagarin, who are probably the same as the gypsies
of Europe. They are wanderers, who live in tents, and are regarded with
contempt even by the peasantry. Their women tell fortunes, tattoo, and
sell small wares; the men work in iron. They are all adroit thieves, and
noted as such. The men may sometimes be seen going round the country
with monkeys. In fact, they appear to be in all respects the same people
as the gypsies of Europe."

I habitually employed, while in Cairo, the same donkey-driver, an
intelligent and well-behaved man named Mahomet, who spoke English fairly.
On asking him if he could show me any Rhagarin, he replied that there was
a fair or market held every Saturday at Boulac, where I would be sure to
meet with women of the tribe. The men, he said, seldom ventured into the
city, because they were subject to much insult and ill-treatment from the
common people.

On the day appointed I rode to Boulac. The market was very interesting.
I saw no European or Frangi there, except my companion, Baron de Cosson,
who afterwards traveled far into the White Nile country, and who had with
his brother Edward many remarkable adventures in Abyssinia, which were
well recorded by the latter in a book. All around were thousands of
blue-skirted and red-tarbouched or white-turbaned Egyptians, buying or
selling, or else amusing themselves, but with an excess of outcry and
hallo which indicates their grown child character. There were dealers in
donkeys and horses roaring aloud, "He is for ten napoleons! Had I asked
twenty you would have gladly given me fifteen!" "O true believers, here
is a Syrian steed which will give renown to the purchaser!" Strolling
loosely about were dealers in sugar-cane and pea-nuts, which are called
gooba in Africa as in America, pipe peddlers and venders of rosaries,
jugglers and minstrels. At last we came to a middle-aged woman seated on
the ground behind a basket containing beads, glass armlets, and such
trinkets. She was dressed like any Arab-woman of the lower class, but
was not veiled, and on her chin blue lines were tattooed. Her features
and expression wer