es of the
modern city behind and walked in narrow Oriental streets through which
carriages are not allowed to go.

"Everything is novel and interesting in this busy thoroughfare," said
one of our party. "I suggest that we move along very slowly and stop
frequently. See that lemonade vender with the brass tank strapped to his
back. When he bent forward the water flowed from the spout over his
shoulder into the cup he held in his hand, without his touching the
tank. He is waiting for his customer to produce the pennies that
apparently cannot be found."

The street scenes in the Muski were so kaleidoscopic that it is
impossible to give more than a suggestion of their character. A few
representative scenes can be given and around these the imagination must
picture a constantly changing throng, not hurrying as in busy American
cities, but moving leisurely in the Eastern manner. The crowd was
orderly, but not quiet, for tongues were in constant use. Merchants
and customers chattered and parleyed. Venders of licorice water and
sweetmeats did not permit their presence to be overlooked, and donkeys
occasionally joined in the chorus. Each figure unfamiliar to our Western
eyes, in turban or in fez, in slippers or in bare feet, in scant gown of
cotton or full robe of silk, was a subject worthy of being considered
individually.

[Illustration: FIGURES UNFAMILIAR TO OUR WESTERN EYES.]

A baby, astride its mother's shoulder, clung to her head while she
walked along and made her purchases, apparently unconscious of her
child. A bare-footed water carrier, bearing on his back an unwieldy
goatskin distended with its contents, cried, "Water for sale." A donkey
boy pushed aside the crowd to let the closely veiled, silk-mantled lady
rider pass through on her caparisoned donkey. Muscular fellahs, or
peasants, in brown skull caps, and blue shirts which reached to their
ankles, their feet bare, their teeth remarkable for whiteness, sauntered
along chewing stalks of sugar-cane. Women of the poorer class passed by,
wearing scanty gowns of plain blue cotton, heavy copper bracelets, and
nose ornaments of brass, which held in place the veils that covered the
lower part of their faces but did not conceal the beauty spots tattooed
on their foreheads. A funeral procession, with professional mourners
chanting monotonously a hymn to Allah, followed a casket borne on the
shoulders of men. And these curious scenes, which we tried to catch with
the cam