ts to shade the
animals and buyers, and often a high and broad platform or verandah all
round, where the goods are spread for inspection. Some of the richer
caravanserais are quite handsome, with neat latticed windows and doors.
The walls are painted white. The court is crammed with tired camels,
mules, beggars and loafers.

The camel men squat in one corner to smoke their pipes and eat their
bread, while the merchants form another ring up above on the verandah,
where prices are discussed at the top of their voices, a crowd of
ever-to-be-found loafers taking active part in the discussion.

On a Friday, the day of rest of the Mahommedan, the bazaar, so crowded on
other days, is absolutely deserted. All the shops--if a hatter or two be
excepted--are barricaded with heavy wooden shutters and massive padlocks
of local or Russian make. Barring a dog or two either lying asleep along
the wall, or scraping a heap of refuse in the hope of satisfying
hunger--there is hardly a soul walking about. Attracted by a crowd in the
distance, one finds a fanatic gesticulating like mad and shouting at the
top of his voice before an admiring crowd of ragamuffins squatting round
him in a circle.

On these holidays, when the streets are clear, the effect of the columns
of sunlight pouring down from the small circular apertures from each dome
of the arcade, and some twenty feet apart, is very quaint. It is like a
long colonnade of brilliant light in the centre of the otherwise dark,
muddy-looking, long, dirty tunnel. At noon, when the sun is on the
meridian, these sun columns are, of course, almost perfectly vertical,
but not so earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon.

CHAPTER XXXI

A carpet factory--Children at work--The process of
carpet-making--Foreign influence in the design--Aniline
dyes--"Ancient carpets" manufactured to-day--Types of
carpets--Kerman carpets--Isfahan silk carpets--Kurdistan
rugs--Birjand and Sultanabad carpets--Carpets made by wandering
tribes--Jewellers--Sword-makers and gunsmiths--Humming birds.

A visit to a carpet factory proves interesting. The horses must be left,
for it is necessary to squeeze through a low and narrow door in order to
enter the shed where the carpets are made.

Every one is familiar with the intricate and gorgeous designs of Persian
carpets, and one imagines that only veteran skilful artisans can tackle
such artistic work. One cannot, therefor