r who supplied the place with
poultry and vegetables, keeping their money in the embroidered leather
wallets that hung from their girdled waists. The Jews of Morocco,
dressed in oriental fashion with silk kirtle and an ecclesiastical
calotte, passed by leaning upon sticks, as if thus dragging along their
bland, timid obesity. The soldiers of the garrison,--tall, slender,
rosy-complexioned--made the ground echo with the heavy cadence of their
boots. Some were dressed in khaki, with the sobriety of the soldier in
the field; others wore the regular red jacket. White helmets, some lined
with yellow, alternated with the regulation caps; on the breasts of the
sergeants shone the red stripe; other soldiers carried in their armpits
the thin cane that is the emblem of authority. Above the collar of many
coats rose the extraordinarily thin British neck, high, giraffe-like,
with a pointed protuberance in front. Soon the further end of the street
was filled with white; an avalanche of snowy patches seemed to advance
with rhythmic step. It was the caps of the sailors. The cruisers in the
Mediterranean had given their men shore leave and the thoroughfare was
filled with ruddy, cleanshaven boys, with faces bronzed by the sun,
their chests almost bare within the blue collar, their trousers wide at
the bottom, swaying from side to side like an elephant's trunk, fellows
with small heads and childish features, with their huge hands hanging at
the ends of their arms as if the latter could hardly sustain their heavy
bulk. The groups from the fleet separated, disappearing into the various
side streets in search of a tavern. The policeman in the white helmet
followed with a resigned look, certain that he would have to meet some
of them later in a tussle, and beg the favor of the king when, at the
sound of the sunset gun, he would bring them back dead drunk to their
cruiser.

Mingling with these fighters were gypsies with their loose belts, their
long staffs and their dark faces; old and repulsive creatures, who no
sooner stopped before a shop than the owners became uneasy at the
mysterious hiding-places of their cloaks and skirts; Jews from the city,
too, with broad frocks and shining silk hats, dressed for the
celebration of one of their holidays; negroes from the English
possessions; coppery Hindus with drooping mustache and white trousers,
so full and short that they looked like aprons; Jewesses from Gibraltar,
dressed in white with all th