his time nearly everybody was talking at once and it
was a regular circus to watch them. Several times hot words were passed
but as a rule the people were in good humor and seemed to be having a
good time.

One of the much used and often abused beasts in Egypt is the camel.
Riding a camel for the first time is quite an experience. The beast
will lie down, but it is continually snarling and when it gets up you go
through all kinds of motions. As I rode around the great pyramid and
sphinx on one of these beasts the swing was not unlike that of a great
rocking chair and while this ship of the desert did not seem to be going
fast I noticed that the driver was running and the donkey alongside was
on the gallop most of the time.

At the time I was in Egypt one could purchase a fairly good camel for a
little less than one hundred dollars. These beasts can live on next to
nothing. They will strip a shrub of leaves and stems. A camel can eat
and drink enough at one time to last it a week or ten days. The natives
say that it lives on the fat of its hump. When a camel is weary from a
long march across the desert the hump almost disappears and then as it
eats its fill the hump becomes strong and hard again. It will carry a
burden of from five to six hundred pounds.

The city of Cairo is full of interesting sights. The streets of the
better portion of the city are well paved and the buildings substantial
and several stories high. The streets are sprinkled by hand. These men
carry a skin of water--often half a barrel--and by means of a nozzle
they throw it everywhere. There are many beautiful parks and drives in
and about the city. The wonderful palms and other trees furnish shade
and although the sun shines very hot it is quite cool under these trees.

Runners go ahead of carriages containing prominent persons telling
people to get out of the way for so and so is coming. Many people stop
and look as they go by. An interesting sight was a wedding procession.
It was headed by a band and an enclosed carriage with a black cloth
over it contained the bride while the groom walked alongside holding on
to the carriage. Following along behind on foot were the relatives and
the rabble of the streets. My guide explained that when a wedding takes
place a cloth is hung from the window and kept there for three days so
one can go through the city and pick out the homes where they have had a
wedding within that time.

One of the lost arts is t