he drinking-bottle, or kulleh, attached; these jars are replenished by
the sakkahs, who carry the much-loved Nile water about the streets for
sale. One passes at regular intervals the light stands, made of split
sticks, upon which is offered for sale, in flat loaves like pancakes,
the Cairo bread. There are also the open-air cook shops--small furnaces,
like a tin pan with legs; spread out on a board before them are saucers
containing mysterious compounds, and the cook is in attendance, wearing
a white apron. These cooks never lack custom; a large majority of the
poorer class in Cairo obtains its hot food, when it obtains it at all,
at these impromptu tables. Before long one is sure to meet a file of
camels. The camel ought to appreciate travellers; there is always a
tourist murmuring "Oh!" whenever one of these supercilious beasts shows
himself near the Ezbekiyeh Gardens. The American, indeed, cannot keep
back the exclamation; perhaps when he was a child he attended (oh, happy
day!) the circus, and watched with ecstasy the "Grande Orientale Rentree
of the Lights of the Harem"--two of these strange steeds, ridden by
dazzling houris in veils of glittering gauze. The camel has remained in
his mind ever since as the attendant of sultanas; though this impression
may have become mixed in later years with the constantly recurring
painting (in a dead-gold frame and red mat) of a camel and an Arab in
the desert, outlined against a sunset sky. In either case, however,
the animal represents something which is as far as possible from an
American street traversed by horse-cars, and when the inhabitant of this
street sees the identical creature passing him, engaged not in making
rentrees or posing against the sunset, but diligently at work carrying
stones and mortar for his living, no wonder he feels that he has reached
a land of dreams.

[Illustration: A SELLER OF WATER-JUGS, CAIRO. From a photograph by
Sebah, Cairo]

Most of us do not lose our admiration for the Orientalness of the camel.
But we learn in time that he has been praised for qualities which he
does not possess. He is industrious, but he continually scolds about his
industry; he may not trouble one with his thirst, but he revenges
himself by his sneer. The smile of a camel is the most disdainful thing
I know. On the other side of the Nile bridge one comes sometimes upon an
acre of these beasts, all kneeling down in the extraordinary way
peculiar to them, with their hin