sand to the
perennial population of the town.

Dazed as though in a dream, Guy moved forward, noting with wonder the
strange people who thronged about him and regarded him with evident
mistrust. Borne on by the crowd, he found himself presently in the main
avenue of the fair, and his first amazed impression was that he had been
transported to a scene in the "Arabian Nights."

On either side of the narrow street stretched the sea of tents, and
before them, on rude stalls, were ranged everything that the imagination
could devise: sacks of coffee and grain, great heaps of glittering
ivory, packets of gold-dust, aromatic spices, and fragrant gums of all
sorts, great bunches of waving ostrich plumes, bales of cotton and
tobacco, tanned hides of domestic animals, tawny skins of lions,
leopards, and panthers, oddly-woven grass mats, quaint arms, and bits of
carving, fetish ornaments, and even live cattle and sheep tied to the
poles of the tents.

Standing guard over their wares were natives from all parts of Africa,
Arabs from the Zambesi, savage-looking Abyssinians, crafty Somalis with
greasy, dangling locks, and brawny, half-naked fellows from the
interior, the like of whom Guy had never seen or heard.

And up and down the narrow street moved in a ceaseless throng the
traders who had come to purchase: Arabs from Aden and Suakim, Egyptians
from Cairo, traders from Zanzibar, and a sprinkling of Portuguese and
Spaniards.

Some of them bore their goods on camels, others had hired native
carriers, who staggered under the heavy bales and cases, and the uproar
was deafening and incessant as they wrangled over their bartering and
dazzled the eyes of their customers with rolls of English and French
silks, pigs of iron, copper, and brass, sacks of rice and sugar,
glittering Manchester cutlery, American beads, and cans of gunpowder.

The builders of the tower of Babel itself could not have produced such a
jargon or variety of tongues, Guy thought, as he picked his way onward,
now stopping to gaze at some odd-looking group, and now attracted by the
harsh music and beating drums of a band of native musicians.

He noted with secret satisfaction the occasional presence in the crowd
of a dark-skinned soldier in British uniform, and he observed with some
surprise the vast number of Abyssinian Arabs, whom he recognized by
their peculiar dress.

Finally a stranger sight than all arrested his steps. In a small
inclosure, cordoned off