his perch, and stuck a
number of long knives through him in a truly Oriental manner.)

The crowd itself is of the most indescribable and engaging variety and
vivacity. The Turkish soldiers in dark uniform and red fez; the
cheerful, grinning water-carriers with their dripping, bulbous goatskins
on their backs; the white-turbaned Druses with their bold, clean-cut
faces; the bronzed, impassive sons of the desert, with their flowing
mantles and bright head-cloths held on by thick, dark rolls of camel's
hair; the rich merchants in their silken robes of many colours; the
picturesquely ragged beggars; the Moslem pilgrims washing their heads
and feet, with much splashing, at the pools in the marble courtyards of
the mosques; the merry children, running on errands or playing with the
water that gushes from many a spout at the corner of a street or on the
wall of a house; the veiled Mohammedan women slipping silently through
the throng, or bending over the trinkets or fabrics in some open-fronted
shop, lifting the veil for a moment to show an olive-tinted cheek and a
pair of long, liquid brown eyes; the bearded Greek priests in their
black robes and cylinder hats; the Christian women wrapped in their long
white sheets, but with their pretty faces uncovered, and a red rose or a
white jasmine stuck among their smooth, shining black tresses; the
seller of lemonade with his gaily decorated glass vessel on his back and
his clinking brass cups in his hand, shouting, "_A remedy for the
heat_,"--"_Cheer up your hearts_,"--"_Take care of your teeth_;" the boy
peddling bread, with an immense tray of thin, flat loaves on his head,
crying continually to Allah to send him customers; the seller of
turnip-pickle with a huge pink globe upon his shoulder looking like the
inside of a pale watermelon; the donkeys pattering along between fat
burdens of grass or charcoal; a much-bedizened horseman with embroidered
saddle-cloth and glittering bridle, riding silent and haughty through
the crowd as if it did not exist; a victoria dashing along the street at
a trot, with whip cracking like a pack of firecrackers, and shouts of,
"_O boy! Look out for your back! your foot! your side!_"--all these
figures are mingled in a passing show of which we never grow weary.

The long bazaars, covered with a round, wooden archway rising from the
second story of the houses, are filled with a rich brown hue like a
well-coloured meerschaum pipe; and through this mellow,