Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-07-22
The Orient.
EMMA.

The native bazaars of Cairo and AL
exandria reveal to the traveller at a
q lance, the character of the Orient; its
heap tinsel, its squalor and occasional
richness and gorgeousness. The shope
on each side of the narrow street ars
little more than good sized wardrobes,
with rooms for shelves of goods in the
rem, and fortfhe mhrchant to sit cross
legged in front. There is usually space for
n customer TO sit with him and, indeed,
two or three can rest on the edge of the
platform. Upon cords stretched across
the front bnng specimens of the wares
for sale Wooden shutters close the
front atlnight. The little cubbies are
not places Of sale only but of manufac-
ture OF goods. Everything goes on in
the view of all the world. The tailor
is stitching, the goldsmith is blowing
the bellows of his tiny forge, the sad
dler is repairing, the old donkey sad
dies, the shoemaker is cutting red
leather, the brazier is hammering, the
weaver sits at his -httle loom with the
tTeadle in the ground-every trade goes
pn, adding its own clatter TO the up
roar. .s.aask d.
= What impresses us most is the good
nature of the throng under trying cir
cupstances. The street is SO narrow
that three or four people abreast make
"a jam and 1t is packed with those NOV
ing in two opposing currents. Through
this mass comes q denReywith couple
of paniers of soifUrof bricks, or bundles
of scraggy sticksf-Or n tcamel surges in,
loaded with building joists or with lime,
or aTurkish officerwith agayly-capari-
soned horse impatiently Stamping; a
porter slams along with a heavy box od
his back; the water carrier with his
nasty skin rubs through; the yonder OF
sweetness finds room Tor his rIOad tray /;
the orangeman pushes bis cart into the
throng; the Jew -aucdoneer cries his
antique brasses- and more antique raj
ment. Egerybody=is jdstled and pushed
and jsmmed; but-everybody is in an
imperturbable good htPnor, for no one
is reslly in hurry, AND whatever is. Is
as il always has been aud will be. And
what I cosmopolitan place 1t is! We
meet Turks, Creeks, Copts, Egyptians,
tattereti dervishds. Welees," or Mos
iema nearly naked, prasenting the ap-
pearAnce of men who have been buried
a long time and recently dug up; Greek
priests, Persian parsees. Algerines. Hin
from beyond Khartoum.
The traveller has come into country
of holiday which Is perpetual. Under
this sun and in this mir there is nothing
TO do but to enjoy life ana attend TO re-
ligion five times day. We look into "A
mosque; in the cool court is a fountain
for washing; the mosque bis sweet and
quiet, and upon its clean mating a row
OF Arabs were prostrating themselves
in prayer toward the niche that indi-
Gates the direction of Mecca. We stroll
along the open streets, eucountering a
novelty at every step.
Here Is amusician, a Eubian. playing
upon sort of tambour on "A frame; a
picking, feeble noise he produces, but
he is accompanied by the oldest char
acttr we have yet seen. This Is a stall
wart, wild.eyed son of the sand, coal
black. with u great mass of uncombed.
disordered hair hanging about his
shoui ders. His only clothing Is
breechcloth, ami q round shaving glass
bound upon his forehead; but he has
hung about his waist heavy strings of
goats hoofs, and these he shakes in
time to the tambour, by a tremulous
motion of his big body as he minces
about. He seems so vastly pleased with
himself that / eovet knowledge of his
language in order to tell him that he
looks like an idiot Charles Warner.