The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-08

, Nights These people believe the same as they did then; they wear the same cos tunes: the women are as closely yelled, and all the characters of the days of Haroun Al Raschid are to be seen. Here the visionary Alnascher squats in his narrow ceIl-lil1e store with his basket of glass before him. He has long Wal ter pipe i'll his mouth and is musing on the profits he will make from peddling his glass; growing richer and richer, until the khediVe will be glad 10 offer him his , daughter in marriage, and he will spurn her as she kneels before him. We al- most expect to the glass turned oyer as it was in the story and his castles in the air shattered with his kick. Next , to him is d turbaned Mohammedan, who reminds us of Snbad, the sailor, and little further on is a Barmecide, washing [ his hands with invisible soap in tnVis- ible water, and apparently inviting his friends to come and have q great feast with him. Here two long goWned, gray bearded men are sitting on bench drinN- ing coffee together; and there a straight, tall maiden, robed in a gown which falls from her head to her feet and with long black veil covering all of her face bGt her eyes, looks over the wares of hand some young Syrian, reminding us of how the hous Is shopped in the days of the past.
 Donkeys and camels.
 Oriental Cairo is a city of donkeys and camels. In the French quarter you may have modern cab for l5 cents a ride or you may jump on the electric street cars and go a long dlstancse for from 2i2 to cents, or you may even hire an auto mobile to carry you over the asphalt The streets of the native city are too marrow for such things, and you are crowded to the wall again and again for fear that ba af aIc upon you. You are grazed by loaded donkeys, carrying grain, bricks or bags on their backs; and the donkey boy who Is trottlng behind an animal ridden by some rich Egyptian or his wife calls upon you to get out of the way. The donkey is the best means of getting around through the native city and the cheapest. You may hire one for two hours for 20 cents, for a half day for 50 or so cents, and all day for dollar. Every riding an- imal is numbered My donkey of today was named "California," and the number on his saddle was 977.
 Some Queer Citizens.
 The characters of these bazaars are odd to an extreme and one must have an edu- cated eye to know who they are. Take that man in green turban; he Is looked up to by his fellows. Your dragoman will tell you that he has a sure passport
 
 that he has made the pilgrimage to Mecca and thus earned the right to the colors of the prophet. Behind him comes d fine-featured, yelow-faced man in a blue gown wearing d turban of blue. You ask your guide who he may be and are told. with q sheer, that he is a Copt He is one of the Christians of modern Egypt, and has descended from the fanatical band which Charles Kingsley describes in his novel, "Hypata.' Like all of his class he is intelligent and like most of them well dressed. The Copts are among the shrewdest of the business Egyptians, and with the prosperity now common in the valley of the Nile, they are growing in wealth. They are money lenders and are also land spectators. Many of them have offices under the government, and not d few have amassed fortunes. Some of them are very religious, and some can recite the Bible by heart. They are diff ferent from their neighbors in that they believe in having only one wife.
 The Girls of Cairo.
 But the crowd in these streets is by no means all men, There are women scat tered here and there through it, and such women, Talk about your peel<-a-boo waists! The Cairo girls have peek-a-boo veils. All their bodies with the exception loo; close through the sllts in their veils to see whether their skins are white black or brown They are by no means good looking as they walk through the streets. Those of the better classes are clad in cloaks of black bombazine made so full that they hide every outline of the per