The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1908-07-17

etors smoking waterpipes, a constant
procession through the streets of
donkeys, carts loaded with yelled
women. camels treading stealthily, one
of which was seen daintily nibbing at
the flowers on the Partisan bonnet of
the lady in a victoria just ahead
Flocks of geese and turkeys might
be seen driven along the street by
vendors, who enide them with little
switch, keeping them under perfect
control
Very laughable is the rivalry be-
tween the keepers of the bazaars and
bitter the denunciation that fills the
ear of the foreigner as he stops to
make purchase. The strange med
ley of tongues and the stranger pro-
nunciation Of his own language makes
the buyer stare and then double up
with laughter.
If he selects an article from the
stand Of the merchant on his right the
proprietor of the stand on his left
will Shrek in his ear: mo buy Of
heem! Heem vera bad man! Heem
tief! Heem ladder tief! Heem mudder
tief! His granfader tief! Heem gran
mudder tief! No buy of heem!" While
the imperurable proprietor on the
right will respond in a low cultural,
like a bass solo following a soprano
cadenza: "Heem big liar! Heem go
Jail! Heem got noting! Me got ebbery-
ting! Look you! Shmakkin kip (smok-
ing cap), packet sniff (pocket knife),
ooble-booble bubble bubble, or water
pipe), preera,beed (prayer beads, or
rosary).' Then, with shout of tri-
umph: Shippers all! Shippers
mooch! Beada shippers! Silka ship.
ners' Coda shippers! Me got all!
Heem big liar, Heem go jail" and so
on ad infinitum.
BY which my reader will perceive
that shopping in Cairo is not all of
heaven, nor yet of the other place,
and that the amenities are much
subordinate to that love which is the
root of all evil.
A wedding is quite likely to follow
next in the wonderful street process.
sion. First clown or mountebank.
dancing, grimacing, rolling in the dirt,
going through all sorts of antics for
the amusement Of the people. He is
followed by men playing on a collec-
ton of shrieking and wailing musical
instruments. Then comes the bride.
sometimes in closely-shuttered car.
rage, draped with tinsel-trimmed vel.
vet, or, what is much more pictur.
esque, curtained litter slung between
two camels. After her comes the fur.
niture for her new home, for a bride is
expected to provide everything, even
to the bridegroom's trousseau. This
plenishing is all piled on camels, who
60 swaying along, sneering supercili-
ously as If deploring the foolishness of
these human customs. A camels ex-
preston OF conscious superiority must
be rather trying, if one sees much
of it.
1t seems almost waste of time to
have so much ceremony attend so cas-
lily dissolved relation as marriage is
in Cairo. A man, with or without any
just cause, has only to say before wit
nesses, Woman, divorce thee!" and
repeat it three times, and he is as free
as before he married her. He has to
return to her her house plenishing and
she returns her dowry to him. This
dowry consists of one-third of a mans
possessions, which he settles on her
when he marries her.
According to the Mohammedan faith
a man may have four wives, that il,
al to onct, as they say in the west.
ne may divorce and re.marry. still