59 o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a free exhibition of coppers would return to the places those whom 

 we had disturbed. We fared better with the older women, partly 

 because they objected less to the privileges we were assuming for 

 ourselves, and partly (perhaps it can be said mainly) because their 

 slower movements gave us the opportunity to make a result with the 

 instantaneous shutter. 



A corner, or rather street, of Biskra which has its special attrac- 

 tion for the as yet rather limited number of strangers who have dis- 

 covered in the oasis a true climatic resort is the Ouled-el-Nail, or 

 " street of the dancing girls," as it is most generally known. Here 

 congregate the Arab women, young and old, of the tribe of Nail, 

 whose graces and abandon have earned for them a special reputation 

 throughout the land. They are the " select of the select," but just 

 why they should be considered so will probably not be apparent to 

 most strangers. Feminine Arab beauty, despite what poets and 

 some few travelers may have said or written about it, is not an un- 

 mitigated joy to the eye, nor that dream of loveliness toward which 

 the artist has swung his minstrel harp. By the average European 

 or American the Arab woman would be rated homely, if nothing 

 more; the redeeming features of her face are the lustrous and truly 

 exquisite eyes and the veil which hides the remaining features of 

 her visage. Among the women of the Nail tribe, at least among 

 those whom we had the opportunity to meet, sitting on the street 

 curbs, lounging in the doorways, or going through their Terpsicho- 

 rean antics in the coffeehouses, there was hardly a respectable feature 

 to be seen, the worn and haggard countenances and deeply furrowed 

 lines plainly reading the histories of their debauched lives; add to 

 this in most cases an ungainly or warped figure, clothed in a most 

 bizarre attire of brilliant coloring, and elaborately assisted by a 

 veritable storehouse of jewels and gold and silver ornaments, and 

 we have the general make-up of these nymphs of the desert. The 

 quantity of precious plate and chains that is worn by the women 

 is truly astonishing, the decoration of the person, manifestly, being 

 limited only by the quantity of material that may be had to put on. 

 We visited one of the coffeehouses where a portion of the evening 

 was, on demand, given over to dancing, but we found the move- 

 ments and the whole proceedings so slow and tiresome that we left 

 almost immediately after we had disposed of our coffee. The coffee- 

 house is itself — as, indeed, we found most of the native coffeehouses 

 of the country — a model of good order, wholly relieved of riotous 

 manner, and the very embodiment of ease and cleanliness. We en- 

 joyed the privilege of seats, but the greater number of those present 

 were squatted directly upon the stone or brick flooring, or upon a 

 mat or rug that was pulled over it. Rich and poor frequent these 



