1907.] TRIPOLI. 207 



wind was going down, and during the night it ceased entirely, 

 so that the next morning dawned with the wind shifted to the 

 east, and beautiful weather reigned once more. 



One of the characteristic scenes of Tripoli is the market 

 day. People to the number of ten thousand, and sometimes 

 more, come in from the surrounding region, thirty or forty 

 miles, and bring in the products of their farms, there being 

 meat, vegetables, water jars, and everything you might think 

 of to sell. You can imagine what that means in a city with 

 such little narrow streets as they have there. Each of the 

 streets of the market contains those selling a particular line of 

 material. There will be meat in one street, and perhaps the 

 next one will have marmalades, and perhaps the next one will 

 have honey, all kinds, not made up in any shape at all, but 

 as it comes from the bees. Then would come those with water 

 jars, and then others with the things that Arab children wear. 

 I must speak in particular of the extremely lovely water jars 

 that one may pick up at the bazaars and on market days. Some 

 of them are most interesting. They are things that people 

 can bring home for the entertainment of friends, for some of 

 them are exceedingly curious. The natives are very deft and 

 artistic in their methods of manufacturing them down in that 

 region, and are extremely picturesque. The water jars are 

 very much upon the same pattern as those made by the Romans 

 eighteen hundred years ago. In fact, there is no change in 

 the shape whatever. 



I think that one of the most curious customs of the country, 

 and one which makes Tripoli stand out distinctly in my mind, 

 is the wedding customs. When a wedding is going to occur 

 in a family, or when a man has made a pilgrimage, or when 

 something of great moment is to occur in the immediate future, 

 they make a great outcry about it, seem to be anxious to have 

 everyone know all about it. One night I was awakened about 

 three o'clock by a great sound of halloaing in the street. 

 When a wedding occurs in some leading family, the same 

 thing takes place. One night I was awakened by this sound, 

 and I looked out and saw what I took to be a caravan of 

 Tripolitans going by. They did not look to be people of great 

 consequence in the social life of Tripoli. It was a bridal pro- 

 cession. There, in a palanquin, covered except as to the upper 

 part of her left eye, was the bride, and following her was 



