402 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 42 



reminiscent of both Byzantine and Moorish architecture (pi. 2, lower 

 right). The mosques are small and are placed unostentatiously in 

 back streets (most of the small spots symbolized as "services"). 

 There are perhaps 10 to 12 thousand Catholics, including a thousand 

 Syrians. 



The public markets handle all the perishable foodstuffs. For 

 Europeans a market house has been erected on the site of the original 

 market place in the old town (pi. 4, upper left). All but one or 

 two of the vendors are Africans. Many shoppers are African 

 servants, who mingle with European women making their own 

 selection in thrifty French tradition. The other covered market, 

 a huge, two-level building at the nexus of Syrian and African 

 business districts, is entirely African. The lower floor is unfur- 

 nished, and the market women heap their wares in little piles on the 

 floor or in calabashes, or overflow into surrounding streets. There 

 are also two large, open-air markets in Medina. Scattered trees 

 or awnings shade the vendors, at least during the moister half 

 of the year (pi. 4, lower left). 



All the markets carry the same range of goods. Vegetables come 

 from the gardens and nearby village patches. They are abundant 

 and varied during and after the rainy season but dwindle as the 

 sandy plains become desiccated. Fruits are less common. To local 

 mangoes and papayas are added imports — bananas from French 

 colonies farther south, oranges from Brazil, apples from Argen- 

 tina. Local fish appear, lightly smoked or sun-dried, and include 

 herring, sardines, and achovies, and also several tropical species. 

 Meat comes down from the interior and is killed in the local abat- 

 toir for immediate sale, refrigeration being uncommon. The 

 covered markets close about noon, but the others do business all day. 



Where private holding makes the use of land competitive, differen- 

 tiation of functions has largely supplanted the original conglom- 

 eration. Vestiges of the older order, particularly on back streets, 

 emphasize the change toward the pattern of Occidental, middle- 

 latitude cities and away from the traditional town of the low-latitude 

 African coast.^^ 



The commercial core is an areal unit but is sharply divided into 

 European, Syrian, and African sections. The earliest business streets 

 led up from the passenger wharf to the 15-meter level on which the 

 town started. These are now devoted to shipping offices, banks, and 

 curio shops. They tie into the wide avenue that marks the south 

 edge of the original planned town and leads to the central plaza. 

 This avenue and the later and still broader one that leads from the 



" For a description of the earlier stage of undifferentiated occupance see J. Roucb, Sur 

 les cotes du SSn^gal et de la Guin6e : Voyage du "Chevignfi." Paris, 1925. 



