PORT SAID 



ets, and heard the rising and falling of chanting. 

 Numerous small boats hovered near, floating in and 

 out of the patches of light we ourselves cast, waiting 

 for permission to swarm at the gangplank for our 

 patronage. 



We went ashore, passed through a wicket gate, and 

 across the dark buildings to the heart of the town, 

 whence came the dull glow and the sounds of people. 



Here were two streets running across one another, 

 both brilliantly lighted, both thronged, both lined 

 with little shops. In the latter one could buy any- 

 thing, in any language, with any money. We 

 saw cheap straw hats made in Germany hung 

 side by side with gorgeous and beautiful stuffs from 

 the orient; shoddy European garments and Eastern 

 jewels; cheap celluloid combs and curious em- 

 broideries. The crowd of passersby in the streets 

 were compounded in the same curiously mixed 

 fashion; a few Europeans, generally in white, and 

 then a variety of Arabs, Egyptians, Somalis, Berbers, 

 East Indians and the like, each in his own gaudy or 

 graceful costume. It speaks well for the accuracy 

 of feeling, anyway, of our various "Midways," 

 Pikes," and the like of our world's expositions that 

 the streets of Port Said looked like Midways raised 

 to the n th power. Along them we sauntered with 

 a pleasing feeling of self-importance. On all sides 



17 



