AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



shilling." Finally, at the cheese, he reached out, 

 swept the coral into his pocket, and laid down two 

 shillings. The Egyptian deftly gathered the coin, 

 smiled cheerfully, and produced a glittering veil 

 in which he tried in vain to enlist Billy's interest. 



For coffee and cigars we moved to the terrace 

 outside. Here an orchestra played, the peoples 

 of many nations sat at little tables, the peddlers, 

 fakirs, jugglers, and fortune tellers swarmed. A half 

 dozen postal cards seemed sufficient to set a small 

 boy up in trade, and to imbue him with all the impor- 

 tance and insistence of a merchant with jewels. 

 Other ten-year-old ragamuffins tried to call our 

 attention to some sort of sleight-of-hand with poor 

 downy little chickens. Grave turbaned and polite 

 Indians squatted crosslegged at our feet begging to 

 give us a look into the future by means of the only 

 genuine hallmarked Yogism; a troupe of acrobats 

 went energetically and hopefully through quite a 

 meritorious performance a few feet away; a deftly 

 triumphant juggler did very easily, and directly 

 beneath our watchful eyes, some really wonderful 

 tricks. A butterfly-gorgeous swarm of insinuating 

 smiling peddlers of small things dangled and spread 

 their wares where they thought themselves most 

 sure of attention. Beyond our own little group we 

 saw slowly passing in the lighted street outside the 



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