SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 89 
strange Babel from the mouths of men clad, I may say, in 
all known hues of burnous, scarf, and turban. Like Brewster's 
kaleidoscope are the ever-shifting tints of so great a multi- 
tude of many-coloured dresses beneath the vertical glare of 
an eastern sun. The noiseless camel with heavy load 
bumps against the passer-by. Black eunuchs attend the 
carriages of the ruler’s hareem.* Veiled women ride on 
white asses, nobly caparisoned. Gaily-dressed runners pre- 
cede the carriages, vociferating to the crowd to get out of 
the way,—and he who is run over after that, must blame 
himself. 
The seller of tobacco sits cross-legged on his divan. The 
money-changer counts up coins of many nations. The ven- 
dor of sweet liquor clatters his brass cups as he walks about. 
There are men for every trade, and purchasers for every 
ware. Pot-bellied boys, bareheaded derwishes, and blear- 
eyed beggars jostle the subtle Greek with the embroidered 
scarf and the grave old Bey on his red-pomelled ass—jostle 
American tourists, English speculators, French engineers— 
jostle soldiers, muezzins, and artizans—all who come in 
their way, rich and poor, high and low, walkers, riders, 
drivers, in alleys so blind, in streets so crooked, in lanes so 
narrow, as only the mind of an eastern architect could have 
conceived. 
The public garden is called the Ezbekeah. It has been 
laid out at great expense by the present Viceroy. Notwith- 
standing every difficulty, a beautiful lawn of grass has been 
obtained, such as I never thought to see in Egypt. On the 
ornamental sheet of water are pinioned Tufted Ducks and 
Pochards. Warblers resort to the trees, of which many 
* Eastern etiquette requires that all people should turn their heads 
and look another way when the Hareem passes. He who does not 
comply with this custom may chance to receive a blow from the flat of 
the eunuch’s sword. 
