With the Serbs in Macedonia

28 WITH THE SERBS IN MACEDONIA
and Venizelos Street, where one could buy most
things of inferior quahty
at treble their value.
But always the thing that struck one was
the muddle and mystery of it all. Rolls-Royces
ran into donkeys. Turks spat furtively on
infidel enemy shadows. The dervishes danced
in their mosque ; the Greek Orthodox Church
cast a silver cross in the sea ; Moslems fasted
from Ramesan to Bairam, neither eating nor
drinking till the sun went down ; and harlots
made fortunes.
Warships and transports came and went ;
hospitals rose all over the place and hospital
ships were moored in the bay. Evidently
there was a war on somewhere, because of all
these soldiers in the town, and all these ships
in the harbour. But the War did not seem to
have much to do with Salonica, busy but
unconcerned. Now and then came aeroplanes
to ram things home, taking at times a dreadful
toll of mihtary and civilians alike. But Green
was close by, and that indomitable aviator
and his merry men soon broke up the enemy's
special bombing squadron, and Salonica went
on making hay while the sun shone— the most
that was ever made.
expensive hay
Beyond question it was, is, and always will
be a curious city, inhabited by curious people.
With the blue water below and the blue sky