orientalcairocit00sladuoft

140 Oriental Cairo
Sudan, all those dark, handsome Arabs in their extraordinarycostumes
sitting in that exquisite palm-grove round their
piled-up heaps of grain with a background of kneeling camels
and tethered asses. It was a photographer's paradise—the
women had no objection to being photographed, and were so
primitive in their ideas that they did not know that a negative
of a pretty savage is worth a small piastre to the artist.
You have to ride out there on a donkey from Mena. It is
not wise to lose your donkey-boy at the fair, as I did, for your
saddle may come to pieces half-way back, as mine did.
Great was the fall therefrom ; I left the ass and his property
— I had a train to catch—and walked back into Mena, where
I reported the occurrence to the Sheikh, who took the donkey-
boy's fare, and made dignified apologies to me for the in-
security of the saddle and the inattentiveness of the boy in
not being visible when I wanted to start. I was not to trouble
my mind about the boy; the donkey would be sure to find
him.