“What?” I gasped, sitting up in astonishment.
A woman of Alexandria, Egypt, carrying two bushels of oranges.
“I give you five piasters,” he coaxed.
“Take it!” I cried, and, grasping the coin he held out to me, dashed away to the station.
Half an hour later I was speeding southward across the fertile delta of the Nile. How different was this land from the country I had so lately left behind! Every few miles the train halted at a busy city. Between these cities were the mud villages of the Egyptian peasant, and many well cultivated fields. Inside the car, which was much like our own in America, well dressed natives read the latest newspapers with the easy manners of Paris business men. There were several half blind Egyptians in the car, victims of an eye disease common in this country; but even they leaned back in their seats contentedly. An eyeless one in one corner roared with laughter at the lively talk of his companions. Far more at ease was he, for all of his misfortune, than I, with neither friend nor acquaintance in all the length and breadth of the continent.
Evening came on. The changing scenery grew dim. The land near and far was so flat that in the dusk I could hardly tell the difference between a far-off village and a water-buffalo lying down near at hand. The western sky turned red for a moment, dulled to a brown, and then the darkness that suddenly spread over the land left me to stare at my own face beyond the window. The sight was not encouraging. Who would give work to the owner of such a face and figure? The lights that began to twinkle here and there over the black plain were of villages where strangers were very probably disliked and unwelcome. Every click of the wheels brought me nearer to the greatest city of Africa, of which I knew little more than the name. Yet I would soon be wandering alone there in the darkness, with only ten cents in my pockets! Perhaps in all Cairo there was not another penniless adventurer of my race! Even if there were, and a lodging for vagabonds somewhere in the great city, what chance had I of finding it? For who would understand my words, and even if they did who could direct me to such an out-of-the-way place?
The train halted in a vast domed station. A great crowd swept me through the waiting-rooms and out upon a brightly lighted square. There the screaming mass of hackmen, porters, donkey-boys, and hotel runners drove me to seek shelter behind a station pillar. I swung my knapsack over my shoulder, and gazed at the human sea about me, hopelessly undecided as to what to do or where to go.
An abandoned mosque (Mohammedan church) outside the walls of Cairo, and a caravan off for a trip across the desert.