GATE-WAY OF A CARAVANSARY.
The guide explained that the place they had entered was a caravansary or inn (usually called a khan), and that it might be taken as a fair sample of the Oriental hotel. "The rooms," said he, "are let out to travellers or merchants for a small sum, and the keeper will provide food for man and beast, just as a tavern-keeper would in America. The rooms have no furniture, nothing but the bare walls, and floors; the occupant spreads his carpet and bedding on the floor, and if he has any merchandise he piles it up, and can, if he chooses, convert the place into a shop. There are stables for camels and other beasts of burden on the side opposite the entrance; if you go into them you will find a small platform over the farther end of each compartment, and the trough or manger is directly beneath it. The drivers sleep on these platforms, so as to be near their animals, to prevent their being stolen, and to look after them generally."
Frank asked if the Eastern caravansary of the present day was like the same institution mentioned several times in the Bible.
"There can be little doubt that it is," the Doctor answered, "as the customs of the country have changed very little from Bible times to our own. It was just such a place as this where our Saviour was born, and the trough or manger where he was cradled was like any one of the feeding-troughs in this caravansary."
While they were looking at the rooms and other parts of the caravansary, the khanjy, or keeper, came forward and asked what they wanted. The guide explained that they were strangers who wished to see the place, and he accompanied the explanation with a small backsheesh. The khanjy said they might remain as long as they liked; but they had seen all there was of interest about the place, and soon withdrew.
A STREET IN A BAZAAR AT CAIRO.
Soon after leaving the khan they entered the cloth bazaar, where the shops were principally filled with cloths of different kinds. The merchants endeavored to attract their attention, and the runners were at times so troublesome that the Doctor instructed the guide to say that they had not come there to buy, but simply to look around. He took the opportunity to tell the boys that the word bazaar is Persian, and means "a collection of shops," while the Arabic word of the same meaning is sook. "We thus have," said he, "the 'Sook el Hamzowee,' the 'Sook el Attarin' (drug bazaar), the 'Sook-es-Soudan' (bazaar for Soudan products), and many others whose character we shall learn by-and-by."