on in the streets, most prominent of all being that of the
water-sellers, for Cairo is hot and dusty, and water is in constant
demand.

There are several grades of water-carriers. First, the "sakka," who
carries on his back a goat-skin filled with water; one of the
fore-legs forms the spout, which is simply held tight in the hand to
prevent the water from escaping. He is the poorest of them all,
barefooted and wearing an often ragged blue gelabieh, while a leather
apron protects his back from the dripping goat-skin. He it is who
waters the streets and fills the "zīrs," or filters, in the shops,
a number of shop-keepers combining to employ him to render this
service to their section of a street.

A superior grade is the "khamali," who carries upon his back a large
earthen pot of filtered water. When he wishes to fill the brass
drinking-cups, which he cleverly tinkles as he walks, he has simply to
bend forward until the water runs out of the spout above his shoulder
and is caught in one of the cups, and it is interesting to notice that
he seldom spills a drop.

Then there is that swaggering and often handsome fellow clad in red,
and with a coloured scarf around his head, who, with shoulders well
set back, carries, slung in a broad leather belt, a terra-cotta jar.
This is the "sussi," who sells liquorice water, or a beverage made
from prunes, and which he hands to his customers in a dainty blue and
white china bowl.

The highest grade of all is the "sherbutli," also gaily dressed, who
from an enormous green glass bottle, brass mounted, and cooled by a