and which until recently was practically all the education they
received.

And now I must tell you something about the bazaars, which, after the
mosques, are the most interesting relics in Cairo, and in many cases
quite as old. First, I may say that the word "bazaar" means "bargain,"
and as in the East a fixed price is unusual, and anything is worth
just what can be got for it, making a purchase is generally a matter
of patience, and one may often spend days in acquiring some simple
article of no particular value. An exception is the trade in copper
ware, which is sold by weight, and it is a common practice among the
poorer classes to invest their small savings in copper vessels of
which they have the benefit, and which can readily be sold again
should money be wanted. This trade is carried on in a very picturesque
street, called the "Sûk-en-Nahassīn," or street of the coppersmiths,
where in tiny little shops 4 or 5 feet square, most of the copper and
brass industry of Cairo is carried on. Opening out of this street are
other bazaars, many very ancient, and each built for some special
trade. So we have the shoemaker's bazaar, the oil, spice, Persian and
goldsmith's bazaars, and many others, each different in character, and
generally interesting as architecture. The Persian bazaar is now
nearly demolished, and the "Khan Khalili," once the centre of the
carpet trade, and the most beautiful of all, is now split up into a
number of small curio shops, for the people are becoming Europeanized,
and the Government, alas! appear to have no interest in the
preservation of buildings of great historic interest and beauty.

One other feature of old Cairo I must notice before leaving the
subject. In the old days of long caravan journeys, when merchants from
Persia, India, and China brought their wares to Cairo overland, it was