"O Friend of the Prophet, is there anything to-day?"

"Nothing, O my master," is the courteously toned reply, for the
beggar appears to be a shareef or noble, and with a "God bless thee,"
disappears.

A miserable wretch now turns up, and halfway across the yard begins to
utter a whine which is speedily cut short by a curt "God help thee!"
whereat the visitor turns on his heel and is gone.

With a confident bearing an untidy looking figure enters a moment
later, and after due salaams inquires for a special kind of cloth.

"Call to-morrow morning," he is told, for he has not the air of a
purchaser, and he takes his departure meekly.

A creaky voice here breaks in from round the corner--

"Hast thou not a copper for the sake of the Lord?"

"No, O my brother."

After a few minutes another female comes on the scene, exhibiting
enough of her face to show that it is a mass of sores.

"Only a trifle, in the name of my lord Idrees," she cries, and turns
away on being told, "God bring it!"

Then comes a policeman, a makházni, who seats himself amid a shower of