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[Page 37]
a family on board. There was a man on the first, a goat in a pannier on front of him, & he was nursing a kid. On the second camel his mother & wife, with three children were seated. They were all making their breaker off a large cabbage & feeding the goats off it too.
Alexandria is a large city, but Cairo is much larger. The population of Cairo at the present time is considered to be about 700,000. There are some magnificient buildings, beautifully ornamented. Altho not so substantially built as most Australian houses, in most cases they are much more artistic. There are also many places in the old quarters of the city in a condition of rack & ruin.
I have only had one night off so far (offically). A French gentleman whom we met on a tram kindly offered to show us through part of old Cairo & took us through some streets about 10 feet wide, the houses built closely together on either side, & the charahs (streets) dirty & muddy. The front rooms of most of the houses open on the street, & are stalls, where sweets & eatables of all sorts (most tempting) are exposed for sale. In most of the stores orchestras play music of the bag pipe style, & in many of them negresses & Assyrians dance to the music. The houses have overhanging