ers.

Now the best qualities of feathers are sent direct to London by parcel post via Khartum, and it is no longer one of the centers for buying ostrich plumes, though second and third rate feathers can still be bought at Tripoli.

A thriving trade is done in esparto grass, which is shipped to England to be made into paper. The Japanese, by the way, are endeavoring to cultivate esparto grass in their country, and for the past two years they have imported quantities of this paper for their own use.

THE GREAT WEEKLY MARKET

Every Tuesday morning a curious market formerly took place on the crescentshaped beach, to which natives came. from far and near to sell, barter, and exchange camels, donkeys, mules and horses, wool and hides, cereals, fruit, vegetables, and meat.

The market was a conglomeration of different tribes of northern Africa. Each tribe has its individual tattoo marks, or brands, some of which disfigure their faces terribly. Here the Bedouin from the Sahara has his head shaved and shampooed. Touaregs come in on their racing camels, called mehara, for supplies. They dislike towns and prefer their desert homes. The men are fierce and warlike, and can be distinguished from the other tribes by a cloth that almost covers their faces to protect them from the cutting sandstorms. They usually wear thick woolen bernouses, and their heads are wound with a heavy, long turban or cloth. They claim that the sun burns through the garments, and in order to keep out the heat and sun they wear heavy clothes, even in midsummer.

Men from Timbuktu were always present at the market, dressed in the skins of wild animals and decorated with shells and animals' teeth. They wore face masks of skins and skulls, and danced to the beating of iron castanets, about two feet long, with heads as large as saucers. These men of Timbuktu remind one of the Indian medicine men of New Mexico and the Southwest.

Owing to the failure of crops during the past five years, thousands of Bedouins have come up from the interior of the

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Sahara, hoping to find work and a little food with which to sustain life. Poverty is so great that, until the Turkish-Italian war, one could see daily numbers of Bedouins, with small brooms made of palm leaves, sweeping up manure in the streets in the hope of finding a few undigested grains of barley or millet that they could eat.

V

THE OASES OF NORTHERN AFRICA AND THE SAHARA

ARAB SALUTATIONS

When, traveling in the interior of North Africa, one encounters a caravan or a band of mounted Bedouins, the salutation, Salam aalikoum, "Peace be upon you," may mean nothing to a stranger, but how eagerly listened to by one who knows, as it means his personal safety and the welfare of all that are with him.

No one using the greeting Salam aalikoum would ever dare bring down the wrath of God upon his head by attempting to rob your caravan or murder you in your sleep. One can safely pitch one's tents next to the Bedouin using the above greeting, knowing that all will be well.

But if they do not salute you with those words, then beware. Danger lurks very near. The greeting Salam aalikoum is only used between Mohammed Should a Christian be in the caravan, they would say "May peace be upon those that accompany the stranger."

ans.

Even in speaking to a friend, or a stranger that one meets alone, one should always say "Peace be upon you"; you, used in the plural, because this man that you see alone is accompanied by the guardian angel, that you do not see, and you must salute them both.

No matter the state of one's birth, or power, or dignity, he that is on horseback should greet the man on foot. He that is walking should greet the man that he sees sitting down. A man on horseback should speak first to the man he meets riding a mule. A man on a mule should greet first a poor man riding a donkey.

The greeting should always be from the highest to the lowest, and never from