OMDURMAN, STRONGHOLD OF THE MAHD1 taining sesame seed. She held the sieve with both hands high up over her head so that the wind might blow away the chaff as the seed fell to the ground. She was naked to the waist, and her pose was almost exactly that of the famed “Vestal Virgin’' in the Corcoran Art Gallery at Washington.

Omdurman is the business centre of the Sudan. Goods are sent from here to all parts of the country, and grain, gum arabic, ostrich feathers, ivory, and native cotton are brought in for sale. The town has one hundred restaur¬ ants, twenty coffee houses, and three hundred wells. It has markets of various kinds, and there are long streets of bazaars or stores in which each trade has its own sec¬ tion, many of the articles sold being made on the spot. One of the most interesting places is the woman’s market. This consists of a vast number of mat tents or shelters under each of which a woman sits with her wares piled about her. She may have vegetables, grain, or fowls, or articles of native cloth and other things made by the people. The women have the monopoly of the sales here. Men may come and buy, but they cannot peddle anything within the women’s precincts nor can they open stands there. I understand that the women are shrewd traders. Their markets cover several acres and were thronged with black and brown natives as the mamour and 1 went through.

Not far from the market I came into the great ten-acre square upon which centre the streets of the stores. There are a number of restaurants facing it. In one corner there is a cattle market where donkeys, camels, and horses are sold. The sales are under the government, to the extent that an animal must be sold there if a good 193