CAIRO TO KISUMU water supply and after each big rain there is an epidemic of fever.

The projected railroad from Jidda to Mecca will prob¬ ably pay well, for the travel is enormous. Twenty-five years ago more than sixty thousand Mohammedans came annually by sea to make their way over the sands to Mecca and Medina. There are perhaps half again as many more to-day, and the railroad will so reduce the cost of the trip that the number of worshippers will be greatly increased. Indeed, the day may come when some Mo¬ hammedan tourist agent will be selling to pilgrims from all parts of the Moslem world round-trip tickets to the birthplace of the Prophet, including admission to the Kaaba.

With Mecca accessible by railroad there may be a chance for Christians to visit the holy city of Islam. All who have been there in the past have had to go in disguise, and the man who would attempt it to-day takes his life in his hand. The railroad will be officered by Mohamme¬ dans, and it is doubtful whether they will take Christians as passengers. They will have to cater to the pilgrims, as it is from them that their traffic must come.

Meantime, without wishing to act as did the fox who called the grapes sour, I do not believe there is much to see in Mecca, after all. The town lies in a hot, arid valley watered for most of the year by a few brackish wells and some cisterns. The best water, which comes in from Ara¬ fat through a little aqueduct, is sold at high prices by a water trust at the head of which is the governor of the city.

Mecca, I am told, has only about fifty thousand in¬ habitants. It fills the valley and runs up the sides of the 222