MERAWI IN 1897 variation, and an expert like Slatin Pasha could tell at a glance from what part of the country each man hailed, and the tribe to which he belonged. It was interesting to note that many Arabs had the small regular features and short beards which one sees in Arabia, and even in the deserts of Southern Mesopotamia, and it is difficult not to think that the original home of the ancestors of such Arabs must have been situated beyond the Red Sea, in Southern Arabia.

In one portion of the si\k, or market, camels and donkeys were offered for sale, and close by were some cattle, near these were both men and women who sold vegetables, nmlukhtya, hamia, &c. Numbers of native women offered the products of their villages, mats, rough earthenware jars and other vessels, &c., and skins of all sorts sold readily. Sellers of leather sandals, short daggers in leather cases, with straps for attaching them to the arms, beads, stamped leather cases containing pieces of paper with verses from the Kur'an written on them, and all articles of cutlery, did a roaring trade, and brightly coloured stuffs of all sorts and kinds were bought by the women readily.

Sugar was sold in small canes weighing about three pounds each, salt both crushed and in bars, alum, and anything in the nature of condiments, were in great demand.

In the centre of the market the merchants seated them-217 LEATHER AMULET CASE, WITH LEATHER SUSPENDING CORD.

Modern Omdurman work.