Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III STREETS AND BAZAARS The work of an artist in Cairo is full of interest, and I look back upon many pleasurable experiences, while others perhaps have been for the moment irritating and occasionally disastrous. There seems to be a curious fatality which compels the painter (if he is careful to select the best point of view) to take his stand in the most uncomfortable and impossible positions. Thus in Cairo the artist will frequently find that his easel must be planted in the middle of the street, to his own discomfort and the disturbance of traffic. I often wonder at the toleration which allows so much interference with the right of way ; but, as I said before, the people are good-natured souls, and usually regard the painter as a " magnoon," or kind of harmless lunatic, who is not to be taken seriously. Naturally you are surrounded by a crowd, while heat, dust, and flies try your patience to the uttermost. If you are of a nervous or irritable disposition, do not attempt street work in Cairo. The crowd which surrounds you, perhaps completely blocking your view, A MOSQUE DOOR, CAIRO is only attracted by curiosity, and bears you no ill-will. A little tact and good-humour on your part will get over the difficulty pleasantly, and the remarks you will overhear among your audience are often both amusing and instructive. While painting the mosque door which illustrates this chapter, a native of my acquaintance passing by stopped to salaam, and then remarked : " Why, Effendim, do you sit here all day in the dust ? " " Oh, I am painting, as you see." " But why paint that poor little mosque ? " " Because I like the colour of it," I replied. " Yes," he said, " but it is only dirt." " It is beautiful, for all that," I respond ; and presently, a new i...