rapid, undignified descent, immensely entertaining to the crowd.
Some of the booths close to the foot-way are built of mud or brick, and would indeed become permanent structures, but that their occupants may be ordered at any moment to clear them away, so as to make room for the progress of the Em- peror. For I must tell you that whenever the Sovereign is carried abroad, outside his own palace walls, the roads must be cleared, and even cleaned, that his sacred eyes may not be offended with a glimpse at the true condition of his splendid capital. After he has passed by, booths, tents and stalls are re-erected, and commerce and confusion resume their sway. As matters stand, these roadside obstructions are really a great boon to the people. Anything can be bought at the stalls, and their owners are neither slow nor silent in advertising the fact. At one a butcher and a baker combine their crafts. The for- mer sells his mutton cut to suit the taste of his customers, while at the same time he disposes of all the bones and refuse to the cook who manufactures savoury pies before a hungry crowd of lookers-on. Twirling his rolling-pin on his board, he shrieks out in a shrill key a list of the delicacies he has prepared.
Jewels, too, of no mean value, are on sale here as well, and there are peep-shows, jugglers, lottery-men, ballad-singers and story-tellers; the latter accompanying their recitations with the strummings of a lute, while their audience sits round a long table and listens with rapt attention to the dramatic renderings of their poets. The story-teller, however, has many competitors to contend against, and of all his rivals the old-clothes-men are perhaps the most formidable tribe. These old-clothes-men enjoy a wide celebrity for their humorous stories, and will run off with a rhyme to suit the garments as they offer them to the highest bidder. Each coat is thus invested with a miraculous
