WATER IN THE EAST

Taranaki Daily News, 20 April 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

WATER IN THE EAST

PERIPATETIC SELLERS. - SOME EGYPTIAN CUSTOMS. Among the picturesque figures on the streets of Cairo, Egypt, are sellers of sweet liquids. They offer for sale lemonade, or tamarinda, or one of the many drinks so popular in the country. They are attired in colourful garments of red and yellow, and as they proceed along the street they clang two brass saucers to herald their approach. There is another type of liquid-seller in Egypt, a more humble and less colourful type than the other. He belongs to the very poorest class, amongst whom he finds his customers. On his back he carries a huge goatskin full of water, which has been drawn from the nearest well. He is anything but picturesque, and, as a rule, cannot boast of cleanliness either, though it is possible that the water-skin which he carries on his back, from which water is constantly dripping, is not conducive to a clean appearance. He sells the water for next to nothing, and if it is a case of necessity he makes.no charge at all. He is probably engaged by a rich man to do it for him as an act of charity. He is never found anywhere but in the poorest areas, as the rich do not need his services.

In the East, to refuse a. cup of cold water to a weary soul is a terrible sin. In a land which is almost rainless and

where the heat produces an awful thirst, it is considered a sacred duty always to provide a traveller with a cup of cold water free. It is only by living in the East that one is able to appreciate the various references in the Bible to cups of cold water. Often, too, in., districts where watercarts never penetrate, and where the dust of ages lies around you everywhere, these men, with their water-skins, are a substitute for the water-cart. Small business men engage them to water the street round their shops in order to lay the dust, and this they do for a copper or two. With a dexterity bom of long experience they manage to force the water through their fingers in such a way that it forms a shower, as a watering can does, and so damps and .cools everything. This is often done in the Egyptian villages, where the men do a far better trade than they do in the towns. They fill the skin at the river-side and carry the water to distant villages, where they sell it to advantage. Filtering it is considered to be unnecessary; the natives think that the undiluted Nile water has a far better flavour than the filtered water.