Ebook My Abyssinian Journey

The streets were simply alley-ways, about a yard wide; the over hanging balconies of some of the houses and hotels almost completely shut off the sunlight, and from some of these balconies it was possible to reach across to the house on the opposite side of the street Did one happen to meet a donkey or mule with pack-saddles coming along the street, it was necessary to step aside into some doorway to allow it to pass. There was not the remotest attempt at sanitation, and the streets were running with filth and refuse of all kinds exuding a noisome stench. Some of the houses were one-storey and others two storey buildings, but all had ?at roofs, and one could only pity the poor wretches living in such quarters; at night they swarmed on to' the roofs for fresh air. Such a place might be a veritable city of plague, but fortunately it was often visited by torrential rains, which washed away the filth and did the cleaning which the inhabitants neglected to do for them selves.