The business parts of Khartum are on the streets back from the river. There is one great square devoted to the markets. This must cover ten or more acres, and the Abbas Square, a little farther west, in which the mosque stands, is fully twice as large. The business section has two banks and a large number of stores managed chiefly by Greeks. There are more Greeks here than any other foreigners, and next to them come the Italians, some of whom have important establishments. One of the biggest of all is the house of Angelo Capato, a man who might be called the Marshall Field of the Sudan, for he has a large business here, with branches all over the country and desert stores far up the Nile. The stores have covered porches in front of them or they face arcades which keep off the sun. The mosque of Khartum is one of the most beautiful buildings in Africa. It is a great two-story structure of white stone with minarets rising high above it. The galleries of the minarets have a lacework of stone around them and the towers are covered with Arabic carvings. The building is named after Khedive Abbas Hilmi who, I am told, furnished much of the money for its erection. Khartum has also a big Coptic church as well as one built by the Church of England and the schools and chapels of the United Presbyterian Mission of our country. So, you see, notwithstanding its position on this far-away part of the globe, it has abundant religious facilities. I have been interested in watching the women doing construction work here in Khartum. Wherever new houses and business blocks are going up, the masons and mechanics have their women helpers. The labourers come from all parts of the Sudan, so that the women of a half-dozen tribes may be working on the same building. The wages are far beyond those of the past, and, although they are still but a few cents a day, here in Central Africa they mean riches. These women labourers are strapping black girls, straight and plump, and so lightly dressed that one can see all the outlines of their forms. Some have but a thin sheet of blue cotton wrapped loosely around the shoulders with another wound about the waist so that it falls to the feet. The upper garment is off half the time, leaving the girl bare to the waist. Her plump bust shows out in the bright sun as she raises her arms high to steady the load on her head. These African natives, both men and women, pull out all the hair on their bodies, going over them once a month for this purpose. This custom is common in many parts of the world. It is done among some of the Indians of the Amazon, among the Jewesses of Tunis, who are shaved from head to foot just before marriage, and among the Moros of our Philippine Islands, who carry along little tweezers to jerk out the hairs.