TCD MS 10515 folio 35r
Saturday: April 8th 1916: Basra Worrying over mess accounts this morning which ultimately came out square. To the bazaar on business after an early lunch. The bazaar is an Oriental Burlington Arcade; it is roofed over with curs-beams covered with layers of matting. This converts the street into a long tunnel dingy and flavoured with strange odours, redolent of dates, liqourice and mixtures of many spices. The odours, sometimes pleasing often repulsive, meet the nose in succession as we pass from shop to shop. But this is the same old story; what Eastern bazaar is not, as most would describe it, a succession of stinks. The roof is most valuable; it protects the bazaar from the blazing sun; the gently breeze drifting along the tunnel cools the oppressive air, and the darkness