ABSTRACT
Apu is celebrated for its spinning mills. * Seen from the stream it produces an illusion of life and activity. Some thirty boats are scattered along the bank, about one hundred porters are loading or unloading them, singing as they work; higher up, the royal warehouses-the dmtble white house-in which the corn, flax, fruits, stuffs, and cattle are stored, crown the bank with their crenellated walls. An old city, indolent and silent, sleeps behind this foreground; narrow alleys, scarcely animated by the murmur of a few looms, are guarded at intervals by troops of emaciated dogs; there is a small market, clean and quiet, where some twenty contemplative merchants wait from morning until evening for customers who never seem to come. To the east the temple of Minou raises ·its imposing mass.
