There were the letter writers of Sago Street—the Chinese called this street "Gu Chia Chwi Hi Hng Cheng" (front of Kreta Ayer Theatre), but it was mainly associated with life and death — the sandalwood idols of Club Street and the complicated and simple food of Mosque Street; all rang to the sound of the abacus. Old women could be seen early in the mornings topping and tailing bean sprouts, the skins of frogs being peeled, the newly killed snakes being skinned and the centuries-old panaceas being dispensed by women blessed with the power of healing.