A Flight Of Steep
Steps Leads Into A Long Room With Shutters To Exclude The Light, Floored
With Tamped Earth, Full Of "Evening Flyers" [30], And Destitute Of
Furniture.
Parallel to it are three smaller apartments; and above is a
terraced roof, where they who fear not the dew and the land-breeze sleep.
[31] I found a room duly prepared; the ground was spread with mats, and
cushions against the walls denoted the Divan:
For me was placed a Kursi or
cot, covered with fine Persian rugs and gaudy silk and satin pillows. The
Hajj installed us with ceremony, and insisted, despite my remonstrances,
upon occupying the floor whilst I sat on the raised seat. After ushering
in supper, he considerately remarked that travelling is fatiguing, and
left us to sleep.
The well-known sounds of El Islam returned from memory. Again the
melodious chant of the Muezzin,--no evening bell can compare with it for
solemnity and beauty,--and in the neighbouring mosque, the loudly intoned
Amin and Allaho Akbar,--far superior to any organ,--rang in my ear. The
evening gun of camp was represented by the Nakkarah, or kettle-drum,
sounded about seven P.M. at the southern gate; and at ten a second
drumming warned the paterfamilias that it was time for home, and thieves,
and lovers,--that it was the hour for bastinado. Nightfall was ushered in
by the song, the dance, and the marriage festival,--here no permission is
required for "native music in the lines,"--and muffled figures flitted
mysteriously through the dark alleys.
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