Some Of The Women Would Be Pretty Did
They Not Resemble The Men In Their Scowling, Satanic Expression Of
Countenance:
They are decidedly _en deshabille,_ but a black skin always
appears a garb.
The cantonment is surrounded by asses, camels, and a troop
of naked Flibertigibbets, who dance and jump in astonishment whenever they
see me: "The white man! the white man!" they shriek; "run away, run away,
or we shall be eaten!" [19] On one occasion, however, my _amour propre_
was decidedly flattered by the attentions of a small black girl,
apparently four or five years old, who followed me through the streets
ejaculating "Wa Wanaksan!"--"0 fine!" The Bedouins, despite their fierce
scowls, appear good-natured; the women flock out of the huts to stare and
laugh, the men to look and wonder. I happened once to remark, "Lo, we come
forth to look at them and they look at us; we gaze at their complexion and
they gaze at ours!" A Bedouin who understood Arabic translated this speech
to the others, and it excited great merriment. In the mining counties of
civilised England, where the "genial brickbat" is thrown at the passing
stranger, or in enlightened Scotland, where hair a few inches too long or
a pair of mustachios justifies "mobbing," it would have been impossible
for me to have mingled as I did with these wild people.
We must return before sunset, when the gates are locked and the keys are
carried to the Hajj, a vain precaution, when a donkey could clear half a
dozen places in the town wall.
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