When The Danger Of The Rocks And Surf Was Passed, Came Another
Danger Of The Hideous Brutes In Brown Skins And The Briefest
Shirts, Who Came Towards The Boat, Straddling Through The Water
With Outstretched Arms, Grinning And Yelling Their Arab Invitations
To Mount Their Shoulders.
I think these fellows frightened the
ladies still more than the rocks and the surf; but the poor
creatures
Were obliged to submit; and, trembling, were accommodated
somehow upon the mahogany backs of these ruffians, carried through
the shallows, and flung up to a ledge before the city gate, where
crowds more of dark people were swarming, howling after their
fashion. The gentlemen, meanwhile, were having arguments about the
eternal backsheesh with the roaring Arab boatmen; and I recall with
wonder and delight especially, the curses and screams of one small
and extremely loud-lunged fellow, who expressed discontent at
receiving a five, instead of a six-piastre piece. But how is one
to know, without possessing the language? Both coins are made of a
greasy pewtery sort of tin; and I thought the biggest was the most
valuable: but the fellow showed a sense of their value, and a
disposition seemingly to cut any man's throat who did not
understand it. Men's throats have been cut for a less difference
before now.
Being cast upon the ledge, the first care of our gallantry was to
look after the ladies, who were scared and astonished by the naked
savage brutes, who were shouldering the poor things to and fro; and
bearing them through these and a dark archway, we came into a
street crammed with donkeys and their packs and drivers, and
towering camels with leering eyes looking into the second-floor
rooms, and huge splay feet, through which mesdames et
mesdemoiselles were to be conducted.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 139 of 240
Words from 37782 to 38083
of 65663
