He Was Lazy To Such A Degree That He Invariably Fell Asleep
Upon His Mule After Smoking Innumerable Cigarettes.
In these cases his
long body swayed to the right and left, and occasionally nodded forward
to an extent that sometimes awoke him with the jerk; after which
spasmodic return of consciousness an immediate relapse took place, and
he fell asleep again.
As he rode directly before me, as guide, this
chronic somnolency was most annoying, and I had to drive his mule into a
faster walk by poking its hind-quarters with my stick. The animal would
then break into a sudden trot, which would awaken the rider to the fact
that he had been dreaming; upon which he burst into some peculiar song
that was intended to prove that he was wide awake; but after a few bars
the ditty ceased; the head once more nodded and swung from side to side;
the mule relaxed its pace . . . Iiani was asleep again!
In another sense he was very wide-awake. He had represented to me that
he was the proprietor of the seven camels and five mules, but I quickly
discovered that he was only the owner of a completely worn-out old camel
and four mules: he had hired the other animals at a considerably lower
rate than I had agreed to pay him, therefore I should have the
difficulty of several discontented owners instead of one. However, we
had started before this fact was explained by my factotum Christo.
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