Eothen By A. W. Kingslake

































 -   But for a while the sunshine would
last, and when I was at Bethlehem, though long after the flight of - Page 172
Eothen By A. W. Kingslake - Page 172 of 325 - First - Home

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But For A While The Sunshine Would Last, And When I Was At Bethlehem, Though Long After The Flight Of The Mussulmans, The Cloud Of Moslem Propriety Had Not Yet Come Back To Cast Its Cold Shadow Upon Life.

When you reach that gladsome village, pray Heaven there still may be heard there the voice of free, innocent girls.

It will sound so dearly welcome!

To a Christian, and thoroughbred Englishman, not even the licentiousness which generally accompanies it can compensate for the oppressiveness of that horrible outward decorum, which turns the cities and the palaces of Asia into deserts and gaols. So, I say, when you see and hear them, those romping girls of Bethlehem will gladden your very soul. Distant at first, and then nearer and nearer the timid flock will gather around you, with their large burning eyes gravely fixed against yours, so that they see into your brain; and if you imagine evil against them, they will know of your ill thought before it is yet well born, and will fly and be gone in the moment. But presently, if you will only look virtuous enough to prevent alarm, and vicious enough to avoid looking silly, the blithe maidens will draw nearer and nearer to you, and soon there will be one, the bravest of the sisters, who will venture right up to your side and touch the hem of your coat, in playful defiance of the danger, and then the rest will follow the daring of their youthful leader, and gather close round you, and hold a shrill controversy on the wondrous formation that you call a hat, and the cunning of the hands that clothed you with cloth so fine; and then growing more profound in their researches, they will pass from the study of your mere dress to a serious contemplation of your stately height, and your nut-brown hair, and the ruddy glow of your English cheeks.

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