Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1858-08-19
Holy Places.

Holy Places.
Williams in one of his charming letters
to the Utica Herald, from the Holy Land,
writes of place at which he stopped, be-
tween Damascus and Balbec, thus:
1t was sometime after dark, when
reached the petty village of Zebdany, and
paused before one of the most respectable
looking of its houses. My application for
lodging was smilingly answerered by a
tidy little women with face round as the
full moon and twice as rosy. Her unveil-
ed face and frank manner bespoke the
Christian. She was mere child in years
and could hardly have seen over sixteen
summers; and yet couple of bright-eyed
little cherubs clung lovingly TO her mater
nal skirts. Presently her husband came
in, who bade me for the moment forget
that l was in the heart of barbarian land.
Divans were spread, narghileh was
brought, followed by coffee, and ere 1 had
been there half an hour, l felt as much
at home as though l had been there
month. And then came supper
served in the simple fashion of the East.
There was leban and eggs, and Arab cheese
and wafer-bread, and flour and milk and
rice done up into a roll, and world
of things besides which l haven't time to
enumerate. Then came again coffee and
the narghileh, and then-the blessed con-
tentment which one finds in the East, and
in the East only.
By this time, the neighbors began to
pour in, eager to behold the phenomenon
cf a white Christian. The whole town
seemed to have run mad. They came not
singly; but in battallions. The younger
and the old came; the rich and poor; the
lame and the halt and the blind. They
filled the room; they jammed up the door;
they peereG in the windows; they jois-
tied each cther like mad. And there sat
cody smoking my narghileh, the 'observ-
ed of all observers" receiving the congrat-
ulations of the crowd, dispensing mods and
and smiles like true nabob. While Yu-
sef kept tho common herd at bay, l invi-
ted some of the prominent citizens to a
seat on my divan, and allowed them to
Whit away nay good health. This farce
of reception having lasted something over
on hour began to become something of a
bore, when Yusef proposed to tu.n the
whole crowd out of doors. 70 this l mag
unanimously demurred as not only uncivil
but impolitic, as it was perhaps the last
chance should have of playing the nabob
at so chap rate. As the evening wore
away, the crowd having feasted their eyes
to their full, began gradually to drop away.
began to hope that the business of sitting
in state was over with / when 10! l found
myself suddenly surrounded by bevy of
young ladies'! They were all unveiled, and
two or three of them were not only fair
but beautiful. The boldest of them began
operations by putting her hand on my
watch seal, which being followed by 10 ia
tai consequences, it was repeated by the
whole group in turn. Then they desired
20 look at my watch, and then each took
hold of it in turn and put it to her ear,
and wound the chain around her neck
Then they began timidly to touch the
skirts of my coat, and to examine the make
of my pantaloons, and to scruiinize my
neck handkerchief, and run their fingers
thro my hair, and lose themselves in inno-
cent wonder over the cunning stitching Of
my collar. During all this time, l sat
grave as an owl, wondering what would
come next. At this stage Of the perform
ance, the prettiest and most timid of the
number, addressed the most startling ques-
ton to Yusef ''if l was married!" Here
was poser, indeed! Like an honest man,
l bads him say had not that great fecili-
ty. "But had l not then sweetheart?"
her great dark eyes looking steadfastly in
to mine. Just then the devil put it in
to my head the "gay deceiver' bit, and
see what would become of this cool tiirta-
ton. l tried to look sentimental as possi-
ble. whispered some soft jargon about the
"girl l left behind me" not being SO very
constant 10 my thoughts, after all; in the
words of Mr.. Guppy that there we're
'chords" in the human bosom; that up to
the present time l had forsworn the sex as
false aud tickle; that l had seen but ONE
who could chain my vagrant affections, and
that one very recently; that never knew
what happiness was until had seen Zeb-
dairy, and much more stuff to the same ef-
feet. was about to wind up by making
formal tender OF this "hand of mine"
when Yusef brought me back to my senses
by whispering that while l had been pour
ing this nonsense into the ear of the charmer
she had been making formal demand for
"backsheesh" in behalf of herself and sis
tiers!