The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-10-03
COwed Arabs.

A correspondent of the New Haven
Courier and Journal writes: Bathing in
the muddy Jordan is merely nominal
enjoyment, and never cleansed ANYBODY
yet that know of except Captain Naa-
man. Bathing in the Dead sea is
dangerous to the eyes ana mouth; if
you have any cuts or sores on your
body, exceedingly unpleasant. But
bathing in Gallilee by moonlight l am
prepared to vote success. The
convent where we stopped at Tiberias
abuts upon the lake near one of
the beaches most frequented by modern
Rebekahs. On both of the nights which
we passed on the lake shore we
took occasion to prove this. Only
one thing marred the perfect enjoyment,
and that was the nature of the
beach, which was pebbly instead Of
sandy. 1t was evidently rare treat for
the Rebekahs to witness our additions,
as they increased rapidly in numbers
when it became noised about town that
" real white men were in the water.
and they tarried obviously longer than was
necessary in order to fill their Jars.
They would come close to us, remark
"Marhabarm (the universal Arabil salu-
tation, signifying "welcome') and then
litter as we answered back courteously
"Marhabar teen ("Welcome to YOU
also'O. AS l have intimated, we only
held the boards there for two nights,
but | am confident that our audiences
would have comprehende1 all the people
in the region round about if we had
remained a week. The second night an
incident occurred which serves admirably
to illustrate Arab mot Bedouin) character.
A man threw stone at US from the beach
after cur audience of maidens had re-
luctantly retired. Don't mind it," SAID
Mr.. Floyd, "he's trying to pick UP o
fuss with us after characteristic fashion.
Let him go to the end of his rope. ="
Pretty soon another stone followed, and
then another and another, the last in
rather dangerous proximity to us. At
this Mr.. Floyd said the time was ripe,
and, going up out of the water, stood on
the beach facing the missile thrower and
the crowd of allies which had bv this
time gathered about the latter. Advanc-
ing brusquely, he then demanded in Ara
bic: ''lmpudent brute, who are YOU, I'd
like to know" "He's a great
sheik," chorused the crowd, "and you
don't want to touch him, or Wen make
you sorry" every WE'LL" said Mr..
Floyd; "rm ready to fight the whole
crowd of you, though naked and un-
armed. Many time I've annihilated
dozen men at once, all stronger than
any of you, and I'm just itching to
make mincemeat out of you babies.
LookW and with a stick he rapidly
drew circle around the spot where he
stood. "The first man who crosses that
line I'll grind to powder!" A moments
silence followed and then the leader
skunk off, followed by his brave cohorts
One or two remained behind to try and
patch up truce by pretending that the
great shiekn was only mad man,
but Mr.. Floyd was too familiar with Arab
tricks to swallow that and told them
he'd rather they'd throw stones than to
try and make him out fool by passing
of such t1imsY explanation upon him.
OF course, it was all done by means of
bluff, and we had hearty laugh after
ward to think how ridlculously absurd
it was for one naked man to face a
semi-armed crowd ip this way. Mr..
Floyd's last words were: "Great heav-
ems! Why, your sultan would not dare
to treat me in this way!"