Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1886-09-17

amid the cheers OF the spectators, the
uproar of the instruments, the reports
of the musketry, and the light from the
torches with colored flames.
Pescadc knew the programme of this
festival. and it was from it that he re.
ccived the suggestion as TO the part he
intended TO play, and by the aid oil
which he was to obtain admission &c
Sid Hazams house.
AS soon as the sun set gun from the
fortress of Tripoli gave signal so i'm.
patiently expected 10y the people on
Soung- Ettelate. The Doctor, Pierre,
and LUG wereat first almost deafened
by the frightful noise which arose on
every side. and were then nearly
blinded by the thousands of lights that
sprang up all over the plain
When the gun was heard the crowd OF
nomads were still busy at their evening
meal. Here the roast mutton, the pilaw
of fowls for those who were Turks and
wished it to be seen there the cous-
cousson for tho well-to-do Arabs far
ther off a simple bazinu, n sort Of barley
-four boiled in oil, for the poorer people
whose pockets contained more mahboubs
OF brass than metals OF gold and every
where the "lagby," the juice OF the
date-palm, which, when it is taken as an
alcoholic beer, is productive as the worst
excuses OF intoxication.
a few minutes after the gun had been
heard, men, women, children, Turks,
Arabs, and Negroes had finished their
meals. The instruments OF the barbaric
orchestras necessarily rejoiced in alarm
ing seniority TO make themselves heard
above the human tumult. In places
horsemen were leaping about discharg-
ing their long guns and their saddle
pistols, while fireworks were thrown
about amid an uproar it would be i'm
possible TO describe
Here in the torch-light, to the rafting
of the wooden drum and the intonation
of q monotonous chant, negro chief,
Enthusiastically dressed with q rafting belt
of bones, his face hidden beneath q din
bolical mask, was exciting 10 the dance
some thirty blacks. grimacing in circle
Of convulsionary women who beat them
with their hands. And then savage
Aissassouas, III the last stage of religi-
Gus exaltation and alcoholic intoxica-
ton, with froth on their faces, and eyes
out OF their orbits, were biting at wood,
chewing iron, gashing their skins, Jug
Cling with live Goals, and wrapping
themselves with the long serpents which
bit their hands, their cheeks, their lips,
and like them devoured their blood
But soon the crowd hurried with
extraordinary eagerness to the house of
Sid Hazam, as though some new spec
tacle had attracted tlrem.
Two men were there-one large, the
other small-two acrobats whose curious
feats of strength and agility amid n
quadruple row of spectators were calling
forth the most noisy cheers that could
escape from Tripolitan throats.
1t was Point Pescade and Cape Matt
fou. They had taken M their stand
only n few PAGES from Sid Hazam's
house. Both on this occasion had re-
sumed their characters as foreign art
istes. Their dresses cut out of Arab
materials, they were again in quest of
success.
You have not got rusty Point
Pescade had previously asked Cape
Nation.
mo"
And you will not shrink from any
thing that may amuse the imbecilesI"
Me Shrink -
IF even you have TO chew pebbles
with your teeth and swallow serpents !"
Cooked ?" asked Cape Matifou.
mo, raw"
Raw
And livingl"
Cape Nation made grimace, but if
necessary he resolved TO eat a snake like
q simple ASSESSOR.
The Doctor, Pierre, and Luigi min
gled in the crowd of spectators, and did
not lose sight of the two friends.
No! Cape Nation was not rusty ;
he had lost nothing of his prodigious
strength. At first the shoulders of five
or six robust Arabs, who had risked a
fall with him, were laid on the ground.
Then followed the jug ling. which
astonished the Arabs above oil when
the flaming torches were launched from
Pescade to Matifou, coming and re-
coming in their zigzags of fire.
And the public might we'll be critical.
There we're there goodly number of the
admirers of the Touaregs, those semi
savages whose agility is equal to that
of the most formidable animals in these