Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-01-26

commodore viii be here with the re-
mainder OF the squadron tomorrow or
the next day. Say. too, that Commander
Roy speaks both Arabic and French"
On this. Djezzar, whose manner was
nothing Il not courtly, smiled still more
graciously than before, invited Miller
and myself to sit near him. and called
for coffee and pipes. Then he turned to
me and said ESQ far as could make out)
that he was delighted to know 1 spoke
Arabic, and inquired how long had
been in the east.
| Foreseeing that I should sooner or
later be put in a corner, and fully con-
scious of my linguistic weakness, l had
composed and committed to memory q
little speech. It was to the effect that,
having only lately begun to learn Ara
bic, / knew it very indifferently.
Nevertheless, the little l did know
made me extremely DESTROYS to know
more, and was studying the language
assiduously. As, however, my ear had
not become attuned to the music of it,
and my vocabulary was limited,
should feel particularly obliged if my
interlocutor would give himself the
trouble to speak slowly and clearly, in
order that might miss nothing of what
he said.
AS recled off this discourse to the
pasha, Miller who had evidently been
sceptical as to my mastery of the
French of the east'') stared at me
in open-mouthed astonishmert. He
little knew the pains ! had been at to
learn it, and that it was the only CO.
|
utter.
"You speak Arabic very WELL" said
Djezzar, taking my hint to speak slow
ly. s'You must have an excellent mas
ter. When you are at loss for a
word, you can say it in French, which
! understand passably we'll"
This was eminently satisfactory. I
could get along now; but, being partic-
ularly anxious to impress Miller with
due sense of ray clcverness at Ian
guages, I blundered on in Arabic,
though well aware that was making
an awful hash of it. But Djezzar was
| too polite to laugh. He listened atten-
lively, smiled pleasantly, and even
when l was most unintclligiblc made
as if he understood me perfectly.
''Why, you speak Arabic as we'll as
| the pasha himself" put in Miller. ''and
yet you were never in these parts be-
fore. Cad! you make nc quite cnvious;
AID If it were not so Internally difficult
/ would learn it myself. Ilut, as can
not join in the conversation. don't see
the usc CT staying. Besides, an wanted
on beard my ship. Say SO, and MAZE
my excuses"
1t is hard vror,. talking j., language
Of which you know next 10 nothing;
and when Miller WAS some ! fell back
OF French. which Djez-ar understood
much better than understood Arabic,
and spoke fairly. He also spoke Sla-
vonic (iiis mother tcnguc), Italian,
Syriac. Turkish and lingua franco.
knew something OF history, and was SO
far from being a typical Turk that
he liked to class himself Us n European,
and WAS Is free from religious prejudice
IS Voltairian i'reachman.
Jesus Christ is the Mohamrned of
| Christians; Mohanrled is the Jesus
| Christ OF Moslc1ns. VOLTA TOUT
! This was his idca Of the two religions.
| In other respects, however, he YVES
true Oric-tal-a man Of strong passions,
fatalist, fond of adventure, and with
| 4 faith in his luck that made him q
| stranger to fear. The vicissitudes of
! his life had been more extraordinary
| than those of 2 hero OF romance. Born
of Christian parents, he was made a
| Mohanlc,etlan at fifteen. He had been
beggar. cabin-boy, sailor, slave, Name
| luke, oxecutioncr. or bravo, to an Egyp-
| tan boy, then 4 hey himself, and finally,
! after long wears of strife AID intrigue
and bloolshcd, pasha and scrasl1icr.
We had been talking perhaps half an
hour, when one OF the attendants whis-
pered something in Djezzar's car, where
| upon the pasha said something in reply
that did not catch, and waved his
hand. The next moment the curtain
of the doorway was drawn aside, and
| the quccrcst crowd I had ever behold
came pcll-mcll into the hall-the halt,
the lame and the blind, of both sexes
AID all ages, with bare legs and ragged
garments-some with hardly any gar
ments at all-and every one carrying a
wooden bowl.
MY bcggars," said the pasha. 81
feed them once a week. This is the
day"
The beggars then squattcd on the
floor, and servants brought them bread
and meat AID rice, which they either
ate on the spot or carried OFF in their
wooden bowls. When the meal was I'm
ishe6, each of them received u coin, and,
as they hobblcd away, prayed Allah to
bless and reward their benefactor. As
soon Is the mcndicants were gone,
Djezzar invited me to accompany him
~L