Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1894-04-18
CHAPTER XIV

MANY TRYING NIC1SSlTUDES OF FORTUNE.
I was soon swinging light heartedly
along in grateful shade, among the or
chards and gardens and tinkling water
courses that skirted the town, a very Eden
after the desert had passed through The
people focked about me as l went, some
ewing me with darkening brows, some re-
garding me with simple amazement, others
of deeper curiosity turning in their walk
to follow me, and could hear them de-
batting what kind of outlandish barbarian
this could be who had unaccountably found
his way among them.
/ felt very much like monster on eNhibi-
tion for the entertainment of the vulgar and
the idle. Yet, remembering the necessity of
prudence, was at great pains to be civil.
Salaaming and saluting necessarily, in
voked peace and the best blessings of heav-
en- on all and sundry, but the marhabas, or
welcomes, were disappointingly few. Had
known the full significance of an Arabs
failure to return q salutation, l should
probably have made more haste to get out
of the town than was now making to get
into it. But ignorance is wondrous pre-
server of mems spirits.
Judging it best to refrain from asking
questions, l pursued my way at venture
through sGualid alleys that writhed and
twisted like endless snakes, turning upon
themselves in eternal windings and cir
clings, with the sole object, US it seemed, Of
bewildering and distracting They led any
where and everywhere, but lodged defin-
ite conclusion, and were thus no inapt en-
blem of the tortuous Asiatic mind. The
of ha hnt
make one fain to hold ones nose If these
were the 'Sabean odors from the spicy
shores Of Araby the blest," then let it be
authority of Milton, Sabean odors are a
great deal pleasanter in imagination than
in reality.
Packs of lean, hungry dogs, too, kert
shifting at my heels in way that was sore
ly vexing There are notoriously i'll con-
ditioned dogs in Turkey and Greece. Con-
stantinople swarms with them. They are
worse than the brigands in the mountains
of Attica. But of all the despicable, de-
generate ours in existence the starving
hounds that prowl about Arabian towns
are the basest and most degraded. With
out owners, greedy partukers of all that is
vile and forbidden, "the flthiest beasts
that banquet upon olfal," despised and NAL
treated, marauders by inheritance and by
necessity, they have long lost every vestige
of canine morality.
In contemplating an assault they do not
bark at you nor show their teeth. Such
honesty might put you on your guard.
They sidle up to you with the averted look
of incurable depravity, pretending to take
no notice of you, yet all the while carefully
selecting the juiciest part OF your leg. Even
when they have selected their point of ut
tack they will not fly at it, but wait pa
ticntly for their opportunity. When IL
comes, presto! their fangs are in your calf,
and they are off with the mouthful before
you have time to turn. These brutcs kept
me continually with one eye over my shoul-
der and the other down by my side, for /
was ever afraid of thctooth of adog. Some.
times the people made prctcnse of re-
monstrating with them, but think there
would have been less sorrow than gladness
had been worried to the bone.
The squat, boxlikc shops and bazars
were Uttered with miscellany of goods
exceedingly strange to European eyes.
Varegated cloth, red and yellow slippers,
saffron, sandal wood, glass beads, mirrors,
swords, files razors, ropes, bells, saddles,
butter and various nameless KINGS of oil
ard nrecse used .f.r amounting the hen.l and