The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-11-16

iii
his satisfaction, there remained but
one other, how to spend his time. It
would be useless to seek the English
Bar before noon. Might as we'll ram
BILE through the native town and the
basaars. He might pick up some little
curio to give to Fortune. So he
beckoned to an idle driver, climbed in.
to the carriage, and was driven of as
II empires hung upon minutes.
Ryanne never wearied of the ba-
Eaars OF Cairo. They we're to him no
less enchanting than the circus-pa-
rades Of his youth. In certain ways,
they were not to be compared with
those in Constentinople and Smyrna;
but, on the other hand, there was
more light. more charm, more color.
Perhaps the magic nearness of the
desert had something to do with it.
the ratnless skies. the ever-recurring
suggestions Of antiquity. His lively
observation, his sense of the pictur-
esque and the humorous, always close
to the surface, gave him that singular
Impetus which makes man a prowler.
This gift had made possible his sue.
cess in old Bagdad. Some years be-
fore he had prowled through the mar
row city streets, had noted the wind
lngs, the blind-alleys, and had never
forgotten. Faces and localities were
written indelibly upon his memory.
One rode to the bazaars, but walk
ed through them or mounted donkeys.
Ryanne preferred his own legs. So
did Mahomed. Once, so close did he
come that he could have put his two
brown hands round the inf1del's throat
But, patience. Did not the Koran
teach patience among the higher laws?
Patience. He could not, madly as he
had dreamed, throttle the white liar
here in the bazaars. That would not
bring the Holy Yhiordes to his hands.
He must wait. He must plan to lure
the man out at night, then to hurry
him into the desert. Out into the des-
ert, where no man might be his mas
ter. Oh, the Holy Yhiordes should be
| his again; It was written.
The cries, the shouts, the tower OF
Babel reclaimed: the intermingling Of
the races Of the world: the English.
man, the American, the German, the
italian, the Frenchman, the Greek,: the
Levantine, the purple-black Ethiopian.
the bronze Nubian: the yelled women.
the naked children; all the color.tones
known to art, but predominating, that
marvellous faded tint of blue, the
Cairene blue, in the heavens, in the
waters, in the dyes.
make way. o my mother!" bawled
donkey-boy to the old crone ped
ding matches.
'Backsheesh! Backsheesh!" in the
eight tones Of the human voice. From
the beggar. his brother, his uncle,
his grandfather, his children and his
children's children. "Blacksheesh.
backsheesh!"
ITO the right" was shrilled into
Ryanne's ear; and he lodged. A
troop of donkeys passed, laden with
tourists, unhappy, fretful. self-cou.
scious. A water-carrier brushed
against him, and he whitfield the fresh
dampness Of the bullying goat-skin. A
woman. the long, black head.vell
streaming out behind in the clutch of
the monkey-like hand of a toddling
child. carried terra-cotta water-jar
upon her head. The grace with which
The moved, the abruptness of the COL
exchanges, caught Ryanne's rowing
eye and filled 1t with pleasure.
Dust rose and subsidized, eddied and
'ettled; beggars blind and one-eyed
squatted in it, children tossed it In
play. and beasts Of burden shuff1ed
through it.
The roar In front of the shops, the
pressing and crowding Of customers,
the high cries Of the merchants; the
gurgle Of the water.pipes. the pleasant
fumes Of coffee, the hardy loafers
lolling before the khans or caravan
partes; yelled face at a lattics-win.
dow: the violet shadows in a doorway;
the sunshine upon the soaring
mosques; true believer, rocking and
mumbling over his tattered Koran:
gold and silver and jewels; amber and
copper and brass; embroideries and
rugs and carpets; and the pest of fleas,
the plague Of flies, the insidious
smells.
Rarely one saw the true son Of the
desert, the Bedouin. He disdained
streets and walls. and only necessity
brought him here among the polyglot
and the polygon.
Ryanne found himself inspecting
the largest emerald in the world
worth twelve thousand pounds" which
looked more like hne hexagonal OF
onyx than gem. It was one Of the
curiositieS Of the basaars, however
and tourists were generally round II
In force. To his experienced eye II
was no more than fne specimen Of
emerald quarts, worth what any fool
Of collector was willing to pay for it,
From this bazaar he passed on into
the next, and there he saw Fortune.
And az Mahomed, always close at
hand aaw the hard 1lnea IN Rvannnss