Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 07
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Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 07
Literature -- Collections
interior. This is perhaps the best proof of their power. Finally the
picture-gallery opens with a series of weird and striking adventures,
and shows as a tail-piece an idyllic scene of love and wedlock, in halls
before reeking with lust and blood.
A JOURNEY IN DISGUISE
From 'The Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah'
The thoroughbred wanderer's idiosyncrasy I presume to be a composition
of what phrenologists call "inhabitiveness" and "locality," equally and
largely developed. After a long and toilsome march, weary of the way, he
drops into the nearest place of rest to become the most domestic of men.
For a while he smokes the "pipe of permanence" with an infinite zest; he
delights in various siestas during the day, relishing withal a long
sleep at night; he enjoys dining at a fixed dinner hour, and wonders at
the demoralization of the mind which cannot find means of excitement in
chit-chat or small talk, in a novel or a newspaper. But soon the passive
fit has passed away; again a paroxysm of _ennui_ coming on by slow
degrees, Viator loses appetite, he walks about his room all night, he
yawns at conversations, and a book acts upon him as a narcotic. The man
wants to wander, and he must do so or he shall die.
After about a month most pleasantly spent at Alexandria, I perceived the
approach of the enemy, and as nothing hampered my incomings and
outgoings, I surrendered. The world was "all before me," and there was
pleasant excitement in plunging single-handed into its chilling depths.
My Alexandrian Shaykh, whose heart fell victim to a new "jubbeh" which I
had given in exchange for his tattered zaabut, offered me in
consideration of a certain monthly stipend the affections of a brother
and religious refreshment, proposing to send his wife back to her papa,
and to accompany me in the capacity of private chaplain to the other
side of Kaf. I politely accepted the "brüderschaft," but many reasons
induced me to decline his society and services. In the first place, he
spoke the detestable Egyptian jargon. Secondly, it was but prudent to
lose the "spoor" between Alexandria and Suez. And thirdly, my "brother"
had shifting eyes (symptoms of fickleness), close together (indices of
cunning); a flat-crowned head and large ill-fitting lips, signs which
led me to think lightly of his honesty, firmness, and courage.
Phrenology and physiognomy, be it observed, disappoint you often among
civilized people, the proper action of whose brains and features is
impeded by the external pressure of education, accident, example, habit,
necessity, and what not. But they are tolerably safe guides when groping
your way through the mind of man in his natural state, a being of
impulse in that chrysalis stage of mental development which is rather
instinct than reason. But before my departure there was much to be done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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