Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878.Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878.
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Away we go, accordingly, along the deep, narrow, tunnel-like streets,
flanked on either side by tall blank houses such as meet one at every turn
in Cairo or Djeddah or Jerusalem, between whose projecting fronts the
sunny sky appears like a narrow strip of bright blue ribbon far away
overhead, while all below is veiled in a rich summer twilight of purple
shadow, like that which fills the interior of some vast cathedral. But
ever and anon a sudden break in the ranked masses of building gives us a
momentary glimpse of the broad shining sea and dazzling sunlight, which
falls upon many a group that a painter would love to copy--tall, gaunt
Armenians, whose high black caps and long dark robes make their pale,
hollow faces look doubly spectral; low-browed, sallow, bearded Russians;
brawny English sailors, looking down with a grand, indulgent contempt upon
those unhappy beings whom an inscrutable Providence has doomed to be
"foreigners;" stolid Turks, tramping onward in silent defiance of the
fierce looks cast at them from every side; sinewy Dalmatians, with
close-cropped black hair; dapper Frenchmen, with well-trimmed moustaches,
casting annihilating glances at the few ladies who happen to be abroad;
and barefooted Greeks, with little baskets of fruit or fish perched on
their heads--ragged, wild-eyed and brigand-like as the lazzaroni who rose
from the pavement of Naples at the call of Masaniello.
"Awful rascals some of these fellows look, eh?" remarks P---- in a stage
whisper.
"Yes, their faces are certainly no letter of recommendation. There is some
truth, undoubtedly, in the _last_ clause of the old proverb: 'Greek wines
steal all heads, Greek women steal all hearts, and Greek men steal
everything.'"
But at this moment our attention is drawn to a crowd a little way ahead,
the centre of attraction being apparently a good-looking young Greek from
the Morea, whose jaunty little crimson cap with its hanging tassel sets
off very tastefully his dark, handsome face and the glossy black curls
which surround it. He is leaning against the pillar of a gateway in an
attitude of unstudied grace that would charm an Italian painter, and
singing, to the accompaniment of his little three-stringed guitar, a
lively Greek song, of which we only come up in time to catch the last
verse:
Look in mine eyes, lady fair:
There your own image you'll see.
Open my heart and look there:
_There_ too your image will be.
The coppers that chink into the singer's extended hat show how fully his
efforts are appreciated; but at this moment P----, with the free-and-easy
command of a true John Bull, elbows his way through the throng, and calls
out: "Holloa, Johnny! we only got the fag-end of that song. Tip us
another, and here's five piastres for you" (about twenty-five cents).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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