And the street is filled with dogs, and donkeys, and children and
fortune-tellers, and dromedaries, and sedan chairs, with their bearers,
and camels, and birds, and wimmen with long veils on coverin' most of
their faces, jest their eyes a-peerin' out as if they would love to git
acquainted with the strange Eastern world, where wimmen walk with faces
uncovered, and swung out into effort and achievement.
I guess they wuz real good-lookin'. I know that the men with their
turbans and long robes looked quite well, though odd. In the shops wuz
the most beautiful jewelry and precious stuns, and queer-lookin' but
magnificent silk goods, and cotton, and lamps, and leather goods, and
weepons, etc., etc., etc.
Wall, right there, as we wuz a-wanderin' through that street, from the
handsomest of the residences streamed forth a bridal procession. The
bride wuz dressed in gorgeous array of the beautiful fabrics of the
East.
And the bridegroom, with a train of haughty-lookin' Arabs follerin' him,
all swept down the streets towards the Mosque, with music a-soundin'
out, and flowers a-bein' throwed at 'em, and boys a-yellin', and dogs
a-barkin', etc., etc.
I drew my pardner out of the way, for he stood open-mouthed with
admiration a-starin' at the bride, and almost rooted to the spot.
[Illustration: A-starin' at the bride.]
But I drawed him back, and sez I, "If you've got to be killed here,
Josiah Allen, I don't want you killed by a Arab."
And he sez, "I d'no but I'd jest as lieves be killed by a Arab as a
Turkey.
"But," sez he, "you tend to yourself, and I'll tend to myself. I wuz
jest a-studyin' human nater, Samantha."
And that wuz all the thanks I got for rescuin' him.
It wuz jest as interestin' to walk through that village as it would be
to go to Egypt, and more so--for we felt considerable safer right under
Uncle Sam's right arm, as it wuz--for here we wuz way off in Africa,
amongst their minarets and shops, and tents, men, wimmen, and children
in their strange garbs, dancin', playin' music, cookin' and servin'
their food, jest as though they wuz to hum, and we wuz neighborin' with
'em, jest as nateral as we neighbor to hum with Sister Henzy or she that
wuz Submit Tewksbury.
Then there wuz some native Arabs with 'em who wuz a-eatin' scorpions,
and a-luggin' round snakes, and a-cuttin' and piercin' themselves with
wicked-lookin' weepons, and eatin' glass; I wuz glad enough to git out
of there. I hate daggers, and abominate snakes, and always did.
And then I knew what a case Josiah Allen is to imitate and foller
new-fangled idees, and I didn't want my new glass butter dish and cream
pitcher to fall a victim to his experiments.
Wall, next come Algeria and Tunis, and then Tunicks showed jest how they
lived and moved in their own Barbery's state.
Their housen are beautiful, truly Oriental--white, with decorations of
pale green, blue, and vermilion.
One is a theatre that will hold 600 folks.
Then comes the panorama of the big volcano Kilauana.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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