Short stories and selections for use in the secondary schools
General
Short stories and selections for use in the secondary schools
English prose literature; Readers; Short stories
How can I describe the swarming crowds of the bazaar, the constant,
noiseless stir of all those bournouses [Footnote: Bournouses: cf. "An
Arab Fisherman."] in the semi-darkness! The little labyrinthine avenues
cross each other in every direction, covered with their ancient roofing
of wood, or else with trellises of cane, over which grape-vines are
trained. Fronting on these passages are the shops, something like holes
in a wall as regards size, and in them the turbaned dealers sit
squatted, stately and impassible, among their rare knick-knacks. Shops
where the same kind of goods are sold are grouped in quarters by
themselves. There is the street of the dealers in clothing, where the
booths are bright with pink, blue, and orange silks, and with brocades
of gold and silver, and where ladies, veiled and draped like phantoms,
are posted. There is the street of the leather merchants, where
thousands of sets of harness of every conceivable color, for horses,
mules, and asses, are hanging from the walls; there are all sorts of
objects of strange and ancient fashion for use in the chase or in war:
powder-horns inlaid with gold and silver, embroidered belts for sword
and musket, travelling bags for caravans and amulets [Footnote: Amulets:
ornaments worn as a charm against evil.] to charm away the dangers of
the desert. Then there is the street of the workers in brass, where from
morning till night is heard the sound of hammers at work on the
arabesques [Footnote: Arabesques: a kind of low-relief carving of man
and animal figures fantastically interlaced.] of vases and plates; the
street of the papooch embroiderers, where all the little dens are filled
with velvet, pearls and gold; the street of the furniture decorators;
that of the naked, grimy blacksmiths; that of the dyers, with purple or
indigo-bedaubed arms, Finally, the quarter of the armorers, who make
long flint-lock muskets, thin as cane-stalks, the silver inlaid butt of
which is made excessively large so as to receive the shoulder. The
Moroccans [Footnote: The Moroccans ... in this country. What similar
statement was made in "An Arab Fisherman"?] never have the slightest
idea of changing the form adopted by their ancestors, and the shape of
their musket is as immutable as all things else are in this country; it
seems like a dream to see them at this day making such quantities of
these old-fashioned arms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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