The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old FavoritesTappan, Eva March
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The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old Favorites
Tappan, Eva March
Children's stories; Literature -- Adaptations
I had on a broad belt of goat-skin dried, which I drew together with
two thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and in a kind of frog on
either side of this, instead of a sword and a dagger, hung a little
saw and a hatchet, one on one side, one on the other. I had another
belt, not so broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over
my shoulder; and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two
pouches, both made of goat-skin too; in one of which hung my powder,
in the other my shot. At my back I carried my basket, on my shoulder
my gun, and over my head a great clumsy, ugly goat-skin umbrella, but
which, after all, was the most necessary thing I had about me, next to
my gun. As for my face, the color of it was really not so mulatto-like
as one might expect from a man not at all careful of it, and living
within nineteen degrees of the equinox. My beard I had once suffered
to grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long; but as I had both
scissors and razors sufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except what
grew on my upper lip, which I had trimmed into a large pair of
Mahometan whiskers such as I had seen worn by some Turks whom I saw at
Sallee; for the Moors did not wear such, though the Turks did. Of
these mustachios or whiskers, I will not say they were long enough to
hang my hat upon them, but they were of a length and shape monstrous
enough, and such as, in England, would have passed for frightful.
But all this is by the bye; for as to my figure I had so few to
observe me that it was of no manner of consequence; so I say no more
to that part. In this kind of figure I went my new journey, and was
out five or six days. I traveled first along the seashore, directly to
the place where I first brought my boat to an anchor, to get up upon
the rocks. And having no boat now to take care of, I went over the
land, a nearer way, to the same height that I was upon before; when,
looking forward to the point of the rocks which lay out, and which I
was obliged to double with my boat, as is said above, I was surprised
to see the sea all smooth and quiet, no rippling, no motion, no
current, any more there than in other places.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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