Oriental Encounters / Palestine and Syria, 1894-6

URTEOU

s eyes had fallen on some Christian youths upon their way to college, in European clothes, with new kid gloves and silver-headed canes. Maddened with a sense of outrage by that horrid sight, he had attacked the said youths furiously with a wooden ladle, putting them to flight, and chasing them all down the long acacia avenue, through two suburbs into

hy of their merit. By the time that I had finished dressing, Rash?d had found a messenger to whom the note was given with an order to make haste. He must have run the whole way there and back, for, after

course, be charmed with anything you set before

s a post

o and see

m. When he had nothing else to do, he came to me unfailingly, wherever I might chance to be established or encamped. He was sitting cross-legged in a corne

hy not, indeed? Let u

thereof, and, rising with the same deliberation, threw upon his shoulder

not know t

, my dear, is a disease

nesses for hire-who thronged the entrance. The judge, we heard, had not yet taken his seat. We should be sure to find his Honour in the coffee-shop across the road. One of the false witnesses conducted us to the said coffee-shop

presented me as 'one of the chief people of the Franks.' The comp

O most righteous judge. He has been wro

h concerned. 'What i

was the reply, 'and to-night we

k?' asked the jud

restore him to us, and th

of service i

ry, which he did so well that all the

list till he found the case, putt

ght without a cook?' I

l be with you in an hour. Come, O my fri

eave of me with

re gone, 'let us go into the court

Suleyman whispered to a soldier there on guard, wh

cook, the picture of dejection. A soldier at his side displayed the wooden ladle. The Christian dandies whom he had assaulted w

re often insolent in your demeanour. Confiding in the favour of the foreign consuls, foreign missionaries, you occasionally taunt and irritate, even revile, the Muslims. Now, even supposing your account of this affair to be correct-which I much doubt, for, on the one hand, I behold a wooden ladle of no weight; while, on the other, there are two fine walking-sticks wi

the assailed. Such language from a Muslim judge in a court fill

poor head is sore, my back is broken with that awful beating. He w

describes?' inquired the judge, turni

used man, much slandered. I never set eyes upon those

wast taken in the act of beating them. And you, O Nazarenes, are not much injured, for everyone beholds you in most perfect health,

We wish that man no harm. We

e mej?di[1] to the court; let the parties now, this minute, here before me, swear

at their escape from punishment. I paid the money for our man, who then went home with us; Suleyman, upon the way, delivering a l

ards this world also thou canst make amends. Put forth thy ut

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t four s