The Effect Produced Upon The Christian Inhabitants
By The Sudden Removal Of This Restraint Was Immense.
The village
smiled once more.
It is true that such sweet freedom could not
long endure. Even if the population of the place should continue
to be entirely Christian, the sad decorum of the Mussulmans, or
rather of the Asiatics, would sooner or later be restored by the
force of opinion and custom. But for a while the sunshine would
last, and when I was at Bethlehem, though long after the flight of
the Mussulmans, the cloud of Moslem propriety had not yet come back
to cast its cold shadow upon life. When you reach that gladsome
village, pray Heaven there still may be heard there the voice of
free, innocent girls. It will sound so dearly welcome!
To a Christian, and thoroughbred Englishman, not even the
licentiousness which generally accompanies it can compensate for
the oppressiveness of that horrible outward decorum, which turns
the cities and the palaces of Asia into deserts and gaols. So, I
say, when you see and hear them, those romping girls of Bethlehem
will gladden your very soul. Distant at first, and then nearer and
nearer the timid flock will gather around you, with their large
burning eyes gravely fixed against yours, so that they see into
your brain; and if you imagine evil against them, they will know of
your ill thought before it is yet well born, and will fly and be
gone in the moment. But presently, if you will only look virtuous
enough to prevent alarm, and vicious enough to avoid looking silly,
the blithe maidens will draw nearer and nearer to you, and soon
there will be one, the bravest of the sisters, who will venture
right up to your side and touch the hem of your coat, in playful
defiance of the danger, and then the rest will follow the daring of
their youthful leader, and gather close round you, and hold a
shrill controversy on the wondrous formation that you call a hat,
and the cunning of the hands that clothed you with cloth so fine;
and then growing more profound in their researches, they will pass
from the study of your mere dress to a serious contemplation of
your stately height, and your nut-brown hair, and the ruddy glow of
your English cheeks. And if they catch a glimpse of your ungloved
fingers, then again will they make the air ring with their sweet
screams of wonder and amazement, as they compare the fairness of
your hand with their warmer tints, and even with the hues of your
own sunburnt face. Instantly the ringleader of the gentle rioters
imagines a new sin; with tremulous boldness she touches, then
grasps your hand, and smoothes it gently betwixt her own, and pries
curiously into its make and colour, as though it were silk of
Damascus, or shawl of Cashmere. And when they see you even then
still sage and gentle, the joyous girls will suddenly and
screamingly, and all at once, explain to each other that you are
surely quite harmless and innocent, a lion that makes no spring, a
bear that never hugs, and upon this faith, one after the other,
they will take your passive hand, and strive to explain it, and
make it a theme and a controversy.
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