He Can Sing All Manner Of Songs, Slaughter A Sheep With
Dexterity, Deliver A Grand Call To Prayer, Shave, Cook, Fight; And He
Excels In The Science Of Vituperation:
Like Sa'ad, he never performs
his devotions, except
[P.164]when necessary to "keep up appearances," and though he has sworn
to perish before he forgets his vow to the "daughter of his uncle," I
shrewdly suspect he is no better than he should be. His brow crumples
at the word wine, but there is quite another expression about the
region of the mouth; Stambul, where he has lived some months, without
learning ten words of Turkish, is a notable place for displacing
prejudice. And finally, he has not more than a piastre or two in his
pocket, for he has squandered the large presents given to him at Cairo
and Constantinople by noble ladies, to whom he acted as master of the
ceremonies at the tomb of the Apostle.
Stretched on a carpet, smoking a Persian Kaliun all day, lies Salih
Shakkar, a Turk on the father's, and an Arab on the mother's side, born
at Al-Madinah. This lanky youth may be sixteen years old, but he has
the ideas of forty-six; he is thoroughly greedy, selfish, and
ungenerous; coldly supercilious as a Turk, and energetically avaricious
as an Arab. He prays more often, and dresses more respectably, than the
descendant of the Clarified-Butter-Seller; he affects the
Constantinople style of toilette, and his light yellow complexion makes
people consider him a "superior person." We were intimate enough on the
road, when he borrowed from me a little money.
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