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moustapha's house. 175
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Li Of Oj Tt ? Le Propriety All Arab The ...
-which would niake the hair of a Lyons' factor _xise with astonishment . The Moor was jerking his spool up and down from the height
_. of his knee to the level of the stream , some fifteen or twenty feet , and at every jerk _£ he bright blue silk twisted firmly and surely into
an even cord . Then we ascended a hill planted with aloe hedges , and crowned with clumps of olives , amidst which stood Moustapha ' s
house , turning its back upon us . There was no sign of life about the lace ; and as we drew nearer we saw that it presented a most
dilap p idated appearance . The rain had washed away the whitewash , and the stones and rubble of which its thick walls were built were
_^ crumbling away , so that some of the rooms were partly laid bare ; altogether it looked uninhabited , and we concluded that Moustapha
must have removed , though a latent fear of the dogs prevented our going round to the front . So we began to call , " Moustapha / ' *
standing prudently round the angle of the corner whence the dogs : mi 3 ght from descry the us silent and house be temp and ted we to tried break again their : " chains _Mousta . _- No ha ! " answer at the
< ame , p , bottom of the scale— C ( Moustapha / " again at the top . "We yodled at him after the manner of Swiss herdsmenwe shrieked like a railway
whistle , and finally barked like a dog , , in the hope of provoking some response from that silent house . But there came none ; and
still we durst not turn the fatal corner , but passed down to the right , where was a man in a theatrical hat digging in a field which
_belonged to another house . He came forward , speaking rapidly a mongrel Frenchand being apparently a Maltese or other islander
. of the Mediterranean , whose native dialect is a mongrel Italian . He ¦ assured us that Moustapha still lived in the dilapidated house , and
if he were not at home his women-kind were , and likewise the dogs , and he volunteered to send his daughter Maria to inquire .
" Maria ! " shouted the father , and that very good-natured , but far from clean young lady came forward , and started across the field to
Moustapha ' s garden wall , on the opposite side to that on which we had made an attempt . Before Maria had uttered many words in
shrill Arabicthe head and arms of a woman appeared above the wallenveloped , in a white flapping garment which made her look
from , a distance like a large seagull , and a colloquy ensued as to Moustapha , his whereabouts , and when he would be at home . But
in the midst of the discussion was heard a low ominous sound , which . gathered into a growl and broke up into a sharp Bow-wow- _^ owow !"
and in the twinkling of an eye out rushed a large and a little dog , with _brokopi ropes round their necks , and made furiously at Maria ,
who took to her heels amidst a universal shriek . Just at this awkward juncture Mohammed , the son-in-law of Moustapha ,
appeared on the scene , rebuked the animals , reassured Maria , and offered to conduct us to the housethere to bargain concerning our
brackets . The dogs followed , giving , sulky and gluttonous glances
at the out boots -houses the , we while heard ; and a furious as we passed roar and a door , et succession belonging of violen one of t
Moustapha's House. 175
moustapha ' s house . 175
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1861, page 175, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111861/page/31/
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