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The ladies, however, seemed not to regard it, and one bright-eyed houri I saw looking into the face of a long sallow-visaged young man, who had the juice oozing out at each angle of his mouth with disgusting effect, so that enunciation was difficult. Some miles up the Hudson, on a high piece of table-land, amidst romantic scenery, stands in prominent relief the military college of West Point.
No wonder the invalid, recovering from his illness, after the long dark spell that has obscured his intellect, wrapping his soul, as it were, in a shroud no wonder he fancies the scene to be a sort of Paradise, worthy of being inhabited by Peris. One is there he deems fair as Houri or Peri, unsurpassed by any ideal of Hindoo or Persian fable Adela Miranda.
And the eyes of the betrayer flashed with a new light. "Miriam is as beautiful as a houri, as fair as the light of a sun-lit day after a black night of tempest, and as sweet in disposition as Rachel, the favoured of our father Jacob."
"Indeed, this is a strange story what, did the big-bellied fellow look like an angel?" "As an angel of light, O caliph." "What, and the weazen-faced negro?" "Like a houri, O caliph." "Well, then," replied the caliph, "you shall now, Yussuf, try the power of this wonderful sword. Strike off that criminal's head."
I soon became thoroughly absorbed, and forgot that there were any persons present. In fancy I imagined myself again in view of the glory of the Electric Ring again I seemed to behold the opaline radiance of the Central Sphere: "Where Love's a grown-up God, Where the Houri glances are Imbued with all the beauty Which we worship in a star."
It might be the mere effect of female curiosity, to ascertain what kind of a man's visage could possibly be concealed under such a preposterous hat, or it might be for any other purpose, which his penetration could not discover, but certain it was, that ever and anon a black visage, with white and pearly teeth, and an expressive grin of the countenance, somewhat similar to that of the monkey in a state of excited pleasure, protruded itself under the canopy of straw, which protected his head, but he, who had withstood the amorous advances of the widow Zuma, or of the fat and deaf widow Laddie, could not be supposed to yield to the fascinations and allurements of a Badagry houri.
It may be, I fancy, that I have seen more of the ways of this world's Maker than you, for I have sought his laws, in my way, all my life, while you, I understand, have been collecting butterflies. And I tell you, pleasure and pain have nothing to do with heaven or hell. Pleasure and pain bah! What is your theologian's ecstasy but Mahomet's houri in the dark?
With still deeper anxiety, he learned that a palanquin, watched with sedulous care by the slaves of Oriental jealousy, contained, it was whispered, a Feringi, or Frankish woman, beautiful as a Houri, who had been brought from England by the Begum, as a present to Tippoo.
Then he signed to the thin girl and said to her, 'O Houri of Paradise, feed thou our ears with sweet words and sounds. So she took the lute; and, tuning it, preluded and sang these two couplets, Their lord rejoiced and, emptying the cup, gave the girls to drink.
The houri in that case had run off with the captain of a Russian vessel engaged in the tallow trade; but not the less was there left on his Grace's mind some dreamy memory of charms which had impressed him very strongly when he was simply a young Mr. Palliser, and had had at his command not so convenient a mode of sudden abduction as the Russian captain's tallow ship.
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