United States or Georgia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
A great pity filled his big heart, for as he had turned to go back to the boat Rídan had fallen upon his knees and pressed his lips to the feet of the man who had given him a drink. That night Burton and the Scotch engineer went to Rídan's hut, taking with them food and a new sleeping-mat.
I might now go home, leaving that fire-lit family party gloating over their new millions, and consider my strange day. I had tried and rewarded the virtue of Terutak'. I had played the millionaire, had behaved abominably, and then in some degree repaired my thoughtlessness. And now I had my box, and could open it and look within. It contained a miniature sleeping-mat and a white shell.
Tamaiti, interrogated next day as to the shell, explained it was not exactly Chench, but a cell, or body, which he would at times inhabit. Asked why there was a sleeping-mat, he retorted indignantly, 'Why have you mats? And this was the sceptical Tamaiti! But island scepticism is never deeper than the lips.
Forthwith he said: "Kingsley Bey, son of the desert, and unhappy prisoner, the prison opens its doors. No more for you the cold earth for a bed relieved though it be by a sleeping-mat. No more the cake of dourha and the balass of Nile water. Inshallah, you are as free as a bird on the mountain top, to soar to far lands and none to say thee nay."
You may rob this lady's coco-patch, steal her canoes, burn down her house, and slay her family scatheless; but one thing you must not do: you must not lay a hand upon her sleeping-mat, or your belly will swell, and you can only be cured by the lady or her husband. Here is the report of an eye-witness, Tasmanian born, educated, a man who has made money certainly no fool.
He saw the faint trouble in her eyes and face, and he made up his mind that he would work while it was yet the day. He was about to speak, but she suddenly interposed a question. "Is he comfortable? How does he take it?" "Why, all right. You know the kind of thing: mud walls and floor quite dry, of course and a sleeping-mat, and a balass of water, and cakes of dourha, and plenty of time to think.
He saw the faint trouble in her eyes and face, and he made up his mind that he would work while it was yet the day. He was about to speak, but she suddenly interposed a question. "Is he comfortable? How does he take it?" "Why, all right. You know the kind of thing: mud walls and floor quite dry, of course and a sleeping-mat, and a balass of water, and cakes of dourha, and plenty of time to think.
Twice she had not been aware of his return until she found him lying on the sleeping-mat by her side; but, on the third evening, she had remained awake until a noise without told her that her husband was at hand. Then she had hastened to unbar the door, which she had fastened after Äbas and Äbdulrahman had fallen asleep.
One morning he was summarily marched into the presence of the big loud-voiced man whose orders were obeyed with instant smartness, who told him, to his amazement and despair, that he must depart with his property. the seals of a sack were broken before him, and its contents displayed and duly accounted for a sleeping-mat, a small red blanket, the elastic-side boots, two scrolls of sinfully painted silk, a hard round hat stuffed with gaudy handkerchiefs, three watches and varied jewellery in a ginger-jar, the quaintly carved toilet devices, the jam-tin full of nuggets, and a chamois-leather bag delusively heavy with fine gold.
peso: A silver coin, either the Spanish peso or the Mexican dollar, about the size of an American dollar and of approximately half its value. petate: Sleeping-mat woven from palm leaves. piña: Fine cloth made from pineapple-leaf fibers. Provincial: The head of a religious order in the Philippines. puñales: "Daggers!" querida: A paramour, mistress: from the Spanish "beloved."
Word Of The Day