great ancestor.
Then we are conducted to the private apartments of the Marabout. Through an interpreter we are bidden to remain for luncheon. We accept the invitation.
| An image should appear at this position in the text. To use the entire page scan as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/233}}". Otherwise, if you are able to provide the image then please do so. For guidance, see Wikisource:Image guidelines and Help:Adding images. |
"HOW ARE YOU?"
Words fail to tell of our surprise on entering the boudoir of our holy host. We had pictured to ourselves a sanctum sanctorum, containing possibly a prayer-mat and a copy of the Koran. We find instead a cozy den filled with the creations of the instalment-plan furniture dealer. Let me recite a catalogue of these incongruities. There was one tall clock, two cuckoo clocks, and five other clocks, each marking a different hour; there was a looking-glass, a settee, and a table,—all from the Bon Marché of Paris; there were—Oh, shade of Mohammed! photographic likenesses of living forms, selected from the collections in the windows of the Rue de Rivoli; there was a kerosene lamp like those which sometimes hang above the table d'hôte in five-franc-per-day pensions; and last and greatest wonder of them all, a lonely gas-fixture, complete with its wall-bracket, burner, and globe. Our host proudly takes it down to show it to us, for it is merely hung upon a hook. There are no