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4 THE WICKET GATE.
Mid the fast falling shadows,
Weary, and worn, and late,
A timid, doubting pilgrim,
I reach the wioket gate.
Where crowds have stood before me,
, I ptand alone to-night,
the deepening darkness,
'Pray for one gleam of light.
Prom the foul sloughs and marshes
I’ve gathered many a stain ;
. I’ve heard old voices calling
From far across the plain.
Now in my wretched weakness,
Fearful and sad I wait;
And every refuge fails!,me,
Here at the wicket gate.
And will the portals open
To me who roamed so long,
... "Filthy, and vile, and burdened
With this great weight of wrong?
Hark 1 a glad voice of welcome
Rids my wild fears abate—
Look, for a hand of mercy
Opens the wicket gate.
On to the palace beautiful,
And the bright room called Peace ;
Down to the silent river,
Where thou shalt find release;
Up to the radiant city,
Where shining ones await—
On, for the way of glory
Lies through the wicket gate.
Married to the Wrong One.
BY WILLIAM HENRY PECK.
Nicodemus Alcibiades Flopper was
a bachelor —but what his exact age
•was, no man knew except himself;
and even his knowledge of that im-_
portant Item was to" he questioned, for ‘
he really had not the “ most remote
idea ” as to where he was born, nor
when. The point, therefore, remains
a pleasant uncertainty—although his
female acquaintances had agonized
themselves, and everybody else, in
guessing at it. When we wish to as
certain the age of a horse, or a sheep,
we examine his mouth and teeth ; or,
when the age of a tree is in question,
botanists tell us we are to count the
circles from the heart outward. Nei
ther of these methods could have been
tried upon Nicodemus ; for, as regards
the first, he held his mouth so tightly
closed that his lips were blue and thin
with the pressure ; and as for the sec
ond, it was a mooted point whether
such a thing aS a. heart throbbed in
• Flopper.’s bosom. He had no hair on
his head save what ho purchased at
the barber’s ; nor teeth in his mouth,
except those placed there by the skill
ful" hands of the dentists. Therefore,
we may say, calling every ten wrinkles
of bis crabbed old visage one year,
that he wasfifty-and-five, and as tough
as a boarding-horse beefsteak. As
for his general appearance, ’twas not
to be sneezed at. He was tall and
erect, firm and easy in his gait, and
excessively particular in his dress. —
As for his face, he was never known
to have been annoyed by beggars or
organgrinders; and a good, long stare
at it, was like taking a deep bite into
a green persimmon ; and as for his
disposition, it was captious, carping
and carnivorous. He was never
known to say a good thing of any one,
save of himself, and even that he
qualified by saying that “he was a
miserable sinner —a piece of infor
mation entirely useless, as ’twas known
to every one.
Nicodemus boarded at Mrs. Gowge
mall’s, occupying a room just capac
ious enough to swing a cat in, and was
the terror of the landlady and the
chambermaid; the former he swore at
whenever she presented his bill, and
the latter he pelted with his boots
whenever she carried cold, instead of
hot water for his shaving.
Now, the female counterpart of
Flopper made glorious the house of
Gowgemall, in the person of Miss Ar
abella Roxanna Bobbs, a maiden lady
reported—whose eye-teeth were
cut forty-seven years before I respeot
fully present her to the reader.
Nicodemus Flopper and Arabella
Bobbs hated each other so intensely,
that when both were in the parlor,
and within touching distance, the
lamps burned green. The origin of
that hate was as follows : Miss Ara
bella possessed that very rare charac
teristic of her sex and caste—an im
mense deal of curiosity—and her la
bors to satiate the craving were rivals
of those of the son of Alcmena.—
One day, in prowling about, she found
the door of the chamber of Nicode
mus wide open. She glided m like a
streak of smoke, and found several
Sector ter Southern literature, sJeh)s, anti General Information.
GREENVILLE, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1861.
things which tickled her dreadfully,
viz : four wigs, a scratch, two sets of
teeth, a padded vest, a plate of rouge,
a pair of corsets and a bottle of
brandy.
“The rouge accounts for the red
ness of his cheeks, and the brandy for
the redness of his nose,” tittered Ar
abella to a select party of six in the
landlady’s bed-room.
Nicodemus heard of the remark,
and pondered upon revenge. Taking
advantage of the absence of Arabella
one day, when she said she was going
to a prayer meeting, though, In fact,
she went to see the Campbell Min
strels, he entered her apartment, and
made such tremendous discoveries,
that he was seen to grin with delight
for a week afterwards. Among other
things, he found not only all the ven
dible charms usually found in the
apartments of antique virginity, but a
love letter, in the"unmistakable hand
writing of Arabella herself, and ad
dressed “To the Man in the Moon,”
a lunar gentleman at whom elderly
maiden ladies are extremely fond of
staring. This letter was partly in
poetry, and one stanza ran thus:
“In vain do I seek a mad on earth,
And I’ve searched on shore, sea and lagoon ;
Have pity on me in my husband-dearth,
And com* down and marry me, Oh, Man in-the
Moon I’’
This tit-bit Nicodemus, to the hor
ror of the gentle Arabella, quoted at
the dinner table, after keeping it to
himself for a week, and it must be ac
knowledged that he turned the tables
on Arabella. From that day, forward
and backward, they hated each other
prodigiously, nor ever allowed any op
portunity for mutual annoyance to
slip by unused.
Thus time passed on for several
weeks, when the heart of Mrs. Gow
gemall was made light by the arrival
of two new boarders in the persons of
Mr. Nicodemus A. Sparker and Miss
Arabella R. Sweetly—two individuals
wholly unacquainted with each other,
and from different parts of Louisiana.
But they did not long remain unac
quainted. .r.
A A.. CJ YYv/vrY.iomrr TTAlimr
Mr. Sparker wasYprortnsing young
gentleman of twenty-four; elegant,
handsome and accomplished; and,
what is a hundred-fold better, in these
utilitarian times, very wealthy. He
visited the Crescent City to see the
lions and lionesses, and perhaps to
catch a glimpse of “the elephant;”
and as he hoped to see “ a wilderness
of monkeys,” he forthwith put up at
a boarding house.
Miss Sweetly was a lovely young
lady whose cheeks had been reddened
by the kisses of seventeen summers ;
likewise elegant, handsome, accom
plished and rich. lam unable to pos
itively affirm her purpose in visiting
that metropolis of smells and leaky
gas-pipes—iron and human—but sup
pose it must have been to go to the
theatres, the masked balls, the races,
and to see the Fat Woman. I hazard
this surmise ; being warranted therein
by what I have been repeatedly told
by my rural friends. But Flopper
had no such common-place ideas. He
thought she came to see him —for he
had been introduced to her a year be
fore in Vicksburg, and as he then in
formed her, among several other inter-,
esting scraps of his personal history,
that he always boarded at Mrs. Gow
gemall’s, his vanity easily led him to
believe that he, Nicodemus Flopper,
bachelor and man at large, was the
sole attraction that had wafted the
beauteous Miss. Sweetly from the su
gar fields of Pointe Coupee to the
scandal marts of Gowgemall. He
was wofully in error.
Now, Miss Bobbs entertained ex
actly the same idea as regarded Mr.
Sparker, for she had been presented
to him five years before, during her
sojourn in St. Tammany Parish, at
Madisonville, a place renowned in my
memory for the want of Irish potatoes
in the year 1856 ?
It i3 a remarkable fact, that rich
young gentlemen and rich young la
dies of the nineteenth century are in
variably drawn together, and “ make
a match of itwhile the poor penni
less lads and lasses are left to grin at
each other in hopeless despair. I
think it must be the gold in the pock
ets that causes this. Let us rectify
the mistake, and pass “an act, sup
plementary to an act, to amend an
act to take the place of an act, &c.,
&c., forbidding all rich persons to mar
ry any but poor persons. My friend
Grumble cries, “ Hear him!”—he is
poor and unmarried. The magnet of
wealth played the deuce in the spacious
parlor of GowgemaU’s boarding house.
Bouquets, kid gloves, perfumes, patent
leather shoes, and hoops rose five per
cent, within five hours after the arri
val of the two “new boarders.”
All the unmarried, and, oh, fie.
several of the married males became
deeply interested in Miss Arabella
Sweetly, not last, nor least, among
whom was N. A. Flopper; and all the
unwedded dames and damsels, widows
and maids were rabid after Mr. Spar
ker ; and pre-eminent among the fair
and foul was Miss A. R. Bjobbs. I
whisper, privately, be it understood
that one, or two, or three married fe
males lanched their most ravishing
glances at the heart of N. A. Sparker
—no, not at the heart—at the pockets
of that adolescent Croesus.
Many and various were the tactics
of Nicodemus Flopper to win the beau
tiful Arabella Sweetly, and many and.
various were the warnings which thaL
young lady received to guard her
against his insidious approaches. Sh£
was told—annoymoqsly, of course —
that Flopper was a widower, with fif
teen children, all girl—red haired
and cross eyed; that Flopper was a
retired body-snatcher; that Flopper
was a Mormon in disguise ; that Flop
per used to be a Catholic Priest, but
had been caught stealing swine in Ohio;
in short, Flopper caught it right and
left, and if report was was true, was
an unmitigated, remorseless,’ cold
blooded, mammoth monster. Who
originated all these dreadful stories?
Flopper dug grooves in his bald head
with his finger-nails, tore Mrs. Gowge
mall’s best sheets, in his paroxysms of
rage every blessed night, and swore
'twas that vile demon, Arabella Rox
ana Bobbs.
Flopper was right. Flopper
vengeance. Many and scandalous
were the cautions which young Spar
ker received against that female, hu
man vampyre—Miss Bobbs. He was
told, sub rosa, of course, that Bobbs
was an escaped lunatic; that Bobbs
had run four husbands crazy —three
to California, and one to Halifax; that
Bobbs had fifteen children —all boys,
overgrown, lazy and as savage as Bil
ly Bowlegs, who was a beauty by the
side of any one of them.f that Bobbs
■ smoked cigars privately, and pipes—
, V*
corn cob pipes—-surreptitiously ;. that
Bobbs would have been hanged "forty
times, only her being a female saved
her; in short, that Bobbs was a Gor
gon —an Aspasia—a Borgia—a wild
cat turned loose in a respectacle board
ing House.
Mr. Sparker, who was a very clear
sighted young man, saw through all
the smoke raised around him, but saw
nothing distinctly, save the lovely face
and form of Miss Sweetly; and it
gives me much pleasure to record, that
Miss Sweetly was partially blind, and
beheld nothing through the fog except
the handsome countenance and manly
form of Mr. Sparker. lam not quite
so sure, just in this instance, that the
gold did the business for the amiable
couple, yet I have no doubt fte metal
had its effect mutually. .*
“ What manly name do you think
sounds the most melodious .' asked
Flopper, seven days and five hours af
ter the advent of Miss Sweetly. ‘‘Nic
odemus, sir,” blandly replied'Miss
JSweetly, dwelling so long upon HP*
“e,” that Flopper felt as if he was sit
ting in a tub of clarified honey.
“ And I think Arabella the most
beautiful of female appellations,” re
marked Mr. Flopper, with a sigh, and
drawing his chair nearer the njaiden,
who was just then exchanging a love
telegram with Sparker.
“I am of the same opinion,” said
Miss Bobbs, who had managed to
overhear Flopper’s remark. .
“ I withdraw the avowal, Madam,
bo far as it is in unison with your
name ?” snarled Flopper, “ and I see
that Mr. Sparker is alone, for a mar
vel.” ' ... . •
“ J£e is what one individual is this
room never was, is not, and never can
be —a gentleman said Miss Bobbs,
darting her sharp nose at Mr. Floppery
and sailing under full hoops to the side
of Sparker, where she cast anchor, -
and having nothing better to say
said: '
“ Os all the names, dear Mr. Spark
er, that custom applies to us giddy,
young things—us girls, I mean, what
name do you think most enchanting
to the tongue of man ?”
“Arabella,” replied Sparker, think
ing of the rosy mouth that had plucked
his heart from his bosom with a kiss
out there on the balcony, behind a
window shutter.
“Do you. indeed!” cried the de
lighted Bobbs, too absurdly vain not
to take the remark for herself. ‘ She
sighed six deep sighs, much to the
alarm of Sparker, who thought she
was trying to go to sleep and couldj|t»
and might faint and fall on him, u
contact he by no ineans desired.
“ And I think, and I know,” said
Miss Bobbs, moving nearer to the af
frighted youth,, “ that the most heav
enly, the most mellifluous name that
ever trembled upon a maiden s tongue?
as the morning’s dew drop, pure and
sweet, trembles upon the opening
roseleaf, is—Nicodemus!” dwelling
upon the “ o,” ala Neafie, in Othel
lo’s Farewell to War.
“ I am extremely obliged to you,
hang me if I ain’t,” interjected Flop
per, by her side, whither he had been
sent by Miss Sweetly, to bring back
that maiden’s richly embroidered hand
kerchief which Miss Bobbs, uninten
tionally of course, had taken from
her lap.
Ladies of the Bobbs stamp will ap
propriate, unintentioually of course,
pretty handkerchiefs.
-“Sir,” said Miss Bobbs, drawing
herself up till Mrs. Gowgemall trern
bled for the back, not of Miss Bobbs,
ebut of the chair in which she sat;
•“ sir, or rather thing ! —it is the per
son to whom the name belongs that
SiKßetena or embittens a name. When
llpeiik: the name of Nicodemus and
■ look at Mr. Sparker, my tongue is
bathed in ambrosial sweets; but when
I look at you, sir, and speak it, my
mouth, my throat —metaphorically
speaking—is full of gall, wormwood,
tar and ashes.”
“ I wish ’twas literally true, Madam,
Ido by George! And then lam
sure, Madam, I should never be pre
sented so hideous a spectacle as your
face, Madam, a second time, Madam,”
snapped Mr. Flopper, blowing his
nose till the piano keys rattled with
the reverberation.
“This is outrageous, sir,” cried a
Miss Bobbs ; “ but what can one ex
pect from such a Bedouin Arab as
you are,” and Miss Bobbs sailed away
in mighty and ineffable disgust, to
loCjfe at the man in the moon, and ask
•him,, soto voce, why in thunder he
didri’t come down and make all things
right ? - *
It was not long before Mr. Sparker
and his beloved learned from each
other the state of affairs ; and upon
comparing notes they found that Mr.
Flopper had been maligning and vili
fying Mr. Sparker terribly to Miss
Sweetly, while the amiable Miss Bobbs
had deftly done the same, as regarded
Miss Sweetly to Mr. Sparker.
Mr. Sparker is a wild, reckless,
rakish, rash, extravagant, profane,
immoral dissipated, atheistic young
man, and is a regular gambler—drinks
like a fish !” Mr. Flopper had said
to Miss Sweetly.
“Miss Sweetly will do very well to
■Hdfcr at iimiwra pins CTSe, iramWlf
will not last—if she has any —and,
entre nous, Mr. Sparker, she paints
like Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Sparker
—it’s all false, sir; besides, there
were dark reports about her in Pointe
Coupee, three years ago, and she has
a temper like a tigress, and has no
more discretion than a, than a—a bed
bug by candle-light,” said Miss Bobbs,
at a loss for a simile, to Mr. Sparker.
“If Mr. Sparker drinks like a
fish,” had replied Miss Sweetly to
that character, brigand Flopper, “ it
is all even Neal Dow can ask, for, Mr.
Flopper, a fish drinks nothing but
water,” and Mr. Flopper went to bed
that night with an elephantine flea in
his ear. 1
“ A bed-bug by candle-light, Miss
-Se4rf>s, shows marvelous alacrity in i
hiding himself,” had replied Mr.
Sparker, and Miss Bobbs took an ex
trapull at Wolfe’s Aromatic Schiedam
Schnapps that night, and dreamed
thht a bed-bug, with the head of Flop
per and as huge as a rhinoceros, was
nipping her in the back all night.
Three months had flown by since
the arrival of the “two new boarders,”
the heart of Mrs. Gowgemall had been
delighted as many times as she had
fingers and toes ——Miss Bobbs reported
that the landlady had six toes on each
f OO t —and things had reached a crisis.
Mr. Sparker had promised to marry
Miss Sweetly, and Miss Sweetly had
promised to marry Mr. Sparker; while
|&rs. Gowgemall had promised to
.marry anybody that would have her
-I, |t)ll ■strange to say, nobody took
Mrs. Gowgemall up. In fact, there
had been as much promising about
there as there was in the year 1855,
when I was promised a S3OOO berth —
and didn’t get it—bad ’cess to such
promising say I. Things were in a
pretty snarl, as things always are
when there is much promising ; but
Mr. Sparker and Miss Sweetly saw
their end of the skein —had a good
hold of it, and, as the reader shall
laughingly admit, were about to wind
it around the Hymeneal altar in glo
rious style.
Here is the way in which that mis
chievous fellow Sparker managed the
affair.
He was to marry Miss Bobbs. —
Very good. Flopper was to marry
Miss Sweetly. Very good. And all
Bur were to be married at the very
same time. Excellent. Sparker was
to defray all expenses. “‘Best of all,’
thought Flopper, who was economical
and wore one shirt a week to shorten
his washerwoman’s bill-r-and rations.
And all were to be married privately
and in Sparker’s room, so that no one
in the whole house, save Mrs. Gowgem
all should know anything of it till all
was over, when each gentleman was
to introduce his bride to a large com
pany in the parlor, who should there
be assembled at the invitation of Mrs.
Gowgemall, and ignorant of the cause.
Mr. Sparker procured the licenses and
the parson—mj especial friend the
Rev. Tyemtite. As Miss Sweetly was
greatly annoyed by the vigilance of
an aunt, who wishes to reserve the in
comparable Arabella and her sugar
fields, negroes, etc., for her son Toby
Spike, then at college, it was arranged
(that all should go in similar masks
and dominos to the ball that evening
it the Odd Fellow’s Hall, slip out and
leave Mrs. Spike lost in the crowd,
hurry home, and hastening to Spar
ker’s appartment, get —what so many
wiah thpy hadn’t got when ’tis too late
—married!
Sparker extorted a solemn oath
from Miss Bobbs that she would not
utter a word after they should leave
the ball-room, till the brides were in
troduced in the parlor, as Flopper was
to be tricked. Her responses and his,
were to be by signs and gestures, and
they, themselves were to be masked.
Miss Bobbs was so delighted with the
idea of marrying anybody. Flopper
inexorably excepted, that she prom
ised like a politician. Miss Sweetly
made Flopper promise as solemnly to
preserve silence, as Bobbs was to be
made a fool of; and to tell the truth,
Flopper was so eager to possess the
beauteous girl—to say nothing of her
possessions, for which he cared noth
ing.
Sparker told Flopper, very confi
dentially, and as a reason for their
silence, that he intended to substitute
for himself a colored friend, full of
deviltry, who had agreed to take his j
place during the confusion of the'
ball; and Miss Sweetly had told Miss
Bobbs, very confidentially, and, for
the same reason, that she should slip
away from Flopper in the crowd, and
a colored lady in domino, like her
own, would take the arm of Flopper
and become Mrs. Flopper.
“ Glorious trap !” said Flopper ex
ulting in the expected finale, and tri
umphing over Bobbs.
“ Most rare device !” said Miss
Bobbs; and all the day prior to the
double wedding she congratulated
Flopper, and Flopper congrafcateted
fool the other was about to he. Af
fairs ended as Sparker intended. He
passed Bobbs to Flopper and took
Miss Sweetly in the ball, and all has
tened home. The Christian names of
both parties were alike, and Mr. Ty
emtite did the business in fine style.
“ You are now, gentlemen and ladies,
men and wives. The signing of all
necessary papers may Be deferred for
the present. I have neglected to
bring them with me. I will hasten
home and return with them, while you
descend and present your brides, gen
tlemen, to the company below, wdiich
is very numerous,” and Mr. Tyemtite
evacuated the premises like a victori
ous general leaving a well-fought
field.
The married pairs descend. They
enter the crowded parlor. Mr. Spar
ker and Mr. Flopper unmask at the
same moment.
“ Mrs. Sparker, ladies and gentle
men.”
“ Mrs. Flopper, ladies and gentle
men.”
“Thunder! I have married Miss
Bobbs!” roars Flopper, as the mask
of his wife falls to the floor, and ex
poses the unattractive visage of A.
Bobbs.
“ Oh, horrors ! I have married the
wrong one ! I have married Nicode
mus Flopper!” shrieks the late Miss
Arabella Roxanna Bobbs.
“ And I have married Miss Arabel
la Sweetly,” cries the exultant Spar
ker, saluting his blushing and happy
bride.
The company, especially the mar
i ried men, crowd around to kiss that
bride, but where is the other ? Faint
! ed—carried off by Mrs. Gowgemall,
! and Miss Bobbs was never heard of
; more. The steamer that left for Ha
' vana the next morning, bore away
| " Nicodemus Alcibiades Flopper !
Honor to Labor.
BY W. *. DEVON.
Go prate of your lineage of ancient degree,
Os honor bequeathed by your sire ;
A fig for such hondr ’tie nothing to me,
A’nd nothing but scorn can inspire ;
For I have a lineage as old as thine own,
Though neither a duke nor a lord ;
For Adam’s my sire, and by toil I have won
More honor than they by the sword.
Their honor is tarnished with ravage and blood,
With ruthless oppression and strife—
While mine ar the honors that swell like a flood,
Enriching the rivers of life.
He only is noble who nobly doth live
To help himself and his neighbor;
Who is never a drone, but nobly gives
The world a share of his labor. •
Then honor to labor, the wealth of the earth,
More precious than gold from the mine;
And honor be paid to her nobles of worth,
Who are nobles by patent Divine,
Then honor be paid to the plow and the spade,
And hands that are hardened by toil—
The nobles who live by the bread they have
made
In workshop, the forge, or the soil.
A hermit prefers to be left a loan.
Terrible Performances.
A recent work on Algiers gives the
following account of some es the
amusements of that lively place and
its viciniage. It shows that the Arabs
are cleverer than even our friend
Professor Anderson, who is ne w as
tonishing the Southern people by his
experiments in magic:
“ In a few moment the tamborines
were again in full force, and the shriek
ing and yelling were again repeated,
but this time the number of dancers
was increased. One- -of the Arabs
took a sword, and having stripped to
his loins, ran it for nearly a quarter
of an inch into his stomach, twirling
it round at the same time like a gim
let. To a certain degree there was
no deception in this, but the absence
of blood roused my suspicions that
the sword fitted into an old scar long
used for the purpose, especially as it
was introduced sideways. Than he
ran it into the nape of his neck in the
same manner, twirling it ronnd as be
fore, but still no blood followed. The
invisible women seemed pleased at this
feat, for another ‘ lu, lu, lu !’ swelled
around us, and then the frantic danc
ing went on. Presently four or five
instruments resembling thick kitchen
shovels were brought in red hot, and I
felt the sudden glow on my face as
they were taken past me. When the
Arabs beheld these their cries changed
into another key, and by their ges
tures they seemed like wild animals
eager for food. Each man took the
glowing iron, placed it on the shorn
part of his head, and then stroked it;
caressingly with his naked hand.—
During this feat there was a sicken
ing smell of burnt flesh, and a slight
smoke arose from the skin of the per-
I formers whenever, the ruddy metal
! touched it. Then having licked them
| all over with their tongues they placed
i them betweeu their lips, holding them
• firm with their teeth, and leaping for
a few moments still higher in tune to
the untiring thunder of the tympana.
A large scorpion was now, brought in
lhin. Him Viii—kilim. i
touened it witn a stick en -passant it
i darted up its poisous tail, leaving no
doubt as to its vitality. One of the
Arabs took up the reptile by its
head, placed it in his mouth, and swal
lowed it, making a horrible crunching
nose in the process of mastication. —
How he escaped the effects of its sting
is more than lean imagine; but, at
all events, the unnatural meal seemed
to give him new life for the madden
ing orgies. One of the dancers now
stepped forward with a dagger about
a foot in length, and lifting up his
eyelid thrust it some way in just over
the eyeball, and walked about with
the weapon thus apparently sticking
out of his eye. Then he drew it
slowly out, and the host at my request
having handed it to me for examina
tion, I found that it was sharp as a
needle and perfectly solid. The
voices of the women at this period
were louder than I had heard them
before, and so long did the shrill ap
plause continue thatthe Arabs looked
up hastily and said “hush” in the
same sort of contemptuous tone with
which a charity school master endea
vors to stop the clatter of his refrac
tory pupils, and the obedient chorus
instantly subsided. Half-a-dozen
cactus leaves were now brought in, and
the moment the dancers perceived
them they left off their frantic ges
tures and grovelled like dogs on their
hands and knees.
The African cactus, or Barbary fig,
grows around Algiers into a regular
tree of 12 feet or so in bight, and the
leaves are large in proportion, being
generally about a foot long and half
an inch thick, and are very thickly
covered with strong prickles, of an
inch in length. These prickles are as
thick as a drugget-pin at the base, and
very firm, so that the handling of the
leaf is a matter of difficulty, and pain,
and should the point of the prickle
break in so doing, it forces itself be
neath the skin and causes excruciating
agony. The Arabs crawled adroitly
toward the man who held the leaves,
bayinglike the dogs they imitated, and
as he held one forth they thrust their
heads forward and took rapid bites,
devouring it seemingly without the
slightest inconvenience. The green
fluid expressed from the herb flowed
in streams over their long beards, and
I noticed that when they accidentally
touched each other they gave a low
growl like curs who are gorging. The
applause of the invisible ladies was
great, but by no means so enthusiastic
as before, the tambourines were again
silent, and the performers fell to the
ground as if the superhuman stimulus
to their exertions had been removed.
I drew a deep breath as I left the
house, like one who has by a timely
awaking been relieved from the incu
bus of some terrible nightmare, and
as I threaded again the narrow streets,
the delicious night air cooled and re
freshed me.”
NO. 3.