Told in the Gardens of Araby

Memory swings backward to revel in a certain Garden of Delight; to picture the high whitewashed wall, topped with red tiles, and guarding within its quadrangle of acres clustering palms, grave cypress trees, the fig, quince, orange, pomegranate, and mulberry; also the gray olive, with roots twisted out of the soil as if by force and seeming to hint that, once upon a time, giant souls were imprisoned within each grizzly trunk and struggled themselves to death, in mad wrestlings after freedom. Shielded by these varied branches, roses and cabbages, lilies and onions, jessamine and melons, the crimson-flowered oleander, pumpkins, tomatoes, and carrots mingle in a delightful democracy. Here the day wakens with sweet morning clearness, waxes into a scorching noontide, and burns onward, to be extinguished by the breath of a dewy twilight. Stars march slowly from out the vaulted shadows overhead, to halt at awful distances. Distant mountain peaks stretch away beyond the city, in indescribable loveliness, and melt in the distance, like a veritable land of cloud. Upon the other hand lies the desert; become a sea of silver under the stern light of the stars. One stands impressedoppressed and compelled to listen to the mighty, threatening silence. Small wonder is it that, to-day, in the interior of Arabia, like his forefathers during the time of Abimelech and Jethro, the lonely shepherd is a worshiper of the starspoised, unchanging and serene, above the changing, tumultuous earth. Through this Garden, in which Memory lies dreaming, a silvery stream flows from a marble basin. Into this basin play the waters from a tree-shaded fountain. Beside it sits a gruff old pelican, eyeing dweller and guest with equal disfavor. This bird of desolation likes not his fair prison. Sweeter, to his ear, is the owl's hoot than any music distilled by human voices. At one corner of the great quadrangle stands the long, roomy dwelling. Its lower story comprises the general reception room, the kitchen, and stables. From contiguous windows in this last, two white heads lean out and gaze, wistfully, each into the other's eyes. One is that of the snow-white ass, upon which the daughter of the house rides when, attended by Ismail, she goes forth to pay visits. The other is that of the foal, shut into a separate stall because he has grown so large that he must be weaned. Here his greatest effort only succeeds in reaching up and resting his funny little head upon the window sill; where he must content himself with waving long ears and casting glances of entreaty across at the mother, who stands helpless in all but the expression of her sympathy. Attention is fastened upon these patient dumb creatures. At this, the young hostesswho, by the way, speaks Arabic, modern Greek, French, German, English; who interprets Chopin with appealing sympathy upon the piano in the beautiful drawing-room; and, upon occasion, picks her mandolin to light, minor-keyed melodiesdecides that the American lady must have a ride about the garden.

Dettagli