FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140  
141   >>  
eve--one of the crew from Algiers, but art come to strive for the release of thy sister?' Arthur gave the history as best he could, for his month's practice had made him able to speak the vernacular so as to be fairly comprehensible, and the Marabout, who was evidently a man of very high abilities, often met him half way, and suggested the word at which he stumbled. He was greatly touched by the account, even in the imperfect manner in which the youth could give it; and there was no doubt that he was a man of enlarged mind and beneficence, who had not only mastered the fifty sciences, but had seen something of the world. He had not only made his pilgrimage to Mecca more than once, but had been at Constantinople, and likewise at Tunis and Tripoli; thus, with powers both acute and awake, he understood more than his countrymen of European Powers and their relation to one another. As a civilised and cultivated man, he was horrified at the notion of the tenderly-nurtured child being in the clutches of savages like the Cabeleyzes; but the first difficulty was to find out where she was; for, as he said, pointing towards the mountains, they were a wide space, and it would be hunting a partridge on the hills. Looking at his chief councillor, Azim Reverdi, he demanded whether some of the wanderers of their order, whom he named, could not be sent through the mountains to discover where any such prisoners might be; but after going into the court in quest of these persons, Azim returned with tidings that a Turkish soldier had returned on the previous day to the town, and had mentioned that on Mount Couco, Sheyk Abderrahman was almost at war with his subordinates, Eyoub and Ben Yakoub, about some shipwrecked Frank captives, if they had not already settled the matter by murdering them all, and, as was well known, nothing would persuade this ignorant, lawless tribe that nothing was more abhorrent to the Prophet than human sacrifices. Azim had already sent two disciples to summon the Turk to the presence of the Grand Marabout, and in due time he appeared--a rough, heavy, truculent fellow enough, but making awkward salaams as one in great awe of the presence in which he stood--unwilling awe perhaps--full of superstitious fear tempered by pride--for the haughty Turks revolted against homage to one of the subject race of Moors. His language was only now and then comprehensible to Arthur, but Ibrahim kept up a running translatio
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140  
141   >>  



Top keywords:
presence
 

returned

 

mountains

 

Arthur

 

comprehensible

 
Marabout
 
shipwrecked
 

Yakoub

 
subordinates
 

Abderrahman


Algiers

 

persuade

 
settled
 

matter

 
murdering
 

captives

 
mentioned
 
prisoners
 

discover

 

previous


ignorant

 

soldier

 

Turkish

 

persons

 

tidings

 

abhorrent

 

haughty

 

revolted

 

tempered

 

unwilling


superstitious

 
homage
 

subject

 

Ibrahim

 

running

 
translatio
 

language

 
summon
 

disciples

 
sacrifices

Prophet
 

making

 
awkward
 
salaams
 

fellow

 

appeared

 
truculent
 

lawless

 
sciences
 

mastered