a
white turban, mild and imperturbable, and seated as erect on his crossed
legs as if he were administering justice; a remarkable contrast to the
individual who was on the left of the host, who might have been mistaken
for a mass of brilliant garments huddled together, had not the gurgling
sound of the nargileh occasionally assured the spectator that it was
animated by human breath. This person was apparently lying on his back,
his face hid, his form not to be traced, a wild confusion of shawls and
cushions, out of which, like some wily and dangerous reptile, glided the
spiral involutions of his pipe. Next to the invisible sat a little wiry
man with a red nose, sparkling eyes, and a white beard. His black turban
intimated that he was a Hebrew, and indeed he was well known as Barizy
of the Tower, a description which he had obtained from his residence
near the Tower of David, and which distinguished him from his cousin,
who was called Barizy of the Gate. Further on an Armenian from Stamboul,
in his dark robes and black protuberant head-dress, resembling a
colossal truffle, solaced himself with a cherry stick which reminded him
of the Bosphorus, and he found a companion in this fashion in the
young officer of a French brig-of-war anchored at Beiroot, and who had
obtained leave to visit the Holy Land, as he was anxious to see the
women of Bethlehem, of whose beauty he had heard much.

As the new comer entered the hall, he shuffled off his slippers at the
threshold, and then advancing, and pressing a hand to his brow, his
mouth and his heart, a salutation which signifies that in thought,
speech, and feeling he was faithful to his host, and which salutation
was immediately returned, he took his seat upon the divan, and the
master of the house, letting the flexible tube of his nargileh fall on
one of the cushions, and clapping his hands, a page immediately brought
a pipe to the new guest. This was Signor Pasqualigo, one of those noble
Venetian names that every now and then turn up in the Levant, and borne
in the present case by a descendant of a family who for centuries had
enjoyed a monopoly of some of the smaller consular offices of the
Syrian coast. Signor Pasqualigo had installed his son as deputy in the
ambiguous agency at Jaffa, which he described as a vice-consulate, and
himself principally resided at Jerusalem, of which he was the prime
gossip, or second only to his rival, Barizy of the Tower. He had only
taken a preli