y.... After dinner we go into our host's room where we are
served with sweetmeats, pipes, and coffee.... The furnishings of this
room are sparse: a divan, several mats, and a large high bed at the
back scattered with gold embroidered red cushions.... A Turkish
painting of the exploits of a certain Hamadi hangs upon the wall.
Turkish painters only seem to use one colour per canvas. This canvas is
decidedly green. The sea, the sky, the ships, even the admiral himself,
everything is green, and deep green at that!... Arabs usually retire
early, so, once I have finished my coffee and smoked my pipe, I bid
goodnight to my host and leave him to his wives.

* * * * *

Now, where to round off my evening? Well, it's too early for bed, the
spahi soldiers haven't sounded the retreat on their bugles, yet.
Moreover, Sid'Omar's gold cushions were dancing fabulous farandoles
round me and making sleep impossible.... I'm outside the theatre, let's
go in for a moment.

The Milianah theatre is an old fur store, refurbished as far as
possible to make a stage and auditorium. The lighting is made up of
large oil lamps which are refilled during the interval. The audience
stands; only the orchestra sits, but on benches. The galleries are
quite swish with cane chairs.... All around the room there is a long,
dark corridor with no wooden flooring.... You might as well be in the
street, it has absolutely nothing in it. The play has already started
when I arrive. The actors aren't at all bad, the men at least; they get
their training from life.... They are mainly amateurs, soldiers of the
third division, and the regiment is proud of them and supports them
every night.

As for the women, well!... It always is and always will be the same in
small provincial theatres, the women are always pretentious,
artificial, and overact outrageously.... And yet, among the women there
are two very young Jewesses, beginners at the drama, who catch my
eye.... Their parents are in the audience and seem enchanted. They are
convinced that their daughters are going to earn a fortune on the
stage. The legendary Rachel, Israeli millionaire, and actress, has an
orient-wide reputation with the Jews.

Nothing could be more comical and pathetic than these two little
Jewesses on the boards.... They stand timidly in a corner of the scene,
powdered, made-up, and as stiff as a board in low cut dresses. They are
cold and they are embarrassed. Occasionally