DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5073#0404
THE PEARL.
391
to look at the dead snake, curious to see for what they
had been fighting. And lo ! out of his mouth came the
apple of discord—this little white stone ! and she opened
her hand, and showed us a large, round pearl; a costly
one in any place, but doubly valuable in my eyes with
this marvellous tale attached to it, and, above all, for
having been picked up in Zenobia's Palace. The Be-
doueens did not know it was a jewel, nor had any of
them ever seen a pearl before; and as it is too fine a
pearl to have belonged to any traveller passing by, I
am morally convinced, and always shall be, that this
identical pearl was dropped off the necklace of the
beautiful Zenobia herself, just before she left Palmyra
— for ever! I need not say that we bought the pear].
The Sheikh said that, although the old woman was a
great rhodomontader, he did not think the story of the
serpents untrue; it was not a story that she would have
invented, and he had himself more than once seen ser-
pents fighting in the maimer she described for some
such article as a bit of stone.
One of the gentlemen of our party was anxious to
get up to the fine Saracenic castle which overlooks the
town, and Meg Merrilies offered to show him the way;
so one afternoon they set off together by a path that she
assured him was quite feasible: she missed it, however,
and after two or three hours' walk the)' arrived at the
foot of an almost perpendicular cliff. She wanted to go
back, but he insisted on going on, and, taking off his
shoes, he managed, being an expert Alpine climber, to
ascend the rock. She scrambled after him by another
way, a long time after, holding on with her long hands,
which were like eagle's claws. He entered by a loop-
hole, for, though the castle is nearly quite perfect, the
drawbridge and all legitimate entrance is destroyed.
CC4
391
to look at the dead snake, curious to see for what they
had been fighting. And lo ! out of his mouth came the
apple of discord—this little white stone ! and she opened
her hand, and showed us a large, round pearl; a costly
one in any place, but doubly valuable in my eyes with
this marvellous tale attached to it, and, above all, for
having been picked up in Zenobia's Palace. The Be-
doueens did not know it was a jewel, nor had any of
them ever seen a pearl before; and as it is too fine a
pearl to have belonged to any traveller passing by, I
am morally convinced, and always shall be, that this
identical pearl was dropped off the necklace of the
beautiful Zenobia herself, just before she left Palmyra
— for ever! I need not say that we bought the pear].
The Sheikh said that, although the old woman was a
great rhodomontader, he did not think the story of the
serpents untrue; it was not a story that she would have
invented, and he had himself more than once seen ser-
pents fighting in the maimer she described for some
such article as a bit of stone.
One of the gentlemen of our party was anxious to
get up to the fine Saracenic castle which overlooks the
town, and Meg Merrilies offered to show him the way;
so one afternoon they set off together by a path that she
assured him was quite feasible: she missed it, however,
and after two or three hours' walk the)' arrived at the
foot of an almost perpendicular cliff. She wanted to go
back, but he insisted on going on, and, taking off his
shoes, he managed, being an expert Alpine climber, to
ascend the rock. She scrambled after him by another
way, a long time after, holding on with her long hands,
which were like eagle's claws. He entered by a loop-
hole, for, though the castle is nearly quite perfect, the
drawbridge and all legitimate entrance is destroyed.
CC4