DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0229
LUXOR
is well known that snakes love the warmth of the body; and
in India, according to our much travelled Hamburg friend,
the only way of getting rid of these unwanted sleeping
companions is to place a saucer of milk on the ground near
where you are tying. In the middle of the night I got up and
felt for the window in the dark, to close it; when I happened
to tread on the remains of an orange I had a very unpleasant
feeling.
When the snakecharmer’s performances were repeated
it became clear that the man always used the same animals;
and now we began to abuse him. He arranged them before-
hand and kept a good look-out for them. Babuschka called
him a second Jger, while I agreed with Herr Alborg, who
preferred to regard it as humbug in the interests of our
safety. These discussions about the snakecharmer lasted
some days. He wasn’t realty a Jger, however; they were real
snakes, at least, with poisoned fangs that had been vouched
for by a French zoologist from the Sorbonne, and everybody
had seen the scorpion’s sting. Monsieur Beranger thought it
possible that the beasts had been doped with alcohol, but was
by no means prepared to deny Achmed’s hypnotic powers.
Achmed had been repeatedly tested on clear ground; and
the natives used him as their master of the snake hounds.
In the garden he cheated merely for demonstration purposes,
and for the convenience of travellers who couldn’t be put to
the trouble of accompanying him on his serious hunting
expeditions. In spite of the professor from the Sorbonne,
Babuschka refused to be convinced, and Frau Alborg, too,
remained sceptical. Women don’t make distinctions.
4
The Pillars of Luxor. We pass them every day,
hurrying or loitering, irritated or contented; and they stand
there without bothering about us, just as on the first day.
Everything else has changed, everything else talks to us.
We have grown used to the flutter and glitter, and we are no
o 209
is well known that snakes love the warmth of the body; and
in India, according to our much travelled Hamburg friend,
the only way of getting rid of these unwanted sleeping
companions is to place a saucer of milk on the ground near
where you are tying. In the middle of the night I got up and
felt for the window in the dark, to close it; when I happened
to tread on the remains of an orange I had a very unpleasant
feeling.
When the snakecharmer’s performances were repeated
it became clear that the man always used the same animals;
and now we began to abuse him. He arranged them before-
hand and kept a good look-out for them. Babuschka called
him a second Jger, while I agreed with Herr Alborg, who
preferred to regard it as humbug in the interests of our
safety. These discussions about the snakecharmer lasted
some days. He wasn’t realty a Jger, however; they were real
snakes, at least, with poisoned fangs that had been vouched
for by a French zoologist from the Sorbonne, and everybody
had seen the scorpion’s sting. Monsieur Beranger thought it
possible that the beasts had been doped with alcohol, but was
by no means prepared to deny Achmed’s hypnotic powers.
Achmed had been repeatedly tested on clear ground; and
the natives used him as their master of the snake hounds.
In the garden he cheated merely for demonstration purposes,
and for the convenience of travellers who couldn’t be put to
the trouble of accompanying him on his serious hunting
expeditions. In spite of the professor from the Sorbonne,
Babuschka refused to be convinced, and Frau Alborg, too,
remained sceptical. Women don’t make distinctions.
4
The Pillars of Luxor. We pass them every day,
hurrying or loitering, irritated or contented; and they stand
there without bothering about us, just as on the first day.
Everything else has changed, everything else talks to us.
We have grown used to the flutter and glitter, and we are no
o 209