DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0352
324 TRAVELS IN UPPER
likewise exhibit various feats of agility ; and these
are constantly attended by a buffoon, like the
merry-andrew of our mountebanks, to make the
mob laugh.
On the much-frequented road from Cairo to
Boulac passengers are pestered with improvisatori.
These half-naked poets, their heads covered with
a rush-cap, compose verses in honour of every one
that passes by, from whom they have any hopes of
obtaining a little money. They form a dialogue
on the spot, between two interlocutors, on the
virtues of the person to whom they are addressed,
and with whom they arc perfectly unacquainted.
Thus they spend the whole day in making eulogies
on those who come and go, consisting of common-
place phrases uttered with great volubility.
likewise exhibit various feats of agility ; and these
are constantly attended by a buffoon, like the
merry-andrew of our mountebanks, to make the
mob laugh.
On the much-frequented road from Cairo to
Boulac passengers are pestered with improvisatori.
These half-naked poets, their heads covered with
a rush-cap, compose verses in honour of every one
that passes by, from whom they have any hopes of
obtaining a little money. They form a dialogue
on the spot, between two interlocutors, on the
virtues of the person to whom they are addressed,
and with whom they arc perfectly unacquainted.
Thus they spend the whole day in making eulogies
on those who come and go, consisting of common-
place phrases uttered with great volubility.