DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0039
32
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
cause which does not concern them, and in which,
if they conquer, they can never gain.
Returning to our boat on the brink of the river,
a slight noise caught my ear; I turned, and saw a
ragged mother kissing her naked child, while
another of two years old, dirty and disgusting,
was struggling to share its mother's embraces;
their father I had just seen with an iron collar
round his neck ; and she loved these miserable chil-
dren, and they loved their miserable mother, as if
they were all clothed "in*purple and fine raiment
every day." But a few minutes after, a woman,
knowing that we were " Franks," brought on board
our boat a child, with a face and head so bloated
with disease, that it was disgusting to look at.
The rais took the child in his arms and brought it
up to us, the whole crew following with a friendly
interest. My companion gave them a bottle of
brandy, with which the rais carefully bathed the
face and head of the child, all the crew leaning
over to help ; and when they had finished to their
satisfaction, these kind-hearted but clumsy nurses
kissed the miserable bawling infant, and passed it,
with as much care as if it had been a basket of
crockery, into the hands of the grateful mother.
This scene was finely contrasted with one that
immediately followed. The boat was aground,
and in an instant, stripping their long gowns over
their heads, a dozen large swarthy figures were
standing naked on the deck; in a moment more
they were splashing in the river, and with their
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
cause which does not concern them, and in which,
if they conquer, they can never gain.
Returning to our boat on the brink of the river,
a slight noise caught my ear; I turned, and saw a
ragged mother kissing her naked child, while
another of two years old, dirty and disgusting,
was struggling to share its mother's embraces;
their father I had just seen with an iron collar
round his neck ; and she loved these miserable chil-
dren, and they loved their miserable mother, as if
they were all clothed "in*purple and fine raiment
every day." But a few minutes after, a woman,
knowing that we were " Franks," brought on board
our boat a child, with a face and head so bloated
with disease, that it was disgusting to look at.
The rais took the child in his arms and brought it
up to us, the whole crew following with a friendly
interest. My companion gave them a bottle of
brandy, with which the rais carefully bathed the
face and head of the child, all the crew leaning
over to help ; and when they had finished to their
satisfaction, these kind-hearted but clumsy nurses
kissed the miserable bawling infant, and passed it,
with as much care as if it had been a basket of
crockery, into the hands of the grateful mother.
This scene was finely contrasted with one that
immediately followed. The boat was aground,
and in an instant, stripping their long gowns over
their heads, a dozen large swarthy figures were
standing naked on the deck; in a moment more
they were splashing in the river, and with their