DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0117
108
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
could not have been finer if the temple had been
built expressly to shoot pigeons from. I fired: the
shot went smack into the beautifully sculptured
face of the goddess, and put out one of her eyes;
the pigeon fell at the foot of the column, and while
the goddess seemed to weep over her fallen state,
and to reproach me for this renewed insult to her-
self and to the arts, I picked up the bird and re-
turned to my boat, and did not leave it again that
day.
On board I had constantly a fund of amusement
in the movements of my Arab crew. During the
Ramadan, a period of thirty days, no good Mus-
sulman eats, drinks, or smokes, from the rising to
the setting of the sun. My men religiously ob-
served this severe requisition of the Koran, although
sometimes they were at work at the oar under a
burning sun nearly all day. They could form a
pretty shrewd conjecture as to the time of the set-
ting of the sun, but nevertheless they fell into the
habit of regulating themselves by my watch, and I
did not think the Prophet would be particularly
hard upon them, if I sometimes brought the day to
a close half an hour or so before its time. Some-
times I was rather too liberal, but out of respect
for me they considered the sun set when I told
them it was; and it was interesting to see them
regularly every evening, one after another, mount
the upper deck, and, spreading out their cloaks,
with their faces towards the tomb of the Prophet,
kneel down and pray.
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
could not have been finer if the temple had been
built expressly to shoot pigeons from. I fired: the
shot went smack into the beautifully sculptured
face of the goddess, and put out one of her eyes;
the pigeon fell at the foot of the column, and while
the goddess seemed to weep over her fallen state,
and to reproach me for this renewed insult to her-
self and to the arts, I picked up the bird and re-
turned to my boat, and did not leave it again that
day.
On board I had constantly a fund of amusement
in the movements of my Arab crew. During the
Ramadan, a period of thirty days, no good Mus-
sulman eats, drinks, or smokes, from the rising to
the setting of the sun. My men religiously ob-
served this severe requisition of the Koran, although
sometimes they were at work at the oar under a
burning sun nearly all day. They could form a
pretty shrewd conjecture as to the time of the set-
ting of the sun, but nevertheless they fell into the
habit of regulating themselves by my watch, and I
did not think the Prophet would be particularly
hard upon them, if I sometimes brought the day to
a close half an hour or so before its time. Some-
times I was rather too liberal, but out of respect
for me they considered the sun set when I told
them it was; and it was interesting to see them
regularly every evening, one after another, mount
the upper deck, and, spreading out their cloaks,
with their faces towards the tomb of the Prophet,
kneel down and pray.