DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11789#0047
MALTESE BEGGARS.
37
During the -whole of this day's ride, we were from
time to time beset with crowds of beggars, whose
conduct and importunities were both amusing and
vexatious. We found, after repeated experiments,
that when thronged by these " troublesome custom-
ers," our best plan was to throw a single coin, as
far as possible, and while the whole crowd was seek-
ing or scrambling for it, to make our exit with all
convenient speed. They rarely excited my com-
passion to any great degree, for I thought I could
plainly perceive that they were not in much dis-
tress, and that, with perhaps a few exceptions, they
begged more from habit than from actual need.
Our next excursion was to the ruins of Hadjar
Khem (near the village of Krendi), perhaps the
most remarkable among all the objects of curiosity
in this interesting island. They are evidently the
remains of buildings erected during the rudest period
of architectural art. The walls are formed by up-r
right pieces of rough stone—or those very rudely
shaped with the hammer or chisel—with others lying
on them horizontally, somewhat resembling the
drawings we see of Stone Henge. One of these
ruins covers a space of ground about 150 feet long,
and 100 feet wide. The wall which forms the out-
line, as well as that which separates the different
4
37
During the -whole of this day's ride, we were from
time to time beset with crowds of beggars, whose
conduct and importunities were both amusing and
vexatious. We found, after repeated experiments,
that when thronged by these " troublesome custom-
ers," our best plan was to throw a single coin, as
far as possible, and while the whole crowd was seek-
ing or scrambling for it, to make our exit with all
convenient speed. They rarely excited my com-
passion to any great degree, for I thought I could
plainly perceive that they were not in much dis-
tress, and that, with perhaps a few exceptions, they
begged more from habit than from actual need.
Our next excursion was to the ruins of Hadjar
Khem (near the village of Krendi), perhaps the
most remarkable among all the objects of curiosity
in this interesting island. They are evidently the
remains of buildings erected during the rudest period
of architectural art. The walls are formed by up-r
right pieces of rough stone—or those very rudely
shaped with the hammer or chisel—with others lying
on them horizontally, somewhat resembling the
drawings we see of Stone Henge. One of these
ruins covers a space of ground about 150 feet long,
and 100 feet wide. The wall which forms the out-
line, as well as that which separates the different
4