excited manner, and fiery eyes reminded me of the descriptions of the prophets, as well as of the possessed of demons in days of old. His hair was long and wild, and his beard hung to his waist.
He cried out in Arabic, "The city shall be made desolate, fire shall consume it, because of its wickedness," etc.; and, notwithstanding his violent maledictions, and the weapons he carried, the people around did not interfere with him or molest him. He was evidently mad—or majnûn, as the Arabs say—and my brother told me that he had for years been a tolerated wanderer in the bazars, and wherever he went an idle crowd followed him. He lived on charity. The Orientals invariably treat with kindness and consideration those who are thus afflicted, believing them to be under the especial protection of God. It is imagined that they have a greater knowledge of spiritual things in proportion to their want of it concerning things of this life; in fact, in the East, a "madman " and a "prophet " are almost synonymous terms.
We entered the quiet, picturesque, but narrow street, in which the Prussian Consul resides. Pointed arches, with groined and fretted roofs, cross it here and there, and fine buttresses support some of the houses, which are built of large, well-hewn, beveled stones, put together with lead instead of mortar. The deep-arched entrances, canopied with dropping fretwork, are good examples of the Moresque style. Low stone divans, or benches, just within the portals were occupied by stately-looking armed servants, or black slaves. There are many alabaster tablets and friezes let into the walls, over doors, or under oriel windows, or in arched recesses, on which Arabic inscriptions and monograms are elaborately carved in slight relief, and in some cases illuminated in red, blue, and gold. The graceful Oriental characters, with their flowing lines, are well adapted for this sort of ornamentation, and are very extensively used in the exterior as well as interior decorations of Moresque buildings. Ancient carved capitals, near to the
