THE RED RUGS OF TARSUS
basket made for me. A Fellahin village itself looks like a dusty unfinished basket turned up- side down. The houses are made of a crude reed matting, and the side walls have the reeds untrimmed and upright at the place where you expect to see eaves.
I figured out the size for my cradle basket, then cut strings of the right length for the various dimensions. Through an interpreter I explained that the basket must be oval. As wide at the top as my blue string, as wide at the bottom as my red string and as deep as my white string. A week later the basket was brought to our balcony. Herbert and I climbed into the thing. It was big enough for us to sit down in it Turkish fashion, both at the same time.
I got my cradle finally "by some ingenious method." (One of the students is always say- ing that.) Funny how the boys here pick out bookish expressions and use them for every- thing. I collected my strings again, suspect- [53]
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