The Eliza Bradley Narrative

wants are few. They have no books, and are ignorant of all science. All their literature consists in reciting tales in the manner of the Arabian Nights Entertainment ⚫ . In the evening they seat themselves on the ground; and there, ranged in a circle round a little fire of dung, their pipes in their mouths, and their legs crossed, they sit a while in silent meditation, till on a sudden one of them breaks forth, with “Once on a time”—and continues to recite the adventures of some young Shaik and female Bedoween; he relates in what manner the youth first got a secret glimpse of his mistress, and how he be came secretly enamored of her: he minutely describes the lovely fair; boasts her black eyes, as large and soft as those of the gazelle; her languid and impassioned looks; her arched eyebrows, resembling two rows of ebony; her waist, strait and supple as a lance; he forgets not her steps, light as those of the young filly; nor her eye lashes, blackened with kohl; nor her lips, painted with blue; nor her nails tinged with the golden colored henna: nor her breasts, resembling two pomegranates; not her words, sweet as honey. He recounts the sufferings of the young lover, so wasted with desire and passion, that his body no longer yields any shadow. At length, after detailing his various attempts to see his mistress, the obstacles of the parents, the invasions of the enemy, the captivity of the lovers, &c.he terminates, to the satisfaction of the audience, by restoring the united and happy, to the paternal