OCR Text |
Show Where tha Ass Atnnseft m Crowd. The common people of Cairo resort to the exhibitions of mountebunks who teach camels, asses and dogs to dance. The dancing of the ass is diverting enough. After he has frisked and capered sufficiently his master tells him that the sultan means to build a great palace, and will have to employ all the asses in ear-; ear-; rying mortar, stones and other materials. 1 Upon this the ass falls down with hi feet upward, closing his eyes and extending extend-ing his chest as if he were dead. The owner loudly bewails his loss, and appeals to the bystanders for alms to make it good. Then, having collected as much as possible, he announces that the ass is not really dead, but being sensible sen-sible of his master's necessity has played a trick to secure provonder. He commands the ass to rise, but the brute remains motionless in spite of all the blows he can give him. At last he proclaims that by virtue of an edict of the sultan all the handsome ladies are bound to ride out the next day upon the comeliest asses they can find in order to see a triumphal show, and that the ladies are to entertain their beasts with oats and Nile water. These words are no sooner pronounced than the ass rises up, prances and leaps far joy. The master then declares that the ass has been pitched upon by the warden of his street to carry his deformed and ugly wife, upon which the ass lowers his ears and limps with one leg as if lame. The showman, after remarking that his donkey is a great admirer of handsome hand-some women, commands him to single out the prettiest one in the company, and the well trained beast completes the show by going about among the people, and finally touching one of the prettiest of the women with his head, to the great amusement of the crowd. Youth's Companion. Com-panion. ' |