CHARACTERS. 



769 



that country against mamelukes and 

 crocodiles ; and how he once strip- 

 ped one of the slain men of his 

 shirt, and found that it did not con- 

 sist of linen, as usual, but of a fossil 

 fabricated into cloth, which the 

 Egyptians use for the sake of con- 

 Tenience, as they need not wash or 

 dry their shirts, but only throw them 

 into the fire in the evening, and take 

 them out again in the morning as 

 ■white as snow. 



In order to impress on the minds 

 of his hearers a conviction of the 

 truth of what he says, he seizes one 

 of the needles, to which he has fas- 

 tened a small bit of asbestos, and 

 turns it round in the mud till the 

 orieinal colour cannot be distin- 

 guislied; he then throws it into the 

 chafing-dish, and while it is glowing, 

 continues to harangue his audience 

 for a few minutes longer, when he 

 draws it out of the fire, and, to the 

 great astonishment of all the spec- 

 tators, quite purified by the fiery 

 clement. 



One of my neighbours, who 

 seemed to be a wit, compared his 

 ■whole process to the French revo- 

 lution; which likewise arose pure, 

 new, and brilliant, out of the glow- 

 ing fire. I wish, with all my heart, 

 that nobody could dispute the truth 

 of this assertion. 



LETTER IV. 



The strong woman who is to be 

 seen in (his hut of planks, is still 

 more disgusting than the female with 

 the long black beard. With the 

 latter, pity gains the upper hand ; 

 for how can the poor creature help 

 being obliged to wear a board so 

 immcnstly long? l)ut with the for- 

 mer, disgust arul indignation get the 

 better of compassion. The one 

 merely obeys nature, the other sets 



Vol. XLVl. 



her at defiance. She suffers three 

 men to tread upon her body, which is 

 stretched out in a hollow posture ; 

 she suffers iron to be forged upon it, 

 and exhibits other tuiirs des forces, 

 from M'hich you, my dear, very pro- 

 perly turn away. But how can I 

 help it? You must creep Avith me in- 

 to another hut of this kind to sec the 

 incombustible Spaniard, who really 

 excites as much horror as admira- 

 tion. Do you see the jar of oil, 

 bubbling and boiling over a coal 

 fire? the young man, who takes it 

 oif, drinks a hearty draught of its 

 burning contents without distorting 

 a feature, rinses his mouth for a 

 long time with it as if it were fresh 

 water, and spits it out still boiling ; 

 he then, with the remainder of the 

 oil in the pot, washes his hands, 

 arms, face, and even eyes, Mhich, 

 however, he shuts. Having been 

 purified by the fire, like the asbestos, 

 he takes a walk, by way of change, 

 with his naked feet upon a piece of 

 red hot iron, and to refresh himself, 

 he even licks the glowing metal with ^ 

 his tongue. If this poor youth be 

 equally insensible to the flames of 

 love, he is undoubtedly to be pitied. 

 All this is no imposture, but really 

 happens as I have now related ; but 

 whelher, as some assert, he causes 

 a kind of salamander-ointment to be 

 rubbed into his skin, which is not 

 to be perceived, I shall leave unde- 

 termined. 



To ellace these unpleasant impres- 

 sions, let us for a few minutes step 

 before this little fortress, of which, 

 you find many pactcrns on the 

 Boulevards. It is a new kind of 

 game at nine-pins, at which you not 

 only se« boys, but even respectable 

 looking citizens delight to plaj'. It 

 is, indeed, preferable to the usual 

 game, as it takes up much less room, 



3 D M16. 



