PREFACE 



become orientalized; there is always plenty of 

 time at the other end of the Mediterranean. 



It is always "Bookra" (to-morrow) there. 

 A through "express" train stops to allow the 

 passengers to see an exciting fight between two 

 fellaheen on a threshing floor ; during the com- 

 bat the conductor offers to you or accepts 

 from you a cigarette, and it is quite as often the 

 former as the latter. Imagine the 18 -hour 

 limited slowing up because two farm hands 

 near Palatine Bridge were having a set-to! 

 Think of the Pullman conductor exchanging 

 cigars with you! 



Even in Constantinople, where one might ex- 

 pect to find something of the energy of the 

 West, the story is the same. You walk down 

 the gangplank from the French steamer 

 moored just above the north of the Golden 

 Horn and — Bookra! Why be in a hurry? Is 

 there not a Bookra? Curiously enough, after 

 you have heard that dinned into your ears 

 enough times you begin to say to yourself: "Of 

 course I am not in a hurry. There is a 

 Bookra." And then you can really be part of 

 the East. 



When you get back to America you realize 



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