194 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
were seated a number of Turks, Greeks, and Arabs, in all 
tbeir picturesque varieties of costume. An old man sat in 
the midst of the group, chanting at the highest pitch of his 
voice the famous romance of the White Princess and the 
Grand Yizier. Sometimes in the excitement of the love parts 
he screamed, and sometimes pretended to faint; and when he 
was depicting the more tragic parts, where there was murder 
and suicide, he howled like a hyena, and counterfeited all the 
agonies of death in a most thrilling manner. When he got 
over the principal difficulties, he moderated down into a spe¬ 
cies of billing and cooing, winking and ogling, that reminded 
me forcibly of representations that I had seen of the passions 
in the Astor Place Opera House. I could not but think that 
nature had intended Ben-Hozain to grace the boards of that 
establishment, and delight an appreciating audience of the 
Upper Ten, his delineation of the passions was so exquisitely 
extravagant. Struck with the picturesque raggedness of his 
costume, and the length of his grizzled mustache, I began to 
sketch him. Gradually the listeners dropped off one by one, 
and gathered around me to look into the mysteries of the art. 
All kinds of queer remarks were made, of which Yusef gave 
me a running interpretation. “ That’s Ben-Hozain,” said 
one; “don’t you see how the Howadji puts down his nose?” 
“ And his eyes !” adds another. “And his mustache !” cries 
a third. “ Tahib!” Good. “Adjaib!” Wonderful. “What 
a sublime genius the Howadji has !” “ Tell Ben-Hozain,” 
said I, “to come a little closer, and you shall see him on this 
paper just as he lives and breathes !” “ Adjaib !” Wonder¬ 
ful. “This way, Hozain ; the Howadji wants you!” But Ho- 
zain had no notion of being interrupted in his story. He went 
on even louder than before on the subject of the White Prin¬ 
cess. “ By Allah!” cried the Arabs, “ he shall come ! Hozain 
must be done on paper!” With which two stout fellows ran 
over to where he sat, seized him on each side by the mus¬ 
tache, and hauled him up before me. He was the most com¬ 
ical and good-humored old gentleman imaginable ; his face 
was covered with wrinkles and the stubbles of a white beard, 
and he seemed quite delighted at affording merriment to the 
