A SERIOUS CHARGE. 
399 
is little left to subtract except the vermin, which might be 
continually subtracted for many years, and yet leave a re¬ 
mainder. The old Arab, who claimed to be proprietor, was 
a cadaverous and unwholesome-looking person, broken down 
in spirits, and evidently laboring under a complication of 
domestic miseries. His wife was a leather-faced, sharp-feat¬ 
ured, shrewish sort of body, who seemed to be continually 
spurring and goading the old man on to make himself useful, 
never ceasing for five minutes to keep him at work, and al¬ 
ways extremely enraged when he sat down to smoke. I had 
strong reason for believing that she had bought him with 
money, and was taking the worth of it out in petty install¬ 
ments ; or, it might be, that she really thought the affairs of 
the house required constant and laborious attention, or they 
might in the course of time become deranged. 
After our evening repast was over, being rather tired, we 
spread our mattresses and lay down, as we supposed, for the 
night. But it wus not for the night, nor for more than a very 
small part of it; because, as I said before, the house itself 
was unpromising, the landlord was unpromising, his wife was 
unpromising, and the whole establishment gave no promise 
whatever except that of vermin, which was faithfully ful¬ 
filled. We had a great abundance, and were not at all dis¬ 
appointed. I was so little disappointed myself that long after 
my companions fell asleep, which they did at last, 1 rolled 
about in extreme bodily anguish, wishing that some of the 
genii said to exist in those countries would transfer me to the 
meanest stable-loft at home. There was a dim wick burning 
in a small earthen lamp, in one corner of the house, by which 
I was enabled to look about and see if there was any possi¬ 
bility of bettering my condition. Rubbish and dirt abounded 
in every direction, so that it was some time before I could 
make out what there was in the opposite corner—rather a 
darkish sort of place, with some mud cupboards or shelves, 
not very clearly defined. The thought struck me that there 
might be some cavity or elevated hole there in which I could 
stow myself away above ground. It was a very happy 
thought, and a very bright thought under the circumstances, 
