Page:A child of the Orient (IA childoforient00vakarich).pdf/76

 front of the first row, which the men of our party occupied—and then the show opened.

It took place behind a piece of white cheese cloth, lighted by oil lamps, and a few wooden puppets acted the play. A great deal of swearing, beating, killing and dying took place in the most picturesque Turkish. The audience laughed to hysterics. As for Djimlah and me, we were simply delirious with joy. Nor did our pleasure end with that evening. We learned a lot of the vernacular of the piece, and the next day acted it for the delectation of the entire harem, who made us repeat it several times, Djimlah being half the characters, and I the other half.

When I tried to repeat my histrionic success at home—being all the characters—I saw my father give a glance at my mother, who, not knowing a word of Turkish, sat unperturbed, while our two men guests were doing their best to suppress their laughter. As I wanted my mother to enjoy it too, I began to explain the whole thing to her, but, by one of those cabalistic signs which existed between my father and myself, I understood that I had better not explain; and after we were alone my father said to me:

"You know mamma does not like Turkish things, and you had better never explain them to her. As a rule I would rather have you tell them to me when we are all alone. And I shouldn't