Chapter 5
Section 5 of Harper's Young People, Volume 1, Issue 26, April 27, 1880. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Larry Wilson. Harper's Young People, Volume 1, Issue 26, April 27, 1880. Mahmoud the Sice by Kara Kebles Hunt One of the most novel and interesting sights which attracts the traveler's attention when he first arrives in Egypt
is the Sice running before the horses as they go through the narrow, closely packed streets. How the crowd scatters and the donkey boys hustle their meek property out of the way as one of those runners comes bounding along, shouting in the strange Arabic tongue, Clear the way! The sun shines upon his velvet vest, glittering with its spangled trimmings.
The breeze fills the large floating sleeves, till they wave backward like white wings. Then on dash the spirited horses. Dogs bark. Children squeal. Beggars dodge.
Men swear, and women, holding their face veil closer, ejaculate fiercely. On springs the scythe. What cares he for man or beast? While proudly following rolls the rich equipage. or prances the Arab steed with its turbaned rider and oriental robes.
Mahmoud, the subject of this little sketch, was the size of a rich pasha in Cairo. He was a favorite with his master, and everybody loved him, even the horses would neigh joyfully at his approach, and eat from his hand as gently as a dog. His life was an easy one, for being a favorite,
no arduous duties were placed upon him, and his strength was encouraged and sustained by the master for the swift running which commands so much admiration so agile did he become that no name among the sites of egypt was more renowned than that of mahmoud Often at the latticed windows, bright eyes of hidden beauties followed him through the narrow streets, and watched for his coming as they led the way for his master each morning in his rides. Sometimes they threaded their way through the crowd of bazaars amid scenes of the Arabian nights, breathing wonderful eastern perfumes, gazing on rare gems and exquisite embroideries,
and again down the road to the pyramids with the soft air blowing in his face, trees waving overhead, and birds singing merrily, or in the blood-red sunset passing down the Chubra Road, the fashionable drive of Cairo with its shade of gnarled old sycamores, and crowded with conveyances of every description. Sometimes he led the way for the harem carriage, very proud of the honor. One morning the Pasha sat in his garden under the blossoming orange tree, smoking
his chibouquet, and talking with his friend, the Bey from Alexandria, whose horse stood in the path champing impatiently at his bit, and held by his size Abdullah, in his gay costume. They talked of politics, the condition of the country, its financial troubles. They spoke of their religion and their mosque, of the Suez Canal, the improvements of the city, the Khediv's new palace, their own dwelling places. By and by, the conversation ran upon their horses and their
favorite saiths. Abdullah cannot run them all, said the bey. Not so, replied the pasha. My Mahmud is the finest runner in Cairo, ay, in all Egypt. Sayest thou so? cried the bey. Come, let us test their skill. Most surely, answered the pasha, and I will give a prize to the boy who wins. The news soon spread over Cairo that Mahmud and Abdullah were to run a race, the winner to receive a costly girdle of rich embroidery, finished with a clasp set with gems. Great was the interest,
and on the day appointed crowds assembled to see the race, gathering long before the competitors appeared. What a motley group there was! Camels with their riders, stylish carriages with pretty French children, rosy-cheeked English girls, Italian singers, American officers and tourists, English lords, wild desert Arabs, swarthy-faced Thelahim, pistachio and peanut dealers, donkey boys, beggars, and peddlers.
A Turkish band played a quick reveille. Here they come. The crowd cheers. The signal is given. They are off.
The general sympathy is with Mahmoud, but Abdullah is a strong fellow of tremendous muscle, more experience, and mighty will, so that little Mahmoud has a rival of no mean powers. Every eye is fixed upon those two figures,
side by side leaping onward in graceful bounds, Forward they fly, past the cotton field, around the curved path. But look, Abdullah is ahead. Mahmoud seems far behind. The band plays quicker.
Abdullah is flying. He will win. He, uh, but no. Mahmoud is gaining. He nears his rival.
Abdullah sees and strains every nerve, but in vain. Mahmoud swings his light wand over his head and shoots by like an arrow. It is over. The goal is reached. Mahmoud has won, and amid the loud cheers of the crowd, the Pasha descends from his carriage
and places the glittering sash around the victor's waist. Abdullah approaches, gives his successful rival a hearty salam, which awakens fresh applause. Somebody scatters a shower of gold coins over them, and the crowd disperses. By special arrangement with the author, the cards contributed to this useful series by W.J. Rolfe, A.M., formerly headmaster of the Cambridge High School, will for the present first appear in
Harper's Young People. Cambridge Series of Information Cards for Schools, the English Language, by W.J. Rolfe A.M. The inscription on the Soldiers' Monument in Boston, written by the President of Harvard College, has been much admired and reads thus, To the men of Boston, who died for their country, on land and sea in the war, which kept the Union whole, destroyed slavery and maintained the Constitution, the grateful city has built this monument that
their example may speak to coming generations. What is to be said is here said in the simplest way. There is no waste of words, no attempt at display. It is a model of good English, brief, clear, and strong. If a schoolboy had written it, he would have thought it a fine chance for using big words. He would have said, the citizens of Boston who sacrificed their lives, not the men who died, and preserved the integrity of the union, not kept the union whole,
and erected, not built. And some men who have written much in newspapers and books would have made the same mistake of choosing long words where short ones give the sense as well or better. A great preacher once said that he made it a rule never to use a word of three or two syllables, where a word of two syllables or one syllable would convey the thought as well. And the rule is a good one. In reading, we want to get at the sense through the
words. And the less power the mind has to spend on the words, the more it has left for the thought that lies behind them. Here, the simple words that we have known and used from childhood are the ones that hinder us least. We see through them at once, and the thought is ours with the least possible labor. Those who urge the use of simple English often lay stress on choosing Saxon rather than classical words, and it is well known what this means. The English is a mixed language made up
from various sources. Its history is the history of the English race, and the main facts are these. Britain was first peopled, so far as we know, by men of the Celtic or Celtic race, of which the Irish are types. The names of the rivers, mountains, and other natural features of the land are mostly Celtic, just as in this country they are mostly Indian. About fifty years before the Christian era, the Romans conquered Britain and held it for about five hundred years.
They brought in the Latin language, but few traces of it now remain except in names of certain towns and cities. The mass of the people kept their old Celtic tongue. Between the years 450 and 550 AD, Britain was invaded and conquered by German tribes, chiefly Angles and Saxons. It now became Angland, or England, and the language became what is called Anglo-Saxon, except in the mountains of Wales and of Scotland, where Celtic is found to this day. In the 9th and 10th centuries,
the Danes invaded England and ruled it for a time, but they caused no great change in the language. In the year 1066, the Norman conquest took place, and William the Conqueror became King of England. Large numbers of the Norman French came with him, and French became the language of the court and of the nobility. By degrees our English language grew out of the blending of the Anglo-Saxon of the common people, and the Norman French of their new rulers, the former furnishing most of
the grammar, the latter supplying many of the words. Now the French was of Latin origin, and the English thus got an important Latin or classical element, which has since been increased by the adding of many Greek and Latin words, especially scientific and technical terms. The two great events of the history of the English language, as of the English people, are the Saxon and the Norman conquests. To the former it owes its grammatical framework or
skeleton, to the latter much of its vocabulary or the flesh that fills out the living body. It must not be inferred that our grammar is just like the Anglo-Saxon, because this is the basis of it. The Anglo-Saxon had many more inflections, case endings of nouns and pronouns, etc., than the French, and in the forming of English most of these were dropped, prepositions and auxiliaries coming to be used instead. It was not until about A.D. 1550 that the language had become in the main
what it now is. Some words have since been lost, and many have been added, but its grammar has changed very little. Our version of the Bible, published in 1611, shows what English then was, and had been for fifty years or more, and has done much to keep it from further change. As a rule, the most common words, those that chiefly make up the language of childhood and of everyday life, are Saxon, and very many of them are words of one syllable.
In the inscription above, every monosyllable is Saxon, with Boston grateful in coming. The rest are French or Latin. In the case of pairs of words having the same meaning, one is likely to be Saxon, the other classical. Thus, happiness is Saxon, felicity is French, begin is Saxon, commence is French, freedom is Saxon, and liberty is French, etc. The Saxon is often to be preferred, though not always. But, as has been implied above,
if a short and simple word conveys our meaning, we should never put it aside for a longer and less familiar one. In such cases the chances are that the former is Saxon and the latter classical. Thus above, citizens, sacrifice, preserved integrity, and erected are all classical. End of section 5
