Омерзительный мир миссис Мортимер: Аравия

The Arabs are very proud, and will not bear the least affront. Sometimes one man says to another, "The wrong side of your turban is out." This speech is considered an affront never to be forgotten. The Arabs are so unforgiving and revengeful that they will seek to kill a man year after year...

I will tell you of an English clergyman who travelled to see that mountain. As he knew there were many robbers on the way, he hired an Arab sheikh to take care of him... Suleiman was a fine-looking man, dressed in a red shirt, with a shawl twisted round his waist, a purple cloak, and a red cap. His feet and legs were bare. His eyes were bright, his skin was brown, and his beard black. To his girdle were fastened a huge knife and pistols, and by his side hung a sword...

But the traveller soon found that it is dangerous to pass through a desert. Why? Not on account of wild beasts, ( Read more... )

Ой

Вот только что: задремал на пять минут в кресле, и увидел необыкновенно реалистический сон: как будто я покупаю новую машину марки Пирс Эрроу (а марка эта пресеклась где-то во времена великой депрессии). Ну так во сне она не пресеклась, а выпускает новые модели. Мне во сне очень понравилось: тёмно-лилового цвета спортивное купе, с хромированной отделкой, малость похоже на Крайслер-Crossfire, но только гораздо изящнее и круче. Я уже успел посмотреть её в интернете, посетить дилера, но в последнюю минуту решил вернуться домой и затребовать price quotes от конкурентов. И цена, помню, приемлимая была - чего жмотился?

Художнику на заметку

А кстати: если вас не понимают - значит, ваше самовыражение не удалось. Ибо выразить себя - как раз и означает сделать себя понятным для других.

Омерзительный мир миссис Мортимер: Китай-2

The first book which children read is full of stories, with a picture on each page. Would you like to hear one of these stories?

"There was a boy of eight years old, named Um-wen. His parents were so poor that they could not afford to buy a gauze curtain for their bed, to keep off the flies in summer. This boy could not bear that his parents should be bitten by the flies; so he stood by their bedside, and uncovered his little bosom and his back that the flies might bite him, instead of his parents. 'For,' said he, 'if they fill themselves with my blood, they will let my parents rest.'"

Would it be right for a little boy to behave in this way? Certainly not; for it would grieve kind parents that their little boys should be bitten.

Омерзительный мир миссис Мортимер: Индия

Those who have no caste at all are the most despised. They are called pariahs. These are people who have lost their caste. It is a very easy thing to lose caste, and once lost it can never be regained. A Brahmin would lose his caste by eating with a sudra; a sudra would lose his by eating with a pariah, and by eating with you--yes, with you, for the Hindoos think that no one is holy but themselves. It often makes a missionary smile when he enters a cottage to see the people putting away their food with haste, lest he should defile it by his touch. (развлечения у этих миссионеров... - S.)

There was once a little Hindoo girl named Rajee. She went to a missionary's school, but she would not eat with her schoolfellows,( Read more... )

An hour afterwards Rajee went to heaven; but I have never heard whether her mother gave up her idols.