Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/78

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ADVENTURES OF

Such an inn is a large building, somewhat broader than long; in the midst it has a wide level space, in which the guests place all their baggage, and put up their camels and mules. Round this space is a wall about three feet high, reaching to the walls, which contain the whole building, and constructed like a kind of bench. This wall is, moreover, level, and four feet wide; on it the Turks have their beds, their kitchens, and their eating-rooms; for, as has been related, the whole building is contained by walls. Here are constructed fire-places with chimneys, at which the guests prepare their food; neither do they separate themselves from their camels, mules, and horses, by anything more than the space of the wall, although they tether their horses so close to it, that those animals can stretch their heads and necks over it and stand like servants before their masters, or act as such, when they are playing or supping. Not having any troughs, these animals eat their fodder out of knapsacks, and stand so close by their masters that they can now and then take a piece of bread, an apple, or anything else out of their hands. On this wall the travellers arrange their beds as follows: first they spread a carpet, which they carry with them for the purpose, fastened on a horse; upon this they place their talaman, or mantle, and instead of a pillow put a saddle under their heads: they then cover themselves for the night with a long, lined pelisse, (in which they ride and walk,) instead of a feather bed.[1] Lying down in this position they sleep so pleasantly that they have no need of any luxuries. Nothing is secret there,

  1. An Englishman would have said, coverlet or counterpane.