-up grapes looked tempting, and I was both
hungry and thirsty, I laid a hand on the sleeping man's shoulder; he
awoke with a start. Seeing me, his face assumed an expression of the
wildest terror; he jumped from his cart and sunk down on his knees in
the dust, imploring me by the Madonna, St. Joseph, and all the saints
to spare his life. I laughed; his fears seemed to me ludicrous. Surely
there was nothing alarming about me beyond my paucity of clothing.

"Get up, man!" I said. "I want nothing of you but a few grapes, and for
them I will pay." And I held out to him a couple of francs. He rose
from the dust, still trembling and eying me askance with evident
suspicion, took several bunches of the purple fruit, and gave them to
me without saying a word. Then, pocketing the money I proffered, he
sprung into his cart, and lashing his pony till the unfortunate animal
plunged and reared with pain and fury, rattled off down the road at
such a break-neck speed that I saw nothing but a whirling blot of
wheels disappearing in the distance. I was amused at the absurdity of
this man's terror. What did he take me for, I wondered? A ghost or a
brigand? I ate my grapes leisurely as I walked along--they were
deliciously cool and refreshing--food and wine in one. I met several
other persons as I neared the city, market people and venders of
ices--but they took no note of me--in fact, I avoided them all as much
as possible. On reaching the suburbs I turned into the first street I
saw that seemed likely to contain a few shops. It was close and dark
and foul-smelling, but I had not gone far down it when I came upon the
sort of place I sought--a wretched tumble-down hovel, with a partly
broken window, through which a shabby array of second-hand garments
were to be dimly perceived, strung up for show on pieces of coarse
twine. It was one of those dirty dens where sailors, returning from
long voyages, frequently go to dispose of the various trifles they have
picked up in foreign countries, so that among the forlorn specimens of
second-hand wearing apparel many quaint and curious objects were to be
seen, such as shells, branches of rough coral, strings of beads, cups
and dishes carved out of cocoa-nut, dried gourds, horns of animals,
fans, stuffed parakeets, and old coins--while a grotesque wooden idol
peered hideously forth from between the stretched-out portions of a
pair of old nankeen trousers, as though surveying the miscellaneous
collecti