Part 6 (1/2)
27 Burton's Delight in Shocking
The story of Burton's adventures having spread abroad, people now took the trouble to invent many incidents that were untrue They circulated, for exarisly tale of a murder which he was understood to have couise, [137] and, the tale continuing to roll, the murder became eventually two murders
Unfortunately, Burton was cursed with a very foolish habit, and one that later did hihted to shock
His sister had often reproved hi a change Kindly listeners hardly kne to take hiland, when, in the presence of his sister and a lady friend, he had thought fit to enlarge on a number of purely fictitiousin vain tried by signs to stop him, the friend at last cut him short with: ”Am I to admire you, Mr Burton?” And he accepted the reproof Still, he never broke hierous habit; indeed, when the ratified than not; and he certainly took no trouble to refute the calumny
On another occasion he boasted of his supposed descent froht,” exclaiood Irish blood in your veins would be glad to forget your descent from a dishonourable union”
”Oh, no,” replied Burton vehe than the son of an honest h this was at the time simply intended to shock, nevertheless it illustrated in a sense his real views He used to insist that the offspring of illicit or unholy unions were in no way to be pitied if they inherited, as if often the case, the culture or splendid physique of the father and the co Soloe co Richard, [138] and the list of notables froued by Camoens [139] who said:
”The meed of valour bastards aye have claimed By arts or arms, or haply both conjoined”
The real persons to be pitied, he said, were the e
28 El Islam
Burton now commenced to write a work to be called El Islam, or the History of Mohammedanism; which, however, he never finished It opens with an account of the rise of Christianity, his attitude to which reseiven an iion of the highestwhat an imperfect race can andhand ”rent asunder the ties connecting Christianity with Judaisreat faion peculiarly of principles He left the moral code of Christianity untouched in its loveliness After the death of St Paul,” continues Burton, ”Christianity sank into a species of idolatry The acme of stupidity was attained by the Stylites, who conceived that mankind had no nobler end than to live and die upon the capital of a colus were at their worst Mohae of life” The as published in its unfinished state after Burton's death
With The Kasidah we shall deal in a later chapter, for though Burton wrote a few couplets at this time, the poem did not take its present shape till after the appearance of FitzGerald's adaptation of The Rubaiyat Oypt, Burton returned to Bo those on board was an English gentleman, Mr
James Grant Lu struck by Burton's appearance, said to a friend, ”What a clever, intellectual face that Arab has!” Burton, overhearing the relish, and thus commenced a pleasant friendshi+p
Chapter VII 29th October 1854--9th February, 1855 To Harar
Bibliography: 13 Pilgrie to Al-Madimah and Meccah 3 vols
1855-1856
29 At Aden The Arabian Nights Oct 1854