Halima and the Scorpions

Halima and the Scorpions

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Halima and the Scorpions by Robert Smythe Hichens

Published:

1905

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Halima and the Scorpions

By

3
(1 Review)

Book Excerpt

ok grasped the scorpions in his filthy claw, and leaped, gibbering in his beard, upon the terrace.

"Wait!" cried Halima, as he came upon her, holding forth his handful of writhing poison.

Her bosom heaved. Her lustrous eyes, heavy with kohl, shone like those of a beast at bay.

Sadok stood still, with his naked arm outstretched.

"How shall I know that the son of a scorpion will pay me the fifty golden coins? He is poor, though he speaks bravely. He is but a singer in the café of the smokers of the hashish, and cannot buy even a new garment for the close of the feast of Ramadan. How, then, shall I know that the gold will hang from my breasts when to-morrow, at the falling of the sun, I dance before the men of Toug--"

Ben-Abid put his hand beneath his burnous, and brought forth a bag tied at the mouth with cord.

"They are here!" he said.

"The Jews! He has been to the Jews!" cried the desert men.

"Bring a lamp!" said Ben-Abid.

And while Irena a

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The story of a sacred hedgehog foot and the shameless dancing girl Halima who somehow got hold of it.
It's hard to judge the story. There is a lot of detail about the desert village, with names and customs larded in, but how much is authentic? Is the story offensive to Muslims? As a story the plotting is fine, but the ending is a mystical cop-out.