1955-03-05 — Page 8

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THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1955.

No wonder she's the blushing bride, when. by ancient custom the marriage bed is hauled out into the street.

QUIET WEDDING? NOT ON THIS SUNSHINE ISLE

By J. L. Hays

Nicosta.

UST by way of loving emphasis, the Cyprus village bride gets her toes trodden on by the groom when the ofcinting priest gives her to understand that it will henceforward be her duty to leve and obey....

I have been made aware of this truth because Yanni, a sort of odd-job man

about my Cyprus home, has just got himself married to a bright-eyed, darkly. pretty little girl called Soul, from the same village.

trudevd. I am still recovering from the werk-hing bout of wine and song involved senting only when the happy pair were rompelled by their hilarious relatives and acquaintaners each in consume a Toasted white dove as # token of peaceful married life.

And and

were

Although I gather that Yanni Souh have been exchanging soft & wine looks

since they children, the austere conventions of their village were strielly observed.

ever

fear Dastame, stephy ng • than a girl's good me is win the to be seen doesarting

*

Thus Yanal admits that he and his sweet- hear exebamper | may thin formal dolly greel- stat, la tackat je aving a hond and the day when, a douant, he informe his parents that he wished to

Then followed Mirry Flager mattomaan! star fasig Itte - Duly when it was established that the nth was red on nstdrei dedræble by the two far as tuet indimuately

Conerend click

the all rispost negotiations follow puthjeet, of Somula's dowry

لأمل

ant

Soula's between

Pata

the

here ankle as still expected to bring a dry anually hard euch cattle, sheep, linen

or a hatr Brulee). attractive

girl,

PROKO

however lives. Lurcher the threat Tunsterhood.

گردی

And put parents NTETE beggar themselves in their efforts to do their duty by their married daughters.

Yann had no initiations about informing

me that Sulu was providing their home!

Various. gokiga-on, traditional and thoroughly testing the happy pair's aplomb,| began a week before the actual service.

First Yanni and Soula were compelld to be witnesses of the public mixing of the wedding meat rest, a mash of mutton and wheat, early on the Monday morning.

They shifted their feel self-consciously as village girls, wearing gay head-scarves, chanted and sang as they ground the wheat in the com- munity mill and the eldara supervised the chepping up of the mutton.

of

Things are not what they seem to be in Mukulla, a skyscraper city in the backwater, of 20th Century civilisation. Hore an Empire builder of the old school, keops the peace for Britain in an ancient market place. How long can he hold the fort against the new cause of nationalism, say the men in the market place, is one of the riddles of the day. This is the fourth in the series, "Middle East in Ferment."

MUKULLA

CITY

F

Makulia.

ROM the alr, Mukulla looks like a

miniature Manhat-

OF

REMARKABLE CONTRASTS

By HAROLD GUARD

la name

the tribes

tan Island. Even the Mukulla remains a "dream British Resident mosques are dwarfed by the city" in a land of desert Hugh Boustead.

'skyscraper" architecture wastes and mud huts. We On the Wednesday, we drove to the village again to watch one of Yann's ten coumbari,of this East

Boustead's Aden seaport, came here, however, not to or best men, performesź the "Dance

the and

the Bridegroom's Clothes." He watched maxiously

minarets barely study the architecture but legend among

inhabiting the 100,000 na the dancer stamped and gyrated in the dust tinny nundon musle while balancing on bis

square miles of desert in the Bogerups, waiter-slyle, a big copper tray

East Aden protectorates. bag the precious new wedting wift

They describe him as "the and shurt.

mun who could bring sweat from a turtle." At sixty years of age, and only 5 ft. 4 ins, tail, this must be considered a compliment.

But for the poor little Souln, evasive of eye and brightly Bushing, even sterner tests came later in the week when her CINCTA, or bridesmaid falece numbering ten; similarly

danced" har bridal gown

unci o sharp- esed and wise-cracking crew of married women conducted the "spreading of the mattress" veremany.

After the heavy-bearded village priest had blessed the bedding (dragged out lolo the street for the owension), and the women had sorted the wool stuffing hilo long strips and rearranged them while moving over and around the mattress In the Sum of the Crom, the | villagers proceeded to enjoy themselves and mostly at Souta's expenses

As mandolins and violins squealed, musqU+ lar

women married

pleket

up the heavy mallress by its corners and "danced" {} Then seize an infant, conveniently available, and rolled it about the mattress ariel laughter, applause and shouted good wishes.

Silver coins were later carefully sewn into the berking and on it were laid the welding Kifts with the parents of the happy pair Bending the queue of well-wishers.

Yel,

sistema

face and or

xed of gaze, Yanul looked much the same as any other bridegroom when he

with his bride marched between the fines of coutburt and coumera, andeleely subdued, into the village church.

And Soul, her eyes spurkiting softly in the

peter-just the any other bride.

Natives cook and sell doughnuts in a dusty Mukulla

(All Photos By Charles Dawson). street.

clear the five and six story to see life in an isolated buildings which run to the backwater of history. water's edge.

The city of 30,000 is

closer inspection,

at

how

chill breeze stirred the hanging carpets and the animal sking scattered about as floor cover- ing.

From the walls, the portraits of Kings and Queens, Sultans and Shelka looked down on us, Finally we retreated from their stern Hazes as imposters from a modern age, and went to our Indigo bedrooms to steep.

Adviser Hadhramaut. You see, they ex- occted that with the establish- ment of the new refinery a Aden, the price of fuel oil. in

Mukulla would

would go down.. New the State Council is investigating why this Happy prospect not come to pass.

On a scrop of paper, Bou- stepd had peneliled instructions giving us the freedom Residency during his absence. on Thus, for a week-end, con and I became sole occup- suta of

palace, the stately

A uniformed official of the complete with an armed guard Sultan's customs service dill- Bedouin gently plunged a hollow-bladed stiletto into every bag, ex- tracting a sample to make sure none of the rice bags contained contraband hashishi,

Next morning we found the waterfront bustling under 3 blazing at Sweating Arabs were manhandling groht sucks of rice imported from Pakistan gaudily painted ocean- Dow- going dhow,

Boustead started, his fan- tastic career in the Navy. He found life at sea too dull, so he went to South Africa to join the Army. Through out World War I, he fought with distinction. He gained many British and foreign decorations for courage and wound up a full Colonel.

Postwar life was too dull for a soldier like Boustead, and 1919 found him fighting In the White Russian cavalry of General Denniken's Army against the Bolsheviks.

In 1930, Boustead with a British expedition

of

Levies.

Hadhramauit

of the

cold

Beyond the waterfront, Mukulia boosts

"Piccadilly

Circus"

With great dignity, an Arab major-domo escorted us through corridors painted Indigo blue lo our suite, complete with bath- TVOM boasting Tuning water and cast-iron "thunder-

ringed by traders boxes." Only those who have houses, where Indian and Arab spent some time in the desert merchants offer anything from can appreciate this luxury. Persian hookah tobacco to solid

In solitary

Kold splendour, We dired In room hung with Persion

ruge and silver relies

of days when the Union Jack flew higher and wider tha

In

1954. Αυγονικ the mementoes

was

of

days

went to

"empire" Was trophy revealing

that Wits

climbing After Ethiopia

Mount Everest that he

with the late

boxing

light of u candies we all held, looked and The comparison ends on almost as old as civilisation. Major-General Orde Win- but it is ruled by a Sultan, Saleh gate to organise an army for bin Ghalf, whose multi- Emperor Haile Selassie, coloured banner flies over an which later fought Il Duce's ornate palace, proclaiming invaders.

BE MY GUEST

W

With

-where talk flows warmly at DAVID LEWIN's table

E were in I

private room at

14

country pub Katree. The table

Impr

napkins

set. nently rolled. and in the grate & ron) fire blazed.

John Huston the fir maker and Orson Welles the aetor gathered round the fire, drinks in hund. The iden was to have a leisurely dinner and some lively Lilk. I did't work CHIL quite

that way.

Orson Welles was telling 415 about #film part in which he had a six-minute solo specch. He had done it

David Lewin-he's in the centre-bas an his guests today John Huston (left; and Orson Welles.

wus

him master of the state of Qualty. He rules with the consent and support of the British Crown.

50

No Man's Land

Boustend once

a featherweight cham-

plon.

Outside the Residency, the Bedouin Levies mustered [OT the sunset ritun! lowering the

Some.

of

fog.

From Ethiopla, Boustead went

where a bugle

in

2

ver decorative

jewellery the

harem.

for

The

for in

sounds of the market place matched

The sights and smells, Arabla it is not considered good manners agree to a prico without giving the mer- chant the pro- fessional plea- sure of lengthy haggling done

First

in the final

a

stake

over

of Mocha

cup

coffee.

Colonel Bousted, British Resident Adviser at Mukulls.

Next to trade, tho

favourite topic

of the market

to the Anglo-Egyptien Sudan, sounded Retreat," and an Arab place is polities. Local politics where he commanded the Camel la scarlet headdress Politically

lower- speaking, Corps. Finally he went into the o

wer. always debated warmly and the Union Jack. Across stil arc-the actions of the Mukulla's relations with the Colonial Service, and in 1949 the courtyard, the Sultan's British resident, the Crown's Crown appear to fit the pat- was sent to Mululla to serve bonner was lowered at a much efforts to form a federation of tera of Queen Victoria's East Aden Prolectorate.

Resident Adviser in the slower cadence.,

Kouth Arablan states, and par- ticularly politics as they relate att Bertrand Rugscil. They reign more closely than that

The bugle notes faded, Die to Within an hour after we met started on a pretty philosophical of the new Elizabethan age. the wiry little Colonel,

to trade. But with the advent turqoiec sky became black of radio, another kind of po- jevel

ond

ho left velvet studded with stars and a completely

litical consciousness came to the buffaloed. I lost them halfway The "white man's burden" Mukulla for a trouble ventre

silvery the Hadhramaut,

full moon flooded I couldn't follow of protecting Qunity is still in

the market place, which might be up in flight,

the town, silent except for the surf dated roughly to the time what they were saying. Talking carried on

the northern part of the Protector, and the distant chanting of

of largely on In code, of course, they were. basis of personal relation the "no man's land"

utę. As his destination was in

the Palestine war. Politics no Muzzeln calling the faithful 10 Their code."

between

longer were primarily, a matter proyer. "But translated ships. And here Britain has the

and Saudi

of personalities, but became from their sphere what they a type of pro-consul from Arabia, we assumed new border

matter of causes. On this in- 'Did saying

the portant change, troubles wore in the air. Joe another era to do the job.

cause of "Nothing quite good home run?

as simple,"

nationalism has thrived. Arab DiMaggio hit or What did Len Hutton müke

About 200 yards from the Council is meeting

an alde explained. "The State

Fermenting the whole market in the last Test?' You have to Sultan's

to discuss

sotne is the pungent anell ot palace is The the price of diesel oll for rug- get the key to any conversation. Residency, Headquarters for ning irrigation pumps

fish exposed to the grilling sun in the sprawling flih market, "Or course, good conversation

which is Mukulla's mam - died when women were liber- The hostess is the death

dustry. of conversation. In the line- teenth and eighteenth centuries

there

исто the changes of ideas. Now

• Welles suid:

were

aled.

was:

4

is -

-but where three men somehow forget it is all personalities.

well too, in one take with that dinners are meant to be eaten

out fluting a line. ¡ con- gratulated him and asked how long he had to prepare it.

As soon as the hostess hears

in- really

teresting idea in talk-

like bull-fighting she says hurriedly:

Welles lit a cigar and never been able to work

out mean

I ace your glass is empty," or filled his glass with cham-why.?

Orson Welles rellt his cigor 'Wasn't

Peck good Gregory pagne. "I hated her. She and Huston took off his hack- i2 his

last Alm? Pity was wonderful. I was never ing-style jacket to relax more about those whiskers though." so good as I was then." comfortably in his armchair.

I'm off

Hts

Chaplin USTON and Weiles

were

men

that THE two

agreed

have women should never been freed. "You see,"

said Welles, "all a hestess can say now la 'Let's play Canasta,"

"Like everything else i do, it took me 26 years," he sald.

eyes suddenly

The waitress considered opened

the Huston looked up wide and he cracked into a peene again and decided agains! from his glass of Sentch. laugh, Huston picked up the rerving the soup. "You stole that lino, Orson, story. "Margaret was one of the you stole it from Whistler. dumnedest women. She died, a Whistler, the painter, said couple of years or 50 before the WIT. She was pretty it before something like that."

that and sho I waited for Orson to ex- John, she sold ke care of Somebody-or-other." ("Not the

I don't want to one who married Audroy Hep are the wils at a dinner table. plode. Instead, he grinned these doctors.

have

anything to do with them, bum," they added)--who used They kill conversation pretty and asked: "When

Way You A up everything for me to write gaga for Charlie Aucassfully because they always that?".

"She knew she was going to "Well, Whistler had die and she didn't want to bo

bothered." small painting and asked a high price for it. He was asked how long it took him

called for me, talking about a man-"Mel 'Let's switch on the television.""

2

to paint, and he answered: "All my life.”

Auntie

'When, l' die’·

WELLES puffed

Chaplin.

**Then Huston, said:

there

feel the need to top Anyone That reminded Huston of a

cise's remark. Dinner and con- versation with Oscar Wilde new Chaplin story. "He haftes noise--this peace-loving guy. So must have been hell." he buys himself 器

Huston got up, place in

put on Switzerland, and he loves it cloth cap, and said, "Well, kid,

* I'm aft to work." because it is 50 peaceful.

Orson Welles walked to the head of the untouched dinner table and 'said: "That's the

"He's such a man of peace nt his cigar and said: "That's not tho be won a. peace prize. So now way want to go out. When he's moved in, and the house

everyone else is cowering" and

JOHNNY HAZARD

"I die I want know all about, is right next to a firing range craziest dinner party I've ever

those last 40 minutes, I don't for the Swiss Army. All day ken to: No, dorned food." ORSON said: "Yes, It's want any air hostess or anyone and half the night the guns are entered and said:

And right on cue the waitress

goup, any experience that counts, to cheat me of the last minutes going-whizzing shells.

by pulling at the plilows and "Chaplin, the man of peace, phe?" Your aunt taught me to net, trying to make me feel happy." pretende is isn't happening, but

London Express Service) John. Remarkable woman.. Carrington her name was. M waitress came in and wishing they had steel helmets. the soup, "And Chaplin tries to go on Margaret Carrington. I'd suggested she serve

The dinner was to be a simple talking above, the din.” been around Europe, dong one: soup, lamb chops, and fruit. Dizon Welles, cut in: "What some bull fighting, had usalad and cream. No one do you mean, tries? He goes success on stage and I scened interested in soup.

always righton talking. Ho thought I'd go back to New Orson Welles was in the middle

The waitress disappeared and does."

Huston suddenly had York and really find qut of another... – sentence, ›

thought, "Let' pour Bod about acting..

When you do something bad in

more wine and then "So I went to your nunt, life it coelo you more and you dinner." Wellos BRIGH "Loi's She was a voice teacher get log out of it. Only had one other pupil- John Barrymore, 'He had a rasping voice and was a because you need the coff, sono walioshe would mean lumte cartoonist. She sat us both no food, gur whole much lessing for Him ton and Bull-nghting on the piano and gave ud krent can do it so much better.":"

toloor show wonderful lessong,"

Huston wanted to know what

have

pour somo, more wine anyway?”!

So we `did, and....we talked exactly he meant by that. I about conversation. The only mean that if you get a bad part good – conversation it now was and you crawl: In. the culier, obok & Fishop Pla mald Orsoli

Huston: "It works like that, blanto- will me, too. If I have a bad-

any mediečia.. dire

Huston: She was pretty subject rough

Pirtti Kiranɓared the best Terention he had liebenen 10.

Protectorate

We sat alone in the stately, romshackle splendour, browa ing through library ranging from Shakespeare to Ď.H. Law- rence. Somewhere in the great room came a quick rustling, and in the a lizard ran up the wall. A

The modern Arab town of Mukulla, in Southem Arabis, la a surprise of

scrapor. architecture in a land of palm huts and tents.

AND WHILE THEY'RE IT WORKED, JOHNNY/ 'OCCURED WITH; BIRD-|| RELEASING THOSE BIRDS! WATCHING, WE CUT SAVE TWITCH'S MEN A ̈

(OUT THE COCKPIT. HANDFUL TO PLAY WITHES

DON'T SHOOT, YOU IF CAR PARKKI

“HAYE QUI

DE KILLED,

By Frank Robbin

HEAD FOR THE LEAD CAR, JÓKHNYJA START THE MOTOR/ FLL RUN COVER TO DISCOURAGE

In The Bazaar

a

Everywhere we were plagued by countless flies, which seemed to have uniquely hot feet, Small children tagged along clamour- ing for "backsheesh." Jostling through the narrow alleyways at the bazaar, we saw types from the wealthy perfumed merchant to the lowly loin- clothed Bedouin with Indigo Elained torso apkt 42 deadly curved-sheath knife,

at

"urator...

It was an old Arab intrchunt wht, with a vicious wink, ex- ploded the fondly-held Western Legood that the vell protecta the modesty of Arabian women, "One woman is as another In black," he said, "and who can be sure it is not his own wite soon entering a strange house.

And there is evidence enough that the world's oldest protes- sión is practised in this back- water seaport, where camel trains come from the desort fu trade for razor blades and radios. Here in Mukulla, things are slways what they seem. As we watched, a squad of Had- Framaut Lovies march through the city gateway with fixed bayonets to take up guard posts along the walls. I thought that rurely no one knows tius better than Colonel Boustead in these duya of "the" "white man's" woning rule,

(Copyright All Rights Reserved)

not

Can Miquel