A certain baker in Constantinople used false weights in selling his bread: the Sultan ordered him to be roasted alive in his own oven, and afterwards boasted that this one act of severity had effectually prevented all similar crimes. Here you see the principle of government in the East;—it is nothing but terror and religious fanaticism.
曾经有一个君士坦丁堡的面包师在卖面包的时候缺斤少两：苏丹便下令将此人放在其烤面包的烤炉里生烤，之后还吹嘘自己的残酷之举有效地预防了类似违法犯罪事件的发生。由此便可见东方政府做事的原则；——只有恐怖和宗教狂热。
As to coffee-houses, there are plenty of them in Damascus; but they can hardly be called houses, much less palaces: they are open courts with fountains of water, sheltered from the sun; and in many cases they have little stools, some six inches high, on which, if you do not prefer the ground, you can rest while you enjoy your sherbet, coffee, and tobacco. Pipes, nargilies, ices, eau sucre, sherbet, and fruits of all kinds, are in abundance, and of the lowest possible price.
说到喝咖啡的屋子，大马士革倒是有很多；但是那些所谓喝咖啡的屋子也只能勉强称其为“咖啡屋”，离真正的咖啡厅还差得远：就是一些有喷泉的开放式庭院，庭院上面有遮阳棚；庭院内通常会放置一些六英尺高的小凳子，不喜欢坐在地上的客人们便可以坐在小凳子上享受着冰冻果子露、咖啡和香烟，烟管、水烟筒、冰冻食品、软水、冰冻果汁和各种水果应有尽有，而且价格极低。
These cafés are very quiet: there is no excitement, no reading of newspapers, no discussion of politics and religion; no fiery demagogue or popular orator to mislead the people; no Attic wit provokes a smile, and no bold repartee calls forth applauding laughter on the other side. But yet they have their own amusements, and they play earnestly at games both of chance and of skill. The traveller tells his escapes and dangers to an admiring little circle; the story-teller repeats one of the "Thousand and One Nights" to a wondering audience; and if memory fails, the imagination, fertile as an oriental spring, supplies its boundless stores.
咖啡屋内很安静：没有人喧哗，没有人读报纸，没有人谈论政治和宗教；也没有斗志昂扬的鼓吹者和误导群众的演讲家；没有逗趣耍小聪明之人，也没有妙语之人在另一边叱咤风云引起喝彩和哄堂大笑。但是，每个人又都有其自己的娱乐方式——认真地玩着需要技巧的赌博游戏。有一小圈儿人面露钦佩、围在一名游客旁听他讲述自己的逃跑和危险经历；那名游客实则是把“一千零一夜”里的其中一个故事来回地讲给这群已经着了迷的听众；如果不小心忘记了故事情节，那名游客的想象力便会像这东方的喷泉一样源源不断地迸发，把故事扯得越来越远。
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