Hello,

In reading "In the Dwellings Of The Wilderness" I came across a sentence I cannot comprehend even though I have been racking my brain over it for a long time. So, could a native speaker help me understand it? The text runs as follows:

¨But the next day the mummy of the Princess had not been returned, nor the next. Always the work went on, diligently, with varying success. More trenches were run deeper into the mound. Basketfuls of tablets were found, made of finest clay, many in a state of perfect preservation; also terra-cotta vases, instruments in copper, some corroded out of all shape; an altar to a god whose name had been erased, bearing marks of sacrifices. The courtyard of the palace was dug out, a wide and open space, with fragments of brick pavement and the remnants of its surrounding rooms. Of these architectural details Deane drew careful plans, noting their dimensions, the average height and thickness of their fragmentary walls, their drainage and ventilation. Squeezes were taken of inscriptions which could not be removed; the ground was carefully surveyed, the buildings photographed and described, preparatory to carrying the excavations to a lower level, where Merritt believed relics of a greater antiquity could be found. Again, other days were barren, and it was then that Merritt became sore over the loss of the Princess. When things went right he forgot her, in joy over some fresh acquisition; when things went wrong, he reverted to her, and mourned for her inconsolably.
"I was going to give the thing to the National Museum in Washington," he lamented bitterly. "And now, through the infernal greed of a fool of an Affej, it's lost. What's going without your dinner a time or two, when a thing like that is in the balance?"

The prbolematic sentence is the last one, in bold text.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 31 Jul 23 | 12:06PM by Minicthulhu.

Minicthulhu Wrote:

> "I was going to give the thing to the National
> Museum in Washington," he lamented bitterly. "And
> now, through the infernal greed of a fool of an
> Affej, it's lost. What's going without your dinner
> a time or two, when a thing like that is in the
> balance?"
>
> The prbolematic sentence is the last one, in bold
> text.

Ibraheem is the "fool of an Affej" who was lured away from his post by hunger, as a result of which the mummy was stolen. That, at least, is what I gather from a brief glance at the preceding paragraphs. He is simply saying that Ibraheem ought to have cared more about the mummy than about missing his dinner.

Best as I can tell, an "Affej" is a member of a particular tribe of Arabs.

Enjoyable story, by the way.

Thank you very much, Platypus. Now I get the meaning perfectly.