The following passage is from James Joyce's short story "Araby":

The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the

lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our

bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent streets. The career of our play brought us

through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gauntlet of the rough

tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours

arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and

combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness.

What does the phrase gauntlet of the rough tribes convey about the narrator's perception

of his experience?

1 that he believed the lanes behind the houses were a passageway to a

secret, hidden garden

2 that he feared playing behind the houses because of the darkness and

3

the slippery mud

that he saw the children from the cottages as rivals and their territory as

possibly dangerous