We Had No Time To Lose, And We Accordingly Arranged To
Start.
I discharged my dirty cook, and engaged a man who was
brought by a coffee-house keeper, by whom he was highly
recommended; but, as a precaution against deception, I led him
before the Mudir, or Governor, to be registered before our
departure.
To my astonishment, and to his infinite disgust, he
was immediately recognised as an old offender, who had formerly
been imprisoned for theft! The Governor, to prove his friendship,
and his interest in my welfare, immediately sent the police to
capture the coffee-house keeper who had recommended the cook. No
sooner was the unlucky surety brought to the Divan than he was
condemned to receive 200 lashes for having given a false
character. The sentence was literally carried out, in spite of my
remonstrance, and the police were ordered to make the case public
to prevent a recurrence. The Governor assured me, that as I held
a firman from the Viceroy he could not do otherwise, and that I
must believe him to be my truest friend. "Save me from my
friends," was an adage quickly proved. I could not procure a
cook, neither any other attendants, as every one was afraid to
guarantee a character, lest he might come in for his share of the
200 lashes!
The Governor came to my rescue, and sent immediately the promised
Turkish soldiers, who were to act in the double capacity of
escort and servants. They were men of totally opposite
characters. Hadji Achmet was a hardy, powerful,
dare-devil-looking Turk, while Hadji Velli was the perfection of
politeness, and as gentle as a lamb. My new allies procured me
three donkeys in addition to the necessary baggage camels, and we
started from the pleasant garden of Halleem Effendi on the
evening of the 10th of June for the junction of the Atbara river
with the Nile.
CHAPTER II.
"'Mongst them were several Englishmen of pith,
Sixteen named Thompson, and nineteen named Smith."
DON JUAN.
MAHOMET, Achmet, and Ali are equivalent to Smith, Brown, and
Thompson. Accordingly, of my few attendants, my dragoman was
Mahomet, and my principal guide was Achmet; and subsequently I
had a number of Alis. Mahomet was a regular Cairo dragoman, a
native of Dongola, almost black, but exceedingly tenacious
regarding his shade of colour, which he declared to be light
brown. He spoke very bad English, was excessively conceited, and
irascible to a degree. No pasha was so bumptious or overbearing
to his inferiors, but to me and to his mistress while in Cairo he
had the gentleness of the dove, and I had engaged him at 5l. per
month to accompany me to the White Nile. Men change with
circumstances; climate affects the health and temper; the sleek
and well-fed dog is amiable, but he would be vicious when thin
and hungry; the man in luxury and the man in need are not equally
angelic. Now Mahomet was one of those dragomen who are accustomed
to the civilized expeditions of the British tourist to the first
or second cataract, in a Nile boat replete with conveniences and
luxuries, upon which the dragoman is monarch supreme, a whale
among the minnows, who rules the vessel, purchases daily a host
of unnecessary supplies, upon which he clears his profit, until
he returns to Cairo with his pockets filled sufficiently to
support him until the following Nile season. The short three
months' harvest, from November until February, fills his granary
for the year. Under such circumstances the temper should be
angelic. But times had changed: the luxurious Mahomet had left
the comfortable Nile boat at Korosko, and he had crossed the
burning desert upon a jolting camel; he had left the well-known
route where the dragoman was supreme, and he found himself among
people who treated him in the light of a common servant. "A
change came o'er the spirit of his dream;" Mahomet was no longer
a great man, and his temper changed with circumstances; in fact,
Mahomet became unbearable, and still he was absolutely necessary,
as he was the tongue of the expedition until we should accomplish
Arabic. To him the very idea of exploration was an absurdity; he
had never believed in it from the first, and he now became
impressed with the fact that he was positively committed to an
undertaking that would end most likely in his death, if not in
terrible difficulties; he determined, under the circumstances, to
make himself as disagreeable as possible to all parties. With
this amiable resolution Mahomet adopted a physical infirmity in
the shape of deafness; in reality, no one was more acute in
hearing, but as there are no bells where there are no houses, he
of course could not answer such a summons, and he was compelled
to attend to the call of his own name--"Mahomet! Mahomet!" No
reply, although the individual was sitting within a few feet,
apparently absorbed in the contemplation of his own boots.
"Mahomet!" with an additional emphasis upon the second syllable.
Again no response. "Mahomet, you rascal, why don't you answer?"
This energetic address would effect a change in his position; the
mild and lamb-like dragoman of Cairo would suddenly start from
the ground, tear his own hair from his head in handfuls, and
shout, "Mahomet! Mahomet! Mahomet! always Mahomet! D--n Mahomet!
I wish he were dead, or back in Cairo, this brute Mahomet!" The
irascible dragoman would then beat his own head unmercifully with
his fists, in a paroxysm of rage.
To comfort him I could only exclaim, "Well done, Mahomet! thrash
him; pommel him well; punch his head; you know him best; he
deserves it; don't spare him!" This advice, acting upon the
natural perversity of his disposition, generally soothed him, and
he ceased punching his head. This man was entirely out of his
place, if not out of his mind, at certain moments, and having
upon one occasion smashed a basin by throwing it in the face of
the cook, and upon another occasion narrowly escaped homicide, by
throwing an axe at a man's head, which missed by an inch, he
became a notorious character in the little expedition.
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