Numbers Of
Young Girls And Women Were Accustomed To Bathe Perfectly Naked In
The River Just Before Our Tent; I
Employed them to catch small
fish for baits and for hours they would amuse themselves in this
way, screaming with
Excitement and fun, and chasing the small fry
with their long clothes in lieu of nets; their figures were
generally well shaped, but both men and women fell off in the
development of the legs. Very few had well-shaped calves, but
remarkably thin and cleanly formed ankles, with very delicately
shaped feet. The men were constantly bathing in the clear waters
of the Atbara, and were perfectly naked, although close to the
women; we soon became accustomed to this daily scene, as we do at
Brighton and other English bathing-towns.
Our life at Wat el Negur was anything but disagreeable; we had
acquired great fame in several ways: the game that I shot I
divided among the people; they also took an interest in the
fishing, as they generally had a large share of all that I
caught; my wife was very kind to all the children, and to the
women, who came from great distances to see her; and my character
as a physician having been spread far and wide, we became very
celebrated people. Of course I was besieged daily by the maimed,
the halt, and the blind, and the poor people, with much
gratitude, would insist upon bringing fowls and milk in return
for our attention to their wants. These I would never accept, but
on many occasions, upon my refusal, the women would untie the
legs of a bundle of chickens, and allow them to escape in our
camp, rather than be compelled to return with their offering.
Even the fakeers (priests) were our great friends, although we
were Christians, and in my broken Arabic, with the assistance of
Mahomet, I used to touch upon theological subjects. At first they
expressed surprise that such clever people as the English should
worship idols made of wood, or other substances, by the hands of
man. I explained to them their error, as we were Protestants in
England, who had protested against the practice of bowing down
before the figure of Christ or any other form; that we simply
worshipped God through Christ, believing Him to be both Saviour
and Mediator. I recalled to their recollection that Mahomet and
they themselves believed in Christ, as the greatest of all the
prophets, therefore in reality there was not so very wide a gulf
between their creed and our own; both acknowledging the same God;
both believing in Christ, although differing in the degree of
that belief. I allowed that Mahomet was a most wonderful man, and
that, if a cause is to be valued by its effect, he was as much
entitled to the name of prophet as Moses, the first law-giver.
Our arguments never became overheated, as these simple yet
steadfast Arabs, who held the faith of their forefathers
untarnished and uncorrupted by schisms, spoke more with reverence
to the great spirit of religion, than with the acrimony of
debate. "My brothers," I would reply, "we are all God's
creatures, believing in the one great Spirit who created us and
all things, who made this atom of dust that we call our world, a
tiny star amongst the hosts of heaven; and we, differing in
colours and in races, are striving through our short but weary
pilgrimage to the same high point; to the same mountain-top,
where we trust to meet when the journey shall be accomplished.
That mountain is steep, the country is desert; is there but one
path, or are there many? Your path and mine are different, but
with God's help they will lead us to the top. Shall we quarrel
over the well upon the thirsty way? or shall we drink together,
and be thankful for the cool waters, and strive to reach the end?
Drink from my water-skin when upon the desert we thirst together,
scorched by the same sun, exhausted by the same simoom, cooled by
the same night, until we sleep at the journey's end, and together
thank God, Christian and Mahometan, that we have reached our
home."
The good fakeers rejoiced in such simple explanations, and they
came to the conclusion that we were "all the same with a little
difference," thus we were the best of friends with all the
people. If not exactly a cure of their Mahometan souls, they
acknowledged that I held the key to their bowels, which were
entirely dependent upon my will, when the crowd of applicants
daily thronged my medicine chest, and I dispensed jalap, calomel,
opium, and tartar emetic. Upon one occasion a woman brought me a
child of about fifteen months old, with a broken thigh; she had
fallen asleep upon her camel, and had allowed the child to fall
from her arms. I set the thigh, and secured it with gum bandages,
as the mimosas afforded the requisite material. About twenty
yards of old linen in bandages three inches broad, soaked in
thick gum-water, will form the best of splints when it becomes
dry and hard, which in that climate it will do in about an hour.
There was one complaint that I was obliged to leave entirely in
the hands of the Arabs, this was called "frendeet;" it was almost
the certain effect of drinking the water that in the rainy season
is accumulated in pools upon the surface of the rich table lands,
especially between the Atbara and Katariff; the latter is a
market-town about sixty miles from Wat el Negur, on the west bank
of the river. Frendeet commences with a swelling of one of the
limbs, generally accompanied with intense pain; this is caused by
a worm of several feet in length, but no thicker than
pack-thread. The Arab cure is to plaster the limb with cow-dung,
which is their common application for almost all complaints.
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