Direction N. 25 W. At The End Of Nine Hours, We
Halted During The Night Near The Village Of Rabegh, Our Road Having Been
Constantly Level.
Three or four hamlets, little distant from each other,
are all comprised under this appellation; the principal of which, like
that of Kholeys, is distinguished by the additional name of Es-Souk, or
the market-place.
The neighbouring plain is cultivated, and thick
plantations of palm-trees render Rabegh a place of note on this route.
Amongst the palm-trees grow a few tamarinds, or Thamr Hindy, the green
fruit of which was now sufficiently ripe and pleasant. A few of these
trees likewise grow at Mekka. Some rain had fallen here lately, and the
ground was, in many parts, tilled. The ploughs of those Arabs, which are
drawn by oxen or camels, resemble those delineated by Niebuhr, and which
are, I believe, generally used in the Hedjaz and. Yemen. [I cannot
conceive what could have led Ptolemy to place a river in the direction
between Mekka and Yembo, as certainly no river empties itself into the
sea any where in the Hedjaz. In winter time, many torrents rush down
from the mountains.] Rabegh possesses the advantage of a number of
wells, the water of which is, however, but indifferent: its vicinity to
the sea, which, as I heard, was six or seven miles distant, though the
view of it was hid by palm-groves, causes the coast of Rabegh to be
visited by many country ships that are in want of water. The Bedouins of
this coast are active fishermen, and bring hither from the more distant
ports their salted fish; a quantity of which may always be found in the
market, where it is bought up by the Arab ships' crews, who consume a
great part of it, and carry the rest to Egypt or Djidda. The inhabitants
of Rabegh are of the above-mentioned Harb tribes of Aamer and Zebeyd,
principally the latter. In the opposite mountains, to the east, live the
Beni Owf, another tribe of Harb. The hadjys passing by sea from Egypt to
Djidda, are obliged to take the ihram opposite to Rabegh, which they may
do either on shore, or on board snip.
An accident occurred here, which showed in the strongest light the total
want of charity in our companions the Malays. There were several poorer
Malays, who, unable to pay for the hire of a camel, followed
[p.302] their comrades on foot; but as our night journeys were long,
these men came in sometimes an hour or two after we had alighted in the
morning. To-day one of them was brought in under an escort of two
Bedouins of the tribe of Owf, who told us that they had found him
straying in the Desert, and that he had promised them twenty piastres if
they would guide him to the caravan, and that they expected his friends
would make up this sum, the man, as they saw, being himself quite
destitute of money. When they found that none of our party showed any
inclination to pay even the smallest part of this sum, and that all of
them disclaimed any knowledge or acquaintance with the man, who, they
said had joined the caravan at starting from Mekka without his person
being in the least known to them, the Bedouins declared that they should
take the little clothing he had upon him, and keep him a prisoner in
their tents till some other Malays should pass, who might release him.
When the caravan was preparing to start, they seized him, and carried
him off a short distance towards the wood. He was so terrified that he
had lost the power of speech, and permitted himself to be led away,
without making the slightest resistance. Our own guides were no match
for the Owf, a tribe much dreaded for its warlike and savage character;
there was no judge in the village of Rabegh, to whose authority an
appeal might be made; and the two Bedouins had a legitimate claim upon
their prisoner. I should have performed no great act of generosity in
paying his ransom myself; but I thought that this was a duty incumbent
upon his countrymen the Malays, and therefore used all my endeavours to
persuade them to do it. I really never met with such hard-hearted,
unfeeling wretches; they unanimously declared that they did not know the
man, and were not bound to incur any expense on his account. The camels
were loaded; they had all mounted, and the leader was on the point of
starting, when the miserable object of the dispute broke out in loud
lamentations. I had waited for this moment. Relying on the respect I
enjoyed in the caravan from being supposed a hadjy in some measure
attached to Mohammed Aly's army, and the good-will of our guides, which
I had cultivated by distributing victuals liberally amongst them ever
since we left Mekka, I seized the leader's camel, made it couch down,
and exclaimed, that the
[p.303] caravan should not proceed till the man was released. I then
went from load to load, and partly by imprecating curses on the Malays
and their women, and partly by collaring some of them, I took from every
one of their camels twenty paras, (about three pence,) and, after a long
contest, made up the twenty piastres. This sum I carried to the Bedouins
who had remained at a distance with their prisoner, and representing to
them his forlorn state, and appealing to the honour of their tribe,
induced them to take ten piastres. According to true Turkish maxims, I
should have pocketed the other ten, as a compensation for my trouble; I,
however, gave them to the poor Malay, to the infinite mortification of
his countrymen. The consequence was, that, during the rest of the
journey, they entirely discarded him from their party, and he was thrown
upon my hands, till we arrived at Medina, and during his residence
there.
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