At The End Of Two Hours, The Country
Opens, The Trees Diminish, And The Course Changes To N. 55 W.
Towards
sun-set I had walked a little way in front of the caravan, and being
tired, sat down under
A tree to wait its approach; when five Bedouins
crept along the bushes towards me, and suddenly snatched up my stick,
the only weapon which was lying on the ground behind me. Their leader
said that I was, no doubt, a deserter from the Turkish army, and
therefore their lawful prize. I offered no resistance; but seeing them
much less determined than Bedouin robbers generally are, I concluded
that they were not free from fear. I told them, therefore, that I was a
hadjy, and belonged to a large caravan escorted by Harb Bedouins; that
they might wait a little before they stopped me, to assure themselves of
this fact by the arrival of the caravan; and that they had better not
offer me any violence, as our guides would no doubt know the
perpetrators, and would report it to those who had the power to punish
them. I felt assured that they had no intention of doing me any bodily
harm, and was under no apprehension, especially as I had only a
travelling dress and a few dollars to lose, should the worst happen. One
of them, an old man, advised his comrades to wait a little; for that it
would not be well to incur the consequences of robbing a hadjy. During
our parley, I looked impatiently for the caravan coming in sight; but it
had stopped behind for a quarter of an hour, to allow the travellers
time to perform the evening prayers, a daily practice among them, of
which. I was yet ignorant. This delay was very much against me, and I
expected every moment to be stripped, when, the tread of the camels
being at last heard, the Bedouins retreated as suddenly as they had
approached.
Although the road from Mekka to Medina was considered safe even for
caravans unarmed like ours, yet stragglers are always exposed; and had
it not been for the terror with which, a few days before, Mohammed Aly's
victory over the Wahabys had inspired all the neighbouring Bedouins, I
should probably have been punished for my imprudence in walking on
alone. We rode the greater part of the night, over a plain more gravelly
than sandy, where some ashour trees
[p.295] grow among the acacias, the same species (Asclepia gigantea)
which I have so often mentioned in my Nubian Travels. This ground is
called El Barka. After a seven hours' march, we stopped at El Kara.
January 17th. We slept a few hours during the night, a circumstance that
seldom occurred on this journey. El Kara is a black, flinty plain, with
low hills at a great distance to the east: it bears a few thorny trees,
but affords no water. I was struck by its great resemblance to the
Nubian Desert, south of Shigre.
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