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.
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Words from 115434 to 115944
of 182297
