We Replaced The Load, Mounted Ayd, And Hastened To Pass
The Rocks Of Djebel Sherafe.
We then found ourselves in a more open
country, less liable to be waylaid amongst rocks, and better able to
defend ourselves.
Hamd now told me that Ayd had first seen four Bedouins
running down upon us; they had evidently intended to waylay us from
behind the corner, but came a little too late. When he heard Ayd cry
out, he had just time to strike fire and to light the match of his gun,
when the boldest of the assailants approached within twenty paces of him
and fired; the ball passed through his shirt; he returned the fire but
missed his aim; while his opponent was coolly reloading his piece,
before his companions had joined him, Ayd cried out to Hamd, to attack
the robber with his knife, and advanced to his support with a short
spear which he carried; Haind drew his knife, rushed upon the adversary,
and after receiving a wound in the foot, brought him to the ground, but
left him immediately, on seeing his companions hastening to his relief.
Ayd now said that if the
[p.515] man was killed, we should certainly be pursued, but that if he
was only wounded the others would remain with him, and give up the
pursuit. We travelled with all possible haste, not knowing whether more
enemies might not be behind, or whether the encampment of the wounded
man might not be in the vicinity, from whence his friends might collect
to revenge his blood.
Ayd had certainly not been mistaken last night; these robbers had no
doubt seen our fire, and had approached us, but were frightened by the
barking of the dog. Uncertain whether we were proceeding northward or
southward, they had waited till they saw us set out, and then by a
circuitous route in the mountains had endeavoured, unseen, to get the
start of us in order to waylay us in the passes of the Wady Mezeiryk. If
they had reached the spot where we were attacked two or three minutes
sooner, and had been able to take aim at us from behind the rock, we
must all have inevitably perished. That they intended to murder us,
contrary to the usual practice of Bedouins, is easily accounted for they
knew from the situation of the place, where they discovered us, as well
as from the dress and appearance of my guides, that they were Towara
Bedouins; but though I was poorly dressed, they must have recognized me
to be a townsman, and a townsman is always supposed by Bedouins to carry
money with him. To rob us without resistance was impossible, their
number being too small; or supposing this had succeeded, and any of the
guides had escaped, they knew that they would sooner or later be obliged
to restore the property taken, and to pay the fine of blood and wounds,
because the Towara were then at peace with all their neighbours. For
these reasons they had no doubt resolved to kill the whole party, as the
only effectual mode of avoiding all disclosures as to the real
perpetrators of the murder. I do not believe that such atrocities often
occur in the eastern desert,
NOWEYBA
[p.516] among the great Aeneze tribe; at least I never heard of any; but
these Heywat Arabs are notorious for their bad faith, and never hesitate
to kill those who do not travel under the protection of their own
people, or their well known friends. Scarcely any other Bedouin robbers
would have fired till they had summoned us to give up our baggage, and
had received a shot for answer.
I had at first intended to visit, on my return, the upper mountains, to
which there is a road leading through the Wady Mokabelat; but Ayd
dissuaded me. He said that if the party from which we had just escaped
meant to pursue us, they would probably lay in wait for us in some of
the passes in that direction; as he did not doubt that it would be their
belief, that we were bound for Tor or Suez, the nearest road to which
places lies through the Wady Mokabelat. I yielded to his opinion, and we
returned along the coast by the same road we had come. Hamd’s wound was
not dangerous; I dressed it as well as I could, and four days afterwards
it was nearly healed. We travelled a part of the night, and
May 10th,—early the next morning we again reached Noweyba, the place
where we had first reached the coast. We here met Ayd’s deaf friend.
Szaleh had all the way, betrayed the most timorous disposition; in
excuse for running away when we were attacked, he said that he intended
to halt farther on in the Wady, in order to cover our retreat, and that
he had been obliged to run after the camels, which were frightened by
the firing; but the truth was, that his terrors deprived him of all
power of reflection, otherwise he must have known that the only course,
to be pursued in the desert, when suddenly attacked, is to fight for
life, as escape is almost impossible.
Having been foiled in my hopes of visiting Akaba, I now wished to follow
the shore of the gulf to the southward; but Szaleh would not hear of any
farther progress in that direction, and insisted upon
WADY DJEREIMELE
[p.517] my going back to the convent. I told him that his company had
been of too little use to me, to make me desirous of keeping him any
longer; he therefore returned, no doubt in great haste, by the same
route we had come, accompanied by the deaf man; I engaged Ayd to conduct
us along the coast, Hamd being very ignorant of this part of the
peninsula, where his tribe, the Oulad Sayd, never encamp.
The date trees of Noweyba belong to the tribe of Mezeine; here were
several huts built of stones and branches of the trees, in which the
owners live with their families during the date-harvest.
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