On All
Occasions Precedence Was Forced Upon Me; My Opinion Was The First
Consulted, And No Project Was Settled Without My Concurrence:
Briefly,
Abdullah the Darwaysh suddenly found himself a person of consequence.
This elevation led me into an imprudence which might have cost me dear;
aroused the only suspicion about me ever expressed during the summer's
tour.
My friends had looked at my clothes, overhauled my medicine
chest, and criticised my pistols; they sneered at my copper-cased
watch,[FN#4] and remembered having seen a compass at Constantinople.
Therefore I imagined they would think little about a sextant. This was
a mistake. The boy Mohammed, I
[p.167]afterwards learned,[FN#5] waited only my leaving the room to
declare that the would-be Haji was one of the Infidels from India, and
a council sat to discuss the case. Fortunately for me, Omar Effendi had
looked over a letter which I had written to Haji Wali that morning, and
he had at various times received categorical replies to certain
questions in high theology. He felt himself justified in declaring, ex
cathedra, the boy Mohammed's position perfectly untenable. And Shaykh
Hamid, who looked forward to being my host, guide, and debtor in
general, and probably cared scantily for catechism or creed, swore that
the light of Al-Islam was upon my countenance, and, consequently, that
the boy Mohammed was a pauper, a "fakir," an owl, a cut-off one,[FN#6]
a stranger, and a Wahhabi (heretic), for daring to impugn the faith of
a brother believer.[FN#7] The scene ended with a general abuse of the
acute youth, who was told on all sides that he had no shame, and was
directed to "fear Allah." I was struck with the expression of my
friends' countenances when they saw the sextant, and, determining with
a sigh to
[p.168]leave it behind, I prayed five times a day for nearly a week.
We all agreed not to lose an hour in securing places on board some
vessel bound for Yambu'; and my companions, hearing that my passport as
a British Indian was scarcely en regle, earnestly advised me to have it
signed by the governor without delay, whilst they occupied themselves
about the harbour. They warned me that if I displayed the Turkish
Tazkirah given me at the citadel of Cairo, I should infallibly be
ordered to await the caravan, and lose their society and friendship.
Pilgrims arriving at Alexandria, be it known to the reader, are divided
into bodies, and distributed by means of passports to the three great
roads, namely, Suez, Kusayr (Cosseir), and the Hajj route by land round
the Gulf of al-'Akabah. After the division has once been made,
government turns a deaf ear to the representations of individuals. The
Bey of Suez has an order to obstruct pilgrims as much as possible till
the end of the season, when they are hurried down that way, lest they
should arrive at Meccah too late.[FN#8] As most of the Egyptian high
officials have boats, which sail up the Nile laden with pilgrims and
return freighted with corn, the government naturally does its utmost to
force the delays and discomforts of this line upon strangers.[FN#9] And
as those who travel by the Hajj route must spend money in the Egyptian
territories at least fifteen days longer than they would if allowed to
[p.169]embark at once from Suez, the Bey very properly assists them in
the former and obstructs them in the latter case.
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