The Refrain Of
Every Conversation Was "Marry Me, O Fattumah!
O daughter!
O female
pilgrim!" In vain the lady would reply, with a coquettish movement of
the sides, a toss of the head, and a flirting manipulation of her
head-veil,
[p.175]"I am mated, O young man!"-it was agreed that she, being a
person of polyandrous propensities, could support the weight of at
least three matrimonial engagements. Sometimes the entrance of the male
Fellahs[FN#19] interrupted these little discussions, but people of our
respectability and nation were not to be imposed upon by such husbands.
In their presence we only varied the style of conversation-inquiring
the amount of "Mahr," or marriage settlement, deriding the cheapness of
womanhood in Egypt, and requiring to be furnished on the spot with
brides at the rate of ten shillings a head.[FN#20] More often the
amiable Fattumah-the fair sex in this country, though passing frail,
have the best tempers in the world-would laugh at our impertinences.
Sometimes vexed by our imitating her Egyptian accent, mimicking her
gestures, and depreciating her country-women,[FN#21] she would wax
wroth, and order us to be gone, and stretch out her forefinger-a sign
that she wished to put out our eyes, or adjure Allah to cut the hearts
out of our bosoms. Then
[p.176]the "Marry me, O Fattumah, O daughter, O female pilgrim!" would
give way to Y'al Ago-o-oz! (O old woman and decrepit!) "O daughter of
sixty sires, and fit only to carry wood to market!"-whereupon would
burst a storm of wrath, at the tail of which all of us, like children,
starting upon our feet, rushed out of one another's way. But-"qui se
dispute, s'adore"-when we again met all would be forgotten, and the old
tale be told over de novo. This was the amusement of the day. At night
we men, assembling upon the little terrace, drank tea, recited stories,
read books, talked of our travels, and indulged in various
pleasantries. The great joke was the boy Mohammed's abusing all his
companions to their faces in Hindustani, which none but Shaykh Nur and
I could understand; the others, however, guessed his intention, and
revenged themselves by retorts of the style uncourteous in the purest
Hijazi.
I proceed to offer a few more extracts from Mr. Levick's letter about
Suez and the Suezians. "It appears that the number of pilgrims who pass
through Suez to Meccah has of late been steadily on the decrease. When
I first came here (in 1838) the pilgrims who annually embarked at this
port amounted to between 10,000 and 12,000, the shipping was more
numerous, and the merchants were more affluent.[FN#22] I have
ascertained from a special register kept in the government archives
that in the Moslem year 1268 (A.D. 1851-52) the exact number that
passed through was 4893."
"In 1269 A.H. (A.D. 1852-53) it had shrunk to 3136.
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