The Indians Charge Their European
Fellow-Subjects With Insolence Of Demeanour And Coarseness Of Language.
As Far As My Experience Goes, Our Roughness And Brusquerie Are Mere
Politeness Compared With What Passes Between Easterns.
At the same time
it must be owned that I have seen the worst of it.
[FN#8] It
Was far safer and more expeditious in Al-Adrisi's day (A.D.
1154), when the captain used to sit on the poop "furnished with
numerous and useful instruments"; when he "sounded the shallows, and by
his knowledge of the depths could direct the helmsman where to steer."
[FN#9] In the East it is usual, when commencing a voyage or a journey,
to make a short day's work, in order to be at a convenient distance for
returning, in case of any essential article having been forgotten.
[FN#10] A Jesuit missionary who visited the place in A.D. 1720, and
described it in a well-known volume. As every eminent author, however,
monopolises a "crossing," and since the head of the Suez creek, as is
shown by its old watermark, has materially changed within no very
distant period, it is no wonder that the question is still sub judice,
and that there it will remain most probably till the end of time. The
Christians have two equally favourite lines: the Moslems patronise one
so impossible, that it has had attractions enough to fix their choice.
It extends from Zafaran Point to Hammam Bluffs, ten miles of deep water.
[FN#11] The Hebrew name of this part of the Red Sea. In a communication
lately made to the Royal Geographical Society, I gave my reasons for
believing that the Greeks borrowed their Erythraean Sea from the Arabic
"Sea of Himyar."
[FN#12] Most travellers remark that they have never seen a brighter
blue than that of the Red Sea. It was the observation of an early age
that "the Rede Sea is not more rede than any other sea, but in some
place thereof is the gravelle rede, and therefore men clepen it the
Rede Sea."
[FN#13] Jild al-Faras (or Kamar al-Din), a composition of apricot
paste, dried, spread out, and folded into sheets, exactly resembling
the article after which it is named. Turks and Arabs use it when
travelling; they dissolve it in water, and eat it as a relish with
bread or biscuit.
[FN#14] "Pharaoh's hot baths," which in our maps are called "Hummum
Bluffs." They are truly "enchanted land" in Moslem fable: a volume
would scarcely contain the legends that have been told and written
about them. (See Note 1, p. 10, ante.)
[FN#15] One of the numerous species of what the Italians generally call
"Pasta." The material is wheaten or barley flour rolled into small
round grains. In Barbary it is cooked by steaming, and served up with
hard boiled eggs and mutton, sprinkled with red pepper. These Badawi
Maghrabis merely boiled it.
[FN#16] The Azan is differently pronounced, though similarly worded by
every orthodox nation in Al-Islam.
[FN#17] The usual way of kissing the knee is to place the finger tips
upon it, and then to raise them to the mouth.
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