I Naturally Offered To Arm My Party, To Take Up Our Cudgels,
And To Revenge My Compatriot.
This thoroughly Sulaymanian style of
doing business could not fail to make him sure of his man.
He declined,
however, wisely remembering that he had nearly a fortnight of the
Persians' society still to endure. But he promised himself the
gratification, when he reached Meccah, of sheathing his Charay[FN#13]
in the chief offender's heart.
At 8 A.M.} on the 14th July we left Al-Wijh, after passing a night,
tolerably comfortable by contrast, in the coffee-house. We took with us
the stores necessary, for though our Rais had promised to anchor under
Jabal Hassani that evening, no one believed him. We sailed among ledges
of rock, golden sands, green weeds, and in some places through yellow
lines of what appeared to me at a distance foam after a storm. All day
a sailor sat upon the masthead, looking at the water, which was
transparent as blue glass, and shouting out the direction. This
precaution was somewhat stultified by the roar of voices, which never
[p.218] failed to mingle with the warning, but we wore every half hour,
and we did not run aground. About midday we passed by Shaykh Hasan
al-Marabit's tomb. It is the usual domed and whitewashed building,
surrounded by the hovels of its guardians, standing upon a low flat
island of yellow rock, vividly reminding me of certain scenes in Sind.
Its dreary position attracts to it the attention of passing travellers;
the dead saint has a prayer and a Fatihah for the good of his soul, and
the live sinner wends his way with religious refreshment.
Near sunset the wind came on to blow freshly, and we cast anchor
together with the Persian pilgrims upon a rock. This was one of the
celebrated coral reefs of the Red Sea, and the sight justified
Forskal's emphatic description-luxus lususque naturae. It was a huge
ledge or platform rising but little above the level of the deep; the
water-side was perpendicular as the wall of a fort; and, whilst a
frigate might have floated within a yard of it, every ripple dashed
over the reef, replenishing the little basins and hollows in the
surface. The colour of the waves near it was a vivid amethyst. In the
distance the eye rested upon what appeared to be meadows of brilliant
flowers resembling those of earth, only far brighter and more lovely.
Nor was this Land of the Sea wholly desolate. Gulls and terns here swam
the tide; there, seated upon the coral, devoured their prey. In the
air, troops of birds contended noisily for a dead flying fish,[FN#14]
and in the deep water they chased a shoal, which, in fright and hurry
to escape the pursuers, veiled the surface with
[p.219] spray and foam. And as night came on the scene shifted,
displaying fresh beauties. Shadows clothed the background, whose
features, dimly revealed, allowed full scope to the imagination.
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