One Of Our Guards, Who Was Killed
On The Road, Had A Double-Barrelled English Fowling-Piece.
Still, when
doubts must not be aroused, the traveller will do well to avoid, even
in the civilised Hijaz, suspicious appearances in his weapons.
I
carried in a secret pocket a small pistol with a spring dagger, upon
which dependence could be placed, and I was careful never to show it,
discharging it and loading it always in the dark. Some men wear a
little dagger strapped round the leg, below the knee. Its use is this:
when the enemy gets you under, he can prevent you bringing your hand up
to the weapon in your waist-belt; but before he cuts your throat, you
may slip your fingers down to the knee, and persuade him to stop by a
stab in the perineum. This knee dagger is required only in very
dangerous places. The article I chiefly accused myself of forgetting
was a stout English clasp-knife, with a large handle, a blade like an
"Arkansas toothpick," and possessing the other useful appliances of
picker, fleam, tweezers, lancet, and punch.
[FN#29] Called "Habak": these cords are made in great quantities at
Cairo, which possesses a special bazar for them, and are exported to
all the neighbouring countries, where their price considerably
increases. A handsome pistol-cord, with its tassels, costs about 12
shillings in Egypt; at Meccah, or Al-Madinah, the same would fetch
upwards of a pound sterling.
[FN#30] My diary-book was made up for me by a Cairene; it was a long
thin volume fitting into a breast-pocket, where it could be carried
without being seen. I began by writing notes in the Arabic character,
but as no risk appeared, my journal was afterwards kept in English.
More than once, by way of experiment, I showed the writing on a loose
slip of paper to my companions, and astonished them with the strange
character derived from Solomon and Alexander, the Lord of the Two
Horns, which we Afghans still use. For a short trip a pencil suffices;
on long journeys ink is necessary; the latter article should be
English, not Eastern, which is washed out clean the first time your
luggage is thoroughly soaked with rain. The traveller may use either
the Persian or the brass Egyptian inkstand; the latter, however, is
preferable, being stronger and less likely to break. But, unless he be
capable of writing and reading a letter correctly, it would be
unadvisable to stick such an article in the waist-belt, as this gives
out publicly that he is a scribe. When sketching, the pencil is the
best, because the simplest and shortest mode of operation is required.
Important lines should afterwards be marked with ink, as "fixing" is
impossible on such journeys. For prudence sake, when my sketches were
made, I cut up the paper into square pieces, numbered them for future
reference, and hid them in the tin canisters that contained my
medicines.
[FN#31] An accident of this kind happened not long ago, in Hazramaut,
to a German traveller who shall be nameless.
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