I
Bought Better Tea At Meccah Than At Cairo, And Found As Good Sugar
There.
It would have been wiser to lay in a small stock merely for the
voyage to Yambu', in which case there might have been more economy.
But
I followed the advice of those interested in setting me wrong. Turks
and Egyptians always go pilgrimaging with a large outfit, as notably as
the East-Indian cadet of the present day, and your outfitter at Cairo,
as well as Cornhill, is sure to supply you with a variety of
superfluities. The tent was useful to me; so were the water-skins,
which I preferred to barrels, as being more portable, and less liable
to leak. Good skins cost about a dollar each; they should be bought new
and always kept half full of water.
[FN#15] This shape secures the lid, which otherwise, on account of the
weight of the box, would infallibly be torn off, or burst open. Like
the Kafas, the Sahharah should be well padlocked, and if the owner be a
saving man, he does not entrust his keys to a servant. I gave away my
Kafas at Yambu', because it had been crushed during the sea-voyage, and
I was obliged to leave the Sahharah at Al-Madinah, as my Badawi
camel-shaykh positively refused to carry it to Meccah, so that both
these articles were well nigh useless to me. The Kafas cost four
shillings, and the Sahharah about twelve. When these large boxes are
really strong and good, they are worth about a pound sterling each.
[FN#16] At my final interview with the committee of the Royal
Geographical Society, one member, Sir Woodbine Parish, advised an order
to be made out on the Society's bankers; another, Sir Roderick
Murchison, kindly offered to give me one on his own, Coutts & Co.; but
I, having more experience in Oriental travelling, begged only to be
furnished with a diminutive piece of paper, permitting me to draw upon
the Society.
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