Although We Were Now Some Hundred
Feet, To Judge By The Water-Shed, Above The Level Of The Sea, The
Mid-Day Sun Scorched Even Through The Tent; Our Frail Tenement Was More
Than Once Blown Down, And The Heat Of The Sand Made The Work Of
Repitching It Painful.
Again my companions, after breakfasting, hurried
to the coffee-house, and returned one after the other with dispiriting
reports.
Then they either quarrelled desperately about nothing, or they
threw themselves on their rugs, pretending to sleep in very sulkiness.
The lady Maryam soundly rated her surly son for refusing to fill her
chibuk for the twelfth time that morning, with the usual religious
phrases, "Allah direct thee into the right way, O my son!"-meaning that
he was going to the bad, and "O my calamity, thy mother is a lone
woman, O Allah!"-equivalent to the
[p.265] European parental plaint about grey hairs being brought down in
sorrow to the grave. Before noon a small caravan which followed us came
in with two dead bodies,-a trooper shot by the Badawin, and an Albanian
killed by sun-stroke, or the fiery wind.[FN#1] Shortly after mid-day a
Caravan, travelling in an opposite direction, passed by us; it was
composed chiefly of Indian pilgrims, habited in correct costume, and
hurrying towards Meccah in hot haste. They had been allowed to pass
unmolested, because probably a pound sterling could not have been
collected from a hundred pockets, and Sa'ad the Robber sometimes does a
cheap good deed. But our party,
[p.266] having valuables with them, did not seem to gather heart from
this event. In the evening we all went out to see some Arab Shaykhs who
were travelling to Bir Abbas in order to receive their salaries.
Without such douceurs, it is popularly said and believed, no stone
walls could enable a Turk to hold Al-Hijaz against the hill-men. Such
was our system in Afghanistan-most unwise, teaching in limine the
subject to despise rulers subject to blackmail. Besides which, these
highly paid Shaykhs do no good. When a fight takes place or a road is
shut, they profess inability to restrain their clansmen; and the richer
they are, of course the more formidable they become. The party looked
well; they were Harb, dignified old men in the picturesque Arab
costume, with erect forms, fierce thin features, and white beards, well
armed, and mounted upon high-bred and handsomely equipped dromedaries
from Al-Shark.[FN#2] Preceded by their half-naked clansmen, carrying
spears twelve or thirteen feet long, garnished with single or double
tufts of black ostrich feathers, and ponderous matchlocks, which were
discharged on approaching the fort, they were not without a kind of
barbaric pomp.
Immediately after the reception of these Shaykhs, there was a parade of
the Arnaut Irregular horse. About 500 of them rode out to the sound of
the Nakus or little kettle-drum, whose puny notes strikingly contrasted
with this really martial sight.
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