Thus was another day truly orientally lost. On the morrow, however, I
obtained permission, in the character of Dr. Abdullah, to visit any
part of Egypt I pleased, and to retain possession of my dagger and
pistols.
And now I must explain what induced me to take so much trouble about a
passport. The home reader naturally inquires, Why not travel under your
English name?
For this reason. In the generality of barbarous countries you must
either proceed, like Bruce, preserving the "dignity of manhood," and
carrying matters with a high hand, or you must worm your way by
timidity and
[p.23]subservience; in fact, by becoming an animal too contemptible for
man to let or injure. But to pass through the Moslem's Holy Land, you
must either be a born believer, or have become one; in the former case
you may demean yourself as you please, in the latter a path is ready
prepared for you. My spirit could not bend to own myself a Burma,[FN#9]
a renegade-to be pointed at and shunned and catechised, an object of
suspicion to the many and of contempt to all. Moreover, it would have
obstructed the aim of my wanderings.
