At Length, About The End Of May (1853) All Was Ready.
Not without a
feeling of regret I left my little room among the white myrtle blossoms
and the rosy oleander flowers with the almond smell.
I kissed with
humble ostentation my good host's hand in presence of his servants-he
had become somewhat unpleasantly anxious, of late, to induce in me the
true Oriental feeling, by a slight administration of the bastinado-I
bade adieu to my patients, who now amounted to about fifty, shaking
hands with all meekly and with religious equality of attention; and,
mounted in a "trap" which looked like a cross between a wheel-barrow
and a dog-cart, drawn by a kicking, jibbing, and biting mule, I set out
for the steamer, the "Little Asthmatic."
[FN#1] The long pipe which at home takes the place of the shorter
chibuk used on the road.
[FN#2] The jubbah is a long outer garment, generally of cloth, worn by
learned and respectable men. The za'abut is a large bag-sleeved black
or brown coloured robe made of home-spun woollen, the garb of the
peasant, the hedge-priest, and the darwaysh.
[FN#3] The mountain which encircles the globe, according to the sacred
geography of the Moslems. To "go to Kaf" is equivalent to our "go to
Jericho," or-somewhere else.
[FN#4] Sir G. Wilkinson, referring his readers to Strabo, remarks that
the "troublesome system of passports seems to have been adopted by the
Egyptians at a very early period." Its present rigours, which have
lasted since the European troubles in 1848 and 1849, have a two-fold
object; in the first place, to act as a clog upon the dangerous
emigrants which Germany, Italy, and Greece have sent out into the
world; and secondly, to confine the subjects of the present Pasha of
Egypt to their fatherland and the habit of paying taxes.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 43 of 571
Words from 12074 to 12393
of 157964
