My Companions Having
Received These Small Sums, Became Affectionate And Eloquent In My
Praise:
They asked me to make one of their number at meals for the
future, overwhelmed me with questions, insisted
Upon a present of
sweetmeats, detected in me a great man under a cloud,-perhaps my claims
to being a Darwaysh assisted them to this discovery,-and declared that
I should perforce be their guest at Meccah and Al-Madinah. On all
occasions precedence was forced upon me; my opinion was the first
consulted, and no project was settled without my concurrence: briefly,
Abdullah the Darwaysh suddenly found himself a person of consequence.
This elevation led me into an imprudence which might have cost me dear;
aroused the only suspicion about me ever expressed during the summer's
tour. My friends had looked at my clothes, overhauled my medicine
chest, and criticised my pistols; they sneered at my copper-cased
watch,[FN#4] and remembered having seen a compass at Constantinople.
Therefore I imagined they would think little about a sextant. This was
a mistake. The boy Mohammed, I
[p.167]afterwards learned,[FN#5] waited only my leaving the room to
declare that the would-be Haji was one of the Infidels from India, and
a council sat to discuss the case. Fortunately for me, Omar Effendi had
looked over a letter which I had written to Haji Wali that morning, and
he had at various times received categorical replies to certain
questions in high theology. He felt himself justified in declaring, ex
cathedra, the boy Mohammed's position perfectly untenable. And Shaykh
Hamid, who looked forward to being my host, guide, and debtor in
general, and probably cared scantily for catechism or creed, swore that
the light of Al-Islam was upon my countenance, and, consequently, that
the boy Mohammed was a pauper, a "fakir," an owl, a cut-off one,[FN#6]
a stranger, and a Wahhabi (heretic), for daring to impugn the faith of
a brother believer.[FN#7] The scene ended with a general abuse of the
acute youth, who was told on all sides that he had no shame, and was
directed to "fear Allah." I was struck with the expression of my
friends' countenances when they saw the sextant, and, determining with
a sigh to
[p.168]leave it behind, I prayed five times a day for nearly a week.
We all agreed not to lose an hour in securing places on board some
vessel bound for Yambu'; and my companions, hearing that my passport as
a British Indian was scarcely en regle, earnestly advised me to have it
signed by the governor without delay, whilst they occupied themselves
about the harbour. They warned me that if I displayed the Turkish
Tazkirah given me at the citadel of Cairo, I should infallibly be
ordered to await the caravan, and lose their society and friendship.
Pilgrims arriving at Alexandria, be it known to the reader, are divided
into bodies, and distributed by means of passports to the three great
roads, namely, Suez, Kusayr (Cosseir), and the Hajj route by land round
the Gulf of al-'Akabah. After the division has once been made,
government turns a deaf ear to the representations of individuals. The
Bey of Suez has an order to obstruct pilgrims as much as possible till
the end of the season, when they are hurried down that way, lest they
should arrive at Meccah too late.[FN#8] As most of the Egyptian high
officials have boats, which sail up the Nile laden with pilgrims and
return freighted with corn, the government naturally does its utmost to
force the delays and discomforts of this line upon strangers.[FN#9] And
as those who travel by the Hajj route must spend money in the Egyptian
territories at least fifteen days longer than they would if allowed to
[p.169]embark at once from Suez, the Bey very properly assists them in
the former and obstructs them in the latter case. Knowing these facts,
I felt that a difficulty was at hand. The first thing was to take
Shaykh Nur's passport, which was en regle, and my own, which was not,
to the Bey for signature. He turned the papers over and over, as if
unable to read them, and raised false hopes high by referring me to his
clerk. The under-official at once saw the irregularity of the document,
asked me why it had not been vise at Cairo, swore that under such
circumstances nothing would induce the Bey to let me proceed; and, when
I tried persuasion, waxed insolent. I feared that it would be necessary
to travel via Cosseir, for which there was scarcely time, or to
transfer myself on camel-back to the harbour of Tur, and there to await
the chance of finding a place in some half-filled vessel to
Al-Hijaz,-which would have been relying upon an accident. My last hope
at Suez was to obtain assistance from Mr. West, then H.B.M.'s
Vice-Consul, and since made Consul. I therefore took the boy Mohammed
with me, choosing him on purpose, and excusing the step to my
companions by concocting an artful fable about my having been, in
Afghanistan, a benefactor to the British nation. We proceeded to the
Consulate. Mr. West, who had been told by imprudent Augustus Bernal to
expect me, saw through the disguise, despite jargon assumed to satisfy
official scruples, and nothing could be kinder than the part he took.
His clerk was directed to place himself in communication with the Bey's
factotum; and, when objections to signing the Alexandrian Tazkirah were
offered, the Vice-Consul said that he would, at his own risk, give me a
fresh passport as a British subject from Suez to Arabia. His firmness
prevailed: on the second day, the documents were returned to me in a
satisfactory state. I take a pleasure in owning this obligation to Mr.
West: in the course of my wanderings, I have often
[p.170] received from him open-hearted hospitality and the most
friendly attentions.
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