The Only
Society We Found, Excepting An Occasional Visitor, Was That Of A Party
Of Egyptian Women, Who With Their Husbands And Families Occupied Some
Rooms Adjoining Ours.
At first they were fierce, and used bad language,
when the boy Mohammed and I,-whilst Omar Effendi was engaged in prayer,
and the rest were wandering about the town,-ventured to linger in the
cool passage, where they congregated, or to address a facetious phrase
to them.
But hearing that I was a Hakim-bashi-for fame had promoted me
to the rank of a "Physician General" at Suez-all discovered some
ailments. They began prudently with requesting me to display the
effects of my drugs by dosing myself, but they ended submissively by
swallowing the nauseous compounds. To this succeeded a primitive form
of flirtation, which mainly consisted of the demand direct. The most
charming of the party was one Fattumah[FN#18], a plump-personed dame,
fast verging upon her thirtieth year, fond of a little flattery, and
possessing, like all her people, a most voluble tongue. The refrain of
every conversation was "Marry me, O Fattumah! O daughter! O female
pilgrim!" In vain the lady would reply, with a coquettish movement of
the sides, a toss of the head, and a flirting manipulation of her
head-veil,
[p.175]"I am mated, O young man!"-it was agreed that she, being a
person of polyandrous propensities, could support the weight of at
least three matrimonial engagements. Sometimes the entrance of the male
Fellahs[FN#19] interrupted these little discussions, but people of our
respectability and nation were not to be imposed upon by such husbands.
In their presence we only varied the style of conversation-inquiring
the amount of "Mahr," or marriage settlement, deriding the cheapness of
womanhood in Egypt, and requiring to be furnished on the spot with
brides at the rate of ten shillings a head.[FN#20] More often the
amiable Fattumah-the fair sex in this country, though passing frail,
have the best tempers in the world-would laugh at our impertinences.
Sometimes vexed by our imitating her Egyptian accent, mimicking her
gestures, and depreciating her country-women,[FN#21] she would wax
wroth, and order us to be gone, and stretch out her forefinger-a sign
that she wished to put out our eyes, or adjure Allah to cut the hearts
out of our bosoms. Then
[p.176]the "Marry me, O Fattumah, O daughter, O female pilgrim!" would
give way to Y'al Ago-o-oz! (O old woman and decrepit!) "O daughter of
sixty sires, and fit only to carry wood to market!"-whereupon would
burst a storm of wrath, at the tail of which all of us, like children,
starting upon our feet, rushed out of one another's way. But-"qui se
dispute, s'adore"-when we again met all would be forgotten, and the old
tale be told over de novo. This was the amusement of the day. At night
we men, assembling upon the little terrace, drank tea, recited stories,
read books, talked of our travels, and indulged in various
pleasantries. The great joke was the boy Mohammed's abusing all his
companions to their faces in Hindustani, which none but Shaykh Nur and
I could understand; the others, however, guessed his intention, and
revenged themselves by retorts of the style uncourteous in the purest
Hijazi.
I proceed to offer a few more extracts from Mr. Levick's letter about
Suez and the Suezians. "It appears that the number of pilgrims who pass
through Suez to Meccah has of late been steadily on the decrease. When
I first came here (in 1838) the pilgrims who annually embarked at this
port amounted to between 10,000 and 12,000, the shipping was more
numerous, and the merchants were more affluent.[FN#22] I have
ascertained from a special register kept in the government archives
that in the Moslem year 1268 (A.D. 1851-52) the exact number that
passed through was 4893."
"In 1269 A.H. (A.D. 1852-53) it had shrunk to 3136. The natives assign
the falling off to various causes, which
[p.177]I attribute chiefly to the indirect effect of European
civilisation upon the Moslem powers immediately in contact with it. The
heterogeneous mass of pilgrims is composed of people of all classes,
colours, and costumes. One sees among them, not only the natives of
countries contiguous to Egypt, but also a large proportion of Central
Asians from Bokhara, Persia, Circassia, Turkey, and the Crimea, who
prefer this route by way of Constantinople to the difficult, expensive
and dangerous caravan-line through the Desert from Damascus and
Baghdad. The West sends us Moors, Algerines, and Tunisians, and Inner
Africa a mass of sable Takrouri,[FN#23] and others from Bornou, the
Sudan,[FN#24] Ghadamah near the Niger, and Jabarti from the
Habash.[FN#25]"
"The Suez ship-builders are an influential body of men, originally
Candiots and Alexandrians. When Mohammed Ali fitted out his fleet for
the Hijaz war, he transported a number of Greeks to Suez, and the
children now exercise their fathers' craft. There are at present three
great builders at this place. Their principal difficulty
[p.178]is the want of material. Teak comes from India[FN#26] via
Jeddah, and Venetian boards, owing to the expense of camel-transport,
are a hundred per cent. dearer here than at Alexandria. Trieste and
Turkey supply spars, and Jeddah canvas: the sail-makers are Suez men,
and the crews a mongrel mixture of Arabs and Egyptians; the Rais, or
captain, being almost invariably, if the vessel be a large one, a
Yambu' man. There are two kinds of craft, distinguished from each other
by tonnage, not by build. The Baghlah[FN#27] (buggalow), is a vessel
above fifty tons burden, the Sambuk (a classical term) from fifteen to
fifty. The shipowner bribes the Amir al-Bahr, or port-captain, and the
Nazir al-Safayn, or the captain commanding the government vessels, to
rate his ship as high as possible; if he pay the price, he will be
allowed nine ardebs to the ton.[FN#28] The number of ships belonging to
the port of Suez amounts to 92; they vary from 25 to 250 tons.
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