The Greatest Offence Of The Wahhabis Is Their Habit Of Designating All Moslems That Belong To Any But Their Own Sect By The Opprobrious Name Of Kafirs Or Infidels.

This, however, is only the Koranic precept; in practice a much less trustful spirit prevails. [FN#8] Towards the end of the season, poor pilgrims are forwarded gratis, by order of government.

But, to make such liberality as inexpensive as possible, the Pasha compels ship-owners to carry one pilgrim per 9 ardebs (about 5 bushels each), in small, and 1 per 11 in large vessels. [FN#9] I was informed by a Prussian gentleman, holding an official appointment under His Highness the Pasha, at Cairo, that 300,000 ardebs of grain were annually exported from Kusayr to Jeddah. The rest is brought down the Nile for consumption in Lower Egypt, and export to Europe. [FN#10] The account here offered to the reader was kindly supplied to me by Henry Levick, Esq. (late Vice-Consul, and afterwards Post-master at Suez), and it may be depended upon, as coming from a resident of 16 years' standing. All the passages marked with inverted commas are extracts from a letter with which that gentleman favoured me. The information is obsolete now, but it may be interesting as a specimen of the things that were. [FN#11] The rate of freight is at present (1853) about forty shillings per ton-very near the same paid by the P. and O. Company for coals carried from Newcastle via the Cape to Suez. Were the "Farzah" abolished, freight to Jeddah would speedily fall to 15 or 16 shillings per ton. Passengers from Suez to Jeddah are sometimes charged as much as 6 or even 8 dollars for standing room-personal baggage forming another pretext for extortion-and the higher orders of pilgrims, occupying a small portion of the cabin, pay about 12 dollars. These first and second class fares would speedily be reduced, by abolishing protection, to 3 and 6 dollars. Note to Second Edition.-The "Farzah," I may here observe, has been abolished by Sa'id Pasha since the publication of these lines: the effects of "free trade" are exactly what were predicted by Mr. Levick. [FN#12] The principal trade from Suez is to Jeddah, Kusayr supplying Yambu'. The latter place, however, imports from Suez wheat, beans, cheese, biscuit, and other provisions for return pilgrims. [FN#13] My friends were strenuous in their exertions for me to make interest with Mr. West. In the first place, we should have paid less for the whole of a privileged vessel, than we did for our wretched quarters on the deck of the pilgrim-ship; and, secondly, we might have touched at any port we pleased, so as to do a little business in the way of commerce. [FN#14] Afterwards called by Sir R. F. Burton the "Golden Wire."-ED. [FN#15] For the "Sath," or poop, the sum paid by each was seven Riyals. I was, therefore, notably cheated by Sa'ad the Demon. The unhappy women in the "Kamrah," or cabin, bought suffocation at the rate of 6 dollars each, as I was afterwards informed, and the third class, in the "Taht," or amidships and forward, contributed from 3 to 5 Riyals. But, as usua1 on these occasions, there was no prix fixe; every man was either overcharged or undercharged, according to his means or his necessities. We had to purchase our own water, but the ship was to supply us with fuel for cooking. We paid nothing extra for luggage, and we carried an old Maghrabi woman gratis for good luck. [FN#16] We were still at Suez, where we could do as we pleased. But respectable Arabs in their own country, unlike Egyptians, are seldom to be seen in the places of public resort. "Go to the coffee-house and sing there!" is a reproach sometimes addressed to those who have a habit of humming in decent society. [FN#17] It was only my prestige as physician that persuaded my friend to join me in these bathings. As a general rule, the Western Arabs avoid cold water, from a belief that it causes fever. When Mr. C. Cole, H.B.M.'s Vice-Consul, arrived at Jeddah, the people of the place, seeing that he kept up his Indian habits, advised him strongly to drop them. He refused; but unhappily he soon caught a fever, which confirmed them all in their belief. When Arabs wish to cool the skin after a journey, they wash with a kind of fuller's earth called "Tafl," or with a thin paste of henna, and then anoint the body with oil or butter. [FN#18] An incrementative form of the name "Fatimah," very common in Egypt. Fatimah would mean a "weaner"-Fattumah, a "great weaner." By the same barbarism Khadijah becomes "Khaddugah"; Aminah, "Ammunah"; and Nafisah, "Naffusah," on the banks of the Nile. [FN#19] The palmy days of the Egyptian husband, when he might use the stick, the sword, or the sack with impunity, are, in civilised places at least, now gone by. The wife has only to complain to the Kazi, or to the governor, and she is certain of redress. This is right in the abstract, but in practice it acts badly. The fair sex is so unruly in this country, that strong measures are necessary to coerce it, and in the arts of deceit men have here little or no chance against women. [FN#20] The amount of settlement being, among Moslems as among Christians, the test of a bride's value,-moral and physical,-it will readily be understood that our demand was more facetious than complimentary. [FN#21] The term Misriyah (an Egyptian woman) means in Al-Hijaz and the countries about it, a depraved character. Even the men own unwillingly to being Egyptians, for the free-born never forget that the banks of the Nile have for centuries been ruled by the slaves of slaves.

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