Khyas! Khyas[FN#9]!"
And lastly, we lie down upon our cribs, wrapped up in thickly padded
cotton coverlets; we forget the troubles of the past day, and we care
nought for the discomforts of that to come.
Late on the evening of the 11th July we passed in sight of the narrow
mouth of Al-'Akabah, whose famosi rupes are a terror to the voyagers of
these latitudes. Like the Gulf of Cambay, here a tempest is said to be
always brewing, and men raise their hands to pray as they cross it. We
had no storm that day from without, but a fierce one was about to burst
within our ship. The essence of Oriental discipline is personal respect
based upon fear. Therefore it often happens that the commanding
officer,
[p.213] if a mild old gentleman, is the last person whose command is
obeyed,-his only privilege being that of sitting apart from his
inferiors. And such was the case with our Rais. On the present
occasion, irritated by the refusal of the Maghrabis to stand out of the
steerman's way, and excited by the prospect of losing sight of shore
for a whole day, he threatened one of the fellows with his slipper. It
required all our exertions, even to a display of the dreaded
quarter-staves, to calm the consequent excitement. After passing
Al-'Akabah, we saw nothing but sea and sky, and we spent a weary night
and day tossing upon the waters, our only exercise; every face
brightened as, about sunset on the 12th July, we suddenly glided into
the mooring-place.
Marsa (anchorage) Damghah,[FN#10] or rather Dumayghah, is scarcely
visible from the sea. An islet of limestone rock defends the entrance,
leaving a narrow passage to the south. It is not before he enters that
the mariner discovers the extent and the depth of this creek, which
indents far into the land, and offers 15 to 20 feet of fine clear
anchorage which no swell can reach. Inside it looks more like a lake,
and at night its colour is gloriously blue as Geneva itself. I could
not help calling to mind, after dinner, the old school lines
"Est in secessu longo locus; insula portum
Efficit objectu laterum; quibus omnis ab alto
Frangitur, inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos."
Nothing was wanted but the "atrum nemus." Where however, shall we find
such luxuries in arid Arabia?
The Rais, as usual, attempted to deter us from landing, by romancing
about the "Bedoynes and Ascopards," representing them to be "folke
ryghte felonouse and foule and of cursed kynde." To which we replied by
shouldering our Nabbuts and scrambling into the cock-boat
[p.214] On shore we saw a few wretched-looking beings, Juhaynah[FN#11]
or Hutaym, seated upon heaps of dried wood, which they sold to
travellers; and three boat-loads of Syrian pilgrims who had preceded
us. We often envied them their small swift craft, with their double
latine sails disposed in "hare-ears" which, about eventide in the far
distance, looked like a white gull alighting upon the purple wave; and
they justified our jealousy by arriving at Yambu' two days before us.
The pilgrims had bivouacked upon the beach, and were engaged in
drinking their after-dinner coffee. They received us with all the
rights of hospitality, as natives of Al-Madinah should everywhere be
received; we sat an hour with them, ate a little fruit, satisfied our
thirst, smoked their pipes, and when taking leave blessed them. Then
returning to the vessel we fed, and lost no time in falling asleep.
The dawn of the next day saw our sail flapping in the idle air. And it
was not without difficulty that in the course of the forenoon we
entered Wijh Harbour, distant from Dumayghah but very few miles.
Al-Wijh is also a natural anchorage, in no way differing from that
where we passed the night, except in being smaller and shallower and
less secure. From this place to Cairo the road is safe. The town is a
collection of round huts meanly built of round stones, and clustering
upon a piece of elevated rock on the northern side of the creek. It is
[p.215] distant about six miles from the inland fort of the same name,
which receives the Egyptian caravan, and which thrives, like its port,
by selling water and provisions to pilgrims. The little bazar, almost
washed by every high tide, provided us with mutton, rice, baked bread,
and the other necessaries of life at a moderate rate. Luxuries also
were to be found: a druggist sold me an ounce of opium at a Chinese
price.
With reeling limbs we landed at Al-Wijh,[FN#12] and finding a large
coffee-house above and near the beach, we installed ourselves there.
But the Persians who preceded us had occupied all the shady places
outside, and were correcting their teeth with their case knives; we
were forced to content ourselves with the interior. It was a building
of artless construction, consisting of little but a roof supported by
wooden posts, roughly hewn from date trees: round the tamped earthen
floor ran a raised bench of unbaked brick, forming a diwan for mats and
sleeping-rugs. In the centre a huge square Mastabah, or platform,
answered a similar purpose. Here and there appeared attempts at long
and side walls, but these superfluities had been allowed to admit
daylight through large gaps. In one corner stood the apparatus of the
"Kahwahji," an altar-like elevation, also of earthen-work, containing a
hole for a charcoal fire, upon which were three huge coffee-pots
dirtily tinned. Near it were ranged the Shishas, or Egyptian hookahs,
old, exceedingly unclean, and worn by age and hard work.
