A
Pipe-Bearer Will Engage Himself For About £1 Per Mensem:
He is always a
veteran smoker, and, in these regions, it is an axiom that the flavour
of your pipe mainly depends upon the filler.
For convenience the
Persian Kaliun is generally used.
[FN#7] A day’s journey in Arabia is generally reckoned at twenty-four or
twenty-five Arab miles. Abulfeda leaves the distance of a Marhalah (or
Manzil, a station) undetermined. Al-Idrisi reckons it at thirty miles,
but speaks of short as well as long marches. The common literary
measures of length are these:—3 Kadam (man’s foot) = 1 Khatwah (pace): 1000
paces = 1 Mil (mile); 3 miles = 1 Farsakh (parasang); and 4 parasangs =
1 Barid or post. The “Burhan i Katia” gives the table thus:—24 finger
breadths (or 6 breadths of the clenched hand, from 20 to 24 inches!) =
1 Gaz or yard; 1000 yards = 1 mile; 3 miles = 1 parasang. Some call the
four thousand yards measure a Kuroh (the Indian Cos), which, however,
is sometimes less by 1000 Gaz. The only ideas of distance known to the
Badawi of Al-Hijaz are the fanciful Sa’at or hour, and the uncertain
Manzil or halt: the former varies from 2 to 3½ miles, the latter from 15
to 25.
[FN#8] “Khabt” is a low plain; “Midan,” “Fayhah,” or “Sath,” a plain generally; and
“Batha,” a low, sandy flat.
[FN#9] In Burckhardt’s day there were 5,000 souls and 15,000 camels.
Capt. Sadlier, who travelled during the war (1819), found the number
reduced to 500. The extent of this Caravan has been enormously
exaggerated in Europe. I have heard of 15,000, and even of 20,000 men.
I include in the 7,000 about 1,200 Persians. They are no longer placed,
as Abd al-Karim relates, in the rear of the Caravan, or post of danger.
[FN#10] Lane has accurately described this article: in the Hijaz it is
sometimes made to resemble a little tent.
[FN#11] The vehicle mainly regulates the expense, as it evidences a man’s
means. I have heard of a husband and wife leaving Alexandria with three
months’ provision and the sum of £5. They would mount a camel, lodge in
public buildings when possible, probably be reduced to beggary, and
possibly starve upon the road. On the other hand the minimum
expenditure,—for necessaries, not donations and luxuries,—of a man who
rides in a Takht-rawan from Damascus and back, would be about £1,200.
[FN#12] On the line of march the Mahmil, stripped of its embroidered
cover, is carried on camel-back, a mere framewood. Even the gilt silver
balls and crescent are exchanged for similar articles in brass.
[FN#13] Mahattah is a spot where luggage is taken down, i.e., a
station. By some Hijazis it is used in the sense of a halting-place,
where you spend an hour or two.
[FN#14] “Khalik ma al-Badu” is a favourite complimentary saying, among this
people, and means that you are no greasy burgher.
[FN#15] Even Europeans, in popular parlance, call them “devils.”
[FN#16] The Eastern Arabs allay the torments of thirst by a spoonful of
clarified butter, carried on journeys in a leathern bottle. Every
European traveller has some recipe of his own. One chews a
musket-bullet or a small stone. A second smears his legs with butter.
Another eats a crust of dry bread, which exacerbates the torments, and
afterwards brings relief. A fourth throws water over his face and hands
or his legs and feet; a fifth smokes, and a sixth turns his dorsal
region (raising his coat-tail) to the fire. I have always found that
the only remedy is to be patient and not to talk. The more you drink,
the more you require to drink—water or strong waters. But after the first
two hours’ abstinence you have mastered the overpowering feeling of
thirst, and then to refrain is easy.
[FN#17] We carried two small brass guns, which, on the line of march,
were dismounted and placed upon camels. At the halt they were restored
to their carriages. The Badawin think much of these harmless articles,
to which I have seen a gunner apply a match thrice before he could
induce a discharge. In a “moral” point of view, therefore, they are far
more valuable than our twelve-pounders.
[FN#18] Hereabouts the Arabs call these places “Bahr milh” or “Sea of Salt”; in
other regions “Bahr bila ma,” or “Waterless Sea.”
[FN#19] Being but little read in geology, I submitted, after my return
to Bombay, a few specimens collected on the way, to a learned friend,
Dr. Carter, Secretary to the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society. His name is a guarantee of accuracy.
[FN#20] The Arabic language has a copious terminology for the mineral
as well as the botanical productions of the country: with little
alteration it might be made to express all the requirements of our
modern geology.
[FN#21] NOTE TO THIRD EDITION.—This country may have contained gold; but
the superficial formation has long been exhausted. At Cairo I washed
some sand brought from the eastern shore of the Red Sea, north of
Al-Wijh, and found it worth my while. I had a plan for working the
diggings, but H.B.M.’s Consul, Dr. Walne, opined that “gold was becoming
too plentiful,” and would not assist me. This wise saying has since then
been repeated to me by men who ought to have known better than Dr.
Walne.
[p.76]CHAPTER XXV.
THE BADAWIN OF AL-HIJAZ.
THE Arab may be divided into three races—a classification which agrees
equally well with genesitic genealogy, the traditions of the country,
and the observations of modern physiologists.[FN#1]
[p.77]The first race, indigens or autochthones, are those sub-Caucasian
tribes which may still be met with in the province of Mahrah, and
generally along the coast between Maskat and Hazramaut.
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