Still Less Would It Be To The Purpose To Describe The Latter Details Of
Haji Mahomet’S Career, His Return To Cairo, His Accompanying Mr. Bankes
To Upper Egypt And Syria, And His Various Trips To Aleppo, Kurdistan,
The
[P.401] Sa’id, the great Oasis, Nabathaea, Senna’ar, and Dongola.
We
concede to him the praise claimed by his translator, that he was a
traveller to no ordinary extent; but beyond this we cannot go. He was
so ignorant that he had forgotten to write[FN#21]; his curiosity and
his powers of observation keep pace with his knowledge[FN#22]; his
moral character as it appears in print is of that description which
knows no sense of shame: it is not candour but sheer insensibility
which makes him relate circumstantially his repeated desertions, his
betrayal of Fatimah, and his various plunderings.
[FN#1] He describes the Harim as containing “the females of different
countries, all of them young, and all more or less attractive, and the
merriest creatures I ever saw.” His narration proves that affection and
fidelity were not wanting there.
[FN#2] Mr. Bankes, Finati’s employer and translator, here comments upon
Ali Bey’s assertion, “Even to travellers in Mahometan countries, I look
upon the safety of their journey as almost impossible, unless they have
previously submitted to the rite.” Ali Bey is correct; the danger is
doubled by non-compliance with the custom. Mr. Bankes apprehends that
“very few renegadoes do submit to it.” In bigoted Moslem countries, it is
considered a sine qua non.
[FN#3] See Chap.
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