“Are These Afghan Manners, Effendim?” He Enquired From The
Shugduf Behind Me.
“Yes,” I replied aloud, “in my country we always dine
before an attack of robbers, because that gentry is in the habit of
sending men to bed supperless.” The Shaykh laughed aloud, but those
around him looked offended.
I thought the bravado this time mal place;
but a little event which took place on my way to Jeddah proved that it
was not quite a failure.
As we advanced, our escort took care to fire every large dry Asclepias,
to disperse the shades which buried us. Again the scene became wondrous
wild:—
“Full many a waste I’ve wander’d o’er,
Clomb many a crag, cross’d many a shore,
But, by my halidome,
A scene so rude, so wild as this,
Yet so sublime in barrenness,
Ne’er did my wandering footsteps press,
Where’er I chanced to roam.”
On either side were ribbed precipices, dark, angry, and towering above,
till their summits mingled with the glooms of night; and between them
formidable looked the chasm, down which our host hurried with shouts
and discharges of matchlocks. The torch-smoke and the night-fires of
flaming Asclepias formed a canopy, sable
[p.146] above and livid red below; it hung over our heads like a sheet,
and divided the cliffs into two equal parts. Here the fire flashed
fiercely from a tall thorn, that crackled and shot up showers of sparks
into the air; there it died away in lurid gleams, which lit up a truly
Stygian scene. As usual, however, the picturesque had its
inconveniences. There was no path. Rocks, stone-banks, and trees
obstructed our passage. The camels, now blind in darkness, then dazzled
by a flood of light, stumbled frequently; in some places slipping down
a steep descent, in others sliding over a sheet of mud. There were
furious quarrels and fierce language between camel-men and their
hirers, and threats to fellow-travellers; in fact, we were united in
discord. I passed that night crying, “Hai! Hai!” switching the camel, and
fruitlessly endeavouring to fustigate Mas’ud’s nephew, who resolutely slept
upon the water-bags. During the hours of darkness we made four or five
halts, when we boiled coffee and smoked pipes; but man and beasts were
beginning to suffer from a deadly fatigue.
Dawn (Saturday, Sept. 10th) found us still travelling down the Fiumara,
which here is about a hundred yards broad. The granite hills on both
sides were less precipitous; and the borders of the torrent-bed became
natural quays of stiff clay, which showed a water-mark of from twelve
to fifteen feet in height. In many parts the bed was muddy; and the
moist places, as usual, caused accidents. I happened to be looking back
at Shaykh Abdullah, who was then riding in old Ali bin Ya Sin’s fine
Shugduf; suddenly the camel’s four legs disappeared from under him, his
right side flattening the ground, and the two riders were pitched
severally out of the smashed vehicle.
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