A Few Weeks
Before Ibrahim Had Craftily Sent A Body Of Troops Across The
Jordan.
The force went warily round to the foot of the mountains
on the east, so as to cut off
The retreat of this tribe, and then
surrounded them as they lay encamped in the vale; their camels, and
indeed all their possessions worth taking, were carried off by the
soldiery, and moreover the then Sheik, together with every tenth
man of the tribe, was brought out and shot. You would think that
this conduct on the part of the Pasha might not procure for his
"friend" a very gracious reception amongst the people whom he had
thus despoiled and decimated; but the Asiatic seems to be animated
with a feeling of profound respect, almost bordering upon
affection, for all who have done him any bold and violent wrong,
and there is always, too, so much of vague and undefined
apprehension mixed up with his really well-founded alarms, that I
can see no limit to the yielding and bending of his mind when it is
wrought upon by the idea of power.
After some discussion the Arabs agreed, as I thought, to conduct me
to a ford, and we moved on towards the river, followed by seventeen
of the most able-bodied of the tribe, under the guidance of several
grey-bearded elders, and Sheik Ali Djoubran at the head of the
whole detachment. Upon leaving the encampment a sort of ceremony
was performed, for the purpose, it seemed, of ensuring, if
possible, a happy result for the undertaking.
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