The Sheik Hinted That His Tribe Was
Likely To Sustain An Almost Overwhelming Blow, But At The Same Time
Declared, That No Fear Of The Consequences, However Terrible To Him
And His Whole People, Should Induce Him To Dream Of Abandoning His
Illustrious Guest.
The heroine instantly took her part:
It was
not for her to be a source of danger to her friends, but rather to
her enemies, so she resolved to turn away from the people, and
trust for help to none save only her haughty self. The Sheiks
affected to dissuade her from so rash a course, and fairly told her
that although they (having been freed from her presence) would be
able to make good terms for themselves, yet that there were no
means of allaying the hostility felt towards her, and that the
whole face of the desert would be swept by the horsemen of her
enemies so carefully, as to make her escape into other districts
almost impossible. The brave woman was not to be moved by terrors
of this kind, and bidding farewell to the tribe which had honoured
and protected her, she turned her horse's head and rode straight
away from them, without friend or follower. Hours had elapsed, and
for some time she had been alone in the centre of the round
horizon, when her quick eye perceived some horsemen in the
distance. The party came nearer and nearer; soon it was plain that
they were making towards her, and presently some hundreds of
Bedouins, fully armed, galloped up to her, ferociously shouting,
and apparently intending to take her life at the instant with their
pointed spears. Her face at the time was covered with the yashmak,
according to Eastern usage, but at the moment when the foremost of
the horsemen had all but reached her with their spears, she stood
up in her stirrups, withdrew the yashmak that veiled the terrors of
her countenance, waved her arm slowly and disdainfully, and cried
out with a loud voice "Avaunt!" {18} The horsemen recoiled from
her glance, but not in terror. The threatening yells of the
assailants were suddenly changed for loud shouts of joy and
admiration at the bravery of the stately Englishwoman, and festive
gunshots were fired on all sides around her honoured head. The
truth was, that the party belonged to the tribe with which she had
allied herself, and that the threatened attack as well as the
pretended apprehension of an engagement had been contrived for the
mere purpose of testing her courage. The day ended in a great
feast prepared to do honour to the heroine, and from that time her
power over the minds of the people grew rapidly. Lady Hester
related this story with great spirit, and I recollect that she put
up her yashmak for a moment in order to give me a better idea of
the effect which she produced by suddenly revealing the awfulness
of her countenance.
With respect to her then present mode of life, Lady Hester informed
me, that for her sin she had subjected herself during many years to
severe penance, and that her self-denial had not been without its
reward. "Vain and false," said she, "is all the pretended
knowledge of the Europeans - their doctors will tell you that the
drinking of milk gives yellowness to the complexion; milk is my
only food, and you see if my face be not white." Her abstinence
from food intellectual was carried as far as her physical fasting.
She never, she said, looked upon a book or a newspaper, but trusted
alone to the stars for her sublime knowledge; she usually passed
the nights in communing with these heavenly teachers, and lay at
rest during the daytime. She spoke with great contempt of the
frivolity and benighted ignorance of the modern Europeans, and
mentioned in proof of this, that they were not only untaught in
astrology, but were unacquainted with the common and every-day
phenomena produced by magic art. She spoke as if she would make me
understand that all sorcerous spells were completely at her
command, but that the exercise of such powers would be derogatory
to her high rank in the heavenly kingdom. She said that the spell
by which the face of an absent person is thrown upon a mirror was
within the reach of the humblest and most contemptible magicians,
but that the practice of such-like arts was unholy as well as
vulgar.
We spoke of the bending twig by which, it is said, precious metals
may be discovered. In relation to this, the prophetess told me a
story rather against herself, and inconsistent with the notion of
her being perfect in her science; but I think that she mentioned
the facts as having happened before the time at which she attained
to the great spiritual authority which she now arrogated. She told
me that vast treasures were known to exist in a situation which she
mentioned, if I rightly remember, as being near Suez; that
Napoleon, profanely brave, thrust his arm into the cave containing
the coveted gold, and that instantly his flesh became palsied, but
the youthful hero (for she said he was great in his generation) was
not to be thus daunted; he fell back characteristically upon his
brazen resources, and ordered up his artillery; but man could not
strive with demons, and Napoleon was foiled. In after years came
Ibrahim Pasha, with heavy guns, and wicked spells to boot, but the
infernal guardians of the treasure were too strong for him. It was
after this that Lady Hester passed by the spot, and she described
with animated gesture the force and energy with which the divining
twig had suddenly leaped in her hands. She ordered excavations,
and no demons opposed her enterprise; the vast chest in which the
treasure had been deposited was at length discovered, but lo and
behold, it was full of pebbles! She said, however, that the times
were approaching in which the hidden treasures of the earth would
become available to those who had true knowledge.
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