When At Last I Was Able To Attempt To Dive, The Salts
Held In Solution Made My Eyes Smart So Sharply, That The Pain Which
I Thus Suffered, Together With The Weakness Occasioned By Want Of
Food, Made Me Giddy And Faint For Some Moments, But I Soon Grew
Better.
I knew beforehand the impossibility of sinking in this
buoyant water, but I was surprised to find that I
Could not swim at
my accustomed pace; my legs and feet were lifted so high and dry
out of the lake, that my stroke was baffled, and I found myself
kicking against the thin air instead of the dense fluid upon which
I was swimming. The water is perfectly bright and clear; its taste
detestable. After finishing my attempts at swimming and diving, I
took some time in regaining the shore, and before I began to dress
I found that the sun had already evaporated the water which clung
to me, and that my skin was thickly encrusted with salts.
CHAPTER XIV - THE BLACK TENTS
My steps were reluctantly turned towards the north. I had ridden
some way, and still it seemed that all life was fenced and barred
out from the desolate ground over which I was journeying. On the
west there flowed the impassable Jordan, on the east stood an
endless range of barren mountains, and on the south lay that desert
sea that knew not the plashing of an oar; greatly therefore was I
surprised when suddenly there broke upon my ear the long,
ludicrous, persevering bray of a donkey. I was riding at this time
some few hundred yards ahead of all my party except the Nazarene
(who by a wise instinct kept closer to me than to Dthemetri), and I
instantly went forward in the direction of the sound, for I fancied
that where there were donkeys, there too most surely would be men.
The ground on all sides of me seemed thoroughly void and lifeless,
but at last I got down into a hollow, and presently a sudden turn
brought me within thirty yards of an Arab encampment. The low
black tents which I had so long lusted to see were right before me,
and they were all teeming with live Arabs - men, women, and
children.
I wished to have let my party behind know where I was, but I
recollected that they would be able to trace me by the prints of my
horse's hoofs in the sand, and having to do with Asiatics, I felt
the danger of the slightest movement which might be looked upon as
a sign of irresolution. Therefore, without looking behind me,
without looking to the right or to the left, I rode straight up
towards the foremost tent. Before this was strewed a semicircular
fence of dead boughs, through which there was an opening opposite
to the front of the tent. As I advanced, some twenty or thirty of
the most uncouth-looking fellows imaginable came forward to meet
me. In their appearance they showed nothing of the Bedouin blood;
they were of many colours, from dingy brown to jet black, and some
of these last had much of the negro look about them. They were
tall, powerful fellows, but awfully ugly. They wore nothing but
the Arab shirts, confined at the waist by leathern belts.
I advanced to the gap left in the fence, and at once alighted from
my horse. The chief greeted me after his fashion by alternately
touching first my hand and then his own forehead, as if he were
conveying the virtue of the touch like a spark of electricity.
Presently I found myself seated upon a sheepskin, which was spread
for me under the sacred shade of Arabian canvas. The tent was of a
long, narrow, oblong form, and contained a quantity of men, women,
and children so closely huddled together, that there was scarcely
one of them who was not in actual contact with his neighbour. The
moment I had taken my seat the chief repeated his salutations in
the most enthusiastic manner, and then the people having gathered
densely about me, got hold of my unresisting hand and passed it
round like a claret jug for the benefit of every body. The women
soon brought me a wooden bowl full of buttermilk, and welcome
indeed came the gift to my hungry and thirsty soul.
After some time my party, as I had expected, came up, and when poor
Dthemetri saw me on my sheepskin, "the life and soul" of this
ragamuffin party, he was so astounded, that he even failed to check
his cry of horror; he plainly thought that now, at last, the Lord
had delivered me (interpreter and all) into the hands of the lowest
Philistines.
Mysseri carried a tobacco-pouch slung at his belt, and as soon as
its contents were known the whole population of the tent began
begging like spaniels for bits of the beloved weed. I concluded
from the abject manner of these people that they could not possibly
be thoroughbred Bedouins, and I saw, too, that they must be in the
very last stage of misery, for poor indeed is the man in these
climes who cannot command a pipeful of tobacco. I began to think
that I had fallen amongst thorough savages, and it seemed likely
enough that they would gain their very first knowledge of
civilisation by ravishing and studying the contents of my dearest
portmanteaus, but still my impression was that they would hardly
venture upon such an attempt. I observed, indeed, that they did
not offer me the bread and salt which I had understood to be the
pledges of peace amongst wandering tribes, but I fancied that they
refrained from this act of hospitality, not in consequence of any
hostile determination, but in order that the notion of robbing me
might remain for the present an "open question." I afterwards
found that the poor fellows had no bread to offer.
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