He said that if I wished it he would willingly
threaten them with death, but he also said that if he threatened,
HE SHOULD EXECUTE THE THREAT.
Thinking at last that nothing was to be gained by keeping the
prisoners any longer in confinement, I requested that they might be
set free. To this the Governor acceded, though only, as he said,
out of favour to me, for he had a strong impression that the men
were guilty. I went down to see the prisoners let out with my own
eyes. They were very grateful, and fell down to the earth, kissing
my boots. I gave them a present to console them for their wounds,
and they seemed to be highly delighted.
Although the matter terminated in a manner so satisfactory to the
principal sufferers, there were symptoms of some angry excitement
in the place: it was said that public opinion was much shocked at
the fact that Mahometans had been beaten on account of a loss
sustained by a Christian. My journey was to recommence the next
day, and it was hinted that if I preservered in my intention of
proceeding, the people would have an easy and profitable
opportunity of wreaking their vengeance on me. If ever they formed
any scheme of the kind, they at all events refrained from any
attempt to carry it into effect.
One of the evenings during my stay at Suez was enlivened by a
triple wedding. There was a long and slow procession. Some
carried torches, and others were thumping drums and firing pistols.
The bridegrooms came last, all walking abreast. My only reason for
mentioning the ceremony (which was otherwise uninteresting) is,
that I scarcely ever in all my life saw any phenomena so ridiculous
as the meekness and gravity of those three young men whilst being
"led to the altar."
CHAPTER XXIII - SUEZ TO GAZA
The route over the Desert from Suez to Gaza is not frequented by
merchants, and is seldom passed by a traveller. This part of the
country is less uniformly barren than the tracts of shifting sand
that lie on the El Arish route. The shrubs on which the camel
feeds are more frequent, and in many spots the sand is mingled with
so much of productive soil, as to admit the growth of corn. The
Bedouins are driven out of this district during the summer by the
total want of water, but before the time for their forced departure
arrives they succeed in raising little crops of barley from these
comparatively fertile patches of ground. They bury the fruit of
their labours, leaving marks by which, upon their return, they may
be able to recognise the spot. The warm, dry sand stands them for
a safe granary. The country at the time I passed it (in the month
of April) was pretty thickly sprinkled with Bedouins expecting
their harvest. Several times my tent was pitched alongside of
their encampments. I have told you already what the impressions
were which these people produced upon my mind.
I saw several creatures of the antelope kind in this part of the
Desert, and one day my Arabs surprised in her sleep a young gazelle
(for so I called her), and took the darling prisoner. I carried
her before me on my camel for the rest of the day, and kept her in
my tent all night. I did all I could to coax her, but the
trembling beauty refused to touch food, and would not be comforted.
Whenever she had a seeming opportunity of escaping she struggled
with a violence so painfully disproportioned to her fine, delicate
limbs, that I could not continue the cruel attempt to make her my
own. In the morning, therefore, I set her free, anticipating some
pleasure from seeing the joyous bound with which, as I thought, she
would return to her native freedom. She had been so stupefied,
however, by the exciting events of the preceding day and night, and
was so puzzled as to the road she should take, that she went off
very deliberately, and with an uncertain step. She went away quite
sound in limb, but her intellect may have been upset. Never in all
likelihood had she seen the form of a human being until the
dreadful moment when she woke from her sleep and found herself in
the grip of an Arab. Then her pitching and tossing journey on the
back of a camel, and lastly, a soiree with me by candlelight! I
should have been glad to know, if I could, that her heart was not
utterly broken.
My Arabs were somewhat excited one day by discovering the fresh
print of a foot - the foot, as they said, of a lion. I had no
conception that the lord of the forest (better known as a crest)
ever stalked away from his jungles to make inglorious war in these
smooth plains against antelopes and gazelles. I supposed that
there must have been some error of interpretation, and that the
Arabs meant to speak of a tiger. It appeared, however, that this
was not the case. Either the Arabs were mistaken, or the noble
brute, uncooped and unchained, had but lately crossed my path.
The camels with which I traversed this part of the Desert were very
different in their ways and habits from those that you get on a
frequented route. They were never led. There was not the
slightest sign of a track in this part of the Desert, but the
camels never failed to choose the right line. By the direction
taken at starting they knew, I suppose, the point (some encampment)
for which they were to make. There is always a leading camel
(generally, I believe, the eldest), who marches foremost, and
determines the path for the whole party.
