It Was Always,
However, With A Sort Of Zoological Expression Of Countenance That
They Looked On The Horrible Monster From
Europe, and whenever one
of them gave me to see for one sweet instant the blushing of her
unveiled face,
It was with the same kind of air as that with which
a young, timid girl will edge her way up to an elephant and
tremblingly give him a nut from the tips of her rosy fingers.
CHAPTER XXV - MARIAM
There is no spirit of propagandism in the Mussulmans of the Ottoman
dominions. True it is that a prisoner of war, or a Christian
condemned to death, may on some occasions save his life by adopting
the religion of Mahomet, but instances of this kind are now
exceedingly rare, and are quite at variance with the general
system. Many Europeans, I think, would be surprised to learn that
which is nevertheless quite true, namely, that an attempt to
disturb the religious repose of the empire by the conversion of a
Christian to the Mahometan faith is positively illegal. The event
which now I am going to mention shows plainly enough that the
unlawfulness of such interference is distinctly recognised even in
the most bigoted stronghold of Islam.
During my stay at Nablus I took up my quarters at the house of the
Greek "papa" as he is called, that is, the Greek priest. The
priest himself had gone to Jerusalem upon the business I am going
to tell you of, but his wife remained at Nablus, and did the
honours of her home.
Soon after my arrival a deputation from the Greek Christians of the
place came to request my interference in a matter which had
occasioned vast excitement.
And now I must tell you how it came to happen, as it did
continually, that people thought it worth while to claim the
assistance of a mere traveller, who was totally devoid of all just
pretensions to authority or influence of even the humblest
description, and especially I must explain to you how it was that
the power thus attributed did really belong to me, or rather to my
dragoman. Successive political convulsions had at length fairly
loosed the people of Syria from their former rules of conduct, and
from all their old habits of reliance. The violence and success
with which Mehemet Ali crushed the insurrection of the Mahometan
population had utterly beaten down the head of Islam, and
extinguished, for the time at least, those virtues and vices which
had sprung from the Mahometan faith. Success so complete as
Mehemet Ali's, if it had been attained by an ordinary Asiatic
potentate, would have induced a notion of stability. The readily
bowing mind of the Oriental would have bowed low and long under the
feet of a conqueror whom God had thus strengthened. But Syria was
no field for contests strictly Asiatic. Europe was involved, and
though the heavy masses of Egyptian troops, clinging with strong
grip to the land, might seem to hold it fast, yet every peasant
practically felt, and knew, that in Vienna or Petersburg or London
there were four or five pale-looking men who could pull down the
star of the Pasha with shreds of paper and ink. The people of the
country knew, too, that Mehemet Ali was strong with the strength of
the Europeans - strong by his French general, his French tactics,
and his English engines. Moreover, they saw that the person, the
property, and even the dignity of the humblest European was guarded
with the most careful solicitude. The consequence of all this was,
that the people of Syria looked vaguely, but confidently, to Europe
for fresh changes. Many would fix upon some nation, France or
England, and steadfastly regard it as the arriving sovereign of
Syria. Those whose minds remained in doubt equally contributed to
this new state of public opinion, which no longer depended upon
religion and ancient habits, but upon bare hopes and fears. Every
man wanted to know, not who was his neighbour, but who was to be
his ruler; whose feet he was to kiss, and by whom HIS feet were to
be ultimately beaten. Treat your friend, says the proverb, as
though he were one day to become your enemy, and your enemy as
though he were one day to become your friend. The Syrians went
further, and seemed inclined to treat every stranger as though he
might one day become their Pasha. Such was the state of
circumstances and of feeling which now for the first time had
thoroughly opened the mind of Western Asia for the reception of
Europeans and European ideas. The credit of the English especially
was so great, that a good Mussulman flying from the conscription,
or any other persecution, would come to seek from the formerly
despised hat that protection which the turban could no longer
afford; and a man high in authority (as, for instance, the Governor
in command of Gaza) would think that he had won a prize, or at all
events, a valuable lottery ticket, if he obtained a written
approval of his conduct from a simple traveller.
Still, in order that any immediate result should follow from all
this unwonted readiness in the Asiatic to succumb to the European,
it was necessary that some one should be at hand who could see and
would push the advantage. I myself had neither the inclination nor
the power to do so, but it happened that Dthemetri, who as my
dragoman represented me on all occasions, was the very person of
all others best fitted to avail himself with success of this
yielding tendency in the Oriental mind. If the chance of birth and
fortune had made poor Dthemetri a tailor during some part of his
life, yet religion and the literature of the Church which he served
had made him a man, and a brave man too. The lives of saints with
which he was familiar were full of heroic actions provoking
imitation, and since faith in a creed involves a faith in its
ultimate triumph, Dthemetri was bold from a sense of true strength.
His education too, though not very general in its character, had
been carried quite far enough to justify him in pluming himself
upon a very decided advantage over the great bulk of the Mahometan
population, including the men in authority.
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