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. They were
literally "out at grass." It is true that they had a scanty supply
of milk from goats, but they were living almost entirely upon
certain grass stems, which were just in season at that time of the
year. These, if not highly nourishing, are pleasant enough to the
taste, and their acid juices come gratefully to thirsty lips.
CHAPTER XV - PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN
And now Dthemetri began to enter into a negotiation with my hosts
for a passage over the river. I never interfered with my worthy
dragoman upon these occasions, because from my entire ignorance of
the Arabic I should have been quite unable to exercise any real
control over his words, and it would have been silly to break the
stream of his eloquence to no purpose.
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