During The Discussion I Remained Lying In Front Of My Baggage,
Which Had All Been Taken From The Pack-Saddles And Placed Upon The
Ground.
I was so languid from want of food, that I had scarcely
animation enough to feel as deeply interested as you would suppose
in the result of the discussion.
I thought, however, that the
pleasantest toys to play with during this interval were my pistols,
and now and then, when I listlessly visited my loaded barrels with
the swivel ramrods, or drew a sweet, musical click from my English
firelocks, it seemed to me that I exercised a slight and gentle
influence on the debate. Thanks to Ibrahim Pasha's terrible
visitation the men of the tribe were wholly unarmed, and my
advantage in this respect might have counterbalanced in some
measure the superiority of numbers.
Mysseri (not interpreting in Arabic) had no duty to perform, and he
seemed to be faint and listless as myself. Shereef looked
perfectly resigned to any fate. But Dthemetri (faithful terrier!)
was bristling with zeal and watchfulness. He could not understand
the debate, which indeed was carried on at a distance too great to
be easily heard, even if the language had been familiar; but he was
always on the alert, and now and then conferring with men who had
straggled out of the assembly. At last he found an opportunity of
making a proposal, which at once produced immense sensation; he
offered, on my behalf, that if the tribe should bear themselves
loyally towards me, and take my party and my baggage in safety to
the other bank of the river, I should give them a teskeri, or
written certificate of their good conduct, which might avail them
hereafter in the hour of their direst need. This proposal was
received and instantly accepted by all the men of the tribe there
present with the utmost enthusiasm. I was to give the men, too, a
baksheish, that is, a present of money, which is usually made upon
the conclusion of any sort of treaty; but although the people of
the tribe were so miserably poor, they seemed to look upon the
pecuniary part of the arrangement as a matter quite trivial in
comparison with the teskeri. Indeed the sum which Dthemetri
promised them was extremely small, and not the slightest attempt
was made to extort any further reward.
The council now broke up, and most of the men rushed madly towards
me, and overwhelmed me with vehement gratulations; they caressed my
boots with much affection, and my hands were severely kissed.
The Arabs now went to work in right earnest to effect the passage
of the river. They had brought with them a great number of the
skins which they use for carrying water in the desert; these they
filled with air, and fastened several of them to small boughs which
they cut from the banks of the river. In this way they constructed
a raft not more than about four or five feet square, but rendered
buoyant by the inflated skins which supported it.
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