[p.22]a room in the custom-house bore the honourable appellation of
"Foreign Office." Accordingly I went there, and, after sitting at least
a couple of hours at the bolted door in the noon-day sun, was told,
with a fury which made me think I had sinned, that the officer in whose
charge the department was, had been presented with an olive branch in
the morning, and consequently that business was not to be done that
day. The angry-faced official communicated the intelligence to a large
group of Anadolian, Caramanian, Bosniac, and Roumelian Turks,-sturdy,
undersized, broad-shouldered, bare-legged, splay-footed, horny-fisted,
dark-browed, honest-looking mountaineers, who were lounging about with
long pistols and yataghans stuck in their broad sashes, head-gear
composed of immense tarbushes with proportionate turbands coiled round
them, and bearing two or three suits of substantial clothes, even at
this season of the year, upon their shoulders.
Like myself they had waited some hours, but they were not so patient
under disappointment: they bluntly told the angry official that he and
his master were a pair of idlers, and the curses that rumbled and
gurgled in their hairy throats as they strode towards the door sounded
like the growling of wild beasts.
Thus was another day truly orientally lost. On the morrow, however, I
obtained permission, in the character of Dr. Abdullah, to visit any
part of Egypt I pleased, and to retain possession of my dagger and
pistols.
And now I must explain what induced me to take so much trouble about a
passport. The home reader naturally inquires, Why not travel under your
English name?
For this reason. In the generality of barbarous countries you must
either proceed, like Bruce, preserving the "dignity of manhood," and
carrying matters with a high hand, or you must worm your way by
timidity and
[p.23]subservience; in fact, by becoming an animal too contemptible for
man to let or injure. But to pass through the Moslem's Holy Land, you
must either be a born believer, or have become one; in the former case
you may demean yourself as you please, in the latter a path is ready
prepared for you. My spirit could not bend to own myself a Burma,[FN#9]
a renegade-to be pointed at and shunned and catechised, an object of
suspicion to the many and of contempt to all. Moreover, it would have
obstructed the aim of my wanderings. The convert is always watched with
Argus eyes, and men do not willingly give information to a "new
Moslem," especially a Frank: they suspect his conversion to be feigned
or forced, look upon him as a spy, and let him see as little of life as
possible. Firmly as was my heart set upon travelling in Arabia, by
Heaven! I would have given up the dear project rather than purchase a
doubtful and partial success at such a price. Consequently, I had no
choice but to appear as a born believer, and part of my birthright in
that respectable character was toil and trouble in obtaining a
Tazkirah.[FN#10]
Then I had to provide myself with certain necessaries for the way.
These were not numerous. The silver-mounted dressing-bag is here
supplied by a rag containing a Miswak[FN#11] or tooth-stick, a bit of
soap and a comb, wooden, for bone and tortoiseshell are not,
religiously speaking, correct. Equally simple was my wardrobe; [p.24]a
change or two of clothing. It is a great mistake to carry too few
clothes, and those who travel as Orientals should always have at least
one very grand suit for use on critical occasions. Throughout the East
a badly dressed man is a pauper, and, as in England, a pauper-unless he
belongs to an order having a right to be poor-is a scoundrel. The only
article of canteen description was a Zemzemiyah, a goat-skin water-bag,
which, especially when new, communicates to its contents a ferruginous
aspect and a wholesome, though hardly an attractive, flavour of
tanno-gelatine. This was a necessary; to drink out of a tumbler,
possibly fresh from pig-eating lips, would have entailed a certain loss
of reputation. For bedding and furniture I had a coarse Persian
rug-which, besides being couch, acted as chair, table, and oratory-a
cotton-stuffed chintz-covered pillow, a blanket in case of cold, and a
sheet, which did duty for tent and mosquito curtains in nights of
heat.[FN#12] As shade is a convenience not always procurable, another
necessary was a huge cotton umbrella of Eastern make, brightly yellow,
suggesting the idea of an overgrown marigold. I had also a substantial
housewife, the gift of a kind relative, Miss Elizabeth Stisted; it was
a roll of canvas, carefully soiled, and garnished with needles and
thread, cobblers' wax, buttons, and other such articles. These things
were most useful in lands where tailors abound not; besides which, the
sight of a man darning his coat or patching his slippers teems with
pleasing ideas of humility. A dagger,[FN#13] a brass inkstand and
pen-holder
[p.25]stuck in the belt, and a mighty rosary, which on occasion might
have been converted into a weapon of offence, completed my equipment. I
must not omit to mention the proper method of carrying money, which in
these lands should never be entrusted to box or bag. A common cotton
purse secured in a breast pocket (for Egypt now abounds in that
civilised animal, the pick-pocket!), contained silver pieces and small
change.[FN#14] My gold, of which I carried twenty-five sovereigns, and
papers, were committed to a substantial leathern belt of Maghrabi
manufacture, made to be strapped round the waist under the dress. This
is the Asiatic method of concealing valuables, and one more civilised
than ours in the last century, when Roderic Random and his companion
"sewed their money between the lining and the waist-band of their
breeches, except some loose silver for immediate
[p.26]expense on the road." The great inconvenience of the belt is its
weight, especially where dollars must be carried, as in Arabia, causing
chafes and discomfort at night. Moreover, it can scarcely be called
safe. In dangerous countries wary travellers will adopt surer
precautions.
[FN#16]
A pair of common native Khurjin, or saddle-bags, contained my wardrobe;
the bed was readily rolled up into a bundle; and for a medicine
chest[FN#17] I bought a pea-green box with red and yellow flowers,
capable of standing falls from a camel twice a day.
[p.27]The next step was to find out when the local steamer would start
for Cairo, and accordingly I betook myself to the Transit Office. No
vessel was advertised; I was directed to call every evening till
satisfied. At last the fortunate event took place: a "weekly
departure," which, by the bye, occurred once every fortnight or so, was
in orders for the next day. I hurried to the office, but did not reach
it till past noon-the hour of idleness. A little, dark gentleman-Mr.
Green-so formed and dressed as exactly to resemble a liver-and-tan
bull-terrier, who with his heels on the table was dosing, cigar in
mouth, over the last "Galignani," positively refused, after a time,-for
at first he would not speak at all,-to let me take my passage till
three in the afternoon. I inquired when the boat started, upon which he
referred me, as I had spoken bad Italian, to the advertisement. I
pleaded inability to read or write, whereupon he testily cried Alle
nove! alle nove!-at nine! at nine! Still appearing uncertain, I drove
him out of his chair, when he rose with a curse and read 8 A.M. An
unhappy Eastern, depending upon what he said, would have been precisely
one hour too late.
Thus were we lapsing into the real good old East-Indian style of doing
business. Thus Anglo-Indicus orders his first clerk to execute some
commission; the senior, having "work" upon his hands, sends a junior;
the junior finds the sun hot, and passes on the word to a "peon;" the
"peon" charges a porter with the errand; and the porter quietly sits or
doses in his place, trusting that Fate will bring him out of the
scrape, but firmly resolved, though the shattered globe fall, not to
stir an inch.
The reader, I must again express a hope, will pardon the length of
these descriptions,-my object is to show him how business is carried on
in these hot countries. Business generally. For had I been, not
Abdullah the Darwaysh, but a rich native merchant, it would have been
[p.28]the same. How many complaints of similar treatment have I heard
in different parts of the Eastern world! and how little can one realise
them without having actually experienced the evil! For the future I
shall never see a "nigger" squatting away half a dozen mortal hours in
a broiling sun patiently waiting for something or for some one, without
a lively remembrance of my own cooling of the calces at the
custom-house of Alexandria.
At length, about the end of May (1853) all was ready. Not without a
feeling of regret I left my little room among the white myrtle blossoms
and the rosy oleander flowers with the almond smell. I kissed with
humble ostentation my good host's hand in presence of his servants-he
had become somewhat unpleasantly anxious, of late, to induce in me the
true Oriental feeling, by a slight administration of the bastinado-I
bade adieu to my patients, who now amounted to about fifty, shaking
hands with all meekly and with religious equality of attention; and,
mounted in a "trap" which looked like a cross between a wheel-barrow
and a dog-cart, drawn by a kicking, jibbing, and biting mule, I set out
for the steamer, the "Little Asthmatic."
[FN#1] The long pipe which at home takes the place of the shorter
chibuk used on the road.
[FN#2] The jubbah is a long outer garment, generally of cloth, worn by
learned and respectable men. The za'abut is a large bag-sleeved black
or brown coloured robe made of home-spun woollen, the garb of the
peasant, the hedge-priest, and the darwaysh.
[FN#3] The mountain which encircles the globe, according to the sacred
geography of the Moslems. To "go to Kaf" is equivalent to our "go to
Jericho," or-somewhere else.
[FN#4] Sir G. Wilkinson, referring his readers to Strabo, remarks that
the "troublesome system of passports seems to have been adopted by the
Egyptians at a very early period." Its present rigours, which have
lasted since the European troubles in 1848 and 1849, have a two-fold
object; in the first place, to act as a clog upon the dangerous
emigrants which Germany, Italy, and Greece have sent out into the
world; and secondly, to confine the subjects of the present Pasha of
Egypt to their fatherland and the habit of paying taxes. The
enlightened ruler (this was written during the rule of Abbas Pasha)
knows his own interests, and never willingly parts with a subject
liable to cess, at times objecting even to their obeying pilgrimage
law. We, on the other hand, in India, allow a freedom of emigration, in
my humble opinion, highly injurious to us. For not only does this
exodus thin the population, and tend to impoverish the land, it also
serves to bring our rule into disrepute in foreign lands. At another
time I shall discuss this subject more fully.
[FN#5] The glare of Alexandria has become a matter of fable in the
East. The stucco employed in overlaying its walls, erected by
Zul-karnayn, was so exquisitely tempered and so beautifully polished,
that the inhabitants, in order to protect themselves from blindness,
were constrained to wear masks.
[FN#6] The word literally means "a bowman, an archer," reminding us of
"les archers de la Sainte Hermandade," in the most delicious of modern
fictions. Some mis-spell the word "Kawas," "Cavass," and so forth!
[FN#7] A whip, a cravache of dried and twisted hippopotamus hide, the
ferule, horsewhip, and "cat o' nine tails" of Egypt.
[FN#8] For "man anta?" who art thou?
[FN#9] An opprobrious name given by the Turks to their Christian
converts. The word is derived from burmak, "to twist, to turn."
[FN#10] During my journey, and since my return, some Indian papers
conducted by jocose editors made merry upon an Englishman "turning
Turk." Once for all, I beg leave to point above for the facts of the
case; it must serve as a general answer to any pleasant little fictions
which may hereafter appear.
[FN#11] A stick of soft wood chewed at one end. It is generally used
throughout the East, where brushes should be avoided, as the natives
always suspect hogs' bristles.
[FN#12] Almost all Easterns sleep under a sheet, which becomes a kind
of respirator, defending them from the dews and mosquitoes by night and
the flies by day. The "rough and ready" traveller will learn to follow
the example, remembering that "Nature is founder of Customs in savage
countries;" whereas, amongst the soi-disant civilised, Nature has no
deadlier enemy than Custom.
[FN#13] It is strictly forbidden to carry arms in Egypt. This, however,
does not prevent their being as necessary-especially in places like
Alexandria, where Greek and Italian ruffians abound-as they ever were
in Rome or Leghorn during the glorious times of Italian "liberty."
[FN#14] In the Azhar Mosque, immediately after Friday service, a fellow
once put his hand into my pocket, which fact alone is ample evidence of
"progress."
[FN#15] As a general rule, always produce, when travelling, the
minutest bit of coin. At present, however, small change is dear in
Egypt; the Sarrafs, or money-changers, create the dearth in order to
claim a high agio. The traveller must prepare himself for a most
unpleasant task in learning the different varieties of currency, which
appear all but endless, the result of deficiency in the national
circulating medium. There are, however, few copper coins, the pieces of
ten or five faddah (or parahs), whereas silver and gold abound. As
regards the latter metal, strangers should mistrust all small pieces,
Turkish as well as Egyptian. "The greater part are either cut or
cracked, or perhaps both, and worn down to mere spangles: after taking
them, it will not be possible to pass them without considerable loss."
Above all things, the traveller must be careful never to change gold
except in large towns, where such a display of wealth would not arouse
suspicion or cupidity; and on no occasion when travelling even to
pronounce the ill-omened word "Kis" (purse). Many have lost their lives
by neglecting these simple precautions.
[FN#16] Some prefer a long chain of pure gold divided into links and
covered with leather, so as to resemble the twisted girdle which the
Arab fastens round his waist. It is a precaution well known to the
wandering knights of old. Others, again, in very critical situations,
open with a lancet the shoulder, or any other fleshy part of the body,
and insert a precious stone, which does not show in its novel purse.
[FN#17] Any "Companion to the Medicine Chest" will give, to those that
require such information, the names of drugs and instruments necessary
for a journey; but it must be borne in mind that hot countries require
double quantities of tonics, and half the allowance of cathartics
necessary in cold climates. Sonnini, however, is right when he says of
the Egyptian fellahs, that their stomachs, accustomed to digest bread
badly baked, acrid and raw vegetables, and other green and unwholesome
nourishment, require doses fit only for horses. Advisable precautions
are, in the first place, to avoid, if travelling as a native, any signs
of European manufacture in knives, scissors, weights, scales and other
such articles. Secondly, glass bottles are useless: the drugs should be
stowed away in tin or wooden boxes, such as the natives of the country
use, and when a phial is required, it must be fitted into an etui of
some kind. By this means, ground glass stoppers and plentiful cotton
stuffing, the most volatile essences may be carried about without great
waste. After six months of the driest heat, in Egypt and Arabia, not
more than about one-fourth of my Prussic acid and chloroform had
evaporated. And, thirdly, if you travel in the East, a few bottles of
tincture of cantharides-highly useful as a rubefacient, excitant, et
cetera-must never be omitted. I made the mistake of buying my drugs in
England, and had the useless trouble of looking after them during the
journey. Both at Alexandria and Cairo they are to be found in
abundance, cheaper than in London, and good enough for all practical
purposes.
[p.29]CHAPTER III.