[p.201] considerably. My morning had been passed in watching the influx
of the tide, and the grotesque efforts of the Maghrabis. When the
vessel showed some symptoms of unsteadiness, I arose, walked gravely up
to her, ranged the pilgrims around her with their shoulders to the
sides, and told them to heave with might when they heard me invoke the
revered name of my patron saint. I raised my hands and voice; "Ya Piran
Pir! Ya Abd al-Kadir Jilani[FM#20]" was the signal. Each Maghrabi
worked like an Atlas, the "Golden Wire" canted half over, and, sliding
heavily through the sand, once more floated off into deep water. This
was generally voted a minor miracle, and the Effendi was respected-for
a day or two.
The wind was fair, but we had all to re-embark, an operation which went
on till noon. After starting I remarked the natural cause which gives
this Birkat Faraun-"Pharaoh's Bay,"-a bad name. Here the gulf narrows;
and the winds, which rush down the clefts and valleys of the lofty
mountains on the Eastern and Western shores, meeting tides and
counter-currents, cause a perpetual commotion. That day the foam-tipped
waves repeatedly washed over my cot, by no means diminishing its
discomforts. In the evening, or rather late in the afternoon, we
anchored, to our infinite disgust, under a ridge of rocks, behind which
lies the plain of Tur. The Rais deterred all from going on shore by
terrible stories about the Badawin that haunt the place, besides which
there was no sand to sleep upon. We remained, therefore, on board that
night; and, making sail early the next morning, we threaded through
reefs and sand-banks about noon into the intricate and dangerous
entrance of Tur.
Nothing can be meaner than the present appearance of the old Phoenician
colony, although its position as a
[p.202] harbour, and its plentiful supply of fruit and fresh water,
make it one of the most frequented places on the coast. The only
remains of any antiquity-except the wells-are the fortifications which
the Portuguese erected to keep out the Badawin. The little town lies
upon a plain that stretches with a gradual rise from the sea to the
lofty mountain-axis of the Sinaitic group. The country around
reminded me strongly of maritime Sind; a flat of clay and sand, clothed
with sparse turfs of Salsolae, and bearing strong signs of a
(geologically speaking) recent origin. The town is inhabited
principally by Greek and other Christians,[FN#21] who live by selling
water and provisions to ships. A fleecy cloud hung lightly over the
majestic head of Jabal Tur, about eventide, and the outlines of the
giant hills stood "picked out" from the clear blue sky. Our Rais,
weather-wise man, warned us that these were indications of a gale, and
that, in case of rough weather, he did not intend to leave Tur. I was
not sorry to hear this. We had passed a pleasant day, drinking sweet
water, and eating the dates, grapes, and pomegranates, which the people
of the place carry down to the beach for the benefit of hungry
pilgrims. Besides which, there were various sights to see, and with
these we might profitably spend the morrow. We therefore pitched the
tent upon the sand, and busied ourselves with
[p.203] extricating a box of provisions: the labour was rendered
lighter by the absence of the Maghrabis, some of whom were wandering
about the beach, whilst others had gone off to fill their bags with
fresh water. We found their surliness insufferable; even when we were
passing from poop to forecastle, landing or boarding, they grumbled
forth their dissatisfaction.
Our Rais was not mistaken in his prediction. The fleecy cloud on Tur's
tops had given true warning. When morning (9th July) broke, we found
the wind strong, and the sea white with foam. Most of us thought
lightly of these terrors, but our valorous captain swore that he dared
not for his life cross in such a storm the mouth of ill-omened Akabah.
We breakfasted, therefore, and afterwards set out to visit Moses' Hot
Baths, mounted on wretched donkeys with pack-saddles, ignorant of
stirrups, and without tails, whilst we ourselves suffered generally
from boils, which, as usual upon a journey, make their appearance in
localities the most inconvenient. Our road lay northward across the
plain towards a long narrow strip of date ground, surrounded by a
ruinous mud wall. After a ride of two or three miles, we entered the
gardens, and came suddenly upon the Hammam. It is a prim little Cockney
bungalow, built by Abbas Pasha of Egypt for his own accommodation;
glaringly whitewashed, and garnished with diwans and calico curtains of
a gorgeous hue. The guardian had been warned of our visit, and was
present to supply us with bathing-cloths and other necessaries. One by
one we entered the cistern, which is now in an inner room. The water is
about four feet deep, warm in winter, cool in summer, of a
saltish-bitter taste, but celebrated for its invigorating qualities,
when applied externally. On one side of the calcareous rock, near the
ground, is the hole opened for the spring by Moses' rod, which must
have been like the "mast of some tall
[p.204] Ammiral[FN#22]"; and near it are the marks of Moses' nails-deep
indentations in the stone, which were probably left there by some
extinct Saurian. Our Cicerone informed us that formerly the
finger-marks existed, and that they were long enough for a man to lie
in. The same functionary attributed the sanitary properties of the
spring to the blessings of the Prophet, and, when asked why Moses had
not made sweet water to flow, informed us that the Great Lawgiver had
intended the spring for bathing in, not for drinking. We sat with him,
eating the small yellow dates of Tur, which are delicious, melting like
honey in the mouth, and leaving a surpassing arriere gout. After
finishing sundry pipes and cups of coffee, we gave the bath-man a few
piastres, and, mounting our donkeys, started eastward for the Bir
Musa,[FN#23] which we reached in half an hour. It is a fine old work,
built round and domed over with roughly squared stones, very like what
may be seen in some rustic parts of Southern England. The sides of the
pit were so rugged that a man could climb down them, and at the bottom
was a pool of water, sweet and abundant. We had intended to stay there,
and to dine al fresco, but the hated faces of our companions, the
Maghrabis, meeting us at the entrance, nipped that project in the bud.
Accordingly we retired from the burning
[p.205] sun to a neighbouring coffee-house-a shed of palm leaves kept
by a Tur man, and there, seated on mats, we demolished the contents of
our basket. Whilst we were eating, some Badawin came in and joined us,
when invited so to do. They were poorly dressed, and all armed with
knives and cheap sabres, hanging to leathern bandoleers: in language
and demeanour they showed few remains of their old ferocity. As late as
Mohammed Ali's time these people were noted wreckers, and formerly they
were dreaded pirates: now they are lions with their fangs and claws
drawn.
In the even, when we returned to our tent, a Syrian, one of our party
on the poop, came out to meet us with the information that several
large vessels had arrived from Suez, comparatively speaking, empty, and
that the captain of one of them would land us at Yambu' for three
dollars a head. The proposal was tempting. But presently it became
apparent that my companions were unwilling to shift their precious
boxes, and moreover, that I should have to pay for those who could not
or would not pay for themselves,-that is to say, for the whole party.
As such a display of wealth would have been unadvisable, I dismissed
the idea with a sigh. Amongst the large vessels was one freighted with
Persian pilgrims, a most disagreeable race of men on a journey or a
voyage. They would not land at first, because they feared the Badawin.
They would not take water from the town people, because some of these
were Christians. Moreover, they insisted upon making their own call to
prayer, which heretical proceeding-it admits five extra words-our
party, orthodox Moslems, would rather have died than have permitted.
When their crier, a small wizen-faced man, began the Azan with a voice
"in quel tenore
Che fa il cappon quando talvolta canta,"
we received it with a shout of derision, and some, hastily
[p.206] snatching up their weapons, offered him an opportunity of
martyrdom. The Maghrabis, too, hearing that the Persians were Rafaz
(heretics) crowded fiercely round to do a little Jihad, or Fighting for
the Faith. The long-bearded men took the alarm. They were twice the
number of our small party, and therefore they had been in the habit of
strutting about with nonchalance, and looking at us fixedly, and
otherwise demeaning themselves in an indecorous way. But when it came
to the point, they showed the white feather. These Persians accompanied
us to the end of our voyage. As they approached the Holy Land, visions
of the "Nabbut" caused a change for the better in their manners. At
Mahar they meekly endured a variety of insults, and at Yambu' they
cringed to us like dogs.
[FN#1] Men of the Maghrab, or Western Africa; the vulgar plural is
Maghrabin, generally written "Mogrebyn." May not the singular form of
this word have given rise to the Latin "Maurus," by elision of the
Ghayn, to Italians an unpronounceable consonant? From Maurus comes the
Portuguese "Moro," and our "Moor." When Vasco de Gama reached Calicut,
he found there a tribe of Arab colonists, who in religion and in
language were the same as the people of Northern Africa,-for this
reason he called them "Moors." This was explained long ago by Vincent
(Periplus, lib. 3), and lately by Prichard (Natural History of Man). I
repeat it because it has been my fate to hear, at a meeting of a
learned society in London, a gentleman declare, that in Eastern Africa
he found a people calling themselves Moors. Maghrabin-Westerns,-then
would be opposed to Sharkiyin, Easterns, the origin of our "Saracen."
From Gibbon downwards many have discussed the history of this word; but
few expected in the nineteenth century to see a writer on Eastern
subjects assert, with Sir John Mandeville, that these people "properly,
ben clept Sarrazins of Sarra." The learned M. Jomard, who never takes
such original views of things, asks a curious question:-"Mais comment
un son aussi distinct que le Chine [Arabic text] aurait-il pu se
confondre avec le Syn [Arabic text] et, pour un mot aussi connu que
charq; comment aurait-on pu se tromper a l'omission des points?" Simply
because the word Saracens came to us through the Greeks (Ptolemy uses
it), who have no such sound as sh in their language, and through the
Italian which, hostile to the harsh sibilants of Oriental dialects,
generally melts sh down into s. So the historical word
Hashshashiyun-hemp-drinker,-civilised by the Italians into "assassino,"
became, as all know, an expression of European use. But if any one
adverse to "etymological fancies" objects to my deriving Maurus from
"Maghrab," let him remember Johnson's successfully tracing the course
of the metamorphosis of "dies" into "jour." An even more peculiar
change we may discover in the word "elephant." "Pilu" in Sanscrit,
became "pil" in old Persian, which ignores short final vowels; "fil,"
and, with the article, "Al-fil," in Arabic, which supplies the place of
p (an unknown letter to it), by f; and elephas in Greek, which is fond
of adding "as" to Arabic words, as in the cases of Aretas (Haris) and
Obodas (Obayd). "A name," says Humboldt, "often becoming a historical
monument, and the etymological analysis of language, however it may be
divided, is attended by valuable results."
[FN#2] The Toni or Indian canoe is the hollowed-out trunk of a
tree,-near Bombay generally a mango. It must have been the first step
in advance from that simplest form of naval architecture, the
"Catamaran" of Madras and Aden.
[FN#3] In these vessels each traveller, unless a previous bargain be
made, is expected to provide his own water and firewood. The best way,
however, is, when the old wooden box called a tank is sound, to pay the
captain for providing water, and to keep the key.
[FN#4] The "opener"-the first chapter of the Koran, which Moslems
recite as Christians do the Lord's Prayer; it is also used on occasions
of danger, the beginnings of journeys, to bind contracts, &c.
[FN#5] These Maghrabis, like the Somalis, the Wahhabis of the desert,
and certain other barbarous races, unaccustomed to tobacco, appeared to
hate the smell of a pipe.
[FN#6] The hands are raised in order to catch the blessing that is
supposed to descend from heaven upon the devotee; and the meaning of
drawing the palms down the face is symbolically to transfer the
benediction to every part of the body.
[FN#7] As is the case under all despotic governments, nothing can be
more intentionally offensive than the official manners of a superior to
his inferior in Egypt. The Indians charge their European
fellow-subjects with insolence of demeanour and coarseness of language.
As far as my experience goes, our roughness and brusquerie are mere
politeness compared with what passes between Easterns. At the same time
it must be owned that I have seen the worst of it.
[FN#8] It was far safer and more expeditious in Al-Adrisi's day (A.D.
1154), when the captain used to sit on the poop "furnished with
numerous and useful instruments"; when he "sounded the shallows, and by
his knowledge of the depths could direct the helmsman where to steer."
[FN#9] In the East it is usual, when commencing a voyage or a journey,
to make a short day's work, in order to be at a convenient distance for
returning, in case of any essential article having been forgotten.
[FN#10] A Jesuit missionary who visited the place in A.D. 1720, and
described it in a well-known volume. As every eminent author, however,
monopolises a "crossing," and since the head of the Suez creek, as is
shown by its old watermark, has materially changed within no very
distant period, it is no wonder that the question is still sub judice,
and that there it will remain most probably till the end of time. The
Christians have two equally favourite lines: the Moslems patronise one
so impossible, that it has had attractions enough to fix their choice.
It extends from Zafaran Point to Hammam Bluffs, ten miles of deep water.
[FN#11] The Hebrew name of this part of the Red Sea. In a communication
lately made to the Royal Geographical Society, I gave my reasons for
believing that the Greeks borrowed their Erythraean Sea from the Arabic
"Sea of Himyar."
[FN#12] Most travellers remark that they have never seen a brighter
blue than that of the Red Sea. It was the observation of an early age
that "the Rede Sea is not more rede than any other sea, but in some
place thereof is the gravelle rede, and therefore men clepen it the
Rede Sea."
[FN#13] Jild al-Faras (or Kamar al-Din), a composition of apricot
paste, dried, spread out, and folded into sheets, exactly resembling
the article after which it is named. Turks and Arabs use it when
travelling; they dissolve it in water, and eat it as a relish with
bread or biscuit.
[FN#14] "Pharaoh's hot baths," which in our maps are called "Hummum
Bluffs." They are truly "enchanted land" in Moslem fable: a volume
would scarcely contain the legends that have been told and written
about them. (See Note 1, p. 10, ante.)
[FN#15] One of the numerous species of what the Italians generally call
"Pasta." The material is wheaten or barley flour rolled into small
round grains. In Barbary it is cooked by steaming, and served up with
hard boiled eggs and mutton, sprinkled with red pepper. These Badawi
Maghrabis merely boiled it.
[FN#16] The Azan is differently pronounced, though similarly worded by
every orthodox nation in Al-Islam.
[FN#17] The usual way of kissing the knee is to place the finger tips
upon it, and then to raise them to the mouth. It is an action denoting
great humility, and the condescending superior who is not an immediate
master returns the compliment in the same way.
[FN#18] The Maghrabi dialect is known to be the harshest and most
guttural form of Arabic. It owes this unenviable superiority to its
frequency of "Sukun," or the quiescence of one or more
consonants;-"K'lab," for instance, for "Kilab," and "'Msik" for
"Amsik." Thus it is that vowels, the soft and liquid part of language,
disappear, leaving in their place a barbarous sounding mass of
consonants.
[FN#19] Burckhardt mentions the Arab legend that the spirits of the
drowned Egyptians may be seen moving at the bottom of the sea, and
Finati adds that they are ever busy recruiting their numbers with
shipwrecked mariners.
[FN#20] I thus called upon a celebrated Sufi or mystic, whom many
East-Indian Moslems reverence as the Arabs do their Prophet. In
Appendix I the curious reader will find Abd al-Kadir again mentioned.
[FN#21] Those people are descendants of Syrians and Greeks that fled
from Candia, Scios, the Ionian Islands, and Palestine to escape the
persecutions of the Turks. They now wear the Arab dress, and speak the
language of the country, but they are easily to be distinguished from
the Moslems by the expression of their countenances and sometimes by
their blue eyes and light hair. There are also a few families calling
themselves Jabaliyah, or mountaineers. Originally they were 100
households, sent by Justinian to serve the convent of St. Catherine,
and to defend it against the Berbers. Sultan Kansuh al-Ghori, called
by European writers Campson Gaury, the Mamluk King of Egypt, in A.D.
1501, admitted these people into the Moslem community on condition of
their continuing the menial service they had afforded to the monks.
[FN#22] Adam's forehead (says the Tarikh Tabari) brushed the skies, but
this height being inconvenient, the Lord abridged it to 100 cubits. The
Moslems firmly believe in Anakim. Josephus informs us that Moses was of
"divine form and great tallness"; the Arabs specify his stature,-300
cubits. They have, moreover, found his grave in some parts of the
country S.E, of the Dead Sea, and make cups of a kind of bitumen called
"Moses' Stones." This people nescit ignorare-it will know everything.
[FN#23] "Moses' Well." I have no argument except the untrustworthy
traditions of the Badawin, either for or against this having been the
identical well near which Moses sat when he fled from the face of
Pharaoh to the land of Midian. One thing is certain, namely, that in
this part of Arabia, as also at Aden, the wells are of a very ancient
date.
[p.207]CHAPTER XI.