THE 22nd July was a grand trial of temper to our little party. The
position of Bir Abbas exactly resembles that of Al-Hamra, except that
the bulge of the hill-girt Fiumara is at this place about two miles
wide. There are the usual stone-forts and palm-leaved hovels for the
troopers, stationed here to hold the place and to escort travellers,
with a coffee-shed, and a hut or two, called a bazar, but no village.
Our encamping ground was a bed of loose sand, with which the violent
Samum filled the air; not a tree or a bush was in sight; a species of
hardy locust and swarms of flies were the only remnants of animal life:
the scene was a caricature of Sind. Although we were now some hundred
feet, to judge by the water-shed, above the level of the sea, the
mid-day sun scorched even through the tent; our frail tenement was more
than once blown down, and the heat of the sand made the work of
repitching it painful. Again my companions, after breakfasting, hurried
to the coffee-house, and returned one after the other with dispiriting
reports. Then they either quarrelled desperately about nothing, or they
threw themselves on their rugs, pretending to sleep in very sulkiness.
The lady Maryam soundly rated her surly son for refusing to fill her
chibuk for the twelfth time that morning, with the usual religious
phrases, "Allah direct thee into the right way, O my son!"-meaning that
he was going to the bad, and "O my calamity, thy mother is a lone
woman, O Allah!"-equivalent to the
[p.265] European parental plaint about grey hairs being brought down in
sorrow to the grave. Before noon a small caravan which followed us came
in with two dead bodies,-a trooper shot by the Badawin, and an Albanian
killed by sun-stroke, or the fiery wind.[FN#1] Shortly after mid-day a
Caravan, travelling in an opposite direction, passed by us; it was
composed chiefly of Indian pilgrims, habited in correct costume, and
hurrying towards Meccah in hot haste. They had been allowed to pass
unmolested, because probably a pound sterling could not have been
collected from a hundred pockets, and Sa'ad the Robber sometimes does a
cheap good deed. But our party,
[p.266] having valuables with them, did not seem to gather heart from
this event. In the evening we all went out to see some Arab Shaykhs who
were travelling to Bir Abbas in order to receive their salaries.
Without such douceurs, it is popularly said and believed, no stone
walls could enable a Turk to hold Al-Hijaz against the hill-men. Such
was our system in Afghanistan-most unwise, teaching in limine the
subject to despise rulers subject to blackmail. Besides which, these
highly paid Shaykhs do no good. When a fight takes place or a road is
shut, they profess inability to restrain their clansmen; and the richer
they are, of course the more formidable they become. The party looked
well; they were Harb, dignified old men in the picturesque Arab
costume, with erect forms, fierce thin features, and white beards, well
armed, and mounted upon high-bred and handsomely equipped dromedaries
from Al-Shark.[FN#2] Preceded by their half-naked clansmen, carrying
spears twelve or thirteen feet long, garnished with single or double
tufts of black ostrich feathers, and ponderous matchlocks, which were
discharged on approaching the fort, they were not without a kind of
barbaric pomp.
Immediately after the reception of these Shaykhs, there was a parade of
the Arnaut Irregular horse. About 500 of them rode out to the sound of
the Nakus or little kettle-drum, whose puny notes strikingly contrasted
with this really martial sight. The men, it is true, were mounted on
lean Arab and Egyptian nags, ragged-looking as their clothes; and each
trooper was armed
[p.267] in his own way, though all had swords, pistols and matchlocks,
or firelocks of some kind. But they rode hard as Galway "buckeens," and
there was a gallant reckless look about the fellows which prepossessed
me strongly in their favour. Their animals, too, though notable
"screws," were well trained, and their accoutrements were intended for
use, not show. I watched their manoeuvres with curiosity. They left
their cantonments one by one, and, at the sound of the tom-tom, by
degrees formed a "plump" or "herse"-column[FN#3] it could not be
called-all huddled together in confusion. Presently the little
kettle-drum changed its note and the parade its aspect. All the serried
body dispersed as would Light Infantry, now continuing their advance,
then hanging back, then making a rush, and all the time keeping up a
hot fire upon the enemy. At another signal they suddenly put their
horses to full speed, and, closing upon the centre, again advanced in a
dense mass. After three-quarters of an hour parading, sometimes
charging singly, often in bodies, to the right, to the left, and
straight in front, halting when requisite, and occasionally retreating,
Parthian-like, the Arnauts turned en masse towards their lines. As they
neared them, all broke off and galloped in, ventre a terre, discharging
their shotted guns with much recklessness against objects assumed to
denote the enemy. But ball-cartridge seemed to be plentiful hereabouts;
during the whole of this and the next day, I remarked that bullets,
notched for noise, were fired away in mere fun.[FN#4]
[p.268] Barbarous as these movements may appear to the Cavalry Martinet
of the "good old school," yet to something of the kind will the tactics
of that arm of the service, I humbly opine, return, when the perfect
use of the rifle, the revolver, and field artillery shall have made the
present necessarily slow system fatal. Also, if we adopt the common
sense opinion of a modern writer,[FN#5] and determine that "individual
prowess, skill in single combats, good horsemanship, and sharp swords
render cavalry formidable," these semi-barbarians are wiser in their
generation than the civilised, who never practise arms (properly so
called), whose riding-drill never made a good rider, whose horses are
over-weighted, and whose swords are worthless. They have yet another
point of superiority over us; they cultivate the individuality of the
soldier, whilst we strive to make him a mere automaton. In the days of
European chivalry, battles were a system of well-fought duels. This was
succeeded by the age of discipline, when, to use the language of
Rabelais, "men seemed rather a consort of organ-pipes, or mutual
concord of the wheels of a clock, than an infantry and cavalry, or army
of soldiers." Our aim should now be to combine the merits of both
systems; to make men individually
[p.269] excellent in the use of weapons, and still train them to act
naturally and habitually in concert. The French have given a model to
Europe in the Chasseurs de Vincennes,-a body capable of most perfect
combination, yet never more truly excellent than when each man is
fighting alone. We, I suppose, shall imitate them at some future
time.[FN#6]
A distant dropping of fire-arms ushered in the evening of our first
melancholy day at Bir Abbas. This, said my companions, was a sign that
the troops and the hill-men were fighting. They communicated the
intelligence, as if it ought to be an effectual check upon my
impatience to proceed; it acted, however, in the contrary way. I
supposed that the Badawin, after battling out the night, would be less
warlike the next day; the others, however, by no means agreed in
opinion with me. At Yambu' the whole party had boasted loudly that the
people of Al-Madinah could keep their Badawin in order, and had twitted
the boy Mohammed with their superiority in this respect to his
townsmen, the Meccans. But now that a trial was impending, I saw none
of the fearlessness so conspicuous when peril was only possible. The
change was charitably to be explained by the presence of their
valuables; the "Sahharahs," like conscience, making cowards of them
all. But the young Meccan, who, having sent on his box by sea from
Yambu'
[p.270] to Jeddah, felt merry, like the empty traveller, would not lose
the opportunity to pay off old scores. He taunted the Madinites till
they stamped and raved with fury. At last, fearing some violence, and
feeling answerable for the boy's safety to his family, I seized him by
the nape of his neck and the upper posterior portion of his nether
garments, and drove him before me into the tent.
When the hubbub had subsided, and all sat after supper smoking the pipe
of peace in the cool night air, I rejoined my companions, and found
them talking, as usual, about old Shaykh Sa'ad. The scene was
appropriate for the subject. In the distance rose the blue peak said to
be his eyrie, and the place was pointed out with fearful meaning. As it
is inaccessible to strangers, report has converted it into another
garden of Iram. A glance, however, at its position and formation
satisfied me that the bubbling springs, the deep forests, and the
orchards of apple-trees, quinces and pomegranates, with which my
companions furnished it, were a "myth," whilst some experience of Arab
ignorance of the art of defence suggested to me strong doubts about the
existence of an impregnable fortress on the hill-top. The mountains,
however, looked beautiful in the moonlight, and distance gave them a
semblance of mystery well suited to the themes which they inspired.
That night I slept within my Shugduf, for it would have been mere
madness to sleep on the open plain in a place so infested by banditti.
The being armed is but a poor precaution near this robbers' den. If you
wound a man in the very act of plundering, an exorbitant sum must be
paid for blood-money. If you kill him, even to save your life, then
adieu to any chance of escaping destruction. Roused three or four times
during the night by jackals and dogs prowling about our little camp, I
observed that my companions, who had agreed amongst themselves to keep
watch by turns, had all
[p.271] fallen into a sound sleep. However, when we awoke in the
morning, the usual inspection of goods and chattels showed that nothing
was gone.
The next day (July 23rd) was a forced halt, a sore stimulant to the
traveller's ill-humour; and the sun, the sand, the dust, the furious
Samum, and the want of certain small supplies, aggravated our
grievance. My sore foot had been inflamed by a dressing of onion skin
which the lady Maryam had insisted upon applying to it.[FN#7] Still
being resolved to push forward by any conveyance that could be
procured, I offered ten dollars for a fresh dromedary to take me on to
Al- Madinah. Shaykh Hamid also declared he would leave his box in
charge of a friend and accompany me. Sa'ad the Demon flew into a
passion at the idea of any member of the party escaping the general
evil; and he privily threatened Mohammed to cut off the legs of any
camel that ventured into camp. This, the boy-who, like a boy of the
world as he was, never lost an opportunity of making mischief-instantly
communicated to me, and it brought on a furious dispute. Sa'ad was
reproved and apologised for by the rest of the party; and presently he
himself was pacified, principally, I believe, by the intelligence that
no camel was to be hired at Bir Abbas. One of the Arnaut garrison, who
had obtained leave to go to Al-Madinah, came to ask us if we could
mount him, as otherwise he should be obliged to walk the whole way.
With him we debated the propriety of attempting a passage through the
hills by one of the many by-paths that traverse them: the project was
amply discussed, and duly rejected.