THE CAÏMMACÂM
Though the reason of our coming, the Sheykh Yûsuf, had deserted us, we
rode into the town and spent the night there, finding lodgings at a
khan upon the outskirts of the place, of which the yard was shaded by
a fine old carob tree. While we were having breakfast the next morning
in a kind of gallery which looked into the branches of that tree, and
through them and a ruined archway to the road, crowded just then with
peasants in grey clothing coming in to market, Suleymân proposed that
he and I should go and call upon the Caïmmacâm, the local Governor. I
had spent a wretched night. The place was noisy and malodorous. My one
desire was to be gone as soon as possible, and so I answered:
'I will call on no one. My only wish to see him was upon account of
that old rogue who ran away from us.'
'The man was certainly ungrateful--curse his father!' said Rashîd.
'The man is to be pitied, being ignorant,' said Suleymân. 'His one
idea was to defend his house and land by combat. He did not perceive
that by the course of law and influence he might defend them more
effectually, and for ever. He probably did not imagine that your
Honour would yourself approach the Governor and plead with him.'
'I shall see nobody,' I answered crossly. 'We return at once.'
'Good,' said Rashîd. 'I get the horses ready.'
'And yet,' said our preceptor thoughtfully, 'his Excellency is, they
say, a charming man; and this would be a golden opportunity for us to
get acquainted with him and bespeak his favour. Thus the Sheykh Yûsuf,
though himself contemptible, may be of service to us. Already I have
told the people here that we have come on an important errand to the
Governor. Rashîd, too, as I know, has spoken of the matter in a
boastful way. If, after that, we should depart in dudgeon without
seeing him, there would be gossip and perhaps--God knows--even
political disturbance. The Governor, coming to hear of it, might
reasonably feel aggrieved.'
He argued so ridiculously, yet so gravely, that in the end I was
obliged to yield. And so, a little before ten o'clock, we sauntered
through the narrow streets to the Government offices--a red-roofed,
whitewashed building near which soldiers loitered, in a dusty square.
There we waited for a long while in an ante-room--spacious, but rather
dingy, with cushionless divans around the walls, on which a strange
variety of suitors sat or squatted. Some of these appeared so poor
that I admired their boldness in demanding audience of the Governor.
Yet it was one of the most wretched in appearance who was called first
by the turbaned, black-robed usher. He passed into an inner room: the
door was shut.
Then Suleymân went over to the usher, who kept guard upon that door,
and held a whispered conversation with him. I know not what he said;
but, when the wretched-looking man came out again, the usher slipped
into the inner room with reverence and, presently returning, bowed to
us and bade us enter. I went in, followed by Suleymân, who swelled
and strutted like a pouter pigeon in his flowing robes.
The Caïmmacâm was a nice-looking Turk of middle-age, extremely neat in
his apparel and methodical in his surroundings. He might have been an
Englishman but for the crimson fez upon his brow and a chaplet of red
beads, with which he toyed perpetually. He gazed into my eyes with
kind inquiry. I told him that I came with tidings of a grave
disturbance in his district, and then left Suleymân to tell the story
of Sheykh Yûsuf and his neighbours and the battle we had witnessed in
the olive grove before his house.
Suleymân exhausted all his powers of language and of wit, making a
veritable poem of the episode. The Governor did not appear profoundly
interested.
'Sheykh Yûsuf! Who is he?' he asked at the conclusion of the tale.
I explained that the Sheykh Yûsuf was a landowner, whose acquaintance
we had made through my desire to buy some property.
'Your Honour thinks of settling here among us?' cried his Excellency,
with sudden zest, appearing quite enraptured with the notion. He
asked then if the French tongue was intelligible to me, and, hearing
that it was, talked long in French about my project, which seemed to
please him greatly. He said that it would be a blessing for his
district to have a highly civilised, enlightened being like myself
established in it as the sun and centre of improvement; and what a
comfort it would be to him particularly to have an educated man at
hand to talk to! He hoped that, when I had set up my model farm--for a
model it would be, in every way, he felt quite sure of that, from my
appearance and my conversation--I would not limit my attention solely
to the work of agriculture, but would go on to improve the native
breeds of sheep and oxen. He heard that splendid strains of both were
found in England. He wished me to import a lot of English bulls and
rams, assuring me of the assistance of the Government in all that I
might do in that direction, since the Sultan ('His Imperial Majesty'
he called him always) took the greatest interest in such experiments.
All this was very far from my original design, which was to lead as
far as possible a quiet life. But I promised to give thought to all
his Excellency's counsels.
He made me smoke two cigarettes and drink a cup of coffee which his
secretary had prepared upon a brazier in a corner of the room; and
then, with a sweet smile and deprecating gestures of the hands, he
begged me to excuse him if he closed the interview. It was a grief to
him to let me go, but he was very busy.
I rose at once, and so did Suleymân.
'But what of the Sheykh Yûsuf?' I exclaimed, reminding him.
'Ah, to be sure!' rejoined the Governor with a slight frown. 'Of what
religion is he?'
'I suppose a Druze.'
'And the people who attacked him so unmercifully?'
'Are Druzes too.'
'Ah, then, it is all in the family, as the saying goes. And, unless
some deputation from the Druze community appeals to me, I should be
ill-advised to interfere in its affairs. Our way of government is not
identical with that which is pursued with such conspicuous success in
highly civilised and settled countries like your own. We leave the
various communities and tribes alone to settle their internal
differences. It is only where tribe wars on tribe, religion on
religion, or their quarrels stop the traffic on the Sultan's highway
that we intervene. What would you have, mon ami? We are here in Asia!'
With these words, and a smile of quite ineffable indulgence for my
young illusions, his Excellency bowed me out.
In the ante-room Suleymân drew close to my left ear and whispered
sharply:
'Give me four mejîdis.'
'Whatever for?' I asked in deep amazement.
'That I will tell you afterwards. The need is instant.'
I produced the four mejîdis from a trouser-pocket, and, receiving
them, he went back to the door by which the usher stood, and whispered
to the man, who went inside a moment and came back with the private
secretary of the Caïmmacâm. The compliments which passed between them
seemed to me interminable.
I paced the pavement of the waiting-room, the only figure in the crowd
whose attitude bespoke impatience. The others sat or squatted round
the walls in perfect resignation, some of them smoking, others
munching nuts of various kinds, of which the shells began to hide the
floor adjacent to them. A few of the suppliants had even had the
forethought to bring with them bags full of provisions, as if
anticipating that their time of waiting might endure for several days.
At last, when I was growing really angry with him, Suleymân returned
and told me:
'All is well, and we can now be going, if your Honour pleases.'
'I do please,' I rejoined indignantly. 'Why have you kept me waiting
all this while? I never wished to come at all into this place, and
Allah knows that we have done no good by coming. We have spoilt a
morning which we might have spent upon the road.'
'Allah, Allah!' sighed Suleymân long-sufferingly. 'Your Honour is
extremely hard to please. Did not his Excellency talk to you
exclusively, with every sign of the most lively pleasure for quite
half an hour; whereas he scarcely deigned to throw a word to me,
although I wooed his ear with language calculated to seduce the mind
of kings? I have some cause to be dejected at neglect from one so
powerful; but you have every cause to be elated. He is now your
friend.'
'I shall never see him in my life again most likely!' I objected.
'Nay, that you cannot tell,' replied my mentor suavely. 'To be
acquainted with a person in authority is always well.'