[p.458] travels in Syria, where the orders of the Pasha of Damascus were
much slighted in several of the districts under his dominion.
A fortnight before I set out for Mount Sinai I had applied to the Pasha
through his Dragoman, for a letter to the Bedouin Sheikh; but I was kept
waiting for it day after day, and after thus delaying my departure a
whole week, I was at last obliged to set off without it. The want of it
was the cause of some embarrassment to me, and prevented me from
reaching Akaba. It is not improbable that on being applied to for the
letter, the Pasha gave the same answer as he gave at Tayf, when I asked
him for a Firmahn, namely, that as I was sufficiently acquainted with
the language and manners of the Arabs, I needed no further
recommendation.
The Arabs of Mount Sinai usually alight at Cairo in the quarter called
El Djemelye, where some of them are almost constantly to be found.
Having gone thither, I met with the same Bedouin with whom I had come
last year from Tor to Cairo; I hired two camels from him for myself and
servant, and laid in provisions for about six weeks consumption. We left
Cairo on the evening of the 20th of April, and slept that night among
the ruined tombs of the village called Kayt Beg, a mile from the city.
From this village, at which the Bedouins usually alight, the caravans
for Suez often depart; it is also the resort of smugglers from Suez and
Syria.
April 21st.We set out from Kayt Beg in the course of the morning, in
the company of a caravan bound for Suez, comprising about twenty camels,
some of which belonged to Moggrebyn pilgrims, who had come by sea from
Tunis to Alexandria; the others to a Hedjaz merchant, and to the
Bedouins of Mount Sinai, who had brought passengers from Suez to Cairo,
and were now returning with corn to their mountains. As I knew the
character of these Bedouins by former experience, and that the road was
perfectly