I meant to have written to you by Arthur Taylor, who left for Cairo
yesterday morning, but the Simoom made me so stupid that I could hardly
finish a letter to Alick. So I begin one to-day to recount the wonders
of the season here. I went over to Mustapha's island to spend the day in
the tent, or rather the hut, of dourrah-stalks and palm-branches, which
he has erected there for the threshing and winnowing. He had invited me
and 'his worship' the Maohn to a picnic. Only imagine that it _rained_!
all day, a gentle slight rain, but enough to wet all the desert. I
laughed and said I had brought English weather, but the Maohn shook his
head and opined that we were suffering the anger of God. Rain in
summer-time was quite a terror. However, we consoled ourselves, and
Mustapha called a nice little boy to recite the 'noble Koran' for our
amusement, and out of compliment to me he selected the chapter of the
family of Amran (the history of Jesus), and recited it with marvellous
readiness and accuracy. A very pleasant-mannered man of the Shourafa of
Gurneh came and joined us, and was delighted because I sent away a pipe
which Abdurachman brought me (it is highly improper to smoke while the
Koran is being read or recited). He thanked me for the respect, and I
told him I knew he would not smoke in a church, or while I prayed; why
should I? It rather annoys me to find that they always expect from us
irreverence to their religion which they would on no account be guilty of
to ours. The little boy was a _fellah_, the child of my friend Omar, who
has lost all his cattle, but who came as pleasant and smiling as ever to
kiss my hand and wait upon me. After that the Maohn read the second
chapter, 'the Cow,' in a rather nasal, quavering chant. I perceived that
no one present understood any of it, except just a few words here and
there--not much more than I could follow myself from having read the
translation. I think it is not any nearer spoken Arabic than Latin is to
Italian. After this, Mustapha, the Maohn, Omar, Sally and I, sat down
round the dinner-tray, and had a very good dinner of lamb, fowls and
vegetables, such as bahmias and melucheeah, both of the mallow order, and
both excellent cooked with meat; rice, stewed apricots (mish-mish), with
nuts and raisins in it, and cucumbers and water-melons strewed the
ground. One eats all _durcheinander_ with bread and fingers, and a spoon
for the rice, and green limes to squeeze over one's own bits for sauce.
We were very merry, if not very witty, and the Maohn declared,
'_Wallahi_! the English are fortunate in their customs, and in the
enjoyment of the society of learned and excellent _Hareemat_;' and Omar,
lying on the rushes, said: 'This is the happiness of the Arab. Green
trees, sweet water, and a kind face, make the "garden"' (paradise), an
Arab saying. The Maohn joked him as to how a 'child of Cairo' could
endure _fellah_ life. I was looking at the heaps of wheat and thinking
of Ruth, when I started to hear the soft Egyptian lips utter the very
words which the Egyptian girl spake more than a thousand years ago:
'Behold my mother! where she stays I stay, and where she goes I will go;
her family is my family, and if it pleaseth God, nothing but the
Separator of friends (death) shall divide me from her.' I really could
not speak, so I kissed the top of Omar's turban, Arab fashion, and the
Maohn blessed him quite solemnly, and said: 'God reward thee, my son;
thou hast honoured thy lady greatly before thy people, and she has
honoured thee, and ye are an example of masters and servants, and of
kindness and fidelity;' and the brown labourers who were lounging about
said: 'Verily, it is true, and God be praised for people of excellent
conduct.' I never expected to feel like Naomi, and possibly many English
people might only think Omar's unconscious repetition of Ruth's words
rather absurd, but to me they sounded in perfect harmony with the life
and ways of this country and these people, who are so full of tender and
affectionate feelings, when they have not been crushed out of them. It
is not humbug; I have seen their actions. Because they use grand
compliments, Europeans think they are never sincere, but the compliments
are not meant to deceive, they only profess to be forms. Why do the
English talk of the beautiful sentiment of the Bible and pretend to feel
it so much, and when they come and see the same life before them they
ridicule it.
[Picture: Omar, 1864, from a photograph]
_Tuesday_.--We have a family quarrel going on. Mohammed's wife, a girl
of eighteen or so, wanted to go home on Bairam day for her mother to wash
her head and unplait her hair. Mohammed told her not to leave him on
that day, and to send for a woman to do it for her; whereupon she cut off
her hair, and Mohammed, in a passion, told her to 'cover her face' (that
is equivalent to a divorce) and take her baby and go home to her father's
house. Ever since he has been mooning about the yard and in and out of
the kitchen very glum and silent. This morning I went into the kitchen
and found Omar cooking with a little baby in his arms, and giving it
sugar. 'Why what is that?' say I. 'Oh don't say anything. I sent
Achmet to fetch Mohammed's baby, and when he comes here he will see it,
and then in talking I can say so and so, and how the man must be good to
the _Hareem_, and what this poor, small girl do when she big enough to
ask for her father.' In short, Omar wants to exercise his diplomacy in
making up the quarrel. After writing this I heard Mohammed's low, quiet
voice, and Omar's boyish laugh, and then silence, and went to see the
baby and its father. My kitchen was a pretty scene. Mohammed, in his
ample brown robes and white turban, lay asleep on the floor with the
baby's tiny pale face and little eyelids stained with kohl against his
coffee-brown cheek, both fast asleep, baby in her father's arms. Omar
leant against the _fournaise_ in his house-dress, a white shirt open at
the throat and white drawers reaching to the knees, with the red tarboosh
and red and yellow _kufyeh_ (silk handkerchief) round it turban-wise,
contemplating them with his great, soft eyes. The two young men made an
excellent contrast between Upper and Lower Egypt. Mohammed is the true
Arab type--coffee-brown, thin, spare, sharp-featured, elegant hands and
feet, bright glittering small eyes and angular jaw--not a handsome Arab,
but _bien characterise_. Omar, the colour of new boxwood or old ivory,
pale, with eyes like a cow, full lips, full chin and short nose, not the
least negro, but perfectly Egyptian, the eyes wide apart--unlike the
Arab--moustache like a woman's eyebrow, curly brown hair, bad hands and
feet and not well made, but graceful in movement and still more in
countenance, very inferior in beauty to the pure Arab blood which
prevails here, but most sweet in expression. He is a true _Akh-ul-Benat_
(brother of girls), and truly chivalrous to _Hareem_. How astonished
Europeans would be to hear Omar's real opinion of their conduct to women.
He mentioned some Englishman who had divorced his wife and made her
frailty public. You should have seen him spit on the floor in
abhorrence. Here it is quite blackguard not to forfeit the money and
take all the blame in a divorce.
_Friday_.--We have had better weather again, easterly wind and pretty
cool, and I am losing the cough and languor which the damp of the Simoom
brought me. Sheykh Yussuf has just come back from Keneh, whither he and
the Kadee went on their donkeys for some law business. He took our
saddle bags at Omar's request, and brought us back a few pounds of sugar
and some rice and tobacco (isn't it like Fielding's novels?). It is two
days' journey, so they slept in the mosque at Koos half way. I told
Yussuf how Suleyman's child has the smallpox and how Mohammed only said
it was _Min Allah_ (from God) when I suggested that his baby should be
vaccinated at once. Yussuf called him in and said: 'Oh man, when thou
wouldst build a house dost thou throw the bricks in a heap on the ground
and say the building thereof is from God, or dost thou use the brains and
hands which God has given thee, and then pray to Him to bless thy work?
In all things do the best of thy understanding and means, and then say
_Min Allah_, for the end is with Him!' There is not a pin to choose in
fatalism here between Muslim and Christian, the lazy, like Mohammed and
Suleyman (one Arab the other Copt), say _Min Allah_ or any form of dawdle
you please; but the true Muslim doctrine is just what Yussuf laid
down--'do all you can and be resigned to whatever be the result.' _Fais
ce que dois advienne qui pourra_ is good doctrine. In fact, I am very
much puzzled to discover the slightest difference between Christian and
Muslim morality or belief--if you exclude certain dogmas--and in fact,
very little is felt here. No one attempts to apply different standards
of morals or of piety to a Muslim and a Copt. East and West is the
difference, not Muslim and Christian. As to that difference I could tell
volumes. Are they worse? Are they better? Both and neither. I am,
perhaps, not quite impartial, because I am _sympathique_ to the Arabs and
they to me, and I am inclined to be 'kind' to their virtues if not
'blind' to their faults, which are visible to the most inexperienced
traveller. You see all our own familiar 'bunkum' (excuse the vulgarity)
falls so flat on their ears, bravado about 'honour,' 'veracity,' etc.,
etc., they look blank and bored at. The schoolboy morality as set forth
by Maurice is current here among grown men. Of course we tell lies to
Pashas and Beys, why shouldn't we? But shall I call in that ragged
sailor and give him an order to bring me up 500 pounds in cash from Cairo
when he happens to come? It would not be an unusual proceeding. I sleep
every night in a _makaab_ (sort of verandah) open to all Luxor, and
haven't a door that has a lock. They bother me for backsheesh; but oh
how poor they are, and how rich must be a woman whose very servants drink
sugar to their coffee! and who lives in the _Kasr_ (palace) and is
respectfully visited by Ali Bey--and, come to that, Ali Bey would like a
present even better than the poorest fellah, who also loves to give one.
When I know, as I now do thoroughly, all Omar's complete
integrity--without any sort of mention of it--his self-denial in going
ragged and shabby to save his money for his wife and child (a very great
trial to a good-looking young Arab), and the equally unostentatious love
he has shown to me, and the delicacy and real nobleness of feeling which
come out so oddly in the midst of sayings which, to our ideas, seem very
shabby and time-serving, very often I wonder if there be anything as good
in the civilized West. And as Sally most justly says, 'All their
goodness is quite their own. God knows there is no one to teach anything
but harm!'
_Tuesday_.--Two poor fellows have just come home from the Suez Canal work
with gastric fever, I think. I hope it won't spread. The wife of one
said to me yesterday, 'Are there more _Sittat_ (ladies) like you in your
village?' 'Wallah,' said I, 'there are many better, and good doctors,
Alhamdullillah!' 'Alhamdullillah,' said she, 'then the poor people don't
want you so much, and by God you must stay here for _we_ can't do without
you, so write to your family to say so, and don't go away and leave us.'
_Thursday_, _June_ 2,--A steamer has just arrived which will take this
letter, so I can only say good-bye, my dearest Mutter, and God bless you.
I continue very fairly well. The epidemic here is all but over; but my
medical fame has spread so, that the poor souls come twenty miles (from
Koos) for physic. The constant phrase of 'Oh our sister, God hath sent
thee to look to us!' is so sad. _Such_ a little help is a wonder to my
poor fellaheen. It is not so hot as it was I think, except at night, and
I now sleep half the night outside the house. The cattle are all dead;
perhaps five are left in all Luxor. _Allah kereem_! (God is merciful)
said fellah Omar, 'I have one left from fifty-four.' The grain is
unthreshed, and butter three shillings a pound! We get nothing here but
by post; no papers, no nothing. I suppose the high Nile will bring up
boats. Now the river is down at its lowest, and now I really know how
Egyptians live.