“Let us make haste to get away from this place. That is the noted
_pehlivan_.[26] He carries four men on his shoulders; he is an
elephant.”
“Why do you insult the stranger, and kick his seat from him?” said
Hassan to the Moghrebi. “He offered you no offence.”
“Offence!” replied the Moghrebi scornfully; “his presence is an offence.
Is he not a dog of an infidel?”
“There is no God but Allah, and Mahomet is his prophet,” said Hassan.
“Those who are ignorant of the truth are to be pitied; but our lord
(Mohammed Ali) has made friends with these Franks. They buy and sell
here in peace, and it is not right to strike or insult them without
cause in our streets.”
“And who are you, youngster, who dare to preach to me?” said the athlete
contemptuously. “Are you perhaps a sheik, or a mollah, or a kâdi?”
“I am a man, and I fear not a wise one, for wasting my words upon an ox
without understanding,” replied Hassan, his eyes kindling with anger.
“You are a bastard (Ebn-Haram),” shouted the athlete; “and if you had
half a beard I would spit upon it.”
Hearing this abusive epithet now applied to him before a score of
spectators, Hassan’s fury was no longer to be controlled. Springing upon
the Moghrebi with the bound of a tiger, he seized him by the throat, and
a fearful struggle ensued.
Although the athlete was the heavier and more bulky man, it soon
appeared that Hassan was his equal in strength, and far his superior in
activity. After a contest of some minutes, in which each displayed a
complete mastery of all the sleights of wrestling, Hassan succeeded in
passing his hand under the leg of his gigantic opponent, and lifting him
fairly in his arms, dashed him with terrific force on the ground. Hassan
stood for a moment looking on his fallen opponent, from whose mouth and
nostrils flowed a stream of blood. The people from the coffee-shop now
crowded round him: some threw water on his face, and in a short time he
recovered sufficiently to raise himself up; but he was in no condition
to renew the struggle, and Hassan walked away with his two companions,
followed by the ejaculations of the bystanders—“Mashallah!
wonderful!”—the greater part of them being rejoiced at the discomfiture
of the athlete, who was indeed a notorious brawler and bully.
The preparations of the dahabiah were now nearly completed. It had been
found, however, that after all she was too small to accommodate all the
party with comfort, so a second of a smaller size had been hired.
It was about this time that, after receiving a letter from Cairo, Hadji
Ismael sent one morning for Hassan and told him that a new commission
had arrived, in the execution of which his assistance would be
requisite.
“Upon my head and eyes be it,” said the youth.
“I have received a letter from my friend Ali Pasha, commonly called Delì
Pasha;[27] he tells me that our lord, Ibrahim Pasha, saw the horses
which I sent to Constantinople two or three years ago, and was so much
pleased with them that he gave great praise to his servant (me), saying
that no horse commission had been so well executed as this. Our lord
Ibrahim Pasha has now desired Delì Pasha to write to me and find out who
purchased these horses for me, and if possible to send the person up to
Cairo, where his services are much required. Now, Hassan, as you had the
chief trouble and merit of that purchase, I propose to send you to Delì
Pasha on this matter. It may open you a way to fortune.”
“You are my uncle,”[28] replied Hassan; “and I am ready to go where you
wish, and my fortune is in the hand of Allah.”
“Nay, my son,” said the good merchant; “it is bitter to my heart to part
with you, but you know that it is not consistent with the circumstances
of your birth and early youth that you should remain always in this
town: you do not wish to go to Cairo? Perhaps, by the blessing of Allah,
you may learn things there which concern your happiness?”
Hassan saw at once that his foster-father had communicated to the Hadji
some of the mysterious circumstances attending his early childhood, so
he replied—
“It is true that I have a weight on my heart, and if I could remove it
by a journey to Cairo, it would be a blessed journey indeed.”
“You would seek for a father; is it not so?” said the Hadji.
“It is so,” replied Hassan. “I have made search and inquiry in
Alexandria without success; but I am sure I shall find him, for I have
taken a _fal_ in the Koran,[29] and the words that I found were, ‘The
faithful who seek shall not be disappointed in their hope.’”
“Inshallah! your hope will be fulfilled!” replied the merchant. “Have
you anything with you by which a parent, if found, could recognise you?”
Hassan undid his long girdle, and from its inmost folds produced the
relics given him by his foster-mother. The merchant examined them
attentively.
“These would be sufficient,” he said, “to identify you; but, Hassan, if
you go to Cairo, remember that there are many accidents by water and by
land; you might be robbed, and could never replace them. You had better
leave some of them with me; I will keep them for you in my iron chest;
whenever you require them, you can send for them.”
Hassan acquiesced in the proposal of his kind patron, and reserving only
the quaintly devised amulet, he gave up the remainder, receiving from
the merchant a paper describing them accurately and bearing the
merchant’s seal.
The worthy Hadji was grieved to part with his _protégé_, for whom he
entertained an affection almost paternal; but having resolved to do so
for the youth’s own advantage, his chief anxiety now was to furnish him
well for the journey. For this purpose he desired Mohammed Aga to
procure a pair of stout saddlebags, into which he put two complete suits
of clothes, and also two small Cashmere shawls; with respect to these
last the Hadji whispered, “You need not wear these unless you find a
father in some great man, but they may be useful to you as presents.” He
gave him also a sword of excellent temper, a slight but beautifully
worked Persian dagger, and a pair of English pistols: to these he added
a well-filled purse; but observing some hesitation in Hassan’s
countenance, the kind-hearted Hadji added with a smile, “Nay, it is
almost all due to you for past services; but I shall write to Delì Pasha
and inform him that your salary is prepaid for three months from this
date.” Hassan kissed the hand of his benefactor, his heart was too full
for speech, and he could only utter—
“If I find a father, may he be like Hadji Ismael.”
Of personal vanity Hassan was as free as from the foibles which usually
attend it; but it cannot be denied that when he walked out in the full
dress and equipment proper to a young Bedouin Sheik, it was with a
prouder step, and the day-dreams concerning his future destiny took a
firmer hold of his imagination.
“Whither bound, my brother?” called out to him Demetri, on meeting him
near the door of the merchant’s house. “Mashallah! you have the air and
costume of a bridegroom! Who is the moon-faced one whom you have chosen?
By our head, Hassan, it is not well to keep these things secret from
your friends. When is the wedding to take place?”
“Nay, there is no wedding in the case,” said Hassan, laughing. “The
Hadji is going to send me on a commission to Cairo, and he has given me
this dress and these arms.”
“May Allah reward him!” said the merry Greek. “To Cairo, said you? Why,
the Fates are propitious. We are going there likewise. Inshallah! we
will go together.”
“How may that be?” demanded Hassan. “You are going with that rich Frank
family, and I hear that your boat will be so crowded with luggage and
people that there will not be room for a sparrow on board.”
“Nonsense,” replied the Greek. “There is always room for a friend. The
English servant and I can do as we please, for the old Englishman
troubles himself about nothing so long as he has his books and a few old
bricks and tiles to look at.”
“Bricks and tiles!” said Hassan. “Why, is he going to build a house in
Upper Egypt?”
“No; but by my father’s head, he is mad about old bricks. The other day
he made me go with him all round the mounds near Pompey’s Pillar, and he
brought back with him nearly an ass-load of fragments of stone, bricks,
and pottery.”
“Wonderful!” said Hassan. “But why do you think the English servant
would be willing to give me a passage in the boat?”
“Why,” replied Demetri, “because ever since the day that you threw down
the Moghrebi bully who had kicked his seat from under him, he does
nothing but talk of you. Never fear; he will be delighted to have your
company; and we will tell the old gentleman that if we have you on
board, all the thieves and robbers within twenty miles of the bank will
disappear as by magic.”
“Nay,” said Hassan, laughing; “do not tell him anything that might lead
him to think me a boasting fool. But you certainly may tell him that if
he gives me a passage, and any danger or trouble occurs, I shall be
ready to tender the best service in my power.”
On this they parted, and Demetri communicated the plan the same day to
the valet, who relished it extremely, being well satisfied to have by
him in case of need a stouter heart and arm than that with which
Providence had blessed the Greek interpreter. They proceeded together to
Mr Thorpe, and explained to him the advantages to be derived from the
proposed addition to their party.
“But,” said Mr Thorpe, “I fear we have no cabin vacant.”
“Cabin!” echoed Demetri. “Does your excellency think that a son of the
desert like him would go into a cabin? No, no. With his _bornoos_
[cloak] over him, and his _khordj_ [saddle-bags] under his head, he will
sleep like a prince on any part of the deck.”
Mr Thorpe having no other objection to make, and the ladies being
curious to see the hero of Foyster’s narrative, no further persuasion
was requisite, and Hadji Ismael, on his part, was heartily glad that his
young _protégé_ had found so convenient and easy a conveyance to Cairo.
It was with sincere and mutual regret that Hassan parted with Mohammed
Aga and his son Ahmed, who had shown him such invariable kindness during
the three or four years that he had spent in Alexandria. But “destiny
had written it,” and it is wonderful to see the composure with which
good Mussulmans resign themselves even to the heaviest misfortunes with
that phrase on their tongue.
The chief clerk, in bidding adieu to Hassan, put a letter into his hand.
“Take this, my son,” he said. “It is addressed to Ahmed Aga, the
_mirakhor_[30], and favourite Mameluke of Delì Pasha. I have known him
long, and I trust he will be a good friend to you.”
Hassan in quitting the merchant’s house left universal regret behind
him. Even the old Berber _bowàb_ [porter] said, “Allah preserve him. He
was a good youth. Every Bairam he gave me a dollar, and if I was half
asleep and kept him at the door, he never cursed my father.”
On a fine autumnal day, about the middle of October, the Thorpe party
embarked on the dahabiahs destined to convey them on their Nile
expedition. The boats were moored to the banks of the Mahmoudiah canal,
just opposite the pleasant and shady garden then occupied by Moharrem
Bey, a relation of the Viceroy’s by marriage.
As donkey followed donkey, and porter followed porter to the place of
embarkation, the active Greek distributed the packages in their several
places; but the space and his patience were wellnigh exhausted by their
variety and multitude. There were Mr Thorpe’s clothes and books and
measuring instruments, and a box of tools for excavation. Then endless
boxes and books and other sundries, the greater part of which Demetri
considered as useless, were all to be added to the well-filled hampers
of wine, spirits, tea, sugar, preserves, pickles, and a thousand other
things with which his assiduity and Mr Thorpe’s guineas had filled every
available bunker and corner of the boats.
Hassan had gone down early to the place of embarkation, not knowing the
hour at which the start was to take place; so Demetri availed himself of
this circumstance to make him his lieutenant, in urging the porters and
the sailors to hasten the stowage of the multifarious baggage.
“By your head, Hassan, you are welcome!” cried the busy Greek; “had you
not come, we should not have finished this work to-day, for these
fellows are asses and the sons and grandsons of asses. Here—here, you
blind dog!” shouted he to a sturdy fellow who was carrying a hamper into
the smaller dahabiah, “did I not tell you to put that in the large
boat?”