PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN
AND now Dthemetri began to enter into a negotiation with my hosts for a
passage over the river. I never interfered with my worthy dragoman upon
these occasions, because from my entire ignorance of the Arabic I should
have been quite unable to exercise any real control over his words, and
it would have been silly to break the stream of his eloquence to no
purpose. I have reason to fear, however, that he lied transcendently,
and especially in representing me as the bosom friend of Ibrahim Pasha.
The mention of that name produced immense agitation and excitement, and
the Sheik explained to Dthemetri the grounds of the infinite respect
which he and his tribe entertained for the Pasha. A few weeks before
Ibrahim had craftily sent a body of troops across the Jordan. The force
went warily round to the foot of the mountains on the east, so as to cut
off the retreat of this tribe, and then surrounded them as they lay
encamped in the vale; their camels, and indeed all their possessions
worth taking, were carried off by the soldiery, and moreover the then
Sheik, together with every tenth man of the tribe, was brought out and
shot. You would think that this conduct on the part of the Pasha might
not procure for his “friend” a very gracious reception amongst the people
whom he had thus despoiled and decimated; but the Asiatic seems to be
animated with a feeling of profound respect, almost bordering upon
affection, for all who have done him any bold and violent wrong; and
there is always, too, so much of vague and undefined apprehension mixed
up with his really well-founded alarms, that I can see no limit to the
yielding and bending of his mind when it is wrought upon by the idea of
power.
After some discussion the Arabs agreed, as I thought, to conduct me to a
ford, and we moved on towards the river, followed by seventeen of the
most able-bodied of the tribe, under the guidance of several grey-bearded
elders, and Sheik Ali Djoubran at the head of the whole detachment. Upon
leaving the encampment a sort of ceremony was performed, for the purpose,
it seemed, of ensuring, if possible, a happy result for the undertaking.
There was an uplifting of arms, and a repeating of words that sounded
like formulæ, but there were no prostrations, and I did not understand
that the ceremony was of a religious character. The tented Arabs are
looked upon as very bad Mahometans. {149}
We arrived upon the banks of the river—not at a ford, but at a deep and
rapid part of the stream, and I now understood that it was the plan of
these men, if they helped me at all, to transport me across the river by
some species of raft. But a reaction had taken place in the opinions of
many, and a violent dispute arose upon a motion which seemed to have been
made by some honourable member with a view to robbery. The fellows all
gathered together in circle, at a little distance from my party, and
there disputed with great vehemence and fury for nearly two hours. I
can’t give a correct report of the debate, for it was held in a barbarous
dialect of the Arabic unknown to my dragoman. I recollect I sincerely
felt at the time that the arguments in favour of robbing me must have
been almost unanswerable, and I gave great credit to the speakers on my
side for the ingenuity and sophistry which they must have shown in
maintaining the fight so well.
During the discussion I remained lying in front of my baggage, which had
all been taken from the pack-saddles and placed upon the ground. I was
so languid from want of food, that I had scarcely animation enough to
feel as deeply interested as you would suppose in the result of the
discussion. I thought, however, that the pleasantest toys to play with
during this interval were my pistols, and now and then, when I listlessly
visited my loaded barrels with the swivel ramrods, or drew a sweet,
musical click from my English firelocks, it seemed to me that I exercised
a slight and gentle influence on the debate. Thanks to Ibrahim Pasha’s
terrible visitation the men of the tribe were wholly unarmed, and my
advantage in this respect might have counterbalanced in some measure the
superiority of numbers.
Mysseri (not interpreting in Arabic) had no duty to perform, and he
seemed to be faint and listless as myself. Shereef looked perfectly
resigned to any fate. But Dthemetri (faithful terrier!) was bristling
with zeal and watchfulness. He could not understand the debate, which
indeed was carried on at a distance too great to be easily heard, even if
the language had been familiar; but he was always on the alert, and now
and then conferring with men who had straggled out of the assembly. At
last he found an opportunity of making a proposal, which at once produced
immense sensation; he offered, on my behalf, that if the tribe should
bear themselves loyally towards me, and take my party and my baggage in
safety to the other bank of the river, I should give them a _teskeri_, or
written certificate of their good conduct, which might avail them
hereafter in the hour of their direst need. This proposal was received
and instantly accepted by all the men of the tribe there present with the
utmost enthusiasm. I was to give the men, too, a _baksheish_, that is, a
present of money, which is usually made upon the conclusion of any sort
of treaty; but although the people of the tribe were so miserably poor,
they seemed to look upon the pecuniary part of the arrangement as a
matter quite trivial in comparison with the _teskeri_. Indeed the sum
which Dthemetri promised them was extremely small, and not the slightest
attempt was made to extort any further reward.
The council now broke up, and most of the men rushed madly towards me,
and overwhelmed me with vehement gratulations; they caressed my boots
with much affection, and my hands were severely kissed.
The Arabs now went to work in right earnest to effect the passage of the
river. They had brought with them a great number of the skins which they
use for carrying water in the desert; these they filled with air, and
fastened several of them to small boughs which they cut from the banks of
the river. In this way they constructed a raft not more than about four
or five feet square, but rendered buoyant by the inflated skins which
supported it. On this a portion of my baggage was placed, and was firmly
tied to it by the cords used on my pack-saddles. The little raft with
its weighty cargo was then gently lifted into the water, and I had the
satisfaction to see that it floated well.
Twelve of the Arabs now stripped, and tied inflated skins to their loins;
six of the men went down into the river, got in front of the little raft,
and pulled it off a few feet from the bank. The other six then dashed
into the stream with loud shouts, and swam along after the raft, pushing
it from behind. Off went the craft in capital style at first, for the
stream was easy on the eastern side; but I saw that the tug was to come,
for the main torrent swept round in a bend near the western bank of the
river.
The old men, with their long grey grisly beards, stood shouting and
cheering, praying and commanding. At length the raft entered upon the
difficult part of its course; the whirling stream seized and twisted it
about, and then bore it rapidly downwards; the swimmers flagged, and
seemed to be beaten in the struggle. But now the old men on the bank,
with their rigid arms uplifted straight, sent forth a cry and a shout
that tore the wide air into tatters, and then to make their urging yet
more strong they shrieked out the dreadful syllables, “’Brahim Pasha!”
The swimmers, one moment before so blown and so weary, found lungs to
answer the cry, and shouting back the name of their great destroyer, they
dashed on through the torrent, and bore the raft in safety to the western
bank.
Afterwards the swimmers returned with the raft, and attached to it the
rest of my baggage. I took my seat upon the top of the cargo, and the
raft thus laden passed the river in the same way, and with the same
struggle as before. The skins, however, not being perfectly air-tight,
had lost a great part of their buoyancy, so that I, as well as the
luggage that passed on this last voyage, got wet in the waters of Jordan.
The raft could not be trusted for another trip, and the rest of my party
passed the river in a different and (for them) much safer way. Inflated
skins were fastened to their loins, and thus supported, they were tugged
across by Arabs swimming on either side of them. The horses and mules
were thrown into the water and forced to swim over. The poor beasts had
a hard struggle for their lives in that swift stream; and I thought that
one of the horses would have been drowned, for he was too weak to gain a
footing on the western bank, and the stream bore him down. At last,
however, he swam back to the side from which he had come. Before dark
all had passed the river except this one horse and old Shereef. He, poor
fellow, was shivering on the eastern bank, for his dread of the passage
was so great, that he delayed it as long as he could, and at last it
became so dark that he was obliged to wait till the morning.
I lay that night on the banks of the river, and at a little distance from
me the Arabs kindled a fire, round which they sat in a circle. They were
made most savagely happy by the tobacco with which I supplied them, and
they soon determined that the whole night should be one smoking festival.
The poor fellows had only a cracked bowl, without any tube at all, but
this morsel of a pipe they handed round from one to the other, allowing
to each a fixed number of whiffs. In that way they passed the whole
night.
The next morning old Shereef was brought across. It was a strange sight
to see this solemn old Mussulman, with his shaven head and his sacred
beard, sprawling and puffing upon the surface of the water. When at last
he reached the bank the people told him that by his baptism in Jordan he
had surely become a mere Christian. Poor Shereef!—the holy man! the
descendant of the Prophet!—he was sadly hurt by the taunt, and the more
so as he seemed to feel that there was some foundation for it, and that
he really might have absorbed some Christian errors.
When all was ready for departure I wrote the _teskeri_ in French and
delivered it to Sheik Ali Djoubran, together with the promised
_baksheish_; he was exceedingly grateful, and I parted in a very friendly
way from this ragged tribe.
In two or three hours I gained Rihah, a village said to occupy the site
of ancient Jericho. There was one building there which I observed with
some emotion, for although it may not have been actually standing in the
days of Jericho, it contained at this day a most interesting collection
of—modern loaves.
Some hours after sunset I reached the convent of Santo Saba, and there
remained for the night.