HAVING disposed of the question of Qway, I went off to Rashida
for the fête of Shem en Nessim (the smelling of the breeze). The
officials of the oasis were also there, and we celebrated the day
in the usual manner. In the morning we put on clean clothes and took
our breakfast out of doors to “smell the breeze.” Then we went up
among the palm plantations to a primitive swimming bath the _’omda_
had made by damming up a stream from one of his wells. The natives
stripped and disported themselves in the water, swimming about,
splashing each other and enjoying themselves immensely.
After the bath they dressed again and we lay about under the palms
till lunch was brought out to us. We lounged about on the ground,
sleeping and talking till late in the afternoon, when a woman
from the village appeared, who had been engaged by the _’omda_
to dance. A carpet was spread for her to perform on, and we lay
round and watched her. She looked quite a respectable woman, and
it was certainly a quite respectable dance that would have been an
addition to “Chu-Chin-Chow,” but the _mamur_ took occasion to
be shocked at it. He sat with his back half turned to the woman,
watching her out of the corner of his eye, however, and apparently
enjoying the performance. Though I was unable to detect anything in
the slightest degree wrong in the dance, the delicate susceptibilities
of the _mamur_ were so outraged that—as he was not on good terms
with the _’omda_ of Rashida—he felt it his duty to report him
to the Inspector in Assiut for having an immoral performance in
his private grounds. Government under the Egyptian _mamurs_ is a
wonderful institution!
The next day I returned to Mut to pack up. A number of callers came
round to see me during the short remaining time I stayed in the
town. For since I had come out on top, the whole oasis had become
wonderfully friendly.
Among them was the Sheykh el Afrit from Smint. He was extremely
oily in his manner and kept on addressing me as “Your Presence
the Bey!” He gave me a lot of information about _afrits_. He
spoke in the tone of a man who had had a lifelong experience in
the matter. It was most important, he said, to use the right kind
of incense when invoking them, as if the wrong sort were used the
_afrit_ always became very angry and killed the magician—it seemed
to be a dangerous trade.
He told me a lot of information of the same nature and gave me a
number of instances of encounters with _afrits_ to illustrate his
remarks. Among them he mentioned—quite casually—that it had been
an _afrit_ that had led Qway astray. The object of his visit had
apparently been to put this opinion, as an experienced magician,
before me, for he left almost immediately afterwards.
Among my other visitors was the _’omda_ of Rashida, who said he had
come into Mut as he had a case to bring before the _mamur_ against
his cousin Haggi Smain. He, too, stood up for Qway. He was the only
native of the oasis who had the backbone to openly champion his cause.
Some time after he had gone, I had to go round to the _merkaz_. I
could hear a tremendous row going on inside as I approached. Someone
kept thumping a table and two or three men were shouting and bawling
at each other and, judging from the sounds that proceeded from the
court, all Bedlam might have been let loose there.
But I found that it was only the _mamur_ “making the peace” among
the Rashida people. The _’omda_ of Rashida and two of his brothers
were bringing an action against their cousin, Haggi Smain, who owned
part of the same village. The row stopped for a while as I came in,
and the proceedings were conducted for a few minutes in an orderly
manner. Then they went at it again, hammer and tongs, bawling and
shouting at each other, and at the _mamur_, who was endeavouring to
effect a reconciliation, at the top of their voices. The _mamur_
at first spoke in a quiet persuasive tone, but soon he lost his
temper and was as bad as they were. He banged with his fist on the
table and yelled to them to be silent and listen to what he had to
say. The _’omda_ shouted back that it was not he, but Haggi Smain
that was interrupting the proceedings, while Haggi Smain himself
foaming at the mouth and at times almost inarticulate with rage,
screamed back that it was the _’omda_ who was making all the noise.
The cause of all this hullabaloo was as follows: Haggi Smain
had an orange tree growing on his property, one branch of which
projected beyond his boundary and overhung some land belonging to
the _’omda_. Three oranges had fallen off this branch on to the
_’omda’s_ territory and the case had been brought to decide to
whom these three oranges belonged. Their total value was a farthing
at the outside.
I left next day for Egypt. As I got on my camel to start, the _mamur_
and Co. announced that they intended to walk with me for part of the
way. As this was calculated to increase my prestige with the other
natives, I decided to keep them with me for some time.
I rode—and the _mamur_ walked—which was quite as it should have
been, for these little distinctions carry great weight among these
simple natives. The _mamur_, I was glad to see, was wearing a pair
of new brown boots fastened with a metal clasp over the instep, and
having soles about as thin as dancing pumps. The road was rough and
baked very hard by the sun in those places where it was not boggy. The
_mamur_, I fancy, was not used to much pedestrian exercise and soon
became very obviously footsore.
I saw him look longingly at an unloaded camel, so told Dahab to
get up on it and ride. Several times he hinted that he had come far
enough, but I merely had to look surprised and displeased to keep
him trotting along beside me for another mile. He had not shown
up well while I had been in the oasis, and he realised that in a
very few days I should be seeing one of the Inspectors about Qway,
so was desperately anxious not to do anything to displease me.
At last I decided to take a short cut. We left the road, such as it
was, and went straight across country over a very rough stretch of
desert. I called out to Abdulla to hurry up the camels, as they were
going too slowly, with the result that the limping _mamur_ and the
fat old _qadi_ began to fall behind. The farce was becoming so obvious
that all my men were grinning at them and Abd er Rahman sarcastically
whispered to me that he thought the _mamur_ must be getting tired.
When I had got them well away from the road, and two or three miles
from any habitation, I looked back and suddenly discovered the _mamur_
was limping, and asked him why on earth he had not told me before
that his feet were all covered with blisters. I insisted that he
should go back at once to Mut.
On the way to Assiut, in the train, I saw old Sheykh Mawhub, the
Senussi, going, as he said, to Cairo. But I was not in the least
surprised to find that he broke his journey at Assiut, where he
lay doggo in the native town, pulling strings in the _mudiria_ to
get his catspaw, Qway, out of his difficulties—unfortunately with
considerable success.
I went round to the _mudiria_ as soon as I got to the town, only
to find that the English Inspector was away, so I asked to see
the _mudir_ (native governor of the province). The _mudir_ did not
think Qway had been tried, but would I go up into the town and ask
at the _mamur’s_ office? There I was requested to wait while they
made enquiries. They made them for about three-quarters of an hour,
and then a man came in with an ill-concealed grin and announced that
Qway had just that moment been tried and had been acquitted!
I went round to interview the _mudir_ again—rather indignantly this
time. He was bland and courteous—but firm. He had been acquitted,
he said because I had said that I did not want him to be severely
punished, and because I had given him a good character the year
before. The course of true law never did run smooth in Egypt!
I tried to get this decision reversed by applying to a very exalted
personage. He told me, however, that the Government did not want to
raise the Senussi question and were anxious to avoid an incident on
the frontier, and he was afraid that he could not take the matter up.
I had to get the best of Qway somehow and, as the regulation
methods of dealing with him had failed me, I took the law into my
own hands—which is quite the best place to keep it in Egypt—and
fined him the balance of his pay, which amounted to about twenty
pounds. I afterwards heard that the Senussi, in order to prevent
Qway from having a grievance against them, had bakhshished him £42
worth of cotton; so I got at the real culprits in the end; but it
was a roundabout way of doing it.
Thanks to Qway and the Senussi, the results of my second year did not
come up to my expectations, for the main work I had planned for the
season was, of course, the fifteen days’ journey to the south-west
of Dakhla, which I hoped would take me to Owanat. Instead of this
we had not been able to get farther than the centre of the desert,
so far as we could estimate where the middle lay.