Departure from Palmyra--Suspicions of Nasar--Encampment in
a beautiful valley--Tribe of the Sebáh and their Shaykh
Mnyf--Assembly of Bedouins at Lady Hester Stanhope’s
tent--The women--Traits of Bedouin character--Tribe
of the Beni Omar--Affray between the Bedouins--Their
war-cry--Aqueducts--Salamýah--Clotted cream and sour milk--Meat
of the Desert--Castle of Shumamýs--Medical assistance required
by Bedouins--Entry of Lady Hester into Hamah--Sum paid to
Nasar for escort--Salubrity of the air of the Desert--State
of Lady Hester’s health--Professional aid of the Author
in requisition--Yahyah Bey--Rigid abstinence of a Syrian
Christian--The bastinado--Pilgrimage to the tomb of a
shaykh--Treatment of horses in spring--Precautions against
plague--Custom of supporting great personages under the
arm--Schoolmasters--Doctors and their patients.
We left Palmyra on the 4th of April early in the morning, and the
danger of an attack from the Faydân had an excellent effect on the
servants, camel-drivers, and helpers of all sorts, who, on most
occasions, could not be kept together, but who now were as orderly and
obedient as soldiers: for fear made them so. Our course was in the same
track by which we had come. As my horse walked a little faster than
the common pace, I diverged somewhat from the road, to the right, in
order to ascend a small conical mount, which, at two hours’ distance
from Palmyra, terminates the chain of hills enclosing the plain in
which is the aqueduct of Abu Fewárez. I was attracted by something like
fragments of a building on its top, and was rewarded for my trouble by
finding a fallen pillar of the Corinthian order, and a portion of a
statue in alto relievo which had stood upon it. Some future traveller,
having more time to examine this piece of sculpture, may be able to
discover what it was: but I do not think it had hitherto been noticed
by any one. It appeared to me to represent an Apollo. We traversed
the Mezzah or sandy plain, and, in five hours from the fallen pillar,
reached the White Mountain; where we encamped in a bottom, in order
that our lights might not be seen. At each extremity of the tents a
vidette of Bedouins was placed, about one hundred paces off; whilst
among the tents we ourselves and the servants patrolled armed. Much
alarm prevailed. It was whispered among the servants that a plan had
been laid by Nasar and his men to make us all prisoners, and exact an
immense ransom from us; and others said the Palmyrenes would come upon
us in the night: nothing however happened.
April the 5th, we resumed our march; and, by the anxiety Nasar showed
to be gone betimes in the morning, as well as his unwillingness that
Lady Hester should stop anywhere in the day for an hour, which was her
custom, it was evident that he was not without apprehension. We were
three hours and ten minutes in crossing the White Mountain, which here
consists only of sand-hills, when we arrived at Wady el Jar. From Wady
el Jar we saw the Beláz before us, where a sink in the ridge of the
chain formed a landmark. We arrived, in about six hours, at a valley,
so beautiful that we all with one accord burst into exclamations of
admiration of it; and, as there was a low part in it where our tents
were not likely to be seen, it was resolved to encamp here for the
night.
In the course of a few days, vegetation had made great progress, and we
found the soil in some places covered with fine grass, in others, as
where we were now, thickly sprinkled with flowers, so as to resemble a
parterre; the more remarkable in our eyes, because the flowers we saw
are in England reared only with pains and borrowed heat.
The next morning, April 6th, Nasar gave us no respite, but obliged us
with the rising sun to strike our tents, and hasten on our way. There
was indeed no doubt left on our minds that he feared an enemy in the
rear. This day’s march, however, carried us out of danger. In one hour
after starting we came to a well, called Ma el kushka, which is at the
foot of the Beláz. We ascended the mountain, reached the Fasekh el
Menkûra, or valley between the two chains; again ascended the other
side; and, came to Menghiazy, where we quitted the mountain for the
plain, and where we seemed to have left such a barrier between us and
our pursuers as afforded us security from any very sudden attack. But
our greatest protection was in a large encampment of the tribe of the
Sebáh Bedouins, which, it will be recollected, we met with on our way
to Palmyra in the valley of the Menkûra.
At Menghiazy are the ruins of a Turkman village: and as, wherever I
saw fragments of rude walls or the vestiges of houses, the Bedouins
generally told me that there had once been a Turkman village, I
concluded from it that these plains were frequented and inhabited by
Turkman shepherds, as the Accár, that vast plain near Tripoli, and many
other plains, are still. There are the remains of a caravansery at a
little distance from the ruins.
The Sebáh, close to whom we were encamped, were a portion only of that
large tribe. They were commanded by Shaykh Mnyf, whose tent was a
league or two off: for they occupy in their encampments a vast extent
of ground, for the sake of pasture for their camels. But, as the next
day was to be a halt, Mnyf seized the opportunity of being presented to
Lady Hester, and with him, Mfuthy, a ragged shaykh, whom I had known on
my first journey. In the afternoon, before sunset, Lady Hester received
all the Bedouin women. The assembly was very numerous. The men, sitting
crosslegged on the grass, formed a semicircle at the door of her tent,
where she had a seat placed for herself. Shaykh Mnyf was invested
with a new abah and turban: Shaykh Mfuthy had likewise a present. But
the most curious part was to see the women, who at once excited and
expressed curiosity. They were very brown, and some of them, from the
effects of fatigue and a hot sun, were, when cursorily looked at, truly
hideous; but, in all of them, the outline of beauty was perceptible,
either in their frame, or in their face. Wherever, likewise, a girl
or young woman was to be seen, she would very often prove to be of
great beauty; and black and swimming eyes were never-failing features.
Lady Hester, remarkable herself for the fairness of her complexion,
served as a foil to them, and they to her. She distributed among them
a few beads, some handkerchiefs, and such trifles as would serve as a
memorial of her visit.
During the interval that had elapsed between our going and returning,
several tribes had come up from different directions, and had encamped
in the road by which we were to return. All were attracted by
curiosity, and in some was added the desire of sharing in the presents
which were given away with a liberal hand. It was on one of these
occasions that a Bedouin, rendered somewhat enthusiastic by the scene
before him, throwing off his keffiyah, cried, “Give me a hat, and I
will go to England.”
These Bedouin women were tatooed on the under lip, on the arms and
hands, and on the feet. The fashion for their head-dress was to press
the hair flat on the head, and to braid the ringlets at the side; a
style that may be seen in many ancient statues. Some of the youths also
had plaited their tresses. The first question which the Bedouins always
asked was, whether we had a sultan, how old he was, how many children
he had, &c. When they learned that his queen[51] had borne him fifteen,
and that they formed one of the finest families in Europe in looks
and person, the Bedouins would cry out, “Mashallah!” which is their
exclamation of surprise at anything astonishing and pleasing.
April 8th, we proceeded on our route towards Hamah. From Menghiazy,
we passed the ruined caravansery, of which I have already spoken. We
continued over a tolerably level country for four hours more, when we
came to Kerejat Atheab, where there are ruins of a Turkman village and
some wells a little apart from each other. The country, as we advanced,
became more verdant, because the soil was less stony. From Kerejat
Atheab, we proceeded to Rekhym el Khanzýr, where we encamped for the
night. Here we found the tents of the Beni Omar, under their chieftain,
Ali Bussal, of whom mention has been made in my first journey.
The next morning, April the 9th, we struck our tents, and were waiting,
as was our custom, each with his horse’s bridle in his hand, ready to
mount as soon as Lady Hester should come out of her tent, which was
always the last standing: Nasar was sitting on a knoll, conversing with
a shaykh of the Beni Omar, and other Bedouins were standing around. I
thought their discussions, whatever they might be, were rather warm;
but I paid no attention to them, as their emphatic manner of speaking
had more than once deceived me; but presently two Bedouins drew their
sabres, down in the valley before us, and began fighting. In an
instant, up rose Nasar and the Bedouins, and leaped on their mares:
they rode towards the combatants, who desisted, and a crowd collected
round Nasar. At this time Lady Hester came out, and Mr. B. and I told
her what had happened. Immediately she mounted her horse, as we did
ours, and, with great presence of mind, said, “Whatever happens, remain
you still until attacked: if the quarrel is their own, we have no right
to interfere.” The crowd now opened: Nasar and his party came towards
us; the Beni Omar retreated to their side. The shaykhs, with Nasar,
formed a circle around him, with their horses’ heads pointing inwards,
and, striking their spears on the ground, sang, as they sat, a kind of
chorus, of which I could make out something to this effect, “Nasar,
Nasar, we fight for Nasar.” The tone of their voices and quickness of
utterance by degrees were augmented, until, by a repetition of this,
their war-cry, they seemed to have worked themselves into a fury.
At this time the man, with whom Nasar had been speaking so vehemently
before the beginning of the affray, came riding at a gallop, with the
spear in its rest, his head uncovered, and his hair flying in the wind,
towards Nasar and his party. Seeing this, Shaykh Hamûd, an old man,
mounted on a fine gray mare, rode out to meet him, but with his spear
on his shoulder. He stopped him in his career, argued with him some
time, and at last persuaded him to retire. It may be conceived what our
anxiety must have been during these proceedings: for it is impossible
to say what would have become of us, had these two parties come to
blows. By degrees, both sides seemed to grow pacified, and at last we
rode off, leaving the Beni Omar in possession of the field, muttering
threats and vowing revenge. We were afterwards told that the dispute
began about a thorough-bred colt, which Nasar unfairly withheld from
the true owner.
We passed to-day through plains more like meadows than a desert, where
the grass was nearly high enough to make hay. In an hour and a half,
we came to Khurbah, a Turkman village, with a tel or conical mound
close to it. We passed three other tels before we reached the ruined
city of Salamyah. We encamped outside the walls, near some tents of the
Hadidyns.
Before arriving at Salamyah, near the last tel, are found circular
openings in the ground, like the mouths of wells. Looking into them,
an aqueduct of excellent masonry in hewn stones is seen to run under
ground, having these vent-holes at equal distances. We lost sight of
it for some time, and it then re-appeared within a short distance of
Salamyah. From the vent-holes wild pigeons flew out, and, without this
evidence that there was water beneath, we could observe it in places
trickling along in a small stream.
Pliny and Wood agree in thinking that from Emesa to Palmyra the name
of desert was always applicable, and that, from the days of Abraham
up to our times, the face of it has not changed. We would not oppose
our judgment to theirs, and yet a contrary opinion might surely be
entertained, when ruins are found at every step, and an aqueduct that
indicates the height of civilization.
April 9th, we halted at Salamyah, and took this opportunity of viewing
the ruins of the city; for such it appears to have been, and of Saracen
origin. Salamyah is described by Abulfeda as an agreeable place, with
aqueducts conveying water to it, and with many gardens around it. It
was built by Abdallah ben Salah, a descendant, in the fifth generation,
from Abd el Motalleb. In the time of El Azyzy, it was on the skirts
of the desert;[52] now it is fairly in it. Around it, there was a
well-built wall. Over the gate by which we entered, to the south, was
a long inscription in Arabic, which we did not copy for want of time.
Within we found the remains of two or three mosques, with their cupolas
yet upon them, and of a public bath; also the walls of houses, and
some wells, which contained water, and from one of which we drew our
supply. It did not appear to me that this place had been inhabited
during the last forty or fifty years.
At Menghiazy, at Rekhym el Khanzýr, and here, the Bedouins emulated
each other in the reception they gave Lady Hester. At her request, the
finest mares were brought for her to look at. Several Arabs offered
them as presents to her; but made it understood that they valued
them at a price so enormous, that, to make a present in return as an
adequate recompense, would have been paying too dear. Her ladyship,
therefore, declined accepting them. Bedouins, on such occasions, are
extremely mercenary, and strangely overrate their property.
Lady Hester having expressed a desire to ride on a dromedary, one of
their best, which they call hejýn, and which are used for expeditious
journeys, was selected, and dressed up with an ornamental saddle and
housings. She rode for a short distance, and probably found the motion
very unpleasant, which it must necessarily be at first to every one.
As soon as we had come to the west of the Beláz, we were supplied very
constantly with clotted cream (kymàk) and sour milk, (leben), than
which the dairy can produce nothing better; and it will raise the
latter cooling preparation in the estimation of some, to know that it
has been used, time immemorial, in these countries, and is spoken of in
Xenophon as ὀξύγαλα. The finest mutton was never wanting at our table;
for, although the true Bedouin scorns to pasture any animal but camels,
still there are certain bastard tribes, such as the Mowâly, and a few
more that we saw, which are mere graziers, and paid tribute to Emir
Mahannah for the protection he afforded them.
As the Castle of Shumamys, built on a mountain, was distant only about
a league from the encampment, I was inclined to ride over to examine
it; but the direction of our march lying close to the foot of it, I
executed my project on the following morning. Before the camels were
loaded, Hassan and I rode forward, and, arriving in an hour, by a very
steep ascent reached the summit of the mountain. At the foot of the
castle walls the rock is cut into a glacis with a considerable slope,
within which is a deep ditch hewn out of the solid stone. Facing the
gate of the castle, a buttress or pier still left in the centre of the
ditch served for the support of the drawbridge, now entirely fallen.
Leaving Hassan to take care of the horses, I descended into the ditch,
and climbed up on the opposite side, which was not so difficult to do
as I had found it at Palmyra. The two castles resembled each other
exactly, and of course may be supposed to be of the same date, either
of Saracen or Frank construction.
We descended into the plain, and joined the party who had just cleared
the foot of the mountains, which is one extremity of the chain called
Gebel el Aâleh. This chain, taking a semicircular direction, finishes
at Gebel Abd ed dyn two leagues N. by E. of Hamah, and encloses one of
the richest plains it is possible to see. At Tel el Byrûth, we encamped
for the night, and found there the Emir Mahannah el Fadel, who received
Lady Hester with every testimony of respect and joy for her safe
return, which was now in a manner effected, as we were only three or
four leagues from Hamah.
We halted the next day. An accident happened at this place, which
nearly cost the loss of an eye to one of the bards who had accompanied
us hitherto. Farez, second son of Mahannah, was throwing, as he would
throw a javelin, the stalk of an astragalus, (with which flower the
place was thickly set, and the stalks of which are firm and reedy at
this season) when he struck one of the bards on the lid and brow of
the eye. The man was in great pain, and the swelling was instantaneous
and considerable: but a leech which I applied set all to rights; yet
the bard was by no means pleased with Farez’s exploit. The astragalus
and squill plants were so abundant, that their long sword-like leaves
obstructed the paths in every direction. Upon their leaves I found a
beautiful fly, much like the lytta.
In the afternoon Lady Hester wished to try Shaykh Hamud’s white mare,
and she mounted it. In putting her into a gallop, the mare, aware of
some difference in the rider’s management of her, or from some other
cause, ran away with her ladyship, who, however, contrived at last to
pull her up, without any mischief, to the admiration of the Bedouins
who were looking on.
It must not be supposed that, during the whole of this journey, the
Arabs had suffered me to remain quiet in my professional capacity.
Knowing the frequent applications I should have, previous to quitting
Hamah, I had put up a large stock of pills and powders, as of easiest
administration; and I could have used the contents of an apothecary’s
shop had I been so disposed. But a serious call was made upon me whilst
in camp, by a horseman who came over from the tents of Shaykh Casem,
to entreat me to make but a short journey thither, to save the son of
their chief, who had been transfixed by a spear, in a skirmish with the
Faydân; and Lady Hester thought it better that I should go.
His tents were due north of Tel el Byrûth. I took with me my own tent,
which was a small octagonal marquee, made without a central pole, and
very commodious; and, accompanied by the Bedouin, who had come to fetch
me, I set off the following day, under the idea of having but a short
distance to ride. But my guide had deceived me, with the intention of
more easily persuading me to go; for we passed the chain of Mount Aâleh
at two hours off, and still rode on for two or three hours more, until
we reached, at sunset, Casem’s tents. The parents of the wounded youth
were so impatient to take me to him, that I was scarcely permitted
first to take my coffee and pipe, which on other occasions they oblige
you to do before they will suffer you to attend to business.
Casem’s son was about sixteen years old, with a fine air, which would
have been fierce, had it not been softened down by his sufferings from
his wound. A spear had entered his back under the blade-bone, and had
deeply penetrated into the lungs. Instead of being a fresh wound, it
proved to be now of some time standing. I did what I judged better
for him than the dressings he was using; gave him some medicines to
be taken as occasion might require, and passed three days with him to
see what effect they would have. The first day there was a certainty
of a speedy and miraculous cure; the second day his friends were less
sanguine; and on the third, they observed that my remedies had not
effected any very extraordinary change for the better. This was the
tone of mind in which it was proper to leave them. They were thankful
for the pains I had taken, and a Bedouin escorted me to Hamah, where
Lady Hester and Mr. B. already were since the 13th. Crowds of people
had gone out to welcome them on their return, considering her as a true
heroine, who could perform in triumph what not a pasha in all Turkey
durst venture to do with all his troops at his heels. It was given out
at Hamah afterwards that two hundred horsemen, on the report of the two
fugitives from Palmyra, had come in pursuit of us to the Beláz, but
were a day too late to overtake us: that, however, they would have
followed us farther, but were stopped by a party of the Sebáh, who had
a skirmish with them, in which the Faydân were so much worsted as to
find it necessary to retire.[53]
On her arrival at Hamah, Lady Hester rode strait to Muly Ismaël’s
house, where a great dinner was prepared. The remainder of the money
due to Nasar was paid, and the dangers and adventures of the journey
talked over. There has crept into a publication (called Journal of
a Tour in the Levant) an assertion that it cost Lady Hester 30,000
piasters to get to Palmyra. I think it necessary to state that this
assertion is entirely erroneous, as may be proved from documents now
in my hands, which must be considered as decisive authority on that
head.[54]
No better proof can be adduced of the salubrity of the air of the
Desert, than the excellent condition in which the horses were on our
return, and the compliments paid on the improved good looks of all the
party. I believe I have neglected to mention that, previous to quitting
Damascus, and from the moment that the journey to Palmyra was talked
about, Mr. B. and myself had let our beards grow, having been informed
that much respect was universally paid to this supposed emblem of
wisdom and manhood by the Bedouins, which we found to be the case.
During the journey, an Arab brought me a jerboa alive. Wishing to
preserve it, and having no box or cage fit for such a purpose, I put
it into a boot sewed up at the top, and carried it slung to my horse’s
side for one day, but on the second I found that it had eaten a hole
through the leather, and escaped.
I omitted to mention, in my first journey to Palmyra, that, when
with the Bedouins, I drank for three mornings camels’ milk, to see
if its reputed qualities were exaggerated or not. On me it had no
sensible effect; yet I could not be deceived in the trial I made, for,
fasting from my pillow, I drank a pint the first morning, a pint and
a half the second, and half a pint the third. On this journey I was
determined to try its effects on the servants, and here its operation
was instantaneous and remarkable, causing a diarrhœa, which lasted the
whole day.
It will hardly be believed, by those who may peruse this narrative,
that Lady Hester, at this period, by no means enjoyed a good state of
health; yet such was really the case, and her spirit, rather than her
physical powers, helped her to surmount so much fatigue and to endure
so many privations. Her pursuit was indeed health, but the phantom fled
before her. Always a valetudinarian, she always flattered herself that
some untried spot remained where she might find what she sought. Happy
consolation of the sick, whom Hope never gives up to Despair!
Lady Hester brought with her to Hamah two Bedouins, with an intention
of carrying them to England as a curiosity: but a city life, the want
of the open country, loss of appetite and health, were things so little
congenial to their feelings, that they could not be induced to stop.
I had taken up my abode this time in a small unfurnished house, which
I hired of a Turk. My return to Hamah was again the signal for being
besieged by the sick. I shall mention one or two of my patients, whose
cases may have something curious for the general reader. Yahyah Bey,
whose deposition and removal to Hamah I have already spoken of, had
contrived to make his peace there by the sacrifice of large sums of
money, and was now come back to Hamah to live as a private person.
One of his concubines was ill, and he asked me to see her. She had
had an ague for eight months, with little loss of strength, sleep, or
appetite. I was introduced to an inner room, and she was sent for to
come to me. She entered, covered with the yzzár,[55] a large white veil
reaching to the ground, which she kept on during the whole time I was
with her. Yahyah Bey watched her actions like an Argus, and, the moment
I had done questioning her, sent her out of the room.
Another patient, whom I saw April 20th, was an old man of the sect of
the Syrians, very ill of a fever. It was then Lent, and the rules of
his religion, with respect to fasting, were, it would appear, more
rigid than those of either the Greek or Catholic church; for he could
not, according to them, eat anything but bread, oil, and herbs. I
desired him to relax somewhat from this severe abstinence, if he wished
to save his life. He would on no account consent to do so; and, as his
age and malady required nourishment of a different kind, he died a
martyr to his scruples.
Bilious remittent fevers were at this time prevalent in Hamah, and they
seemed, in some instances, to be contagious. I was called in to the
khodja of Nasýf pasha. The term khodja means an old and confidential
servant of the house, who teaches the children their letters: out of a
family, it implies a schoolmaster, or is an appellation given to an old
respectable merchant or shopkeeper: whence I think is derived our word
Codger. The pasha showed great anxiety about him. The mode of treatment
they had adopted for him was simple and sensible, and he would have
recovered without my interference.
My most troublesome patient was the lady of Selim Koblán, of whom
mention has been made above. She had never borne any children, and
was exceedingly anxious to be able to hold up her head among her
acquaintance: for it is a source of much sorrow and shame both to man
and wife in the East, but more especially to the woman, when the union
is not productive of offspring.
On the 22d, whilst sitting with Muly Ismael in the saloon where he
was accustomed to receive his visitors and despatch the business of
the day, one of his soldiers, accused of frequenting women of the
town, was brought before him, and, the case being heard, the Muly, in
a summary way, ordered him to be bastinadoed. He was lifted from the
ground by two or three of his comrades in the middle of the room where
we were, held up horizontally, and three or four others with switches
kept striking the soles of his feet as fast as they could, until the
Muly told them to stop.[56] The man cried out very much, but seemed
to obtain no commiseration. As soon as he was let down, Mahannah, the
emir, who was there, rose from his seat, kissed Muly Ismäel’s hand, and
thanked him for this public example made for repressing libertinism.
Now the Muly, at this time, was notorious for his sensual indulgences.
One of his people told me that he was rubbed in the bath, where he
entered every day, by his women, whilst others of them danced before
him in the state of nature. But this is the story that is told of
every Turk who is known to be a sensualist: and generally signifies no
more than what the narrator would do if he were in the same place.[57]
Mahannah, although he confined himself to wives only, yet was pleased
with a variety of them. In the night there was a thunder-storm.
It was a matter of wonder to me to observe how generally every kind of
vegetable was eaten raw by the people of Syria. Cucumbers and carrots
they pare and eat as we do apples: and, besides lettuce and cress,
they would devour raw peas and beans almost as swine do. About this
time died M. Guys, French consul at Tripoli. He left behind him a most
valuable collection of Greek and Roman coins, which his residence in
the Levant, for many years, had enabled him to collect.
On the summit of a mountain to the north of Hamah, distant about one
league and a half, is the tomb of Shaykh Abd ed Dyn, a man held in
veneration among the Moslems: and, on the 24th of April, there is
annually a pilgrimage to his shrine. Observing that numbers of people
flocked upon the road, I took my ride that way in the afternoon. No one
would have said that the Turkish women were deprived of liberty, had
he seen them on a holyday like this. From Hamah to the very top of the
mountain, parties of women and girls were going and coming, and their
volubility of tongue, and remarks to the men passing and repassing
them, were the less repressed, because the faces of those uttering them
could not be seen.
Spring had now clothed the country in all its verdure, and the
occupations of the year might be said to be commencing. One of the
most important, and which forms as great an epoch in the annals of a
gentleman in the East, as the shooting season does among our gentry
in England, is the sending their steeds to grass. Each man deprives
himself one month out of the year of his game at giryd, and of his
exercise on horseback, for the purpose of cleansing his animals: nor
does he disdain to use means not much unlike these for purifying his
own system. As soon as spring sets in, he loses blood from the arm by
the lancet, or by cupping, from the leg or between the shoulders; with
a view to prevent inflammatory diseases created by the effervescence of
the blood in the first heats of the year. Such is the mode of reasoning
prevalent among them, and, on a particular day, which is decided by the
wane of the moon, twenty persons might be seen, on the benches at the
doors of each barber’s shop, in different stages of phlebotomy. Cupping
is performed by scarifying with a razor, and then applying over the
cuts a horn, with a small hole at the narrow end, through which the air
is abstracted by suction of the mouth, and is then plugged up. This
has the same effect as rarefying the air by heat, and the blood flows
copiously.
There was some alarm created in the house on the Saturday preceding,
by the sudden and violent illness of M. Beaudin; who, having received
from St. Jean d’Acre, where the plague was raging, a packet of letters,
which he had handled and opened without the necessary precaution of
fumigation, was supposed to have been infected: but the prevalence
of fevers at Hamah better accounted for his indisposition. Yet he
was possessed so strongly with the idea of having been infected by
the pestiferous effluvia from his letters, that he was rendered very
wretched in his mind. However, in a day or two, he found himself so
much better as to recover his courage. The precautions which Franks and
Christians use, when this malady reigns in the country, have been so
often described, that I throw them rather into a note, than into the
body of my narrative: and I would leave them out altogether, if I could
do so consistent with the influence they have on the mode of living in
the Levant.[58]
I pronounced the khodja out of danger on the 27th. He had constantly
desired I should see him, but I never altered his treatment.
I received a visit from a Turk named Abd ed Dyn Aga, who had fought
at the battle of Fuley, and been wounded in six places. He passed high
encomiums on the bravery of the French.
Lady Hester, having now fulfilled the great object for which she had
come to Hamah, namely, the journey to Palmyra, and having enjoyed
sufficiently the scenery and novelties of the place and its environs,
resolved to set off for Latakia, on the sea-coast. Previous to our
departure, the horses were bled and new shod. We had no groom that
could bleed a horse in the jugular vein, nor do the Turkish farriers
bleed in that place; but, as Nasýf Pasha had expressed a wish to see it
done, I undertook it, and he accordingly attended.
And here I cannot help introducing some remarks on a most gross and
unfounded calumny against the Turks, which has been copied from one
book of travels into another, touching the origin of a custom which
prevails throughout Turkey, but which has been principally commented
upon at the audiences of European ambassadors at the Porte. I allude to
the ceremony of being supported under the arm by two attendants when
introduced into the Imperial presence. This has been construed into a
measure of precaution against any attack, by such as are introduced,
on the person of the Sultan or his ministers. But, setting aside the
absurdity of supposing that every embassy was a band of assassins, it
is notorious to all those acquainted with the usages of Turkey that
persons high in rank, or to be greatly honoured upon any occasion, are
supported on either side by two attendants. Thus it was that Nasýf
Pasha, obliged to come on foot into the field where our horses were
tethered, was led, as an infirm man would be, by two of his servants;
and, although a fresh-looking, handsome, and strong man, he leaned
on them as though he was helpless.[59] Again at Brusa, where, on one
occasion, a deposed pasha came to pay a visit to the governor whilst
Mr. B. and I were with him, the latter rose and advanced to the door
of the room to receive him, and supported him to the upper seat by
placing his arm under the pasha’s arm-pit. Ahmed Bey, at Damascus, was
always led thus from sofa to sofa. Yet these very personages, when
on horseback, would throw the javelin with a degree of force little
compatible with physical debility. We therefore can have no doubt that
this mode of introduction into the presence of the Grand Signor is
intended to do honour to the members of the embassy, and we must hold
as ill informed those writers who assert the contrary; nor can such
persons, who, being admitted to a presentation, have rejected the
proffered assistance of the servants, be considered otherwise than as
petulant and ill-bred.
As to the question whether that French ambassador was justified in what
he did, who refused to enter the Imperial presence at Constantinople
unless with his sword on, it is for masters of court etiquette to
determine. Only thus much is to be said, that in Turkey, in (what we
should call in familiar language) dress parties, it is the height of
vulgarity to go armed with a sabre, which is the Mahometan’s sword;
and if, at a levee of the King of England, a foreign ambassador at his
court would look ridiculous without his sword, then there, where custom
requires exactly the reverse, the reverse becomes the best breeding.
When Lady Hester’s dragoman at Damascus was shut out from the audience
chamber because he was armed, it was not because they feared that a
stripling, and he a Greek, could do mischief, but because a high-bred
courtier from Constantinople chose to retain, even in the provinces,
the usages of the metropolis.
Whilst I was in this place, I took lessons in Arabic, in writing and
reading, of an old schoolmaster, named Basili, of the Greek church.
With respect to the education of children in Syria, there are
day-schools in every town and village, the same as in England; with
this difference, however, that children are taught not at so much per
week, per month, or per annum; but an agreement is entered into, that,
for a certain sum, a boy shall be made to read--for as much more to
write, and so on. It does not matter how long or how short a time is
expended; but the money is not paid until the boy’s progress amounts
to a completion of the agreement. Thus it becomes the interest of the
teacher to perfect his scholar as fast as possible. It would seem that
rods for the chastisement of children are not used in Turkey, as,
though I was in the habit of entering many people’s houses, I never saw
any.
In the same way doctors agree with their patients, in almost all
chronic maladies, to cure them for so much; and to this end a written
agreement is drawn up, the basis of which is, “No cure, no pay.” In
acute diseases, where experience has taught that attention and skill
may sometimes prove unavailing, the practitioner claims a greater
latitude for himself, and receives half his gratuity for medicines
supplied, and the other half if the patient recovers.
Hamah is full of Mahometans who wear green turbans; that is, those
who are the reputed descendants of their Prophet; so that every third
person you address has the title of Säyd prefixed to his name.