 Section 1 of A Pilgrimage to Almadina and Mecca This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org A personal narrative of A Pilgrimage to Almadina and Mecca by Sir Richard Francis Burton Preface to the Memorial Edition After my beloved husband had passed away from amongst us, after the funeral had taken place, and I had settled in England, I began to think in what way I could render him the most honour. A material monument to his memory has already been erected by his countrymen, in the shape of a handsome contribution to the beautiful mausoleum tent in stone and marble to contain his remains. But I also hoped to erect a less material but more imperishable monument to his name by making this unique hero better known to his countrymen by his works, which have hitherto not been sufficiently known, not extensively enough published, and issued perhaps at a prohibitive price. Viewing the long list of works written by him between 1842 and 1890, many of which are still unpublished, I was almost disheartened by the magnitude of the work, until the publishers, Messrs Tilston and Edwards, fully appreciating the interest with which the British public had followed my husband's adventurous career and fearless enterprise, arranged to produce this uniform memorial edition at their own expense. Mr Leonard Smithers, a man of great literary talent and of indefatigable energy, who admired and collaborated with my husband in the traduction of Latin classics for two years before he died, has also kindly volunteered to be my working assistant and to join with me in the editing. My part is to give up all my copyrights and to search out such papers and notations and latest notes and corrections, as will form the most complete work, also to write all the prefaces and to give every assistance in my power as editress. The memorial edition commences with the present pilgrimage to Almadina and Mecca, which will be followed at intervals by others of my husband's works. Since this memorial edition was arranged and the prospectus issued, I have parted with the copyright of my husband's famous translation of the Arabian Nights to the publishers, and they are arranging to bring out that work at an early date and as nearly as possible uniform in appearance with the memorial edition. The ornamentations on the binding are a figure of my husband in his Arab costume, his monogram in Arabic, and on the back of the book, the tent which is his tomb. Both the publishers and myself have to thank Mr Smithers for the infinite trouble he has taken in collating the first, second, third and fourth edition of the pilgrimage with Sir Richard's own original annotated copies. All the lengthy notes and appendices of the first edition have been retained and these are supplemented by the notes and appendices in the later editions, as well as by the authors' manuscript notes. He has adopted Sir Richard's latest and most correct orthography of Arabic words and has passed the sheets through the press. Following my husband's plan in The Thousand Nights and a Night, he has put the accents on Arabic words only the first time of their appearance to show how they ought to be, thinking it unnecessary to preserve throughout what is an eyesore to the reader and a distress to the printer. So it is with Arabic books. The accents are only put for the early student. Afterwards, they are left to the practical knowledge of the reader. All the original coloured illustrations of the first edition and also the wood engravings of the later issues are reproduced for the first time in one uniform edition. The map and plans are facsimiles of those in the latest, fourth edition. In fact, everything has been done to make this book worthy of its author and of the public's appreciation. For those who may not know the import of a pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Mecca in 1853, they will not take it amiss when I say that there are holy shrines of the Muslim world in the far away desert where no white man, European or Christian, could enter save as a Muslim or even approach without certain death. They are more jealously guarded than the holy grail and this work narrates how this pilgrimage was accomplished. My husband had lived as a dervish in Sindh which greatly helped him and he studied every separate thing until he was master of it, even apprenticing himself to a blacksmith to learn how to make horseshoes and to shoe his own horses. It meant living with his life in his hand amongst the strangest and wildest companions, adopting their unfamiliar manners, living for nine months in the hottest and most unhealthy climate upon repulsive food. It meant complete and absolute isolation from everything that makes life tolerable from all civilization, from all his natural habits, the brain at high tension but the mind never wavering from the role he had adopted. But he liked it, he was happy in it, he felt at home in it and in this book he tells you how he did it and what he saw. Sir Richard Burton died at the age of 70 on the 20th of October 1890. During the last 48 years of his life he lived only for the benefit and for the welfare of England and of his countrymen and of the human race at large. Let us reverently raise up this monument, Ire Perennius, to his everlasting memory. Isabel Burton May 24th 1893 and of Section 1 Section 2 of A Pilgrimage to Almadina and Mecca This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Section 2 of A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Almadina and Mecca by Sir Richard Francis Burton Preface to the third edition After a lapse of 25 years, a third edition of my pilgrimage has been called for by the public, to whom I take this opportunity of returning thanks. Mrs Mullen have chosen the very best opportunity. My two publications concerning the Cadeval Expeditions to Midian, The Gold Mines of Midian and The Land of Midian Revisited are, as I have stated in the preface, sequels and continuations of this pilgrimage from which the adventures forming their subject may be said to date. The text has been carefully revised and the baggage of notes has been materially lightened. From the appendix I have removed matter which, though useful to the student, is of scant general interest. The quaint and interesting narrative and voyages of Ludovica Svertumanus, Gentlemen of Rome, need no longer be read in extracts, when the whole has been printed by the Hacklet Society. The travels of Ludovico Divartema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserter and Arabia Felix in Persia, India and Ethiopia, AD 1503 to 1508, translated from the original Italian edition of 1510 with a preface by John Winter Jones, Esquire, FSA and edited with notes and an introduction by George Percy Badger, late government chaplain in the presidency of Bombay, London. On the other hand I have inserted after the appendix, with the permission of the author, two highly interesting communications from Dr. Alois Sprenger, a well-known orientalist and arabist, concerning the roots of the great caravans. My friend supports his suspicions that an error of direction has been made and geographers will enjoy the benefit of his conscientious studies, topographical and linguistic. The truculent attacks made upon pilgrims and darwishes, called for a few words of notice. Even that learned and amiable philanthropist, the late Dr. John Wilson of Bombay, lands of the Bible, volume 2, page 302, alludes in the case of the Spaniard Badiah, alias Alibey al-Abasi, to the unjustifiable fanciful disguise of a Mohammedan pilgrim. The author of the Ruddy Goose theory, voice of Israel from Mount Sinai and compiler of the historical geography of Arabia has dealt a foul blow to the memory of Burkhart, the energetic and inoffensive Swiss traveller whose name has ever been held in the highest repute. And now the government chaplain, in Dites, introduction, page 27, the following invidious remarks touching the travels of Ludovico di Vartema, the weird Deucarus be it remarked of the learned and laical Julius Caesar Scaliga. Quotation, this is not the place to discuss the morality of an act involving the deliberate and voluntary denial of what a man holds to be truth in a matter so sacred as that of religion. Such a violation of conscience is not justifiable by the end which the renegade, Burton here puts an exclamation mark, may have in view, however abstractedly praiseworthy it may be, and even granting that his demerit should be gauged by the amount of knowledge which he possesses of what is true and what false, the conclusion is inevitable that nothing short of utter ignorance of the precepts of his faith or a conscientious disbelief in them can fairly relieve the Christian who conforms to Islamism without a corresponding persuasion of its verity of the deserved odium all honest men attached to apostasy and hypocrisy. End of quotation. The reply to this tirade is simply, judge not, especially when you are ignorant of the case which you are judging. Perhaps also the writer may ask himself, is it right for those to cast stones who dwell in a tenement not devoid of fragility? The second attack proceeds from a place whence no man would reasonably have expected it. The author of the Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, Volume 1 pages 258-259 thus expresses his opinions. Quotation. Passing oneself off for a wandering darwish as some European explorers have attempted to do in the East for more reasons than one a very bad plan. It is unnecessary to dilate on that moral aspect of the proceeding which will always first strike unsophisticated minds. To feign a religion which the adventurer himself does not believe to perform with scrupulous exactitude as of the highest and holiest import practices which he inwardly ridicules and which he intends on his return to hold up to the ridicule of others. To turn for weeks and months together the most sacred and awful bearings of man towards his creator into a deliberate and truthless mummery not to mention other and yet darker touches. All this seems hardly compatible with the character of a European gentleman let alone that of a Christian. End of quotation. This comes admirably apropos from a traveller who born a protestant of Jewish descent placed himself quotation in connection with end of quotation in plain words took the vows of quotation the order of the Jesuits end of quotation an order quotation well known in the annals of philanthropic daring end of quotation a popular preacher who declaimed openly at Beirut and elsewhere against his own nation till the proceedings of a certain father Michael Cohen were made the subject of an official report by Mr. Consul General Moore Beirut November the 11th 1857 an Englishman by birth who accepted French protection a secret mission and quotation the liberality of the present emperor of the French end of quotation a military officer travelling in the garb of what he calls a native Syrian quack with a comrade who quotation by a slight but necessary fiction passed for his brother-in-law end of quotation a gentleman who by return to protestantism violated his vows and a traveller who was proved by the experiment of Colonel now Sir Louis Pelly to have brought upon himself all the perils and adventures that have caused his charming work to be considered so little worthy of trust truly such attack argues a sublime daring it is the principle of Vieil Coquette Nouvelle de Votte it is Satan preaching against sin both writers certainly lack the gifty to see themselves as others see them in noticing these extracts my object is not to defend myself I recognise no man's right to interfere between a human being and his conscience but what is there I would ask in the Muslim pilgrimage so offensive to Christians what makes it a subject of inward ridicule do they not also venerate Abraham the father of the faithful did not lock and even greater names hold Mohammedans to be heterodox Christians in fact Aryans who till the end of the fourth century represented the mass of North European Christianity did Mr. Lane never conform by praying at a mosque in Cairo did he ever fear to confess it has he been called an apostate for so doing did not Father Michael Cohen prove himself an excellent Muslim at Wahhabi land the fact is there are honest men who hold that al-Islam in its capital tenets approaches much nearer to the faith of Jesus than do the Pauline and Athanasian modifications which in this hour day have divided the Indo-European mind into Catholic and Roman, Greek and Russian Lutheran and Anglican the disciples of Dr. Daniel Shankles school a sketch of the character of Jesus Longmans 1869 will indeed find little difficulty in making this admission practically a visit after Arab Mecca to Anglo-Indian Aden with its priests after the order of Melchisedec suggested to me that the Muslim may be more tolerant more enlightened, more charitable than many societies of self-styled Christians and why rage so furiously against the disguise of a wandering Darwesh in what point is the Darwesh more a mama or in what does he show more of Betis than the quack is the Darwesh anything but an oriental Freemason and our Freemasons less Christians because they pray with Muslims and profess their belief in simple Unitarianism I have said and now to conclude after my return to Europe many inquired if I was not the only living European who has found his way to the headquarters of the Muslim faith I may answer in the affirmative so far at least that when entering the penetralia of Muslim life my eastern origin was never questioned and my position was never what caggles would describe as in local apostate on the other hand any Jew, Christian or pagan after declaring before the Qazi and the police authorities at Cairo or even at Damascus that he embraces al-Islam may perform without fear of the so-called mosaic institution Asuna his pilgrimage in all safety it might be dangerous to travel down the desert line between Mecca and Al-Madina during times of popular excitement but the coast route is always safe to the new Muslim however the old Muslim is rarely well affected and the former as a rule returns home unpleasantly impressed by his experiences the eastern world moves slowly half a generation ago steamers were first started to Jeddah now we hear of a projected railroad from that port to Mecca the shareholders being all Muslims an example of Jerusalem encourages us to hope that long before the end of the century a visit to Mecca will not be more difficult than a trip to Hebron Ziyadehad Yadab Richard F. Burton London 31st of March 1879 and of section 2 section 3 of a pilgrimage to Al-Madina and Mecca this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain if you have any information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org section 3 of a personal narrative of a pilgrimage to Al-Madina and Mecca by Sir Richard Francis Burton Preface to the first edition the interest just now felt in everything that relates to the East would alone be sufficient to ensure that the author of Al-Madina and Mecca the favourable consideration of the reading public but when it is born in mind that since the days of William Pitts of Exeter AD 1678 to 1688 no European travellers with the exception of Burkhart and Lieutenant Burton have been able to send us back an account of their travels there it cannot be doubted that the present work will be hailed as a welcome addition to our knowledge of these hitherto mysterious penetralia of Mohammedan superstition in fact Al-Madina may be considered almost a virgin theme for as Burkhart was prostrated by sickness throughout the period of his stay in the northern Hejaz he was not able to describe it as satisfactorily or minutely as he did the southern country he could not send the plan of the mosque or correct the popular but erroneous ideas which prevail concerning it and the surrounding city the reader may question the propriety of introducing in a work of description anecdotes which may appear open to the charge of triviality the author's object however seems to be to illustrate the peculiarities of the people to dramatise as it were the dry journal of a journey and to preserve the tone of the adventures together with that local colouring in which mainly consists l'éducation d'un voyage for the same reason the prayers of the visitation ceremony have been translated at length despite the danger of inducing tedium they are an essential part of the subject and cannot be omitted nor be represented by specimens the event of the appendix requires some explanation Fuban Literati are aware of the existence of Lodovico Bartema's naive recital of the quaint narrative of Joseph Pitts or of the wild journal of Giovanni Finati such extracts have been now made from these writers that the general reader can become acquainted with the adventures and opinions of the different travellers who have visited El Hejaz during a space of 350 years thus with the second volume of Burkhardt's travels in Arabia the geographer curious concerning this portion of the Muslims holy land possesses all that has yet been written upon the subject the editor to whom the author in his absence has entrusted his work had hoped to have completed it by the simultaneous publication of the third volume containing the pilgrimage to Mecca the delay however in the arrival from India of this portion of the manuscript has been such as to induce him at once to publish El Mist and El Medina the concluding volume on Mecca is now in the hands of the publisher and will appear in the autumn of the present year meanwhile the public will not lose sight of the subject of Arabia part of El Hejaz has lately been inspected by Monsieur Charles Didier an eminent name in French literature and by the Abbey Hamilton persuaded it is believed by our author to visit Taif and Wadi-laimoum though entirely unconnected with the subjects of Mecca and El Medina the account of the sheriff's court where these gentlemen were received with distinction that of the almost unknown regions of the Jebel Korah orientalists and geographers of Europe Mr Burton is already known by his history of sin and as if to mark their sense of the spirit of observation and daring evinced by him when in that country and still more during his late journeyings in Arabia and East Africa the geographical society through their learned secretary Dr Norton Shaw have given valuable aid to this work in its progress through the press supplying maps where necessary to complete the illustration supplied by the author who it will be perceived is himself no mean draftsman it was during a residence of many years in India that Mr Burton had fitted himself for his late undertaking by acquiring through his peculiar aptitude for such studies a thorough acquaintance with the various dialects of Arabia and Persia his eastern cast of features Vidae frontispiece volume 2 seemed already to point him out as the very person of all others best suited for an expedition like that described in the following pages it will be observed that in writing Arabic, Hindustani Persian or Turkish words the author has generally adopted the system proposed by Sir William Jones and modified by later orientalists but when a word like Fatiha for Fatcha has been stamped by general popular use the conversational form has been preferred and the same too may be said of the common corruptions Cairo, Qadi etc which in any other form would appear to us pedantic and ridiculous still in the absence of the author it must be expected that some trifling errors and inaccuracies will have here and there crept in injustice to others and himself the editor however feels bound to acknowledge with much gratitude that where such or even greater mistakes have been avoided it has been mainly due to the continued kindness of an eastern scholar of more than European reputation who has assisted in revising the sheets before finally consigning them to the printer let us hope that the proofs now furnished of untiring energy and capacity for observation and research by our author as well as his ability to bear fatigue and exposure to the most inclement climate will induce the governments of this country and of India to provide him with men and means evidently all that is required for the purpose to pursue his adventurous and useful career in other countries equally difficult of access and if possible of still greater interest than the eastern shores of the Red Sea Thomas L. Wally Hampton Court Palace June 1855 Dedication to Colonel William Sykes Fellow of the Royal Society Member of the Royal Geographical Society Member of the Royal Agricultural Society and Lord Rector of the Maryshal College Aberdeen I do not parade your name my dear Colonel in the van of this volume after the manner of that acute tactician who stuck a Quran upon his lance in order to win a battle believe me it is not my object to use your orthodoxy as a cover to my heresies of sentiment and science in politics, political economy and what not but whatever I have done on this occasion if I have done anything has been by the assistance of a host of friends amongst whom you were ever the foremost and the highest privilege I aim at is this opportunity of publicly acknowledging the multitude of obligations owed to you and them accept my dear Colonel this humble return for your kindness and ever believe me the sincerest of your well wishes Richard F. Burton End of section section 3 section 4 chapter 1 of a pilgrimage to Almadina and Mecca this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org section 4 chapter 1 of a personal narrative of a pilgrimage to Almadina and Mecca by Sir Richard Francis Burton to Alexandria a few words concerning what induced me to a pilgrimage in the autumn of 1852 through the medium of my excellent friend the late General Monteith I offered my services to the Royal Geographical Society of London for the purpose of removing that opprobrium to modern adventure the huge white plot which in our maps still notes the eastern and central regions of Arabia Sir Roderick I. Murchison Colonel P. York and Dr. Shaw a deputation from that distinguished body with their usual zeal for discovery and readiness to encourage the discoverer honoured me by warmly supporting in a personal interview with the then Chairman of the then Court of Directors to the then Honourable East India Company my application for three years leave of absence on special duty from India to Muscat but they were unable to prevail upon the said Chairman the late Sir James Hogg who remembering the fatalities which of late years have befallen sundry soldier travellers in the east refused his sanction alleging as a reason that the contemplated journey was of too dangerous a nature in compensation however the disappointment I was allowed the additional furlough of a year in order to pursue my Arabic studies in lands where the language is best learnt what remained for me but to prove by trial that what might be perilous to other travellers was safe to me the experimentum Cloukis was a visit to Al-Hijaz at once the most difficult and the most dangerous point by which a European can enter Arabia I had intended had the period of leave originally applied for been granted to land at Muscat a favourable starting place and there to apply myself slowly and surely to the task of spanning the deserts but now I was to hurry in the midst of summer after a four years sojourn in Europe during which many things oriental had faded away from my memory and after passing through the ordeal of Egypt a country where the police is curious as in Rome or Milan to begin with the Muslims Holy Land the jealously guarded and exclusive Harim however being liberally supplied with the means of travel by the Royal Geographical Society thoroughly tired of progress and of civilisation curious to see with my eyes what others are content to hear with ears namely Muslim inner life in a really Mohammedan country and longing if truth be told to set foot on that mysterious spot which no vacation tourist has yet described measured, sketched and photographed I resolved to resume my old character of a Persian wanderer a dawesh and to make the attempt the principal object with which I started was this to cross the unknown Arabian peninsula in a direct line from either Almadina to Muscat or diagonally from Mecca to Makala on the Indian Ocean by what circumstance the miscreator my plans were defeated the reader will discover in the course of these volumes the secondary objects were numerous I was desirous to find out if any market for horses could be opened between Central Arabia and India where the studs were beginning to excite general dissatisfaction to obtain information concerning the great eastern wilderness the vast expanse marked the Rub al-Hali the empty abode in our maps to inquire into the hydrography of the Hijaz its watershed the disputed slope of the country and the existence or non-existence of perennial streams and finally to try by actual observation the truth of a theory proposed by Colonel W. Sykes namely that if tradition be true in the population of the vast peninsula there must exist certain physiological differences sufficient to warrant our questioning the common origin of the Arab family as regards horses I am satisfied that from the eastern coast something might be done nothing on the western where the animals though thoroughbred are mere weeds of a foolish price and procurable only by chance of the Rub al-Hali I have heard enough from credible relators to conclude that its horrid depths swarm with the large and half-starving population that it abounds in wadis, valleys, gullies and ravines partially fertilized by intermittent torrents and therefore that the land is open to the adventurous traveller moreover I am satisfied that in spite of all geographers from Ptolemy to Jomar Arabia which abounds in few Maras possesses not a single perennial stream worthy the name of river and the testimony of the natives induces me to think with Wala contrary to Ritter and others that the peninsula falls instead of rising towards the south. Finally I have found proof to be produced in a future part of this publication for believing in three distinct races. One the aborigines of the country driven like the pills and other octokhtonic Indians into the eastern and southeastern wilds bordering upon the ocean. Two Syrian or Mesopotamian stock typified by Shem and Joktan that drove the Indigenei from the choicest tracks of country these invaders still enjoy their conquests representing the great Arabian people. And three an impure Syro-Egyptian clan we personify it by Ishmael by his son Nabadjoth and by Edom Esor the son of Isaac that populated and still populates the Sinaitic peninsula. And in most places even in the heart of Mecca I met with Debrey of Heathenry prescribed by Mohammed yet still popular while the ignorant observers of the old customs assigned to them are modern and irrationalistic origin. I have entitled this account of my summer's tour through Al-Hijaz a personal narrative and I have laboured to make its nature correspond with its name simply because it is the personal that interests mankind. Many may not follow my example but some perchance will be curious to see what measures I adopted in order to appear suddenly as an eastern upon the stage of Oriental life and as the recital may be found useful by future adventurers I make no apology for the egotistical semblance of the narrative. Those who have felt the want of some silent friend to aid them with advice when it must be asked will appreciate what may appear to the uninterested critic mere outpourings of a mind full of self. On the evening of April the 3rd, 1853 I left London for Southampton by the advice of a brother officer captain now Colonel Henry Grindley of the Bengal cavalry little thought at that time the advisor or the advised how valuable was the suggestion my eastern dress was called into requisition before leaving town and all my impedimenta were taught to look exceedingly Oriental. Early the next day a Persian prince accompanied by Captain Grindley embarked on board the peninsula and Oriental company's magnificent screw steamer, Bengal. A fortnight was profitably spent in getting into the train of Oriental manners for what polite Chesterfield says of the difference between gentlemen and his reverse namely that both perform the same offices of life but each in a several and widely different way. It's notably as applicable to the manners of the eastern as of the western man. Look for instance at that Indian Muslim drinking a glass of water. With us the operation is simple enough but his performance includes no fewer than five novelties. In the first place he clutches his tumbler as though it were the throat of a foe. Secondly he ejaculates in the name of Allah the compassionate the merciful before wetting his lips. Thirdly he imbibes the contents swallowing them not sipping them as he ought to do and ending with a satisfied grunt. Fourthly before setting down the cup he sighs forth praise be to Allah of which you will understand the full meaning in the desert and fifthly he replies may Allah make it pleasant to thee in answer to his friends polite, pleasurably and hell. Also he is careful to avoid the irreligious action of drinking the pure element in a standing position, mindful however of the three recognized exceptions. The fluid of the holy well Zem Zem water distributed in charity and that which remains after Wuzul the lesser ablution. Moreover in Europe where both extremities are used indiscriminately one forgets the exclusive use of the right hand, the manipulation of the rosary, the abuse of the chair your genuine oriental gathers up his legs, looking almost as comfortable in it as a sailor upon the back of a high trotting horse the rolling gate with the toes straight to the front, the grave look and the habit of pious ejaculations our voyage over the summer sea was eventless in a steamer of two or three thousand tons you discover the once dreaded now contemptible stormy waters only by the band, a standing nuisance be it remarked, performing there we lay all the day in the bay of Biscayo the sight of glorious Trafalgar excites none of the sentiments with which a tedious sail used to invest it Gibb is probably better known to you by Phil Gotier and Elliot Warburton than the regions about Cornhill besides which you anchor under the rock exactly long enough to land and to breakfast Malta too wears an old familiar face which bids you order a dinner and superintend the icing of claret, beginning of oriental barbarism instead of galloping about on donkeyback through fiery air in memory of St. Paul and White Cross Nights but though our journey might be called monotonous there was nothing to complain of the ship was in every way comfortable the cook strange to say was good and the voyage lasted long enough and not too long on the evening of the 13th day after our start the big trousered pilot so lovely in his deformities to western eyes made his appearance and the good screw Bengal found herself at anchor off the headland having been invited to start from the house of a kind friend John W. Larkin I disembarked with him and rejoiced to say that by dint of a beard and a shaven head I had succeeded like the Lord of Geesh in misleading the inquisitive spirit of the populace the mingled herd of spectators before whom we passed in review on the landing place hearing an audible Alhamdulillah whispered Muslim the infant population spared me the compliments usually addressed to hatched heads and when a little boy presuming that the occasion might possibly open the hand of generosity looked in my face and exclaimed back sheesh he obtained in reply a Muffish which convinced the bystanders that the sheepskin covered a real sheep we then mounted a carriage fought our way through the donkeys and in half an hour found ourself hulk in mouth and coffee cup in hand seated on the divan of my friend Larkin's hospitable home wonderful was the contrast between the steamer and that villa on the Mahmoudia canal startling the sudden change from Presto to Adagio life in 13 days we had passed from the clammy grey fog the atmosphere of industry which kept us at anchor off the isle of white through the loveliest air in land sea whose sparkling blue and purple haze spread charms even on North Africa's bell dame features and now we are sitting silent and still listening to the monotonous melody of the east the soft night breeze wandering through starlit skies and tufted trees with a voice of melancholy meaning and this is the Arabs kyfe the savouring of animal existence the passive enjoyment of mere sense the pleasant langa the dreamy tranquility the airy castle building which in Asia stands in lieu of the vigorous intensive passionate life of Europe it is the result of a lively impressible excitable nature and exquisite sensibility of nerve it argues a facility for voluptuousness unknown to northern regions where happiness is placed in the insertion of mental and physical powers where ensed ist das Leben where niggered earth commands ceaseless sweat of face and damp chill air demands perpetual excitement exercise or change or adventure or dissipation for want of something better in the east man wants but rest and shade upon the banks of a bubbling stream or under the cool shelter of a perfumed tree he is perfectly happy smoking a pipe or sipping a cup of coffee or drinking a glass of sherbet but above all things deranging body and mind as little as possible the trouble of conversations the displeasures of memory and the vanity of thought being the most unpleasant interruptions to his kyfe no wonder that kyfe is a word untranslatable in our mother tongue laudabhunt alii klaram rodon out miteleinin let others describe the once famous capital of Egypt this city of misnomers whose dry docks are ever wet and whose marble fountain is eternally dry whose cleopatra's needle is neither a needle nor cleopatra's whose pompi's pillar never had any earthly connection with pompi and whose cleopatra's baths are according to voracious travellers no baths at all yet it is a wonderful place this Libyan suburb of our day this outpost of civilisation planted upon the skirts of barbarism this Osiris seated side by side with typhon his great old enemy still may be said of it it ever beareth something new and alexandria a threadbare subject in bruce's time is even yet from its perpetual changes a fit field for modern description the better to blind the inquisitive eyes of servants and visitors my friend Larking lodged me in an outhouse where I could revel in the utmost freedom of life and manners and although some Armenian dragamon a restless spy like all his race occasionally remarked voila un person diablement digagy none except those who were entrusted with the secret any idea of the part I was playing the domestics devout Muslims pronounced me an ajami a kind of Mohammedan not a good one like themselves but still better than nothing I lost no time in securing the assistance of a sheikh and plunged once more into the intricacies of the faith revived my recollections of religious ablutions read the Quran and again became my leisure hours were employed in visiting the baths and coffee houses in attending the bazaars and in shopping an operation which hereabouts consists of sitting upon a Chapman's counter smoking sipping coffee and telling your beads the while to show that you are not of the slaves for whom time is made in fact in pitting your patience against that of your adversary the vendor I found time for a short excursion in my village on the banks of the canal nor was an opportunity of seeing an Nahl the bee dance neglected for it would be some months before my eyes might dwell on such a pleasant spectacle again careful of graver matters I attended the mosque and visited the venerable localities in which modern Alexandria abounds pilgrimaging Muslims are here I have shown the tomb of Annabi Daniel Daniel the prophet discovered upon a spot where the late Sultan Mahmoud dreamt that he saw an ancient man at prayer the Muslim Alexander the Great of course left his bones in the place bearing his name or as he ought to have done so bones have been found for him Alexandria also boasts of two celebrated wallies holy men the author of a poem called universally read by the world of Islam and locally recited at funerals and other solemn occasions the other is a sage and saint of the first water at whose tomb prayer is never breathed in vain it is not to be supposed that the people of Alexandria could look upon my files and pillboxes without a yearning for their contents an Indian doctor too was a novelty to them Franks they despised but a man who had come so far from east and west then there was something infinitely seducing in the character of a magician, doctor and fakir each admirable of itself thus combined to make great medicine men, women and children besieged my door by which means I could see the people face to face and especially the fair sex of which Europeans generally speaking know only the worst specimens even respectable natives after witnessing a performance of mandal and the magic mirror opined that the stranger was a holy man gifted with supernatural powers and knowing everything one old person sent to offer me his daughter in marriage he said nothing about dowry but I thought proper to decline the honour and a middle age lady profited me the sum of one hundred piastres nearly one pound sterling if I would stay at Alexandria and superintend the restoration of her blind left eye but the reader must not be led to suppose that I acted carabin or sagrado without any knowledge of my trade from youth I have always been a dabbler in medical and mystical study moreover the practice of physics is comparatively easy amongst dwellers in warm latitudes uncivilised peoples where there is not that complication of maladies which troubles more polished nations and further what simplifies extremely the treatment of the sick in these parts is the undoubted periodicity of disease reducing almost all to one type AGU many of the complaints of tropical climates as medical men well know display palpably intermittent symptoms little known to colder countries and speaking from individual experience I may safely assert that in all cases of suffering from a wound to ophthalmia this phenomenon has forced itself upon my notice so much by way of excuse I therefore considered myself as well qualified for the work as if I had taken out a Buono bellestero diploma at Padua and not more likely to do active harm than most of the regularly graduated young surgeons who start to finish themselves upon the frame of the British soldier after a month's hard work at Alexandria I prepared to assume the character of a wandering Darwesh after reforming my title from Mirza to Sheikh Abdullah a reverent man whose name I do not care to quote some time ago initiated me into his order the Kadiriyah under the high-sounding name of Bismillah Shah and after a due period of probation he graciously elevated me to the proud position of a murshid or master in the mystic craft I was therefore sufficiently well acquainted with the tenets and practices of these oriental freemasons no character in the Muslim world is so proper for disguise as that of the Darwesh it is assumed by all ranks and creeds by the nobleman who has been disgraced at court and by the peasant who is too idle to till the ground by D. Vaze who is weary of life and by Lazarus who begs his bread from door to door further the Darwesh is allowed to ignore ceremony and politeness as one who ceases to appear upon the stage of life he may pray or not marry or remain single as he pleases be respectable in cloth of freeze as in cloth of gold and no one asks him why he comes here or wherefore he goes there he may wend his way on foot alone or ride his Arab mare followed by a dozen servants he is equally feared without weapons as swaggering through the streets armed to the teeth the more haughty and offensive he is to the people the more they respect him a decided advantage to the traveller of choleric temperament in the hour of imminent danger he has only to become a maniac and he is safe a madman in the east like a notably eccentric character in the west is allowed to say or do whatever the spirit directs add to this character a little knowledge of medicine a moderate skill in magic and a reputation for caring for nothing but study and books together with capital sufficient to save you from the chance of starving and you appear in the east to peculiar advantage the only danger of the mystic path is that the darwashes ragged coat not unfrequently covers the cutthroat and if seized in the society of such a brother you may reluctantly become his companion under the stick or on the stake for be it known darwashes are of two orders the sharai or those who conform to religion and the bisharai whose practices are hinted at by their own tradition that he we down a name once joined them for a week but at the end of that time left them in dismay and returned to whence he came end of chapter one section five chapter two of a pilgrimage to almadina and mecca this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org section five chapter two of a personal narrative of a pilgrimage to almadina and mecca by Sir Richard Francis Burton I leave Alexandria the thoroughbred wanderers idiosyncrasy I presume to be a composition of what phrenologists call competitiveness and locality equally and largely developed after a long and toilsome march weary of the way he drops into the nearest place of rest to become the most domestic of men for a while he smokes the pipe of permanence with an infinite zest he delights in various siestas during the day relishing with all deep sleep during the dark hours the next dinner hour and he wonders at the demoralisation of the mind which cannot find means of excitement in chitchat or small talk in a novel or a newspaper but soon the passive fit has passed away again a paroxysm of ennui coming on by slow degrees Viator loses appetite he walks about his room all night he yawns at conversations and a book acts upon him in a chaotic the man wants to wander and he must do so or he shall die after about a month most pleasantly spent at Alexandria I perceived the approach of the enemy and as nothing hampered my incomings and outgoings I surrendered the world was all before me and there was pleasant excitement in plunging single-handed into its chilling depths whose heart fell victim to a new jubba which I had given in exchange for his tattered za'abut offered me in consideration of a certain monthly stipend the affections of a brother and religious refreshment proposing to send his wife back to her papa and to accompany me in the capacity of private chaplain to the other side of calf I politely accepted the brudershaft but many reasons induced me to decline his society and services in the first place he spoke the detestable Egyptian jargon secondly it was but prudent to lose the spore between Alexandria and Suez and thirdly my brother had shifting eyes symptoms of fickleness close together indices of cunning a flat-crowned head and large ill-fitting lips which led me to think lightly of his honesty, firmness and courage phrenology and physiognomy be it observed disappoints you often amongst civilised people the proper action of whose brain upon the features is impeded by the external pressure of education accident, example habit and necessity but they are tolerably safe guides when groping your way through the mind of man in his so-called natural state a being of impulse in that chrysalis condition of mental development which is rather instinct than reason before my departure however there was much to be done the land of the pharaohs is becoming civilised and unpleasantly so nothing can be more uncomfortable than its present middle state between barbarism and the reverse the prohibition against carrying arms is rigid as in Italy all violence is violently denounced and beheading being deemed cruel the most atrocious crimes as well as those small political offences which in the days of the Mamluks would have led to a bay-ship or a bow-string receive fourfold punishment by deportation to Faisoglu the local Cayenne if you order your peasant to be flogged his friends gather in threatening hundreds at your gates when you curse your boatman he complains to your consul the dragamons afflict you with strange, wild notions about honesty a government order prevents you from using by tuperative language to the natives in general and the very donkey boys are becoming cognisant of the right of man to remain unbastinadoed still the old leaven remains behind here as elsewhere in the morning land you cannot hold your own without employing the voidefi the passport system now dying out of Europe has sprung up or rather has revived in Egypt with peculiar vigor its good effects claim for it our respect still we cannot but lament its inconvenience by we I mean real estons as strangers even those whose beards have whitened in the land know absolutely nothing of what unfortunate natives must endure I am tempted to sub-join a short sketch of my adventures in search of a Tazkira or passport at Alexandria through ignorance which might have cost me dear but for friend Larking's weight with the local authorities I had neglected to provide myself with a passport in England and it was not without difficulty involving much unclean dressing and an unlimited expenditure of broken English that I obtained from her Britannic Majesties Consul at Alexandria a certificate declaring me to be an Indo-British subject named Abdullah by profession a doctor aged 30 and not distinguished at least so the frequent blanks seemed to denote by any remarkable confirmation of eyes nose or cheek for this I dispersed a dollar and here let me record the indignation with which I did it that mighty Britain the mistress of the seas the ruler of one sixth of mankind should charge five shillings to pay for the shadow of her protecting wing that I cannot speak my modernised Kiwis sum Romanus without putting my hand into my pocket in order that these officers of the great queen may not take too ruinously from a revenue of 70 millions oh the meanness of our magnificence the littleness of our greatness my new passport would not carry me without the Zabit or police magistrates counter-signature said her Britannic Majesties Consul next day I went to the Zabit who referred me to the Muhafiz governor of Alexandria at whose gate I had the honour of squatting at least three hours till a more compassionate clerk vouchsafed the information the proper place to apply was the Divan Haridzija the foreign office thus a second day was utterly lost on the morning of the third I started as directed for the palace which crowns the headland of clay it is a huge and coothless shell of building in parallelogramic form containing all kinds of public offices in glorious confusion looking with their glaring whitewashed faces upon a central court where a few leafless, wind-rung trees seemed struggling for the breath of life in an eternal atmosphere of clay dust and sun blaze the first person I addressed was a Kawas or police officer who coiled comfortably up in a bit of shade fitting his person like a robe was in full enjoyment of the Asiatic Kaif having presented the Consular Certificate which clearly stated the nature of my business I ventured to inquire what was the right course to pursue for a visa they have little respect for darwashes it appears at Aleksandria Maadri, don't know ground the man of authority without moving anything but the quantity of tongue absolutely necessary for articulation now there are three ways of treating Asiatic officials by bribe by bullying or by bothering them with a dogged perseverance into attending to you and your concerns the latter is the peculiar province of the poor or over this time I resolved for other reasons to be patient I repeated my question in almost the same words Ruh, be off was what I obtained for all reply by this time the question went so far as to open his eyes I stood twirling the paper in my hands and looking very humble and very persevering till a loud Ruh Yaqalb go oh dog converted into a responsive curse the little speech I was preparing about the brotherhood of al-Islam and the mutual duties obligatory on true believers I then turned away slowly and fiercely for the next thing might have been a cut with the kurbaj I thought British flesh and blood could never have stood that after which satisfactory scene for satisfactory it was in one sense proving the complete fitness of the Darwesh's costume I tried a dozen other promiscuous sources of information policemen, grooms, scribes donkey boys and idlers in general at length, weary of patience I offered a soldier some pinches of tobacco I missed him an oriental six months if he would manage the business for me the man was interested by the tobacco and the pence he took my hand and inquiring the while he went along led me from place to place till mounting a grand staircase I stood in the presence of Abbas Effendi Nibb or deputy to the governor it was a little way-faced black bearded Turk coiled up in the usual conglomerate posture upon a calico covered divan at the end of a long, bare large windowed room without daining even to nod the head which hung over his shoulder with transcendent listlessness and affectation of pride in answer to my salams and benedictions he eyed me with wicked eyes and faintly ejaculated men ent then hearing that I was a Darwesh and doctor he must be an Osmanli little Turk the official snorted a contemptuous snort he condescendingly added however that the proper source to seek was Tacht which meaning simply below conveyed to an utter stranger rather imperfect information from a topographical point of view at length however my soldier guide found out that a room in the custom house bore the honourable appellation of foreign office accordingly I went there and after sitting at least a couple of hours at the bolted door in the noonday sun was told with a fury which made me think I had sinned that the officer in whose charge the department was had been presented with an olive branch in the morning and consequently that business was not to be done that day the angry faced official communicated the intelligence to a large group of Anadolian Karamanian and Rumelian Turks sturdy, undersized broad-shouldered, bare-legged splay-footed, horny-fisted dark-browed, honest-looking mountaineers who were lounging about with long pistols and yata guns stuck in their broad sashes headgear composed of immense tarbushes with proportionate turbans coiled round them bearing two or three suits of substantial clothes even at this season of the year upon their shoulders like myself they had waited some hours but they were not so patient under disappointment they bluntly told the angry official that he and his master were a pair of idlers and the curses that rumbled and gurgled in their hairy throats as they strode towards the door sounded like the growling of wild beasts thus was another day truly orientally lost on the morrow however I obtained permission in the character of Dr. Abdullah to visit any part of Egypt I pleased and to retain possession of my dagger and pistols and now I must explain what induced me to take so much trouble about a passport the home reader naturally inquires why not travel under your English name for this reason in the generality of barbarous countries you must either proceed like Bruce preserving the dignity of manhood and carrying matters with a high hand or you must worm your way by timidity and subservience in fact by becoming an animal too contemptible for man to let or injure but to pass through the Muslims holy land you must either be a born believer or have become one in the former case you may demean yourself as you please in the latter a path is ready prepared for you my spirit could not bend to own myself a Burma a renegade to be pointed at and shunned and catacysed an object of suspicion to the many and of contempt to all moreover it would have obstructed the aim of my wanderings the convert is always watched with argous eyes and men do not willingly give information to a new Muslim especially a Frank to be feigned or forced look upon him as a spy and let him see as little of life as possible firmly as was my heart set upon travelling in Arabia by heaven I would have given up the dear project rather than purchase a doubtful and partial success at such a price consequently I had no choice but to appear as a born believer and part of my birthright in that respectable character toil and trouble in obtaining a Tazkira then I had to provide myself with certain necessaries for the way these were not numerous the silver mounted dressing bag is here supplied by a rag containing a miswuck or tooth stick a bit of soap and a comb wooden for bone and tortoise shell are not religiously speaking correct equally simple was my wardrobe a change or two of clothing it is a great mistake to carry two few clothes and those who travel as orientals should always have at least one very grand suit for use on critical occasions throughout the East a badly dressed man is a pauper and as in England a pauper unless he belongs to an order having a right to be poor is a scoundrel the only article of canteen description was a Zemzemia a goat skin water bag which especially when you communicates to its contents a ferruginous aspect and a wholesome though hardly an attractive flavour of tano gelatine this was a necessary to drink out of a tumbler possibly fresh from pig eating lips would have entailed a certain loss of reputation for bedding and furniture I had a coarse Persian rug which besides being couch acted as chair table and oratory a cotton stuffed jinx covered pillow a blanket in case of cold and a sheet which did duty for tent and mosquito curtains in nights of heat as shade is a convenience not always procurable another necessary was a huge cotton umbrella of eastern make brightly yellow suggesting the idea of an overgrown marigold I had also a substantial Hussif the gift of a kind relative miss Elizabeth stisted it was a roll of canvas carefully soiled and garnished with needles and thread cobblers wax buttons and other such articles these things were most useful in lands where tailors abound not besides which the sight of a man darning his coat or patching his slippers teams with pleasing ideas of humility a dagger a brass ink stand and pen holder a ruck in the belt and a mighty rosary which on occasion might have been converted into a weapon of a fence completed my equipment I must not admit to mention the proper method of carrying money which in these lands should never be entrusted to box or bag a common cotton purse secured in a breast pocket for Egypt now abounds in that civilized animal the pick pocket contain silver pieces and small change my gold of which I carried 25 sovereigns and papers were committed to a substantial leather and belt of Mughrabi manufacturer made to be strapped around the waist under the dress this is the Asiatic method of concealing valuables and one more civilized than ours in the last century when Roderick random and his companions sewed their money between the lining and the waistband of their breaches except some loose silver for immediate expense on the road the great inconvenience of the belt is its weight especially where dollars must be carried as in Arabia causing chafes and discomfort at night moreover it can scarcely be called safe in dangerous countries weary travellers will adopt shore of precautions a pair of common native hurjin or saddlebags contain my wardrobe the bed was readily rolled up into a bundle and for a medicine chest I bought a pea green box with red and yellow flowers capable of standing falls from a camel twice a day the next step was to find out when the local steamer would start for Cairo and accordingly I betook myself to the transit office no vessel was advertised I was directed to call every evening till satisfied at last the fortunate event took place a weekly departure which by the by occurred once every fortnight or so was in orders for the next day I hurried to the office but did not reach it till past noon the hour of idleness a little dark gentleman Mr. Green so formed and dressed as exactly to resemble a liver and tan bulteria who with his heels on the table was dozing cigar in mouth over the last galignani positively refused after a time for at first he would not speak at all to let me take my passage till three in the afternoon I inquired when the boat started upon which he referred me as I had spoken bad Italian to the advertisement I pleaded inability to read all right whereupon he testily cried Alenove at nine still appearing uncertain I drove him out of his chair when he rose with a curse and read eight a.m. an unhappy eastern depending on what he said would have been precisely one hour too late thus were we lapsing into the real good old East Indian style of doing business thus Anglo Indicus orders his first clerk to execute some commission the senior having work upon his hands sends a junior the junior finds the sun hot and passes on the word to a peon the peon charges a porter with the errand and the porter quietly sits or dozes in his place trusting that fate will bring him out of the scrape but firmly resolved though the shattered globe fall not to stir an inch the reader I must again express a hope will pardon the length of these descriptions my object is to show him how business carried on in these hot countries business generally for had I been not Abdullah the Darwesh but a rich native merchant it would have been the same how many complaints of similar treatment have I heard in different parts of the eastern world and how little can one realize them without having actually experienced the evil for the future I shall never see a nigger squatting away half a dozen mortal hours in a broiling sun patiently waiting for something or someone without a lively remembrance of my own calling of the calcas at the custom house of Alexandria at length about the end of May 1853 all was ready not without a feeling of regret I left my little room among the white myrtle blossoms and the rosy oleander flowers with the almond smell I kissed with humble ostentation my good host's hand in the presence of his servants he had become somewhat unpleasantly anxious of late to induce in me the true oriental feeling by a slight administration of the bastinado I bade a dew to my patients who now amounted to about 50 shaky hands with all meekly and with religious equality of attention and mounted in a trap which looked like a cross between a lion and a dog cart drawn by a kicking, jibbing and biting mule I set out for the steamer the little asthmatic end of chapter 2 section 6 chapter 3 of a pilgrimage to Almadina and Mecca this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer please visit www.almadina.org section 6 chapter 3 of a personal narrative of a pilgrimage to Almadina and Mecca by Sir Richard Francis Burton the Nile Steamboat the Little Asthmatic in the days of the pits we have invariably a relation of Egyptian travelers who embark for a place called Roseet on the river Nileus Wanderers of the Brucian Age were want to record their impressions of voyage upon land, subjects observed between Alexandria and Cairo a little later we find everyone indicting raps that is about and descriptions of his or her Dahabiya barge on the canal after this came the steamer and after the steamer will come the railroad which may disappoint the author tourist but will be delightful to that sensible class of men who wish to get over the greatest extent of ground with the least inconvenience to themselves and others then shall the Mahmudiyah ugliest and most wearisome of canals be given up to cotton boats and grain barges and then will notebooks and the headings of chapters clean ignore its existence I saw the canal at its worst when the water was low one syllable to say in its favour instead of thirty hours we took three mortal days and nights to reach Cairo and we grounded with painful regularity four or five times between sunrise and sunset in the scenery on the banks sketches and describers have left you naught to see from Pompey's pillar to the Maison Carré Carillon and its potteries albirka of the nightbirds bastara with the alleys of trees even unto Adfa all things are perfectly familiar to us and have been so years before the traveller actually sees them the Nil al Mubarak itself, the Blessed Nile as notably fails too at this season to arouse enthusiasm you see nothing but muddy waters dusty banks a sand mist a milky sky and a glaring sun you feel nought but a breeze like the blast from a potter's furnace you can only just distinguish through a veil of reeking vapours the village Shibarqat from the village Khafra Zayat and you steam too far from Warden town to enjoy the timonic satisfaction of enraging its male population with Haikal, ya ibn Haikal O Haikal O son of Haikal you are nearly wrecked by this matter of course at the barrage and you are certainly dumbfounded by the sight of its ugly little gothic crannels the pyramids of Khufa and Khafra, Chiyops and Kefren rearing their majestic heads above the margin of the desert only suggestive remark that they have been remarkably well sketched and thus you proceed till with a real feeling of satisfaction you moor alongside of the tumble down old suburb Bulak to me there was double dullness in the scenery it seemed to be sinned over again the same morning mist and noontide glare the same hot wind and heat clouds and fiery sunset and evening glow the same pillars of dust and devils of sand sweeping like giants over the plain the same turbid waters of a broad shallow stream and silt aisles with crashing earth slips and ruins nodding over a kind of cliff whose base the stream gnaws with noisy tooth on the banks saline ground sparkled and glittered like whorefrost in the sun and here and there mud villages solitary huts, pigeon towers or watchturrets wence little brown boys shouted and slung stones at the birds peeped out from among bright green patches of palm tree, tamarisk and mimosa of maize, tobacco and sugarcane beyond the narrow tongue of land on the river banks lay the glaring yellow desert with its low hills and sand slopes bounded by innumerable pyramids of nature's architecture the boats with their sharp bows preposterous stones and latin sails might have belonged to the Indus so might the chocolate skinned blue robed peasantry the women carrying progeny on their hips with the eternal water pot on their heads and the men sleeping in the shade or following the plough to which probably Osiris first put hand the lower animals like the higher were the same gaunt, mange, stained camels muddy buffaloes, scurvid donkeys, sneaking jackals and fox like dogs even the feathered creatures were perfectly familiar to my eye paddy birds, pelicans giant cranes, kites and wild waterfowl I had taken a third class or deck passage whereby the evils of the journey were exasperated a roasting sun pierced the canvas awning like hot water through a gore's veil and by night the cold dews fell raw and thick as a scotch mist the cooking was abominable and the dignity of Darwin's hood did not allow me to sit at meat with infidels or to eat the food which they had polluted so the pilgrim squatted apart smoking perpetually with occasional interruptions to say his prayers and to tell his beads upon the mighty rosary and he drank the muddy water of the canal out of a leaven bucket and he munched his bread and garlic in the desperate sanctimoniousness the little asthmatic was densely crowded and discipline not daring to mark out particular places the scene on board of her was motley enough there were two Indian officers who naturally spoke to none but each other, drank bad tea and smoked their cigars exclusively like Britons a troop of the Kurd Kawas escorting treasure was surrounded by a group of noisy Greeks these men's gross practical jokes sounding anything but pleasant to the solemn Muslims whose saddle bags and furniture were at every moment in danger of being defiled by the abominable drinks and the ejected juices of tobacco there was one pretty woman on board a Spanish girl who looked strangely misplaced arose in a field of thistles some silent Italians with noisy interpreters they were slowly upon the benches it was soon found out through the communicative dragamon that their business was to buy horses for his majesty of Sardinia they were exposed to a volley of questions delivered by a party of French tradesmen returning to Cairo but they shielded themselves and fought shy with Machiavellian dexterity besides these was a German a beer bottle in the morning and a bottle of beer in the evening in Cairo a simile from his own nation a Syrian merchant the richest and ugliest of Alexandria and a few French house-painters going to decorate the Paches Palace at Choubra these last were the happiest of our voyages veritable children of Paris Montagnards, Voltaireans and thoroughbred Sans-Soussi all day they sat upon deck chattering as only their lively nation can chatter in ultra-gallic maxims such as now playing a cart for love or nothing then composing now reciting adventures of the category Mirabollon then singing then dancing, then sleeping and rising to play, to drink talk, dance and sing again one chanted Je n'ai pas connu mon père sur respectable vieillard je suis ne trois ans trop tard while another trolled out qu'est-ce que je vois un canard en robe de chambre they being newcomers free from the western morgue so soon caught by oriental Europeans were particularly civil to me even wishing to mix me a strong draft but I was not so fortunate with all on board a large shopkeeper threatened to brise my figure for putting my pipe near his pantaloons but seeing me finger my dagger curiously though I did not shift my pipe he forgot to remember his threat I had taken charge of a parcel for one Monsieur P a student of Coptic and remitted it to him on board of this little service the only acknowledgement was a stare and a petulant inquiry why I had not given it to him before and one of the Englishmen was off privily as though communing with himself condemned my organs of vision because I happened to touch his elbow he was a man in my own service I pardoned him in consideration of the compliment paid to my disguise two fellow passengers were destined to play an important part in my comedy of Cairo just after we had started a little event afforded us some amusement on the bank appeared a short Percy kind of man whose efforts to board the steamer were notably ridiculous with attention divided between the vessel and a carpet bag carried by his donkey boy he ran along the sides of the canal now stumbling into hollows then climbing heights then standing shouting upon the projections with the fierce sun upon his back till everyone thought his breath was completely gone but no game to the backbone he would have perished miserably rather than lose his fair patience and perseverance say the wise got a wife for his reverence at last he was taken on board and presently he lay down to sleep his sooty complexion lank black hair features in which appeared bucle de finesse that is to say abundant rascality an eternal smile and treacherous eyes his gold ring the dress of showy colours fleshy stomach, back legs round back and a peculiar manner of frowning and thawing simultaneously marked him an Indian when he awoke he introduced himself to me as Mian Huda Bach Namdar a native of Lahore he had carried on the trade of a shawl merchant in London and Paris where he had lived two years and after a pilgrimage by the sins of civilised lands he had settled at Cairo my second friend Haji Wally I will introduce to the reader in a future chapter and my two expeditions to Midian have brought him once more into notice long conversations in Persian and Hindustani abridged the tediousness of the voyage and when we arrived at Bulak the polite Huda Bach insisted upon my making his house my home I was unwilling to accept the man's civility disliking his looks but he advanced cogent reasons for changing my mind his servant cleared my luggage through the custom house and a few minutes after our arrival I found myself in his abode near the Asbakiya Gardens sitting in a cool mushrabiya that gracefully projected over a garden and sipping the favourite glass of pomegranate syrup as the wakalas or caravanserais were at that time full of pilgrims I remained with Huda Bach ten days or a fortnight but at the end of that time my patience was thoroughly exhausted my host had become a civilised man who sat on chairs who ate with a fork who talked European politics and who had learnt to admire if not to understand liberty liberal ideas from such things besides which we English have a peculiar national quality which the Indians with their characteristic acuteness soon perceived and described by an approprious name observing our solitary habits that we could not and would not sit and talk and sip sherbet and smoke with them they called us jangly wild men fresh caught in the jungle and sent to rule over the land of Hind certainly nothing suits us less than perpetual society an utter want of solitude when one cannot retire into oneself an instant without being asked some pueral question by a companion or look into a book without a servant peering over one's shoulder when from the hour you rise to the time you rest you must ever be talking or listening you must converse yourself to sleep in a public dormitory with companions snores and mutterings at midnight the very essence of oriental hospitality however is this family style of reception which costs your host neither coin nor trouble I speak of the rare tracks in which the old barbarous hospitality still lingers you make one more at its eating tray and an additional mattress appears in the sleeping room when you depart you leave the present merely for a memorial with your entertainer he would be offended if you offered it him openly as a remuneration and you give some trifling sums to the servants thus you will be welcome wherever you go if perchance you are detained perforce in such a situation which may easily happen to you medical man you have only to make yourself as disagreeable as possible by calling for all manner of impossible things shame is a passion with eastern nations your host would blush to point out to you the indecorum of your conduct and the laws of hospitality oblige him to supply the every want of a guest even though he be a detenu but of all orientals the most antipathetical companion to an Englishman is, I believe an East Indian like the fox in the fable fulsomely flattering at first he gradually becomes easily friendly disagreeably familiar offensively rude which ends by rousing the spirit of the British lion nothing delights the Hindi so much as an opportunity of safely venting the spleen with which he regards his victors he will sit in the presence of a magistrate or an officer the very picture of cringing submissiveness but after leaving the room he is as different from his former self as a council in court from a council at a concert a sea captain at a club dinner from a sea captain on his quarter-deck then he will discover that the English are not brave nor clever, nor generous nor civilized, nor anything but surpassing rogues that every official takes bribes that their manners are utterly offensive and that they are rank infidels then he will descant complacently upon the probability of a general Bartholomew's day in the east and look forward to the hour when enlightened young India will arise and drive the foul invader from the land then he will submit his political opinions nakedly that India should be rested from the company and given to the queen or taken from the queen and given to the French if the Indian has been a European traveller so much the worse for you you own, explaining however conquest by bribery that fifty thousand Englishmen hold a hundred and fifty million of his compatriots in thrall and for ought you know republicanism may have become his idol he has lost all fear of the white face and having been accustomed to unburden his mind in the land where good by friend or foe a man may say the thing he will he pursues the same course where it is exceedingly misplaced his doctrines of liberty and equality he applies to you personally and practically by not rising when you enter or leave the room at first you could scarcely induce him to sit down by not offering you his pipe by turning away when you address him in fact by a variety of similar smaller fronts which none knows better to manage skillfully and with almost impalpable gradations if and how he prays for it an opportunity of refusing you anything presents itself he does it with an air in rice strength in an Indian manliness Saudi Arabs and the Persians apply the following pithy tale to their neighbours brother said the leopard to the jackal I crave a few of thy cast off hairs I want them for medicine where can I find them wallahi! replied the jackal I don't exactly know I seldom change my coat I wonder about the hills Allah's bounteous brother hairs are not so easily shed woe to the unhappy Englishman Pasha or private soldier who must serve an eastern lord worst of all if the master be an Indian who, hating all Europeans adds an especial spite to oriental coarseness, treachery and tyranny the experiment of associating with them is almost too hard to bear but a useful deduction may be drawn from such observations and as few have had greater experience than myself I venture to express my opinion with confidence however unpopular or unfashionable it may be I'm convinced that the natives of India cannot respect a European who mixes with them familiarly or especially who imitates customs, manners and dress the tight pantaloons the authoritative voice the poco corante manner and the broken Hindustani impose upon them have a weight which learning and honesty which wit and courage have not this is to them the master's attitude they bend to it like those sithian slaves that faced the sword but fled from the horse whip such would never be the case amongst a brave people the afghan for instance and for the same reason it is not so we read with white plume the North American Indian the free trapper combines in the eye of an Indian American girl all that is dashing and heroic in a warrior of her own race whose gate and garb and bravery he emulates with all that is gallant and glorious in the white man there is but one cause for this phenomenon and Bele's Indy are still with few exceptions a cowardly and slavish people who would raise themselves by depreciating those superior to them in the scale of creation the afghans and American aborigines being chivalrous races rather exaggerate the valor of their foes because by so doing they exalt their own and of chapter 3