 10 The larger craft anchors some three or four miles from the Suez pier, so that it is necessary to drop down in a skiff or a shoreboat. Immense was the confusion at the eventful hour of our departure. Suppose us gathered upon the beach, on the morning of a fiery July day, carefully watching our hurriedly packed goods and chattels, surrounded by a mob of idlers, who are not too proud to pick up waves and strays, whilst pilgrims are rushing about apparently mad, and friends are reaping, acquaintances are vociferating adieu, boatmen are demanding fees, shopmen are claiming debts. Women are shrieking and talking with inconceivable power, and children are crying. In short, for an hour or so we stand in the thick of a human storm. To confound confusion the boatmen have moored their skiff half a dozen yards away from the shore, lest the porters should be unable to make more than double their fare from the hedges. Again the Turkish women make a hideous noise as they are carried off struggling vainly in brawny arms, the children howl because their mothers howl, and the men scold and swear because in such scenes none may be silent. The moment we had embarked, each individual found that he or she had missed something of vital importance, a pipe, a child, a box, or a watermelon, and naturally all the servants were in the bazaars when they should have been in the boat. Briefly, despite the rage of the sailors, who feared being too late for a second trip, we stood for some time on the beach before putting off. From the shore we pulled to the little pier, where sat the bay in person to perform a final examination of our passports. Several were detected without the necessary document, some were best in adode, others were preemptorily ordered back to Cairo, and the rest were allowed to proceed. At about ten a.m. 6th of July we hoisted sail and ran down the channel leading to the roadstead. On our way we had a specimen of what we might expect from our fellow passengers, the Maghribi. Footnote. Men of the Maghrib, or Western Africa, the vulgar plural is Maghribin, generally written Mogribin. May not the singular form of this word have given rise to the Latin Morris, by a lesion of the Reine, to Italians an unpronounceable continent. From Morris comes the Portuguese Moro and our English Moor. When Vasco de Gama reached Calicut, he found there a tribe of Arab colonists, who in religion and in language were the same as the people of Northern Africa, and for this reason he called them the Moors. This was explained long ago by Vincent in Periplus, Lib 3, and lately by Prichard in natural history of man. I repeat it because it has been my fate to hear at a meeting of a learned society in London, a gentleman declare that in Eastern Africa he found a people calling themselves Moors. The Maghribin, or the Westerns, then would be opposed to the Sharqilin, Easterns, the origin of our word Saracen. From Gibbon downwards many have discussed the history of this word, but few expected in the nineteenth century to see a writer on Eastern subjects assert with Sir John Mandeville that these people properly then clept Saracens of Sarra. The learned M. Jomald, who never takes such original views of things, asked a curious question. Mais comment on son, aussi distinct que les Chines, aurait-il poussé à confondrer avec les signes, et pour un mot aussi connu qu'est Char, comment aura-t-on poussé trop près à l'omention des ponts, simply because the word Saracens came to us through the Greeks? Pusdolomy uses it, who have no such sound as in shh, in their language and through the Italian, which hostile to the harsh sibilance of the Oriental dialects generally melts shh into sss. So the historical word Hesha-Shi-Yun, or hemp drinkers, civilised by the Italians into assassino, became, as we all know, an expression of European news. But if any one adverse to the etymological fancies object to my deriving Moors from Maghreb, let him remember Johnson successfully tracing the course of the metamorphosis of dyes into jour. An even more peculiar change we may discover in the word Elephant, Poulue in Sanskrit became Pil in Old Persian, which ignores the short final vowels, Pil and with the article El-Phil in Arabic, which supplies the place of P, an unknown letter to it by F. An elephaz in Greek, which is fond of adding as to Arabic words, as in the case of Arettas, Haris and Obodaz, or Obed, a name says humbled, often becoming a historical monument, and the etymological analysis of language, however it may be divided, is attended by valuable results, and of it known. A book crowded with these ruffians rang alongside us, and before we could recognize the defense about a score of them poured into our vessel, they carried things too with a high hand, laughed at us, and seemed quite ready for a fight. My Indian boy, who happened to let slip the word Maheras narrowly escaped, a blow with a palm stick, which would have felled a camel. They outnumbered us, and they were armed, so that on this occasion we were obliged to put up with their insolence. Our pilgrim ship, the Silke Vaheb, where the golden wire was assembled about four hundred Erdibs, or fifty tons, with narrow, wedge-like boughs, a clean water-line, a sharp keel, and unducked except upon the poop, which was high enough to act as sail in a gale of wind. She carried two masts, raking imminently forwards, the main being considerably larger than the mizzen. The former was provided with a huge triangular latin, very deep in the tuck, but the second sail was unaccountably wanting. She had no means of reefing, no compass, no log, no sounding lines, no spare ropes, nor even the suspicion of a chart. In her box-like cabin and rebut hole there was something which savoured a close connection between her model and that of the Indian Tony, or dugout. The Tony, or Indian canoe, is the hollowed-out trunk of a tree, near Bombay, generally a mango. It must have been the first step in advance from that simplest form of naval architecture, the catamaran of madras and aden, and a footnute. Such, probably, were the craft which carried all sysostris across the Red Sea to Deir. Such were the cruisers which once every three years left a zone gibir for Tarshush, such the transfers of which a hundred and thirty were required to convey Ailes Gallus with his ten thousand men. Bakshush was the last as well as the first odious sound I heard in Egypt. The owner of the shoreboat would not allow us to climb the size of our vessel before paying him his fare, and when we did so he asked for Bakshush. If Easterns would only imitate the example of Europeans, I never yet saw an Englishman give a Bakshush to a soul. The nuisance would soon be done away with. But on this occasion all my companions complied with the request, and at times it is unpleasant to be singular. The first look at the interior of our vessel showed a hopeless sight. Ali Murad, the greedy owner, had promised to take sixty passengers in the hold but had stretched a number to ninety-seven. Piles of boxes and luggage in every shape and form filled the ship from stem to stern, and a torrent of hedges were pouring over the sides like ants into the East Indian Sugar Basin. The poop, too, where we had taken our places, was covered with goods and a number of pilgrims had established themselves there by might not by right. Presently to our satisfaction appeared said the demon, equipped as an able seaman and looking most unlikely the proprietor of two large boxes full of valuable merchandise. This energetic individual instantly prepared for action. With our little party to back him he speedily cleared the poop of intruders and their stuff by the simple process of pushing, or rather throwing them off it into the pit below. When we settled down as comfortably as we could, three Syrians, a married Turk and his wife and family, that are ease for captain of the vessel with a portion of his crew, and our seven selves composing a total of eighteen human beings upon a space certainly not exceeding ten feet by eight. The cabin, a miserable box about the size of the poop and three feet high was stuffed like the hold of a slave ship, with fifteen wretches, children and women, and the other ninety-seven were disposed upon the luggage, or squatted on the bulwarks. Having some experience in such matters and being favored by fortune I found a spare bed frame slung to the ship's side and giving a dollar to its owner, a sailor who flattered himself that because it was his he would sleep upon it I instantly appropriated it, preferring any hardship outside to the condition of a packed herring inside, the place of torment. Our Magrabis were fine-looking animals from the desert about Tripoli's and Tunis, so savage that, but a few weeks ago they had gazed at a cock-boat and wondered how long you would be growing to the size of the ship that was to take them to Alexandria. Most of them were sturdy young fellows, round-headed, broad-shouldered, tall and large-limbed, with frowning eyes and voices in perpetual roar. Their manners were rude and their faces full of fierce contempt or insolent familiarity. A few old men were there with contenances expressive of intense ferocity. Women as savage and full of fight as men, and handsome boys with shrill voices and hands always upon their daggers. The women were mere bundles of dirty white rags. The males were clad in burnos, brown or striped woolen cloaks with hoods. They had neither tarboned nor tarbouche, trusting to their thick curly hair or to the prodigious hardness of their scalps as defense against the sun, and there was not a slipper nor a shoe amongst the party. Of course all were armed, but fortunately for us none had anything more formidable than a cut and thrust dagger about ten inches long. These Magrabis travel in hoards under a leader who obtains a temporary title of Mola, the master. He has generally performed a pilgrimage or two, and has collected a stock of superficial information which secures him the respect of his followers, and a profound contempt of the heaven-maze Cisaronia of Macca and El Medina. No people endure greater hardships when upon the pilgrimage than these Africans, who trust almost entirely to alms and to other such dispensations of providence. It is not therefore to be wondered at that they rob whenever an opportunity presents itself. Several cases of theft occurred on board of the golden wire, and such as plunders seldom allow themselves to be balked by insufficient defense, they are accused perhaps reservedly of having committed some revolting murders. The first thing to be done after gaining standing-room was to fight for greater comfort, and never a holy-head packet in the olden times showed a finer scene of pugnacity than did our pilgrim ship. A few Turks ragged old men from Anatolia and Kramania were mixed up with the Magrabis, and the former began the war by contemptuously elbowing and scolding their wild neighbors. The Magrabis, under their leader Mola Ali, a burly savage in whom I detected a ridiculous resemblance to the Reverend Charles Del Fosse, an old and well-remembered schoolmaster, retorted so willingly that in a few minutes nothing was to be seen but a confused mass of humanity, each item indiscriminately punching and pulling, scratching and biting, butting and trampling, with cries of rage and all the accompaniments of a proper fray, whatever was obnoxious to such operations. To one of our party on the poop, a Syrian somewhat unconsciously leapt down to aid his countrymen by restoring order, he sank immediately below the surface of the living mass, and when we fished him out, his forehead was cut open, half his beard had disappeared, and a fine sharp set of teeth belonging to some Magrabi had left their mark on the cuff of his leg. The enemy showed no love of fair play and never peer-contented unless five or six of them were setting upon a single man. This made matters worse. The weaker, of course, drew their daggers, and a few bad wounds were soon given and received. In a few minutes five men were completely disabled, and the victors began to dread the consequences of their victory. Then the fighting stopped, and, as many could not find places, it was agreed that a deputation should wait upon Ali Murad, the owner, to inform him of the crowded state of the vessel. After keeping us in expectation at least three hours he appeared in a rowboat, preserving a respectful distance, and informed us that anyone who pleased might quit the ship and take back his fare. This left the case exactly as the way it was before. None would abandon his party to go on shore, so Ali Murad rode off towards Suez, giving us a parting injunction to be good and not to fight, to trust in Allah and that Allah would make all things easy to us. His departure was the signal for a second fray, which, in its accident, differed a little from the first. During the previous disturbance we kept our places with weapons in our hands. This time we were summoned by the Maghrebis to relieve their difficulties by taking about half a dozen of them on the poop. Sa'ad the demon at once rose with an oaf, and threw amongst us a bundle of nabut. Goodly, ashen stave six feet long, thick as a man's wrist, well greased, and tried in many a rough bout. He shouted to us, Defend yourself if you don't wish to be the meat of the Maghrebis. Into the enemy, dogs and sons of dogs, now shall you see what the children of the Arab are. I am Umar of Dagestan. I am Abdullah the son of Joseph. I am Sa'ad the demon. We exclaim renowning it by the display of name and patronymic. To do our enemy's justice they showed no sign of flinching. They swarmed towards the poop like angry hornets, and encouraged each other with cries of Allah Akbar. But we had a vantage ground about four feet above them, and their palm sticks and short daggers could do nothing against our terrible quarter staves. In vain the Jaqari tried to scale the poop and to overpower us by numbers. Their courage only secured them more broken heads. At first I began to lay low with main morte, really fearing to kill someone with such a weapon. But it soon became evident that the Maghrebis' heads and shoulders could bear and did require the utmost exertion of strength. Presently a thought struck me. A large earthen jar full of drinking water, in its heavy frame of wood, the weight might have been a hundred pounds, stood upon the edge of the poop, and the thick of the fray took place beneath. Footnote. In these vessels each traveller unless a previous bargain be made is expected to provide his own water and firewood. The best way, however, is when the old wooden box called a tank is sound, to pay the captain for providing water and to keep the key. End of footnote. Seeing an opportunity I crept up to the jar and without attracting attention rolled it down by a smart push through the shoulder upon the swarm of the silence. The fall caused a shrill shriek to rise above the ordinary din, for heads, limbs, and bodies were sorely bruised by the weight, scratched by the broken pot-shirts, and wetted by the sudden discharge. A fear that something worse might be coming made the Maghrebis sink off towards the end of the vessel. After a few minutes we, sitting in grave silence, received a deputation of individuals in whitey-brown Bournos spotted and strapped with what Mephistopheles calls a curious juice. They solicited peace which granted upon the condition that they would pledge themselves to keep it. Our heads, shoulders, and hands were penitentially kissed, and presently the fellows returned to bind up their hurts in dirty rags. We owed this victory entirely to our own exertions, and the Meek al-Madr was by far the fiercest of the party. Our Uta'is, as we afterwards learned, was an old fool who could do nothing but call for the Fatiha, footnote, the opener, the first chapter of the Qur'an which Muslims recite as Christians do the Lord's Prayer. It is also used on occasions of danger, the beginnings of journey, to bind contracts, etc., and a footnote. Climb back she is at every place where we moored for the night and spend his leisure hours in the Kachiya del Mediterraneo. Our crew consisted of half a dozen Egyptian lads who, not being able to defend themselves, were periodically chastised by the Maghrabis, especially when any attempt was made to cook, to fetch water, or to prepare a pipe. Footnote. These Maghrabis, like the Somalis, the Wahhabis of the desert, and certain other barbarous races, and accustomed to tobacco, appear to hate the smell of a pipe, and a footnote. At length about 3 p.m. on the 6th of July, 1853, we shook out the sail and, as it bellied in the favourable wind, we recited the Fatiha with upraised hands, which we afterwards drew down our faces. Footnote. The hands are raised in order to catch the blessing that is supposed to descend from heaven upon the devotee, and the meaning of drawing palms down the face is symbolically to transfer the benediction to every part of the body, and a footnote. As the golden wire started from her place, I could not help casting one wistful look upon the British flag floating over the consulate. But the momentary regret was stifled by the heart-bounding, which prospects of an adventure excite, and by the real pleasure of leaving Egypt. I had lived there a stranger in the land, an helpless life it had been, in the streets every man's face as he looked upon the Persian was the face of a foe. Whenever I came in contact with the native officials, insolence marked the event. Footnote. As is the case under all despotic governments, nothing can be more intentionally offensive than the official manners of a superior to his inferior in Egypt. The Indians charged their European fellow subjects with insolence of demeanor and coarseness of language. As far as my experience goes, our roughness and brusquery are mere politeness compared with what passes between Easterns. At the same time it must be owned that I have seen the worst of it. End of footnote. And the circumstance of living within hail of my fellow countrymen, and yet finding it impossible to enjoy their society, still throws a gloom over the memory of my first sojourn in Egypt. The ships of the Red Sea, infamous region of rocks, reefs, and shoals cruise along the coast by day and at night lay to in the first cove they find. They do not sail when it blows hard, and as in winter time the weather is often stormy and the light of day does not last long, the voyage is intolerably slow. Footnote. It was far safer and more expeditious in Elydris's day, A.D. 1154, when the captain used to sit on the poop, furnished with numerous and useful instruments, when he sounded the shallows and by his knowledge of depths, could direct the helmsmen where to steer. End of footnote. At sunset we stayed our adventurous course, and still within sight of Suez, comfortably anchored under the lee of Jabal Ataqa, the mountain of deliverance, the but end of Jabal Joshi. Footnote. In the east it is usual when commencing a voyage or a journey to make a short day's work in order to be at a convenient distance for returning in case of any essential article have been forgotten. End of footnote. We were now on classic waters. The eastern shore was dotted with the little grove of palm trees, which clusters around Arun Moussa, or Moussa's wells, and on the west between two towering ridges lay the mouth of the valley, Badiya or Wadi Tawareq or Wadi Moussa, down which according to Father Sikerd, footnote. A Jesuit missionary who visited the place in A.D. 1720 and described it in a well-known volume. As every eminent author, however monopolizes a crossing and sends the head of the Suez Creek, as is shown by its old watermark, has materially changed within no very distant period, it is no wonder that the question is still subjudice, and that there it will remain most probably till the end of time. The Christians have two equally favorite lines. The Muslims patronize one so impossible that it has had attractions enough to fix their choice. It extends from Zafaran Point to Hamam Bluffs, ten miles of deep water, and a footnote. The Israelites fled to the Sea of Sedge. Footnote. The Hebrew name of this part of the Red Sea. In communication, lately made to the Royal Geographical Society, I have gave my reason for believing that the Greeks borrowed their Eritrean Sea from the Arabic Sea of Hemiar. End of footnote. The view was by no means deficient in a sort of barbarous splendor. Verdure there was none but under the violet and orange tints of the sky, the chalky rocks became heaps of topazes, and a brown burnt ridges masses of amethyst. The rising mists hear silvery white there deeply rosy, and the bright blue of the waves lining long strips of golden sand compensated for the want of softness by assemblance of savage gorgeousness. Footnote. Most travelers remarked that they have never seen a brighter blue than that of the Red Sea. It was the observation of an early age that the Red Sea is not more red than any other sea, but in some places thereof is the gravel red, and therefore man clipping it, the Red Sea. End of footnote. Next morning, July 7th, before the Krullin who had vanished from the hills, we set sail. It was not long before we came to a proper sense of our position. The box containing my store of provisions, and worse still, my opium, was at the bottom of the hold, perfectly unapproachable. We had, therefore, the pleasure of breaking our fast on mere skin. Footnote. Jill Delferes, or Comradeen, is a composition of apricot paste, dried, spread out, and folded into sheets, exactly resembling the article after which it is named. Turks and Arabs use it. When traveling they dissolve it in water and eat it as a relish with bread or biscuit, and a footnote, and a species of biscuit, hard as stone and quite as tasteless. During the day, whilst insufferable splendor reigned above, the dashing of the waters below kept my nest in a state of perpetual drench. At night rose a cold, bright moon, with dews falling so thick and clammy that the skin felt though it never would be dry again. It is also by no means pleasant to sleep upon a broken cot about four feet long by two broad, with the certainty that a false movement would throw you overboard, and a conviction that if you do fall from some book under sail, no mortal power can save you. And as under all circumstances in the East, dosing is one's chief occupation, the reader will understand that the want of it left me in utter, utter idleness. The gale was light that day, and the sunbeams were fire. Our crew preferred crouching in the shade of the sail to taking advantage of what wind was there. In spite of our impatience we made but little way. Near evening we anchored on a tongue of sand about two miles distant from a well-known and picturesque heights called by the Arabs Hamam Firaun, footnote, Pharaoh's hot baths, which in our maps are called Hamum Bluffs. They are truly enchanted land in Muslim fable, of all humud scarcely contain the legends that have been told and written about them. Sinu one page ten ante, and the footnote, which like giants stand to sentinel enchanted land. The strip of coarse cores and sandstone gravel is obviously the offspring of some mountain torrent. It stretches southwards being probably disposed in that direction by the currents of the sea as they receive the deposit. The distance of the Hamam Bluffs prevented my visiting them, which circumstance I regretted the less as they have been described by Pence equal to the task. That evening we enjoyed ourselves upon clean sand whose surface drifted by the wind into small yellow waves, was easily converted by a little digging and heaping up into the coolest and most comfortable of couches. Indeed, after the kinescent heat of the day and the tossing of our ill-conditioned vessel, we should have been contented with lodgings far less luxurious. Fuel was readily collected, and while some bathed, others erected a hearth, three large stones and a hole opened to leeward, lit the fire, and put the pot on to boil. Sheikh Nur had fortunately aligned. We had been successful in fishing. A little rice had also been bought, with this boiled and a rock cod broiled upon the charcoal. We made a dinner that caused everyone to forget the sore grievance of the mare's skin and stone-hard biscuits. A few Maghrebis had ventured on shore, the Reis having terrified the others by threatening them with those bogies or the Bedouin, and they offered us kuskusu in exchange for fish. Footnote. One of the numerous species of what the Italians generally call pasta, the material is wheaten or barley flour, rolled into small ground grains. In Barbary it is cooked by steaming and served up with hard-boiled eggs and mutton sprinkled with red pepper. These Bedouin Maghrebis merely boiled it. End of footnote. As evening fell, we determined before sleeping to work upon their morale, as effectually as we had attacked their physique, Sheikh Hamid stood up and indulged them with an adhan or a call to prayers pronounced after the fashion of El Medina. Footnote. The adhan is differently pronounced, though similarly worded by every orthodox nation in Islam, end of footnote. They performed their devotions in lines ranged behind us as a token of respect, and when worship was over we were questioned about the holy city till we grew tired of answering. Again our heads and shoulders, our hands and knees were kissed. Footnote. The usual way of kissing the knee is to place the fingertips upon it and then to raise them to the mouth. It is an action denoting great humility, and the condescending superior who is not an immediate master returns the compliment in the same way, end of footnote. But this time in devotion and not in penitence, my companions could scarcely understand half the rugged words which the Maghrabis used, as their dialect was fresh from the distant desert. Footnote. The Maghrabi dialect is known to be the harshest and most guttural form of Arabic. It owes this unenviable superiority to its frequency of Sukun, or the quiescence of one or more consonants. Klab, for instance, for kilab, and msik, for msik. Thus it is that vowels, the soft and liquid part of language disappear, leaving in their place a barbarous sounding mass of consonants. End of footnote. Still we succeeded in making ourselves intelligible to them, venting our dignity as the sons of the prophet, and a sanctity of our land which should protect its children from every description of fraud and violence. We benignantly promised to be their guides at Al-Madinah, and the boy Muhammad would conduct their devotions at Makkah, always provided that they repented their past misdeeds, avoided any repetition of the same, and promised to perform the duties of good and faithful pilgrims. Presently the raiz joined our party, and the usual storytelling began. The old man knew the name of each hill, and had a legend for every nook and corner in sight. He dwelt at length upon the life of Abuz Reima, the patron saint of the seas, whose little tomb stands at no great distance from our bivouac place, and told us how he sits watching over the safety of pious mariners, in a cave among the neighboring rocks, and sipping his coffee, which is brought in a raw state from Makkah, by green birds, and prepared in the usual way by the hands of ministering angels. He showed us the spot where the terrible king of Egypt, when close upon the heels of the children of Israel, was dwelmed in the hell of waters. And he warned us that next day our way would be through the breakers, and reefs and dangerous currents, over whose troubled depths since that awful day to a freed of the storm has never ceased to flap his sable wing. Footnote. Burkhardt mentions the Arab legend that the spirits of the drowned Egyptians may have been seen moving at the bottom of the sea, and Finati adds that they are ever busy recruiting their numbers with shipwrecked mariners. End of footnote. The wincing of the hearers proved that the shaft of the old man's words was sharp, but as night was advancing we unrolled our rugs and fell asleep upon the sand, all of us happy for we had fed and drunk, and the Homo sapien is a hopeful animal. We made sure that on the morrow that freed would be merciful and allow us to eat fresh dates at the harbor of Thor. Fair visions of dates doomed the limbo of things which should have been. The grey dawn, 8th of July, looked down upon us in difficulties. The water is deep near this coast. We had anchored at high tide close to the shore, and the ebb had left us high and dry. When this fact became apparent, a storm was upon the point of breaking. The Maghrabis, but for our interference, would have best in ado the Raiz, who they said with some reason ought to have known better. When this phase of failing passed away they applied themselves to physical efforts, all except the women and children who stood on the shore encouraging their relatives with shrill quaverings, threw themselves into the water. Some pushed other applied their shoulders to the vessel side, and all used their lungs, with might and maine. But the golden wire was firmly fixed, and their exertions were too irregular. Muscular force failed upon which they changed their tactics. At the suggestion of their mola they prepared to burn incense in honor of the sheikh Abu Zalayma. The material not being forthcoming, they used coffee, which perhaps accounts for the shortcomings of that holy man. After this the Raiz remembered that their previous exertions had not begun under the auspices of the Fatihah. Therefore they prayed, and then reapplied themselves to work. Still they failed. Finally each man called aloud upon his own particular saint or spiritual guide, and rushed forward as if he alone sufficed for the exploit. Sheikh Hamid unwisely quoted the name and begged the assistance of his great ancestor, the clarified butter-seller. The object golden wire was not moved, and Hamid retired in momentary confusion. It was now about nine a.m., and the water had risen considerably. My mourning had been passed in watching the influx of the tide, and the grotesque efforts of the Maghrabis. When the vessel showed some symptoms of unsteadiness, I arose, walked gravely up to her, and ranged the pilgrims around her with their shoulders to the sides, and told them to heave with might, when they heard me invoke the revered name of my patron saint. I raised my hands and voice. Ya Piran, Pir, ya Abdulkadir Jilani, was the signal. Fidnup. Abdulkadir Jilani, others called upon a celebrated Sufi or mystic, whom in East Indian Muslims' reverence as the Arabs do their profit. In appendix one the curious reader will find Abdulkadir again mentioned. End of Fidnup. Each Maghrabi worked like an atlas. The golden wire counted half over, and, sliding heavily through the sand, once more floated off into deep water. This was generally voted a minor miracle, and the appendix was respected for a day or two. The wind was fair, but we had all to re-embark an operation which went on till noon, after starting I remarked the natural cause which gives this Birkat Fir'on or the Pharaoh's Bay a bad name. Here the gulf narrows, and the winds which rushed down the clefts and valleys of the lofty mountains on the eastern and western shores, meeting tides and countercurrents cause a perpetual commotion. That day foam-tipped waves repeatedly washed over my cot, by no means diminishing its discomfort. In the evening, or rather late in the afternoon, we anchored to our infinite disgust under a ridge of rocks behind which lies the plain of Thor. The rays deterred all from going on shore by terrible stories about the Bedouin that haunt the place, besides which there was no sand to sleep upon. We remained, therefore, on board that night, and making sail early the next morning. We threaded through reefs and sand-banks about noon into the intricate and dangerous entrance of Thor. Nothing can be meaner than the present appearance of the old Phoenician colony, although its position as a harbour and its plentiful supply of fruit and fresh water make it one of the most frequented places on the coast. The only remains of any antiquity except the wells are the fortifications which the Portuguese erected to keep out the Bedouin. The little town lies upon a plain that stretches with a gradual rise from the sea to the lofty mountain-axis from the Sinaitic group. The country around reminded me strongly of maritime sin. A flat of clay and sand glowed the sparse turfs of Salsalay and bearing strong signs of a geologically speaking recent origin. The town is inhabited principally by Greek and other Christians, who live by selling water and provisions to ships. Those people are descendants of Syrians and Greeks that fled from Candia, Seos, the Ionian Islands, and Palestine to escape the persecution of the Turks. They now wear the Arab dress and speak the language of the country, but are easily to be distinguished from Muslims by their expression of their continences and sometimes by their blue eyes and light hair. There are also few families calling themselves Jabalia or mountaineers. Originally they were 100 households, sent by Justinian to serve the convent of Saint Catherine and to defend it against the Berbers. Sultan Khan Zuhal Ghuri, called by European writers Kamp Sun-Ghari, the Mamluk king of Egypt in AD 1501, admitted these people into the Muslim community on condition of their continuing the menial service they had afforded to the monks. End of footnote. A fleecy cloud hung lightly over the majestic head of Jabal Tur. About even tide and outlines of the giant hills stood, picked out from the clear blue sky. Our raïs, weatherwise men, warned us that these were indications of a gale and that in case of rough weather he did not intend to leave Tur. I was not sorry to hear this. We had passed a pleasant day drinking sweet water and eating the dates, grapes, and pomegranates which the people of the place carry down to the beach for the benefit of hungry pilgrims, beside which there were various sites to see, and with these we might profitably spend the morrow. We therefore pitched the tent upon the sand and busied ourselves with extricating a box of provisions. The labour was rendered lighter by the absence of the Maghrabis, some of whom were wondering about the beach whilst others had gone off to fill their bags with fresh water. We found their surliness insufferable, even when we were passing from the poop to forecastle, landing or boarding, they grumbled forth their dissatisfaction. Our raïs was not mistaken in his prediction. The fleecy cloud on Tur's tops had given true warning. When morning, 9th of July, broke, we found the wind strong and the sea white with foam. Most of us thought lightly of these terrors, but our valorous captains swore that he dared not for his life cross in such a storm the mouth of Il Om and Ahaba. We breakfasted, therefore, and afterwards set out to visit Moses's hot baths, mounted on wretched donkeys with packed saddles, ignorant of stirrups and without tails, whilst we ourselves suffered generally from boils which as usual upon a journey make their appearance in localities the most inconvenient. Our road lay northward across the plain towards a long narrow strip of date-ground surrounded by a ruinous mud-wall. After a ride of two or three miles we entered the gardens and came suddenly upon the Hammam. It is a prim little cockney bungalow built by Abbas Pasha of Egypt for his own accommodation, glaringly whitewashed and garnished with Dewans and calico curtains of gorgeous hue. The Guardian had been warned of our visit and was present to supply us with bathing-cloths and other necessaries. One by one we enter the cistern which is now in a room. The water is about four feet deep, warm in winter, cool in summer, of saltish bitter taste, but celebrated for its invigorating qualities when applied externally. On one side of the calciferous rock near the ground is the whole open for the spring by Moses's rod, which must have been like the mast of some tall Amirral. Ftnl. Adam's forehead says the tariq tabari brushed the skies, but this height, being inconvenient, the Lord abridged it to a hundred cubits, the Muslims firmly believe, in Anakim. Josephus informs us that Moses was of divine form and great tallness. The Arabs specify his stature, three hundred cubits. They have, however, found his grave in some parts of the country, as E of the middle of the Dead Sea, and make cups of a human bitumen called Moses's stones. This people nishit ignorare. It will know everything. End of footnote. And near it are the marks of Moses's nails, deep indentations in the stone, which were probably left there by some extant Soryan. Our Sizeroni informed us that formally the finger marks existed, and that they were long enough for a man to lie in. The same functionary attributed the sanitary properties of the spring to the blessings of the Prophet, and when asked why Moses had not made sweet water to flow, informed us that the great lawgiver had intended the spring for bathing, not for drinking. We sat with him, eating the small yellow dates of tour, which are delicious, melting like honey in the mouth and leaving, as surpassing a re-rigelle. After finishing sundry pipes and cups of coffee, we gave the bath man a few piasters, and mounting our donkeys, started eastward for Bir Musa, which we reached in half an hour. Footnote. Bir Musa is Moses as well. I have no argument except the untrustworthy traditions of the Bedouin, either for or against his having been the identical well near which Moses sat when he fled from the face of Pharaoh, to the end of Midian. One thing is certain, namely that in this part of Arabia, as also at Eden, the wells are of very ancient date. Footnote. It is a fine old work, built round and domed over with roughly squared stones, very like what might have been in some rustic parts of southern England. The sides of the pit were so rugged that a man could climb down them, and at the bottom was a pool of water, sweet and abundant. We had intended to stay there and to dine al fresco, but the hated faces of our companions, the Maghrabis, meeting us at the entrance, nipped that project in the bud. Accordingly we retired from the burning sun to a neighbouring coffee-house, a shed of palm leaves kept by a tour-man, and there seated on mats would demolish the contents of our basket, whilst we were eating some Bedouin came in and joined us when invited to do so. They were poorly dressed and all armed with knives and cheap sabers, hanging to leather and bandoliers. In language and demeanor they showed few remains of their old ferocity, as late as Muhammad Ali's time these people were noted records, and formally they were dreaded pirates. Now they are lions with their fangs and claws drawn. In the evening we returned to our tent. Assyrian, one of our party on the pool, came to meet us with information that several large vessels had arrived from Suez, comparatively speaking empty and that the captain of one of them would land us at Yamba for three dollars ahead. Their proposal was tempting, but presently it became apparent that my companions were unwilling to shift their precious boxes and, moreover, that I should have to pay for those who could not or would not pay for themselves. That is to say the whole party, as such a display of wealth would have been unadvisable, I dismissed the idea with a sigh. Amongst the large vessels was one frightened with Persian pilgrims, a most disagreeable race of men on a journey or a voyage. They would not land at first because they fear the Bedouin. They would not take water from the town people because some of these were Christians. Moreover, they insisted upon taking their own call to prayer. Which heretical proceeding, it admits five extra words, our party, orthodox Muslims, would rather have died than have permitted. When they are a crier, a small wise and faced man began the azan with a voice. In que el tenore ce fa il capón cuando tal volta canta. We received it with a shout of derision, and some hastily snatching up their weapons offered him an opportunity of martyrdom. The Maghrabis, too, hearing that the Persians were rough of, or heretics, crowded fiercely round to do a little jihad, or fighting for the faith. The long-bearded men took the alarm. There were twice the number of our small party, and therefore they had been in the habit of strutting about with no chalons, and looked at us fixedly and otherwise demeaning themselves in an indecorous way. But when it came to the point, they showed the white feather. These Persians accompanied us to the end of our voyage. As they approached the Holy Land, visions of the Nabbut cost a change for the better in their manners. At Mahur they meekly endured a variety of insults, and at Yemba they cringed to us like dogs. CHAPTER XI On the eleventh of July, 1853, about dawn, we left tour after a pleasant halt, with the unpleasant certainty of not touching ground for thirty-six hours. I passed the time in a steadfast contemplation of the web of my umbrella, and in making the following meteorological remarks, morning, the air is mild and balmy as that of an Italian spring. Thick mist rolled down the valleys along the sea, and a haze like a mother of pearl crowns the headlines. The distant rocks show titanic walls, lofty dungeons, huge projecting bastions, and motes full of deep shade. At their base runs a sea of amethyst, and as earth receives the first touches of light, their summits, almost transparent, mingle with the just pertinence of the sky. Nothing can be more delicious than this hour. But as the most beautiful things are the worst of storms, so lovely morning soon fades. The sun bursts up from behind the main, a fierce enemy, a foe that will force everyone to crouch before him. He dyes the sky orange, and the sea incarnate in, where its violet surface is stained by his rays, and he mercilessly puts to flight the mist and haze, and the little agate colored masses of cloud that were before floating in the firmament. The atmosphere is so clear that now and then a planet is visible. For the two hours following sunrise, the rays are indurable. After that they become a fiery ordeal. The morning beams oppress you with a feeling of sickness. Their steady glow, reflected by the glaring waters, blinds your eyes, blisters your skin, and partures your mouth. You now become a monomania. You do nothing but count the slow hours that must minute by before he can be relieved. Footnote. The reader who has travelled in the east will feel that I am not exaggerating, and to convince those who know it only by description, I will refer them to any account of our early campaigns in Sindh, where many a European soldier has been taken upstone dead after sleeping an hour or two in the morning sun. End of footnote. Midday. The wind reverberated by the glowing hills is like the blast of Limecane. All color melts away with the canisans from above. The sky is dead milk-white, and the mirror-like sea-star reflects the tint that you can scarcely distinguish the line of the horizon. Afternoon the wind sleeps upon the reeking shore. There is a deep stillness, the only sound heard is the melancholy flapping of the sail. Men are not so much sleeping as half-senseless. They feel as if a few more degrees of heat could be death. Sunset. The enemy sinks behind a deep crudelion sea, under a canopy of gigantic rainbow which covers half the face of heaven. Nearest to the horizon is an arch of tawny orange, above it another of the brightest gold. And based upon these a semicircle of tender sea-green blends with a score of delicate gradations into the sapphire sky. Across the rainbow the sun throws its rays in the form of giant wheelspokes tinged with a beautiful pink. The eastern sky is mantled with a purple flush that picks out the forms of the hazy desert and the sharp cut hills. Language is a thing too cold, too poor, to express the harmony and the majesty of this hour, which is as evanescent, however, as it is lovely. Night falls rapidly when suddenly the appearance of the Zodiacal light restores the scene to what it was. Footnote. The Zodiacal light on the Red Sea and in Bombay is far brighter than in England. I suppose this is the afterglow described by Miss Martignoux and other travelers. Flashes of light like cross-ucations of the aurora borealis in pyramidal form would exactly describe the phenomenal. It varies, however, greatly, and often for more days together is scarcely visible. End of footnote. Again the gray hills and the grim rocks become rosy or golden, the palms green, the sand saffron, and the sea wears a lilac surface of dimpling waves. But after a quarter of an hour, all fades once more. The cliffs are naked and ghastly under the moon, whose light falling upon its wilderness of white crags and pinnacles is most strange, most mysterious. Night. The horizon is all darkness and the sea reflects the white visage of the night sun as in a mirror of steel. In the air we see giant columns of pallid light, distinct based upon the indigo-colored waves, and standing with their heads lost in endless space, the stars glitter with exceeding brilliance. Footnote. Naboor considers that the stars are brighter in Norway than in the Arabian deserts, and ever saw them so bright as on the Neil Gary Hills. End of footnote. At this hour are river and hill and wood, with all the numberless goings on of life, inaudible as dreams. While the planets look down upon you with the faces of smiling friends, you feel the sweetness of the pleads. You're bound by the bond of Orion. Hesperus bears with him a thousand things. In communion with them your hours pass swiftly by, till the heavy dues warn you to cover up your face and sleep. And with that one look at a certain little star in the north, under which lies all that makes life worth living through, surely it is a venial superstition to sleep with their eyes towards that kibla you fall into oblivion. Those thirty-six hours were a trial even to the hard-headed Bedouin. The Syrian and his two friends fell ill. Amar Effendi, it is true, had the courage to say his sons at prayers, but the exertions so altered him that he looked another man. Saleh Shakkar, in despair, eight dates still threatened with dysentery, saad the demon had rigged out for himself a cot three feet long, which arched over with bent bamboo, and covered with cloaks he had slung on to the labored side. But the loud grumbling which proceeded from his nest proof that his precaution had not been a cure, even the boy Mohammed forgot to chatter, to scold, to smoke, and to make himself generally disagreeable. The Turkish baby appeared to be dying, and was not strong enough to wail. How the poor mother stood her trials so well made everyone wonder. The most pleasant trait in my companion's characters was the consideration they showed to her and their attention to her children. Whenever one of the party drew forth a little delicacy, a few dates or a pomegranate, they gave away a share of it to the children, and most of them took their turns to nurse the baby. This was genuine politeness, kindness of heart. It would be well for those who sweepingly accused Easterns of want of gallantry to contrast this trait of character with the savage scenes of civilization that take place among the overlands at Cairo and Suez, footnote, written in the days of the vans which preceded the railway, and the footnote. No foreigner could be present for the first time without bearing away the lasting impression that the sons of Great Britain are model barbarians, footnote. On one occasion I was obliged personally to exert myself to prevent a party of ladies being thrust into an old and bad transit van. The rudor sex having stationed itself at some distance from the starting place in order to seize upon the best, and the footnote. On board of the golden wire, Saleh Shakkar was the sole base exception to the general geniality of my companions. As the sun starts towards the west, falling harmlessly upon our heads, we arise, still faint and dizzy, calling for water, which before we had not the strength to drink, and pipes, and coffee, and similar luxuries. Our primitive kitchen is a square wooden box, lined with clay and filled with sand, upon which three or four large stones are placed to form a hearth. Preparations are now made for the evening meal, which is of the simplest description. A little rice, a few dates, or an onion will keep a man alive in our position. A single good dinner will justify long odds against his seeing the next evening. Moreover, it is impossible in such cases to have an appetite. Fortunately, as our store of provision is a scanty one, Arabs consider it desirable on a journey to eat hot food once in the 24 hours. So we determine to cook, despite all difficulties. The operation, however, is by no means satisfactory. Twenty expectants surround a single fire, and there is sure to be a quarrel amongst them every five minutes. As the breeze, cooled by the dew, begins to fan our parched faces, we recover our spirits amazingly. Songs are sung, tales are told, and rough jests are bandied about till, not unfrequently, oriental sensitiveness is sorely tried. Or if we see the prospect of storm or calm, we draw forth and piously prove a hizb al-bahar. As this prayer is supposed to make all safe upon the ocean wave, I will not selfishly withhold it from the British reader. To draw forth all its virtues, the reciter should receive it from the hands of his merchant or spiritual guide, and study it during the chila, or the forty days of fast, of which I venture to observe few sons of bull or capable. O Allah, O exalted, O Almighty, O all pitiful, O all powerful, Thou art my God, and suffices to me the knowledge of it. Glorified be the Lord, my Lord, and glorified be the faith, my faith. Thou givest victory to whom Thou pleasest, and Thou art the glorious, the merciful. We pray thee for safety in our goings forth, in our standing still, in our words, in our designs, in our dangers of temptation and doubt, and the secret designs of our hearts. Subject unto us the sea, even as Thou did subject the deep to Musa, Moses, and as Thou did subject the fire to Ibrahim, or Abraham, footnote. Abraham, for breaking his father's idols, was cast by Nimrod into a fiery furnace, which forthwith became a garden of roses. See Chapter 21 of the Quran, called the Prophets, and the footnote. And as Thou did subject the iron to Dawood, or David, footnote. David worked as an armorer, but the steel was as wax in his hands, and the footnote. And as Thou did subject the wind and the devils and the jinnies and mankind to slay man, or Solomon, footnote. Solomon reigned over the three orders of created beings. The fable of his flying carpet is well known. See Chapter 27 of the Quran, called the ant, and the footnote. And as Thou did subject the moon and al-Buraq to Muhammad, upon whom Allah's mercy and his blessings. And subject unto us all the seas in earth and heaven, in thy visible and in thine invisible worlds, the sea of this life and the sea of futureity. O Thou who reinest over everything and unto whom all things return. Chias, chias, chias. Footnote. These are mystic words and entirely beyond the reach of dictionaries and vocabularies. End of footnote. And lastly we lie down upon our cribs, wrapped up in thickly padded cotton coverlets. We forget the troubles of the past day, and we care not for the discomforts of that to come. Late on the evening of the 11th of July we passed inside of the narrow mouth of Al-Aqaba, whose famosi roots are a terror to the voyagers of these latitudes. Like the Gulf of Cambay, here a tempest is said to be always brewing, and men raise their hands to pray as they cross it. We had no storm that day from without, but a fierce one was about to burst within our ship. The essence of Oriental discipline is personal respect based upon fear. Therefore it often happens that the commanding officer, if a mild old gentleman, is the last person whose command is obeyed, his only privilege being that of sitting apart from his inferiors. And such was the case with our raiz. On the present occasion, irritated by the refusal of the Magrabis to stand out of the Stearman's way, and excited by the prospect of losing sight of shore for a whole day, he threatened one of the fellows with his slipper. It required all our exertions, even to a display of the dreaded quarter staves to calm the consequent excitement. After passing Al-Aqaba, we saw nothing but sea and sky, and we spent a very night and day tossing upon the waters, our only exercise. Every face brightened as about sunset on the 12th of July we suddenly glided into the mooring place. Merce, or Anchorage-Dembra, or rather Demera, is scarcely visible from the sea, footnote. In Morsebe's survey, Sherm Demera, or the Creek of Demera, Ali Bey calls it Demeg, and a footnote. An allot of limestone rock depends the entrance, leaving a narrow passage to the south. It is not before he enters that the mariner discovers the extent and depth of this creek, which indents far into the land and offers fifteen to twenty feet of fine clear Anchorage, which no swell can reach. Inside it looks more like a lake, and at night its color is gloriously blue as Geneva itself. I could not help calling to mind, after dinner, the old school lines, as in successo longolocos insula portum, efficito obiecto laterum, qui bis omnis abalto. Frangitur in quesino scindit se sei onda reductos. Nothing was wanted but the atromnemus. Where, however, shall we find such luxuries in Arabia? The raiz, as usual, attempted to deter us from landing by romancing about the Bedouins and Ascopards, representing them to be folk-right felonus and fowl of the cursed kind, to which were applied by shouldering urnab boots and scrambling to the cock-boat. Unsure, we saw a few wretched-looking beings, Juhayna or Hutayim, seated upon heaps of dried wood, which they sold to travelers, and three boatloads of Syrian pilgrims who had preceded us. Footnote. See the land of Median, revisited, for a plan of al-Dumeiga and a description of al-Wijjah or al-Bahar. These men of the Bani Juhayna or Juhayna tribe, the Bani Kalb, as they are also called, must not be trusted. They extend from the plains north of Yambo into the Sinaitic peninsula. They boast no connection with the great tribe al-Harb. But they are of noble race, are celebrated for fighting, and it is said, have good horses. The specimens we saw at Marse al-Dumeira were poor ones. They had few clothes and no arms except the usual jambia, crooked dagger. By their civility and their cringing style of address it was easy to see that they had been corrupted by intercourse with strangers. End of Footnote. We often envied them their small, swift craft, with their double-eteen sails disposed in hair-ears, which, about even tide in the far distance, looked like a white gull alighting upon the purple wave. And they justified our jealousy by arriving at Yambo two days before us. The pilgrims had bevacked upon the beach and were engaged in drinking their after-dinner coffee. They received us with all the rise of hospitality as natives of Al-Medina should everywhere be received. We sat an hour with them, ate a little fruit, satisfied our thirst, smoked their pipes, and, when taking leave, blessed them. Then returning to the vessel we fed and lost no time in falling asleep. The dawn of the next day saw our sail flapping in the idle air. It was not without difficulty that in the course of the four noon we entered which harbour, distant from Dumeira, but very few miles. Alwija is also a natural anchorage, in no way differing from that where we pass the night except in being smaller and shallower and less secure. From this place to Cairo the road is safe. The town is a collection of round huts, mainly built of round stones and clustering upon a piece of elevated rock on the northern side of the creek. It is distant about six miles from the inland fort of the same name, which receives the Egyptian caravan and which thrives like its port by selling water and provisions to the pilgrims. The little bazaar almost washed every day by high tide provided us with mutton, rice, baked bread, and the other necessaries of life at a moderate rate. Luxuries were also to be found, a druggist sold me an ounce of opium at a Chinese price. With reeling limbs we landed at Alwija, footnote. It is written Wish and Alwija, and by Ali Bey it is written Vajja and Vajja. Vajja and Wash by Burkhard and Vajja by Morsebey, and a footnote. And finding a large coffee house above and near the beach, we installed ourselves there. But the Persians who preceded us had occupied all the shady places outside and were correcting their teeth with their case knives, who we were forced to content ourselves with the interior. It was a building of artless construction, consisting of little but a roof supported by wooden posts. Roughly hewn from date trees round the tamed earth floor ran a raised bench of unbaked brick, forming a diwan for mats and sleeping rugs. In the center a huge square mataba or platform answered a similar purpose. Here and there appeared attempts at long and side walls, but these perfluities had been allowed to admit daylight through large gaps. In one corner stood the paradise of the Gehwaji, an altar-like elevation also of earthen work, containing a hole for charcoal fire, upon which were three huge coffee-pots dirtily tinned. Near it were arranged the Shishas or Egyptian hukkas, old exceedingly unclean and worn by age and hard work. A wooden framework pierced with circular apertures supported a number of porous earthenware gullets, gargolets or monkey jars, full of cold sweet water. The charge of each was, as usual in El-Hijaz, five porous. Such was the furniture of the cafe, and the only relief to the barrenness of the view was a fine mellowing atmosphere composed of smoke, steam, flies, gnats in about equal proportions. I have been diffused in my description of the coffee-house, as it was a type of its class, from Alexandria to Eddin the traveller will everywhere meet with buildings of the same kind. Our happiness in this paradise, for such was to us after the golden wire, was nearly sacrificed by side the demon, whose abominable temper led him at once into a quarrel with a master of the cafe, and the latter, an ill-looking, squint-eyed, low-browed, broad-shouldered fellow, showed himself no wise unwilling to meet the demon halfway. The two worthy's, after a brief banding of bad words, seized each other's throats leisurely, so as to give the spectators time and encouragement to interfere. But when friends and acquaintances were hanging on to both heroes so firmly that they could not move hand or arm, their wrath, as usual, rose till it was terrible to see. The little village resounded with the war, and many a sturdy nape rushed in, soared or cudgel in hand, so as not to lose the sport. During the heat of the fray, a pistol, which was in Amarafendi's hand, went off, accidentally, of course, and the ball passed so close to the tins containing the black and muddy mocha, that it drew attention of all parties. As if by magic the storm was lulled, a friend recognized side the demon and swore that he was no black slave but a soldier at Al Medina, no waiter but a night-templar. This caused him to be looked upon as a rather distinguished man, and he proved his right to the honor by insisting that his late enemy should feed with him, and when the other decorously hung back by dragging him to dinner with loud cries. My alliance that day was severely tried. Besides the Persian pilgrims, a number of known descripts who came in the same vessel were hanging about the coffee house, lying down, smoking, drinking water, bathing, and picking their teeth with their daggers. One inquisitive man was always at my side. He called himself a pathan, or an Afghan settled in India. He could speak five or six languages, he knew a number of people everywhere, and he had traveled far and wide over Central Asia. These fellows are always good detectors of an incognito. I avoided answering his questions about my native place, and after telling him that I had no longer name or nation being a dervish, I asked him when he insisted upon my having been born somewhere to guess for himself. To my joy he claimed me for a brother pathan, and in course of conversation he declared himself to be the nephew of an Afghan merchant, a gallant old man who had been civil to me at Cairo. We then sat smoking together with the fusion. Becoming confidential he complained that he, a Sunni or orthodox Muslim, had been abused, maltreated, and beaten by his fellow travelers, the heretical Persian pilgrims, and naturally offered to arm my party to take up our cudgels and to revenge my compatriot. This, thoroughly Salamanian style of doing business could not fail to make him sure of his man. He declined, however, wisely remembering that he had nearly a fortnight of the Persian society still to endure. But he promised himself the gratification when he reached Mecca of she-thing his shirei in the chief of Ender's heart. FUTNU Shirei is a terrible Afghan knife. End of FUTNU At eight a.m. on the fourteenth of July we left Eluji after passing a night tolerably comfortable by contrast in the coffee-house. We took with us the stores necessary for though our raiz had promised to anchor under Jebel Hisani that evening. No one believed him. We sailed among ledges of rock, golden sand, green weeds, and, in some places, through yellow lines of what appeared to me at a distance, foam after a storm. All day a sailor sat upon a mast-head, looking at the water which was as transparent as blue glass, and shouting out the direction. This precaution was somewhat stultified by the roar of voices, which never failed to mingle with a warning. But we wore every half an hour, and we did not run aground. About midday we pah-sheikh-hesan al-marab-et-stomb. It is the usual domed and white-washed building surrounded by the hovels of its guardians standing upon a low-flat island of yellow rock vividly reminding me of certain scenes in Sindh. Its dreary position attracts to it the attention of passing travellers. The dead saint has a prayer and a fight half for the good of his soul, and the live-sinner wands his way with religious refreshment. Near sunset the wind came on to blow freshly, and we cast anchor together with Persian pilgrims upon a rock. This was one of the celebrated coral reefs of the Red Sea, and the site justified four skulls emphatic description. Luxus lusus que naturae. It was a huge ledge or platform, rising but a little above the level of the deep. The water-side was perpendicular as the wall of a fort, and whilst a frigate might have floated within a yard of it, every ripple dashed over the reef, replenishing the little basins and hollows in the surface. The color of the waves near it was as vivid amethyst. In the distance the eye rested upon what appeared to be meadows of brilliant flowers resembling those of earth only far brighter and more lovely. Nor was this land of the sea wholly desolate. Gulls and thorns here swam the tide. There seated upon the coral devoured their prey. In the air troops of birds contended noisily for a dead flying fish. Footnute. These Arabs in their vulgar tongue called Jirad al-Bahar or sea locusts, as they termed the Shem-Burghot al-Bahar or the sea flea. Such compound words, palpably derived from land objects, prove the present ichtyophagi and Bedouin living on the coast to be erased originally from the interior. Pure and ancient Arabs still have at least one uncompounded word to express every object familiar to them, and it is in this point that the genius of the language chiefly shows itself. And a footnote. And in the deep they chased a shoal, which in fright and hurry to escape the pursuers veiled the surface with spray and foam. And as night came on the scene shifted, displaying fresh beauties. Shadows glowed the background, whose features dimly revealed, allowing full scope to the imagination. In the four part of the picture lay the sea, shining under the rays of the moon with a metallic luster, while its border where the wavelets dashed upon the reef was lit by what the Arabs call the jewels of the deep. Brilliant flashes of phosphoric light giving an idea of splendor which art would vainly strive to imitate. Footnote. The Arabs superstition is that these flashes of light are jewels made to adorn the necks and hair of the mermaids and mermen, when removed from their native elements the gems fade and disappear. If I remember right, there is some idea similar to this among the Scotch and other northern people. And a footnote. All together it was a bit of a fairyland, a spot for nymphs and sea-god to distort upon. You might have heard without astonishment old Porteus calling his flocks with a writh conch and Aphrodite seated in her shell would have been only a bit and proper climax for its loveliness. But as philosophically remarked by Sir Colleen the knight, every white must have its black and every sweet its sour. This charming coral reef was nearly being the scene of an ugly accident. The breeze from seawards set us slowly but steadily towards the reef, a fact of which we soon became conscious. Our anchor was not dragging. It had not rope enough to touch the bottom and vainly we sought for more. In fact the golden wire was disgracefully deficient in all appliances of safety as an English merchant man in the nineteenth century, a circumstance which accounts for the shipwrecks and for the terrible loss of life perpetually occurring about the pilgrimage season in the seas. Had she struck upon the razor-like edges of the coral reef she would have melted away like sugar plum in the ripple. For the tide was rising at the time. Having nothing better to do we began to make as much noise as possible. Fortunately for us the raiz commanding the Persian boat was an Arab from Jidda and more than once we had treated him with great civility. Guessing the cause of our distress he sent two sailors overboard with a cable. They swam gallantly up to us and a few minutes we were safely moored to the stern of our useful neighbor. Which done we applied ourselves with a grateful task of beating our raiz and richly had he deserved it. Before noon the wind was shifting. He had not once given himself the trouble to wear and when the breeze was falling he preferred dosing to take advantage of what little wind remained. With energy we might have been moored that night comfortably under the side of Hasani Island instead of flowing about on an unquiet sea with a lee shore of coral reef within few yards of our counter. At dawn the next day, July 15th, we started. We made Jabal-Hasani about noon. Footnote. The word Jabal will frequently occur in these pages. It is applied by the Arabs to any rising ground or heap of rocks. Therefore must not be always translated as mountain. In the latter sense it has found its way into some Mediterranean dialects. Gibraltar is Jabal-at-Tarek and also a man Ethan that man Clep and Mount Gibel is Mount Gibello, the mountain. Pa excellence. End of a note. And an hour or so before sunset we glided into Marseh-Mahar. Our resting place resembled Marseh-Dumeirah at a humble distance. The sides of the cove, however, were bolder and more precipitious. The limestone rocks presented a peculiar appearance. In some parts the base and walls had crumbled away, leaving a coping to a project like a canopy. In others the wind and rain had cut deep holes and pierced the friable material with caverns that looked like the work of art. There was a pretty opening of backwood at the bottom of the cove. The palm trees in the blue distance gladdened our eyes which pined for the sight of something green. The dais as usual would have terrified us with the description of the Hortaim tribe that holds these parts. And I knew from Wellstead and Morseby that it is a debased race. But forty-eight hours of cramps on board ship would make a man think lightly of a much more imminent danger. Waiting to shore we cut our feet to the sharp rocks. I remember to have felt the acute pain of something running into my toe. But after looking at the place and extracting what appeared to be a bit of thorn, I dismissed the subject, little guessing the trouble it was to give me. Fidnu, it was most probably a prickle of the egg fruit or echinus, so common in these seas generally supposed to be poisonous. I found it impossible to cure my foot in al-Hijaz and every remedy seemed to make it worse. This was as much effect of the climate of Arabia as the hardships and privations of a pilgrimage. After my return to Egypt in the autumn the wound healed readily without medical treatment. End of footnote. Having scaled the rocky side of the cove we found some half-naked Arabs lying in the shade. They were unarmed and had nothing about them except their felonious countenance, wherewith to terrify the most timid. These men still live in limestone caves like the Talmud tribe of tradition. Also they are ectiophagy, existing without any other subsistence but what to see affords. They were unable to provide us with dates, flesh, or milk, but they sold us a kind of fish called in India bui. Broiled upon the embers it proved delicious. After we had eaten and drunk and smoked we began to make merry, and the Persians who, fearing to come on shore, had kept to their conveyance, appeared proper butts for the wit of some of our party. One of us stood up and pronounced orthodox call to prayer after which the rest joined in polemical hymn, exalting the virtues and dignity of the first three caliphs. Footnote. Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman. End of footnote. Then, as general on such occasion, the matter was made personal by informing the Persians in a kind of rhyme sung by the Meccan gamins that they were the slippers of Ali, and the dogs of Umar. But as they were too frightened to reply, my companions gathered up their cooking utensils and returned to the golden wire melancholy, like disappointed candidates for the honors of Donny Brook. Our next day was silent and wary, for we were all surly and heartily sick of being on board ship. We should have made yambo in the evening, but for the laziness of the raiz. Having duly beaten him, we anchored on the open coast, insufficiently protected by a reef and almost in sight of our destination. In the distance rose Jabal Radwa, or Radwa. Footnote. I found both these forms of writing the word in books. Morsby, or rather Mr. Assam, erroneously spelt it Ridwa. End of footnote. One of the mountains of Paradise, in which honored Arabia abounds. Footnote. In the future chapter, when describing a visit to Mount Ahad near Alemedina, I shall enter into some details about these mountains of Paradise. End of footnote. It is celebrated by poetry, as well as by piety. Did Ridwa strive to support my woes? Ridwa itself would be crushed by the weight, says Antara. Footnote. The translator, however, erroneously informs us in a footnote that Ridwa is a mountain near Mecca. End of footnote. It supplies Alemedina with homes. I heard much of its valleys and fruits and bubbling springs, but afterwards I learned to rank these tales with the superstitious legends which are attached to it, gazing at its bareland ghastly height. One of our party, whose wit was soured by the want of fresh bread, surlyly remarked that such a heap of ugliness deserved ejection from heaven and irreverence to public to escape general denunciation, we waited on shore, cooked there, and passed the night. We were short of fresh water, which combined with other grievances made us as surly as bears. Sad the demon was especially vicious. His eyes gazed fixedly on the ground. His lips protruded till you might have held up his face by them. His mouth was garnished with bad wrinkles, and he never opened it, but he grumbled out a wicked word. He molest himself that evening by crawling slowly on all fours over the Boye Mohammed, taking scrupulous care to place one knee upon the sleeper's face. The youth awoke in fiery rage. We all roared with laughter, and the sulky negro, after savoring the success of his spite, grimly but as half-satisfied, rolled himself like a hedgehog into a ball, and resolving to be offensive even in his forgetfulness, snored violently all night. We slept upon the sands and arose before dawn in July 17th, determined to make the day start in time that day. A slip of land separated us from our haven, where the wind was foul, and by reason of rocks and shoals we had to make a considerable detour. It was about noon on the twelfth day after our departure from Suez, when, after slowly beating up the narrow creek leading into Yumber Harbour, we sprang into our shoreboat and felt a new life when bidding an eternal adieu to the vile golden wire. I might have escaped much of this hardship and suffering by hiring a vessel to myself. There would then have been a cabin to retire into at night and shade from the sun. However, the voyage would have lasted five, not twelve days. But I wished to witness the scenes on board a pilgrim ship, scenes so much talked of by the Muslim Palmer home returned. Moreover, the hire was exorbitant, ranging from forty to fifty liras. And it would have led to a greater expenditure, as the man who could afford to take a boat must pay in proportion during his land journey. In these countries, you perforce go on, as you begin, to break one's expenditure, that is to say, to retrench expenses. It is considered all but impossible. We have now left the land of Egypt.