Chapter 21
My boat has not yet made its appearance. I am very well indeed now, in spite, or perhaps because of, the great heat. But there is a great deal of sickness--chiefly dysentery. I never get less than four new patients a day and my 'practice' has become quite a serious business. I spent all day on Friday in the Abab'deh quarters where Sheykh Hassan and his slave Rahmeh were both uncommonly ill. Both are 'all right' now. Rahmeh is the nicest negro I ever knew, and a very great friend of mine. He is a most excellent, honest, sincere man, and an Effendi (_i.e._ writes and reads) which is more than his master can do. He has seen all the queer people in the interior of Africa.
The Sheykh of the Bishareen--eight days' journey from Assouan has invited me and promises me all the meat and milk I can eat, they have nothing else. They live on a high mountain and are very fine handsome people. If only I were strong I could go to very odd places where Frangees are not. Read a very stupid novel (as a story) called '_le Secret du Bonheur_'--it gives the truest impression of the manners of Arabs that I have read--by Ernest Feydeau. According to his book _achouat_ (we are brothers). The 'caressant' ways of Arabs are so well described.
It is the same here. The people come and pat and stroke me with their hands, and one corner of my brown abbaieh is faded with much kissing. I am hailed as _Sitt Betaana_ 'Our own Lady,' and now the people are really enthusiastic because I refused the offer of some cawasses as a guard which a Bimbashee made me. As if I would have such fellows to help to bully my friends. The said Bimbashee (next in rank to a Bey) a coarse man like an Arnoout, stopped here a day and night and played his little Turkish game, telling me to beware--for the Ulema hated all Franks and set the people against us--and telling the Arabs that Christian Hakeems were all given to poison Muslims. So at night I dropped in at the Maohn's with Sheykh Yussuf carrying my lantern--and was loudly hailed with a _Salaam Aleykee_ from the old Shereef himself--who began praising the Gospel I had given him, and me at the same time. Yussuf had a little reed in his hand--the _kalem_ for writing, about two feet long and of the size of a quill. I took it and showed it to the Bimbashee and said--'Behold the _neboot_ wherewith we are all to be murdered by this Sheykh of the Religion.' The Bimbashee's bristly moustache bristled savagely, for he felt that the 'Arab dogs' and the Christian _khanzeereh_ (feminine pig) were laughing at it together.
Another steam boat load of prisoners from Gau has just gone up. A little comfort is derived here from the news that, 'Praise be to God, Moussa Pasha (Governor of the Soudan) is dead and gone to Hell.' It must take no trifle to send him there judging by the quiet way in which Fadil Pasha is mentioned.
You will think me a complete rebel--but I may say to you what most people would think 'like my nonsense'--that one's pity becomes a perfect passion, when one _sits among the people_--as I do, and sees it all; least of all can I forgive those among Europeans and Christians who can help to 'break these bruised reeds.' However, in Cairo and more still in Alexandria, all is quite different. There, the same system which has been so successfully copied in France prevails. The capital is petted at the expense of the fellaheen. Prices are regulated in Cairo for meat and bread as they are or were in Paris, and the 'dangerous classes' enjoy all sorts of exemptions. Just like France! The Cairenes eat the bread and the fellaheen eat the stick.
The people here used to dislike Mounier who arrived poor and grew rich and powerful, but they all bless him now and say at El-Moutaneh a man eats his own meat and not the courbash of the Moudir--and Mounier has refused soldiers (as I refused them on my small account) and 'Please God,' he will never repent it. Yussuf says 'What the Turkish Government fears is not for _your_ safety, but lest we should learn to love you too well,' and it is true. Here there is but one voice. 'Let the Franks come, let us have the laws of the Christians.'
In Cairo the Franks have dispelled this _douce illusion_ and done the Turk's work as if they were paid for it. But here come only travellers who pay with money and not with stick--a degree of generosity not enough to be adored.
I perceive that I am a bore--but you will forgive my indignant sympathy with the kind people who treat me so well. Yussuf asked me to let the English papers know about the Gau business. An Alim ed Deen ul-Islam would fain call for help to the Times! Strange changes and signs of the times--these--are they not so?
I went to Church on Good Friday with the Copts. The scene was very striking--the priest dressed like a beautiful Crusader in white robes with crimson crosses. One thing has my hearty admiration. The few children who are taken to Church are allowed to play! Oh my poor little Protestant fellow Christians, can you conceive a religion so delightful as that which permits Peep-bo behind the curtain of the sanctuary! I saw little Butrus and Scendariah at it all church time--and the priest only patted their little heads as he carried the sacrament out to the Hareem. Fancy the parson kindly patting a noisy boy's head, instead of the beadle whacking him! I am entirely reconciled to the Coptic rules.
May, 1865: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon
_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.
NILE BOAT, _URANIA_, _May_, 1865.
Happy as I was in the prospect of seeing you all and miserable as poor Upper Egypt has become, I could not leave without a pang. Our Bairam was not gay. There was horse riding for Sheykh Gibreel (the cousin of Abu'l Haggag) and the scene was prettier than ever I saw. My old friend Yunis the Shereef insisted on showing me that at eighty-five he could still handle a horse and throw a Gereed 'for Sheykh Gibreel and the Lady' as he said. Then arrived the Mufettish of Zenia with his gay attendants and filled the little square in front of the Cadi's castellated house where we were sitting. The young Sheykh of Salamieh rode beautifully and there was some excellent Neboot play (sort of very severe quarterstaff peculiar to the Fellaheen).
Next day was the great dinner given by Mohammed and Mustapha outside Mohammed's house opposite Sheykh Gibreel's tomb--200 men ate at his gate. I went to see it and was of course asked to eat. 'Can one like thee eat the Melocheea of the Fellaheen?' So I joined a party of five round a little wooden tray, tucked up my sleeve and ate--dipping the bread into the Melocheea which is like very sloppy spinach but much nicer. Then came the master and his servants to deal the pieces of meat out of a great basket--sodden meat--and like Benjamin my piece was the largest, so I tore off a bit and handed it to each of my companions, who said 'God take thee safe and happy to thy place and thy children and bring thee back to us in safety to eat the meat of the festival together once more.'
The moon rose clear and bright behind the one tall palm tree that overhangs the tomb of Sheykh Gibreel. He is a saint of homely tastes and will not have a dome over him or a cover for his tomb, which is only surrounded by a wall breast-high, enclosing a small square bit of ground with the rough tomb on one side. At each corner was set up a flag, and a few dim lanterns hung overhead. The 200 men eating were quite noiseless--and as they rose, one by one washed their hands and went, the crowd melted away like a vision. But before all were gone, came the Bulook, or sub-magistrate--a Turkish Jack in office with the manners of a Zouave turned parish beadle. He began to sneer at the _melocheea_ of the fellaheen and swore he could not eat it if he sat before it 1,000 years. Hereupon, Omar began to 'chaff' him. 'Eat, oh Bulook Pasha and if it swells thy belly the Lady will give thee of the physick of the English to clean thy stomach upwards and downwards of all thou hast eaten of the food of the fellaheen.' The Bulook is notorious for his exactions--his 'eating the people'--so there was a great laugh. Poor Omar was very ill next day--and every one thought the Bulook had given him the eye.
Then came the Mufettish in state to pay his _devoirs_ to the Sheykh in the tomb. He came and talked to Mustapha and Yussuf and enumerated the people taken for the works, 200 from Luxor, 400 from Carnac, 310 from Zenia, 320 from Byadyeh, and 380 from Salamieh--a good deal more than half the adult men to go for sixty days leaving their fields uncultivated and their Hareem and children hungry--for they have to take all the food for themselves.
I rose sick at heart from the Mufettish's harsh voice, and went down to listen to the Moonsheeds chanting at the tomb and the Zikheers' strange sobbing, Allah, Allah.
I leaned on the mud wall watching the slender figures swaying in the moonlight, when a tall, handsome fellah came up in his brown shirt, felt _libdeh_ (scull cap), with his blue cotton _melaya_ tied up and full of dried bread on his back. The type of the Egyptian. He stood close beside me and prayed for his wife and children. 'Ask our God to pity them, O Sheykh, and to feed them while I am away. Thou knowest how my wife worked all night to bake all the wheat for me and that there is none left for her and the children.' He then turned to me and took my hand and went on, 'Thou knowest this lady, oh Sheykh Gibreel, take her happy and well to her place and bring her back to us--_el Fathah, yah Beshoosheh_!' and we said it together. I could have laid my head on Sheykh Gibreel's wall and howled. I thanked him as well as I could for caring about one like me while his own troubles were so heavy. I shall never forget that tall athletic figure and the gentle brown face, with the eleven days' moon of Zulheggeh, and the shadow of the palm tree. That was my farewell. 'The voice of the miserable is with thee, shall God not hear it?'
Next day Omar had a sharp attack of fever and was delirious--it lasted only two days but left him very weak and the anxiety and trouble was great--for my helping hands were as awkward as they were willing.
In a few days arrived the boat Urania. She is very nice indeed. A small saloon, two good berths--bath and cabinet, and very large _kasneh_ (stern cabin). She is dirty, but will be extremely comfortable when cleaned and painted. On the 15th we sailed. Sheykh Yussuf went with me to Keneh, Mustapha and Seyd going by land--and one of Hajjee Sultan's disciples and several Luxor men were deck passengers. The Shereef gave me the bread and jars of butter for his grandsons in Gama'l Azhar, and came to see me off. We sat on the deck outside as there was a crowd to say good-bye and had a lot of Hareem in the cabin. The old Shereef made me sit down on the carpet close to him and then said 'we sit here like two lovers'--at eighty-five _even_ an Arab and a Shereef may be "_gaillard_"--so I cried, 'Oh Shereef, what if Omar tells my master the secret thou hast let out--it is not well of thee.' There was a great laugh which ended in the Shereef saying 'no doubt thy master is of the best of the people, let us say the _Fathah_ for him,' and he called on all the people '_El Fathah_ for the master of the lady!' I hope it has benefited you to be prayed for at Luxor.
I had written so far and passed Minieh when I fell ill with pleurisy--I've lots more to tell of my journey but am too weak after two weeks in bed (and unable to lie down from suffocation)--but I am _much_ better now. A man from the Azhar is reading the Koran for me outside--while another is gone with candles to Seyeedele Zeynet 'the fanatics!'
June 16, 1865: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon
_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.
CAIRO, _June_ 16, 1865.
DEAREST ALICK,
I will go down to Alexandria in the boat and Omar will work at her. She wants a great deal of repairing I find, and his superintendence will save much money--besides he will do one man's work as he is a much better carpenter than most here having learnt of the English workmen on the railroad--but the Reis says the boat must come out of the water as her bottom is unsound. She is a splendid sailer I hear and remarkably comfortable. The beds in the _kasneh_ would do for Jacob Omnium. So when you 'honour our house' you will be happy. The saloon is small, and the berths as usual. Also she is a very handsome shape--but she wants no end of repairs. So Omar is consoled at being left because he will 'save our money' a great deal by piecing sails, and cutting and contriving, and scraping and painting himself. Only he is afraid for me. However, _Allah Kereem_.
I have a very good Reis I think. The usual tight little black fellow from near Assouan--very neat and active and good tempered--the same cross steersman that we had up to Bedreshayn--but he knows his work well. We had contrary gales the whole way. My men worked all they possibly could, and pulled the rope all day and rowed all night, day after day--but we were twenty-eight days getting down.
I can't write any more.
October 28, 1865: Mrs. Austin
_To Mrs. Austin_.
ALEXANDRIA, _October_ 28, 1865.
I am truly grieved to hear of your wrist and to see your writing look cramped. I arrived here on Thursday after a splendid passage and was very comfortable on board. I found M. Olagnier waiting for me, and Omar, of course, and am _installe_ at Ross's till my boat gets done which I am told will be in six days. She will be remarkably comfortable. Omar had caused a sort of divan with a roof and back to be constructed just outside the cabin-door where I always sat every evening, which will be the most delightful little nest one can conceive. I shall sit like a Pasha there.
My cough is still very harassing, but my chest less tight and painful, and I feel less utterly knocked down. The weather is beautiful here just now--warm and not nearly so damp as usual.
Lord Edward St. Maur was on board, he has much of his aunt's pleasantness. Also a very young Bombay Merchant--a Muslim who uttered not one syllable to any one but to me. His talk was just like that of a well-bred and intelligent young Englishman. I am glad to say that his views of the state of India were very encouraging--he seemed convinced that the natives were gradually working their way up to more influence, and said 'We shall have to thank you for a better form of government by far than any native one ever would have been'--he added, 'We Muslims have this advantage over the Hindus--that our religion is no barrier at all, socially or politically--between us and you--as theirs is. I mean it ought not to be when both faiths are cleared of superstition and fanaticism.' He spoke very highly of Sir Bartle Frere but said 'I wish it were possible for more English _gentlemen_ to come out to India.' He had been two years in England on mercantile business and was going back to his brother Ala-ed-deen much pleased with the English in England. It is one of the most comforting _Erscheinungen_ I have seen coming from India--if that sort of good sense is pretty common among the very young men they certainly will work their way up.
I should like to see Bayley's article though I am quite sick of my book--it is very ungracious of me, but I can't help it.
November 2, 1865: Mrs. Austin
_To Mrs. Austin_.
ALEXANDRIA, _November_ 2, 1865.
DEAREST MUTTER,
The boat like all other things goes but slowly--however the weather here is unusually dry and fine.
I have just been to see my poor friend Sittee Zubeydeh, widow of Hassaneyn Effendi who died in England--and I am filled with admiration at her good sense and courage. She has determined to carry on her husband's business of letting boats herself, and to educate her children to the best of her power in habits of independence. I hope she will be successful, and receive the respect such rare conduct in a Turkish woman deserves from the English. I was much gratified to hear from her how kindly she had been treated in Glasgow. She said that nothing that could be done for her was left undone. She arrived this morning and I went to see her directly and was really astonished at all she said about her plans for herself and her children. Poor thing! it is a sad blow--for she and Hassaneyn were as thoroughly united as any Europeans could be.
I went afterwards to my boat, which I hope will be done in five or six days. I am extremely impatient to be off. She will be a most charming boat--both comfortable and pretty. The boom for the big sail is new--and I exclaimed, 'why you have broken the new boom and mended it with leather!' Omar had put on a _sham splice_ to avert the evil eye from such a fine new piece of wood! Of course I dare not have the blemish renewed or _gare_ the first puff of wind--besides it is too characteristic.
There is some cholera about again, I hear--ten deaths yesterday--so Olagnier tells me. I fancy the rush of Europeans back again, each bringing 'seven other devils worse than himself' is the cause of it.
I think I am beginning to improve a little; my cough has been terribly harassing especially at night--but the weather is very good, cool, and not damp.
November 27, 1865: Mrs. Austin
_To Mrs. Austin_.
CAIRO, _Monday_, _November_ 27, 1865.
DEAREST MUTTER,
I arrived here last night and found a whole heap of letters--and yours I will answer first. I had no heart to write any more from Alexandria where I was worried out of all courage and strength. At last after endless delays and vexations the dahabieh was _tant bien que mal_ ready.
Talk of Arab dawdle! after what I went through--and now I have to wait here for fresh repairs, as we came up baling all the way and I fear cursing the Christian workmen who had bungled so shamefully.
However that is over, and I am much better as to my cough--indeed it is all but gone. Omar was very ill having had dysentery for two months, but he too is well again. He is very grateful for your kind mention of him and says, 'Send the Great Mother my best Salaam, and tell her her daughter's people are my people, and where she goes I will go too, and please God I will serve her rich or poor till "He who separates us" shall take me from her.' The words of Ruth came after all these centuries quite fresh from the soft Egyptian lips.
The 'He who separated us' I must explain to you. It is one of the attributes of God, _The Separator of Religions_ implies toleration and friendship by attributing the two religions alike to God--and is never used towards one whose religion is not to be respected.
I have got a levee of former reis's, sailors, etc. some sick--but most come to talk.
The climate changes quite suddenly as one leaves the Delta, and here I sit at eight in the evening with open doors and windows.
I am so glad to hear of the great success of my dear Father's book, and to think of your courage in working at it still.
I suppose I shall be here a week longer as I have several jobs to do to my boat, and I shall try to get towed up so as to send back the boat as soon as possible in order to let her. Ali will give 80 pounds a month for her if he gets a party of four to take up. I pay my Reis five napoleons a month while travelling and three while lying still. He is a good, active little fellow.
We were nearly smashed under the railway bridge by an iron barge--and _Wallah_! how the Reis of the bridge did whack the Reis of the barge. I thought it a sad loss of time, but Reis Ali and my Reis Mohammed seemed to look on the stick as the most effective way of extricating my anchor from the Pasha's rudder. My crew can't say 'Urania' so they sing 'go along, oh darling bride' _Arooset er-ralee_, as the little Sitt's best description, and 'Arooset er-ralee' will be the dahabieh's exoteric name--as '_El Beshoosheeh_, is my popular name.
December 5, 1865: Mrs. Austin
_To Mrs. Austin_.
CAIRO, _December_ 5, 1865.
DEAREST MUTTER,
_Alhamdulillah_--now I am at rest. I have got all the boat in order. My captain, Reis Mohammed, is very satisfactory, and to-day we sail as soon as Omar comes back with the meat, etc. from market.
I received Meadow's review; I wish he had not said so much about me in it.
Mohammed Gazowee begs to give his best Salaam to Sheykh Stanley whom he longs to see again. He says that all the people said he was not a Christian, for he was not proud ever towards them as Christians are, but a real Sheykh, and that the Bedaween still talk of Sheykh Stanley and of his piety. The old half-witted jester of Luxor has found me out--he has wandered down here to see his eldest son who is serving in the army. He had brought a little boy with him, but is 'afraid for him' here, I don't know why, and has begged me to take the child up to his mother. These licensed _possenreisser_ are like our fools in old times--but less witty than we fancy them to have been--thanks to Shakespeare, I suppose. Each district has one who attends all _moolids_ and other gatherings of the people, and picks up a living. He tells me that the Turkish Nazir of Zeneea has begun some business against our Kadee, Sheykh Ibraheem, and Sheykh Yussuf, accused them of something--he does not know what--_perhaps of being friends of Hajjee Sultan, or of stealing wood_!! If all the friends of Hajjee Sultan are to be prosecuted that will include the whole Saeed.
Of course I am anxious about my friends. All Haleem Pasha Oghdee's villages have been confiscated (those tributary to him for work) _sous pretexte_ that he ill-used the people, _n.b._ he alone paid them--a bad example. Pharoah is indeed laying intolerable burthens--not on the Israelites--but on the fellaheen.
Omar said of the great dinner to-day, 'I think all the food will taste of blood, it is the blood of the poor, and more _haram_ than any pork or wine or blood of beasts.' Of course such sentiments are not to be repeated--but they are general. The _meneggets_ who picked and made ten mattrasses and fourteen cushions for me in half a day, were laughing and saying, 'for the Pasha's boat we work also, at so much a day and we should have done it in four days.' 'And for me if I paid by the day instead of by the piece, how long?' 'One day instead of half, O Lady, for fear thou shouldest say to us, you have finished in half a day and half the wages is enough for you.' That is the way in which all the work is done for _Effendeena_--no wonder his steamers don't pay.
I saw Ross yesterday--he tells me the Shereef of Mecca has sent him a horse.
December 25, 1865: Sir Alexander Duff Gordon
_To Sir Alexander Duff Gordon_.
THEBES, _From December_ 25, 1865, _to January_ 3, 1866.
DEAREST ALICK,