I asked our Rais where his fair wind was which he promised to bring? He said, his wife had quarrelled with him all night, and would not give him time to pray; and therefore, says he with a very droll face, you shall see me do all that a Saint can do for you on this occasion. I asked him what that was? He made another droll face, "Why, it is to draw the boat by the rope till the wind turns fair." I commended very much this wise alternative, and immediately the vessel began to move, but very slowly, the wind being still unfavourable.
On looking into Mr Norden's voyage, I was struck at first sight with this paragraph[1]: "We saw this day abundance of camels, but they did not come near enough for us to shoot them."—I thought with myself, to shoot camels in Egypt would be very little better than to shoot men, and that it was very lucky for him the camels did not come near, if that was the only thing that prevented him. Upon looking at the note, I see it is a small mistake of the translator[2], who says, "that in the original it is Chameaux d'eau, water-camels; but whether they are a particular species of camels, or a different kind of animal, he does not know.
- ↑ Norden's Travels, vol. ii. p. 17.
- ↑ I cannot here omit to rectify another small mistake of the translator, which involves him in a difference with this Author which he did not mean.—
Mr Norden, in the French, says, that the master of his vessel being much frightened, "avoit perdu la tramontane;" the true meaning of which is, That he had lost his judgment, not lost the north wind, as it is translated, which is really nonsense.
Norden's Travels, vol. ii. p. 50.
