User:TheSkullOfRFBurton/Arabia, Egypt, India: A Narrative of Travel/Chapter III

by Isabel Burton

CHAPTER III. TRIESTE TO PORT SAID— 1st JANUARY, 1876.

A PAETING- mid-day dinner with friends. At 3.15 the Government boat, containing the Capitaine du Port and sailors, in uniform, with the Chevalier d'Alber, his daughter, and son-in-law. Baron and Baroness Czoernig came to take us to our ship,- — an honour seldom accorded to any but high Austrian oflficials. At the ship we were joined by a large party of friends, — H.R.H. the Duke of Wiirtemberg, Commander-in-Chief at Trieste, who has again so much distinguished himself in the Bosnian cam- paign; Baron Pascotini, and several others, who came to wish us " God-speed." I cannot say how touched we were at those affectionate proofs of popularity, and the honour we received ; doubly so, that after all those who were not about to sail were obliged to leave the ship, many lay to in their boats till five p.m., to see us steam out by the departing daylight of the old year. Never shall I forget so much kindness.

At five p.m. we backed out of the old port of Trieste, and turned the Calypso's head southwards. The flags bent lazily northward, as if a scirocco were coming, and we expected to meet the tyrant of these seas, who is apt to rage furiously between Albania and Corfu. In the darkening air we sped past the Muggia Bay, with its queer old Venetian port ; past Capo d'Istria, where " the most Serene Republic " had her Istrian headquarters ; past Isola town, no longer insulated ; past picturesque Pirano, famed of yore for pirates ; past the lighthouse of Salvore, — that long, grassy, wood-tipped point whose name, " Salvo R6," denotes that it once saved a king from drowning. After this the world, as the Arahs say, " grew dark before our eyes."

The Calypso (Austrian Lloyd's) is a good old tub, originally built in Glasgow for a cattle boat, is two thousand tons and two hundred horse-power. We were the only passengers, so Captain Bogojevich and his six officers and engineers and our- selves were soon established on the footing of a family party, and I never was so comfortable in any ship before or since. Soon I established my bed on the floor of my cabin, and slept for twelve hours, as I had had but little rest since leaving London, twenty-nine days ago.

The day after the start was a complete bonanza (calm). The seas slept as we sped by the beautiful islands of the Istrian archipelago, sighting to starboard the hills of Abruzzo Citeriore, and the Massif of Monte Gayano. At eight in the evening we saw the new lighthouse of Pelagosa, — a quaint, isolated bit of limestone in the sea, whose radius is twenty miles. We hug the Italian coast because the current runs southward, at the rate of 1'30 to 1"45 knots an hour, setting the reverse way up the shores of Illyria. It was Sunday and a Catholic ship, but there was no service as on the P. and 0. These poor fellows boast of their irreligion all the time of meals, and are some- what blasphemous. How foolish it sounds to me, and how they will cry out for one of those despised and maligned priests when they come to their last hour. Our days were passed between eating, drinking, sleeping, walking, reading, writing, and studying.

The third day showed us, at 9.30 a.m., the Brindisi harbour; this is the very filthiest town of all Italy : and about noon the bluff Cabo di Otranto, a name loved by romance. Two hours later we reached the Bocca del Golfo, where Adriatic storms are supposed to cease, whereas they as often begin and rage as far as Zante. We have to-day rougher weather, both wind and sea. I passed my day reading the Life of Moore and "The Veiled Prophet of Khorassdn," called by Moore "Mokanna," but whose real name was Hasan Sabah, or Hasan es Say yah. On our port bow was a lovely sight. The snow-clad mountains of Albania blushed pink in the suti of eventide, as they reclined upon their bed of billowy purple cloud; and we were told frightful tales of the Cimariot Highlanders, a race as savage as the Somal or the Kervosje (bloodmen) of the Bocche di Cattaro. The last smile of day lit upon Fan6, the outlier of Corfu, Mr. Gladstone's folly, which will cost us pretty dear now that we want Mediterranean stations for our ironclads.

The fourth morning's first beams fell upon the white cliffs and blue-shaded ravines of Zante; and beyond is the little bay of Arkadid. The wind got stronger and the sea rougher. After another range of misty, storm-wrung highlands, we steered right across the mouth of the glorious Navarino bay, a fine harbour for refuge, backed by a country abounding in game, ducks, and wild geese. I passed the day in writing, and reading " Lallah Rookh." We had a bad night, and although we fondly hoped that all had been made " taut " and snug for the night's bad weather, things rolled from one side of the cabin to the other all night, enlivened by distant crockery smashes. I think, by the way she danced, the Calypso carried but little cargo that voyage ; however, she behaved very well in a heavy sea.

The next day (fifth) the morning light showed us Mount Selinon of rugged Candia, and at noon we ran through the narrow channel between Crete and the Gavdo rock, which our captain calls Gozo; and by evening we were beyond land, and nothing remained to us, as Ovid says, but blue sea and azure air, — the latter waxing warmer and warmer every day. We already begin to feel Egypt. I sat on a chair all day, lashed to the deck, and read " The Light of the Harem." The waves were glorious, much higher than the ship.

The sixth was passed in the same manner. It is fatiguing when such a storm lasts long, to be so knocked about, and baths are impossible. One can only sit and read and write, make a hasty toilette at most, being obliged to hold on to something with one hand, or be knocked the while from one side of the cabin to the other ; and dining on the balance, the food ever sliding into one's lap, is dreadfully tiring. To-day I read "The Adventures of Eoderick Eandom," and "The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality," by Smollett, which I found coarse but interesting. I was told that this course of reading is supposed to be necessary to form one for novel writing, and so I took it on board to save time, in case I should ever wish to write a novel. I felt rather displeased when Smollett's Lady of Quality married her second husband, and quite houlevers&e long before I arrived at, let us say, her fifteenth lover.

The seventh. — "We put up several dozen letters, written on board, for friends in Europe, as we were to reach Port Said at 3.30. The run from Trieste is six days and six nights. Port Said shows itself upon the southern horizon in two dark lines, like long piles or logs of wood, lying upon the sea, one large and one small. It is the white town and the black town, apparently broken by an inlet of sea and based upon a strip of yellow sand, which stretches from the north to the west. We steamed in slowly, with the Pilot in charge, on a calm and balmy afternoon. The two big lighthouses at the entrance of the canal are striking. There are the old red Crimean huts, zebra'd white and red, and the two-storied bungalow of the Governor, Ibrahim Rnshdi Bey, the fatal Hospital, and the ' Convent of Carmelite nuns. This is a sort of Egyptian Wapping.

A foul swamp, an arm of the Lake Menzaleh, separates the white town, where Christian pigs are hunted by Moslem dogs, from the black town ; the latter is an African cross between a Fellah and a fishermen's village; it taints the air and adds to the deadly chill-breeding damps from September to December. The slightest of dams, extending from the general establishment to the opposite side, would suffice to gain much ground and abate the malaria plague. This place contains nine thousand souls, including about thirty English. It leans to Socialism. The Maltese canaille are fond of murdering and burying in the sand, so at night men carry a Derringer in their pocket. Eegarding its morals, I am told, the less said the better. Here we saw an Austrian Lloyd from Constantinople, with the danger signal (the yellow flag) up ; an English steamer, the El Dorado, and with ourselves and a " Bibby " as long as the sea serpent, made four steamers to enter the Canal. We went ashore into this sandy settlement and posted our letters, but no one, either at the post or at Austrian Lloyd's office, would take Austrian paper, of which I had a quantity. We wandered about with the Consul (Mr. and Mrs. Perceval), Mr. Buckley, of the F.O., Colonel Stoker and Salih Bey. Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Cave arrived on their Egyptian mission, and the distinguished Monsieur de Lesseps.

The houses look like painted wooden Swiss toys. The streets are broad; the shops are full of penny dolls and gingerbread nuts, crackers, shilling straw hats, and similar rubbish, and are surrounded by dogs and half-naked dark brown gutter boys.

The eighth day. — We visited the Arab town, and had a most pleasant dinner party with the Percevals in the evening.

Port Said is simply two towns lying on a waste of sand, with an unwholesome stagnant Lagune between. That near the sea is the European, and that behind the Lagune is the Egyptian. But for this Lagune, with its stagnant water, and smells of dirt, and dogs, it ought to be a healthy place, as it immediately faces the sea and inhales all its breezes. There is a circular garden in the centre of the European part, with faded flowers, and a kiosk in its centre for the band to play in the evening. There is a casino, or low-class alcazar, a few donkeys, but no horses or carriages ; some small hotels, of which the "Louvre" is the best; and there is a great deal of low-class music, dancing, and gambling; add to these a French chapel and a G-reek chapel. The most pic- turesque, characteristic, albeit dirty part, is the Arab town, with its tumbledown houses and bazar ; the people in gaudy prints and dirty Abas (mantles) bespangled with gold.

Whilst strolling about this town, my G-erman maid, who was in an Eastern place for the first time, came upon a man filling a goat-skin with water. She saw a pipe, and the skin dis- tending with a sound. She had often heard me say how cruel the Easterns are to animals, and knowing my weakness on that point, she ran after me in a great state of excitement, and pulled my arm, saying, "Oh, Euer Gnaden! the black man is filling the poor sow with gas, do come back and stop him I"

THE CANAL.

There is no niglit travelling on the Canal, but at six a.m. in the morning we began to steam up the long ditch. The piercing of the Isthmus took ten years, and now we no longer say right and left, but Asia and Africa. For little more than five years the line has been open to trade, and it is a wonderful work. It has cost sixteen millions, and it is said half more will be required to finish it properly. England lent the Viceroy £10,600,000 for the works. Almost every steamer one meets upon the Canal is British. The heavy toll is roughly estimated at ten shillings a ton, and the maritime Canal has greatly increased the traffic between G-reat Britain and the East ; it is the last link riveted in the great belt of trade, and the road for our ships is com- pletely defensible. It forms an admirable moat against the Bedawi, and a grand line of defence on the Eastern frontier. It has produced, they say, a change of climate, — ^it breeds fogs and clouds, and draws a strong wind from the north. At blue, stagnant Suez there is a cool in draught in the worst season. Two winters ago Jebel Atakeh and the opposite range of Asiatic mountains were for forty-eight hours covered with snow, which astonished the oldest inhabitants. Violent showers fall in January over the northern third of the Red Sea, and the climate of Jeddah has been materially changed.

This interesting work is eighty-two to eighty-six nautical jtniles long, — the one hundred and sixty-nine kilometres are marked up on posts along the sides, — and it is cut through the sand of the wildest desert. All the large depressions form lakes ; the least prepossessing is about Lake Menzaleh, whose dismal banks are flanked on the African side by a mirrory sheet of water, skimmed over by butterfly sails, supporting troops of birds, which are magnified by mirage to the size of men; we often mistook them for camels and Bedawin. At certain distances are stations, inhabited by. Frenchmen, with posts and conveniences for making- fast steamers to let others pass ; for, except in the lakes, there is hardly room for two to lie abreast ; therefore the greatest speed allowed is five and three-quarter knots an hour.

5

66 Trieste to Ismailiyyah.

At length, to the far east, we trace a gladdening glimpse of the Desert, — the wild, waterless wilderness of Sur, on the Asiatic side, with its tall waves and pyramids of sand catching the morning rays, with its shades of mauve, rose-pink, and lightest blue ; with its plains and rain sinks, bearing brown dots, which are tamarisks ; the manna trees. It has a charming simplicity which wins the heart. In the young day nothing can be softer or more tender than the colouring of the old Lion, one of the fiercest, by-the-bye, of his kind. The utter barrenness becomes a thing of absolute beauty. The sky was heavenly blue, the water a deep band of the clearest green, the air balmy and fresh. The golden sands stretch far, and on all .sides end in horizon ; an occasional troop of Bedawin, with their camels and goats, passed, and re-' minded me of iny old life.' I have not enjoyed myself so much with Nature for four years and a half. Noon will wash out its coat of many colours, and under the cold rays of the moon it will suggest a broken expanse of snow. "We stand and gaze upon Life by the side of Death.

Much comforted at once more "smelling the desert air," we felt thankful for the slowness of the pace. In the event of hope- lessly sticking fast, the Company has reserved to itself the right of blowing us up. We reached, after five hours. El Kantarah, the northernmost ferry for the Syrian caravans. There are two others south of Lake Timsah, and in the cutting of Shaliif, a station of importance, is the transit for the Hajj or Pilgrimage Kafilehs. The scene is that of all Eastern pictures, — the Nizam regular soldiers, and negroes, Bedawin draped in usual cloak and kufiyyeh, and women in blue garments, not changed a hair since the days of Abraham, except that they now carry matchlocks instead of spears. The tawny camels squat upon the ground, and the black sheep and goats form separate huddled knots, vainly attempting to shade their heads. A seedy dahabiyyeh rolls past us ; it is a craft belonging to a bygone age, and is hustled out of the way by the fussy, high-pressure mouche, which carries the daily mails to Ismailiyyah. This was the pleasantest two days imagin- ajble, — like a river picnic ; we read, wrote, and lounged on the bridge, glass in hand, with the captain and the surly Maltese pilot.

The Desert — Ismailiyyah. 67

At 4.20, after forty miles, we entered the Crocodile Lake. The approach is a picturesque but dangerous curve crowned in Africa by a pretty little pavilion, striped red and white, and capped with quaint little crenelles built by the Khedive * as a breakfast-room for his royal. guests of 1869. This blue sheet of water is about three miles across and six long, and it rages, when high winds blow from south and south-west, but lately the Egyptian gunboat, now at Port Said, was blown ashore, after losing two anchors. The channel, twenty-four, feet deep, is well marked by buoys and iron posts painted red.

Ismailiyyah is a pretty mushroom town, with palaces, con- sulates, and gardens. It has a telegraph and a steam launch for Lake Timsah, and raUway to Cairo, Suez, and Alexandria. The Vice-regal Palace is a monstrous pile of building, and the fine gardens form dense clumps of verdure. It contains two thou- sand souls, and hoists nine various national flags. The situation is charming, and dulness reigns supreme. M. Lesseps will, however, make it a second Alexandria. At present there are only fishing boats and a steam yacht returning from a Red Sea cruise. It is interesting to know that we have the land of Goshen, mentioned in Grenesis, immediately to our north-west. A little steam laxmch, or mouche, as coquettish as a humming bird, buzzfng with import- ance, came fussing alongside with a smart French-looking official with neat uniform and gold band, and exchanged our surly Maltese for a handsome grey old pilot who was rather reserved, but answered courteously if spoken to. " Ecco una bestia che non ha lingua afiatto mi pare," said our captain. Presently he heard my husband and I exchange a word or two. His face changed, his eye brightened, and he hailed us in English, his native tongue, and we fraternised ; his name was Young, — a nice old man.

We took on board 100,000 florins in gold, to pay the troops in El Hejaz, and the guard is a single soldier, whose quaint sitting at squat amused us. After forty minutes' delay we issue

• JSf.B. The proper word is " Khediw, '—a Persian word, meaning " Prince."

Why we should pepper the last syllables of our Oriental words with a barbarous acute accent I don't know, unless to please the French so please let us be inde- pendent and pronounce it " Khediv."

68 Trieste to Suez.

fronijLake Timsah, and proceed on our way, and after the forty- sixtli mile, at dusk we anchored in the deep narrow cutting of Serapeum, near No. 2 ferry, which communicates with a Bedawi village in Asia. The hues of evening were surpassingly tender and lovely, although some clouds in the west presaged a mist. Foxes abound, and one equatted upon the sand bank and stared at us. We dined at anchor. It was a glorious moonlight ; the rays silvered the sand, and aU was replete with a freshness and still- uess which I cannot make any reader feel save those who know it.

We unmoored at dawn, and again ran up the deep channel. The desolation around, barren sand, contrasted with the splendour of the heavens, the glory of the East, the sun elongated into egg-shape by the mirage, and the filmy cloudlets' sublimed dew, mauve above and below burning with the fire of the opal. About seven, we came upon the Serapeum village. The Persepolitan ruins lie to the W.N.W., and the native craft appeared to be sailing inland. Some twelve miles from Timsah, we crept into the Great Bitter Lake, — a small sea some ten miles broad, whose tiny waves are like cream on a surface of sapphire. North and east lies low ground, with marshes and backwater; and south- ward and westward rise the sandy clifi's of Jebel Jeneffeh, and towering above all is the outline of Jebel Atakeh. It reminded us of Lake Tiberias. At 9.15 we hurried by the southern light- house, and hugged the African shore, which trends to meet the Asiatic. We could see the mail train puffing through the desert, and the butterfly boats sailing over the sand, in a sweet-water canal which we cannot see.

At 10.50 we passed into the last cutting — Shaliif. We are but twelve miles from Suez, and we recognised the old familiar features of the scene. Fort Ajrud, the British Hospital, the house of the Government-agent for troop ships, the minaretted town' and the English island-cemetery, gleaming white.

Soon ragged lads, boys like spiders, and girls in blue night- gowns, form a running line on the Asiatic side, and shout the well-known cry, "Bakshish! ya Kawajah!" It is the first time for four years and a half I have heard that sound which irritates like the buzz of a mosquito. The soldier throws them a bit of

The Desert — We reach Suez. 69

bread, but as we throw them notbing, the petitions change to curses,—" Na'al abukum, ya kilab ! " (" Drat your fathers, ye dogs!") We pass the ruins of old Arsinoe in Asia, creep down the last curve, called (no one knows why) the Quaraiitine. On the African side is a double dam, and the other shore is left to nature. We sniff the breezes of the sea as we round the new port, and at 2.30 make fast to the buoy. Suez is a most inac- cessible place, and steamers anchor in the bay, an hour's steam from the town, and muclj more by sail; if you leave your steamer, and if there is a contrary wind you can never be sure of getting back to it. Inasmuch as we were to sail at six, prudence forbade our trying it : we only sent our letters off ; I had written some twenty-five. The civil and obliging agent of Austrian Lloyds came off and took our post (Mr. Mahorcich is his name) ; our peace and quiet was all spoiled by gaining two quite tipsy Eussian passengers, one a professional spy, and the other a merchant's son, who was addicted to drink, and who was put under his care for cure. The first limped, and therefore was called " The Leg ;" the other was forthwith christened " Champagne Charley," and they hereafter led us a terrible life. We dined at five, and sailed at six. January 1st, 1870, was a sad day for Suez. It was the opening of the Canal;* and, as if by magic, all that had passed through Suez, now passed through the Egyptian Bosphorus, ruin- ing the former, so that after six years she wears the appearance of a Eed Sea town lately bombarded, and not yet repaired. She suffers from the Canal as Trieste from her railway the Sudbahn ; but these accidents are transitory, position is essential and paramount. To the north-east are the ruins of Arsinoe; on the west lie the old reservoirs, and the Tel el Klisnieh, preserving the old Greek name Clysma, from which the Arabs took their term, Sea of l^ulzum. Suez is, however, safer at night than a few years ago, when the ready knife or pistol of Greek or Maltese

• Suez is noyr a big village with, say, three thousand native inhahitants, about

seventy -five Europeans, — chiefly English, — employed in the telegraph, steamers, railways, and post-office. She sits solitary under the siy, in the sand, on the borders of the Sea, far from all civilization or progress. She has had a past, and will have a future.

70 Trieste to Suez.

made it dangerous as the leading of a forlorn hope; and nothing has ever been heard of an American who, in 1869, set out for a solitary walk. The Suez Roads are lively, scores of steamers starting for the north and south, — these bound for India, China, Australia; those, for Europe. Two Turkish transports await their " food for powder," cargo for Abyssinia and Arabia; three thou- sand camels are being shipped for Massawwah, and on dit that thirty thousand troops have been collected in that unhappy land and its sterile shore. Here we also shipped a pious pilot, one Mohammed Saldm, who said his prayers regularly, and carefully avoided touching my dog. Of course he was from Mecca, as every Frenchman is Parisian; but, unhappily for his reputation, the first night spent at Jeddah gave him a broken nose, the effect of a scrimmage in some low coffee-house. An Egyptian Fellah amused us very much by coolly asking the captain if he had provided a sentinel to stand over his oranges all night. The bnmboat men are mostly Maltese, and scud up to us under their huge lateen sails. Their decks were a mosaic of fruit, vegetables, bottles and flasks, cigars and tobacco, work-boxes, needles and thread, in fact, every kind of chow-chow under the sun; and they seemed to be the chief consumers of their own merchandise.

Most interesting were the views on either side of this most memorable sea. Eastward, painted pink and plum-blue by the last floods of sunlight, rose the regular wall of the Asiatic moun- tains; an offset from the great line which begins far north of the Lebanon, and which extends southward to Aden,— a counterpart of the Moab range, which would have served Holman Hunt for a background to his famous " Scapegoat." Opposite them, in Africa, stood Jebel Atakeh, "The Mountain of Deliverance." It looks as if the hand could almost touch it, and yet it is several hours' ride from Suez ; the heights are very bad climbing, the loose material crumbling in blocks under the foot. Atakeh -is separated from its southern neighbour, Abu Daraj, "The Father of Steps," — so called from its distinctly trap-like outline, — by the Wady Musa, down which the Great Deliverer is supposed to have led the chosen people.

My husband saw here, twenty-five years ago, many monas

Passage of the Israelites — We Steam down Red Sea. 7 1

teries and hermitages, which seemed to prove the holiness of the ground. He showed me where the Israelites are popularly supposed to have crossed the Red Sea. Christians have three places above Suez, and the Arabs two below. The Serbonian swamp and lagunes, south of the Mediterranean, he says, is the real place, as proved by Dr. Brugsch Bey, from Egyptian papyri. The " Red Sea " is nowhere mentioned in the Penta- teuch. The only name is Yamm Suf, which means "sea of weeds," or papyrus ; utterly inapplicable to the Suez G-ulf, but well fitting the Mediterranean lagune. We were taught to believe that they started from near Cairo, not. far from Memphis, and now we are told that the children of Israel started from Goshen, near Tanis, or the modern Sd,n, on the extreme east of the Delta; that upon the Serbonian swamp, where the Egyptians in pursuit were drowned, they doubled back to the south-west, and then turned north-east over the Tih ; the latter is still translated "Valley of the Wandering," whereas it means a "wilderness where man can wander."

There was a beautiful moon a little past the full, with a fresh northerly breeze down the Red Sea, as we set out about night- fall ; it allowed us to sleep under a fur, and propelled us at the rate of ten knots an hour. I had always thought that the Red Sea was like a broad river, and was surprised to find' a big, rough sea, between Asia and Africa, with Arabia on one side, and on the other Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia; and that after we leave the G-ulf of Suez, at Ras Ahu Mohammed, we see no more land. To starboard, Africa rises wild and very grim; its sugar-loaves, caps, and slope hills are of dull murret colour, patched with yellow sand. This is the dangerous shore, and requires a number of lighthouses: the Zaaferanah, the Gharib, the Ashrafi, The Brothers (North and South), and the Daedalus, or Abd el Khisd,n, — a sort of lighthouse like an iron buoy, where a couple of guards reside, who are relieved twice a month. Yonder big block is the Shadwdn, a large, waterless desert island, half submerged : on its northern reef, in 1869, the P. and 0. lost a steamer, and we a friend.

On the morning of the eleventh my husband called me on

72 Trieste to yeddah.

deck by dawn to see Mount Sinai, lone in the Till desert, Bir Hatt, and Musa Tur, called after Tyre, founded by the Phoeni- cians, and Eas Mohammed, the last cape, or point, of Egypt. Then, far towering over the deep blue waves, with their caps of snowy foam, sit three old Monarchs of mountains, bearing, as the Arabs say, heaven on their brows, and based upon broad carpets of golden sand. The pilot, however, calls them Jebel Serbal, Horeb, and Jebel Musa, Mount Catharine (? Sinai). We are too far off to see the Hammam Musa and the little harbour of Tur, still occupied by Justinian's Jebeliyeh (mountaineers). They are at the southern point of the low dark bank subtending the sea. It is interesting to me, because in my husband's Arab days he landed at Tur, and bathed at Hammam Musa on his way to Mecca.

On the other side of Eas Mohammed is the Gulf of Akabah, the Stormy, whose "Wady (valley) Arabah is said to have given Arabia and the Arabs their name; and I expect a year or two more will increase its famej but of this I shall not speak. The Gulf of Suez is narrow, so that we seem close to these moun- tains of Egypt and Africa. It was rough, but the weather deli- cious; and having worked all day at a memorial for a newspaper in England, I went to pass the evening on the bridge. We ran by " The Brothers " at about eleven p.m. These are two most dangerous rocks, not easily seen at night, barely covered over by the water. The Eed Sea is strewn with these hidden slabs, and scarcely a lighthouse ; it makes one reflect seriously how many gallant ships must have foundered on dark nights, through the inexperience of a commander or the derangement of a compass; whilst so many millions are thrown away on use- less buildings, a penny cannot be found for such an object I During the night we ran along the Highlands of the Hejaz, and passed El Wijh (Wedge), the frontier point, where Egypt and Arabia meet. Here pilgrim ships going northward must perform quarantine.*

• Shortly after we passed it, Wedge lost the quarantiBe establishment, which

was transferred, most unwisely, to Tur. Readers will find the subject discussed in the " Land of Midian," my husband's second book.

The Red Sea and the Coast of Arabia. 7 3

The weather was rough, with a strong north wind, on the 12th, and there was not much to see till we passed Jehel Eidwah, a notable item of the mountains in the Moslems' Holy Land. At its base lies the turbulent and fanatical little town of Yambu, the port of Medina, and behind it are the winding valleys which eventually lead to the death-place of the Apostle of Allah. We asked our pious pilot about Saad, the sheikh of the Harb Bedawin, the Eobber Chief of the Jebel el Fikrah. He replied that "the dog had long since gone to Jehannum;" that he " regretted that his son Hudayful, who is also a dog, and the son of a dog, still breathes the upper air."

\%th. — To-day, at dawn, the Highlands of the Hejaz began gra- dually to define themselves on the south-east horizon, until the whole range of Jebel Kara was visible ; first, blue brown, then dead chocolate brown, based upon a yellow flat, the Tehamah, or lowlands of the Moslem Holy Land, quite shadeless, not a speck of green ; these outliers are backed by a hazy blue line, the Jebel el Surilriyyeh, of which the far-famed Taif forms a part. We then neared Jeddah, the port of Mecca, about which I have a good deal to say. I never could have imagined such an approach to any town. For twenty miles it is protected by nature's breakwaters — lines of low, flat reefs, huge slabs of mad- repore and coralline that cut like a knife, barely covered, and not visible till you are close upon them ; there is no mark or light- house, save two little white posts, which you might mistake for a couple of good-sized gulls ; in and out of these you wind like a serpent ; there is barely passage for one ship between them, and no pilot wiE attempt it, save in broad daylight ; so a vigilant look-out is necessary as soon as we near Shaab el Kebir, or Great Shoal, to which ships give , a wide berth. It is sans lighthouse, and grim to look upon in the southerly gales. About noon the Calypso slackened speed, and seemed to be running straight towards a long line of breakers ; and all the crew were piped to the forecastle, ready for dropping anchor or working the jib sails. When at length we reached the Inner Eeef, at about three p.m., we found the open roadstead full of ships, with hardly room to swing, and a strong north-west wind, so that we could not get

74 Trieste to Jeddah.

a place ; we ran right into the first at anchor, the Standard, a trading-ship of Shields, built of iron. Fortunately it was broad daylight. My husband and I were standing on the bridge, and he touched my arm, and said,

" By Jove ! we are going right into that ship."

" Oh, no ! " I answered, " with the captain and pilot on the bridge, and all the crew in the forecastle, it can only be a beautiful bit of steering; we shall just shave her."

The words were hardly out of my mouth when smash went our bulwarks like brown paper, and our yard-arms crumpled up like umbrellas. I had jokingly threatened them with the 13th the day before, and they had laughed at me.

" II tredici ! " shouted the second officer as he flew by us.

The crews of both behaved splendidly ; the fenders were let down, and the cry on board our ship was,

" II Oapitano ! Dov '6 il Capitano Inglese ? non lo vedo." (" Where is the English captain ? I don't see him.")

"No!" we answered, "ma noi lo sentiamo." ("No!" we answered, "you don't see, but we can hear him.")

He was all there, and " swearing quite like himself." There is nothing like an Englishman for a good decisive order, and who can blame him if he adds at such times a little powder to drive the shot home ? We were about three hours disentang- ling ourselves, and I believe the damage was about £200, but absolutely no one to blame. The Calypso had been lengthened to three hundred feet, the wind was blowing hard, there were thirty ships in a place not big enough to swing round in, hemmed in on every side with reefs.

Jeddah bears a whimsical resemblance, and has a relative posi- tion, to Jaffa, not only in situation, but form and distance from their respective Holy Cities. Jeddah is the most lovely town I have ever seen, to gaze upon from a quarter-deck (perhaps I ought to say bizarre and fascinating), by sunlight, especially at the setting thereof, and ghostly in the moonlight. It looks as if it were an ancient model carved in old ivory, so white and fanciful are the houses, with here and there a minaret. The most remarkable buildings are the dark fagade of the Sherif Abd

We arrive at Jeddah, the Port of Mecca. 75

el Muttalib's palace, and that of the late Sherif Mohammed bin Ann, whose son, Sherif Abdullah, now rules the Holy Land. It is doubly interesting to me, because my husband came here by land from Mecca, and on return embarked here for England in 1853. Mecca lies in a valley between those high moun- tains at the back, and a second higher and more distant range, a little to our right. As^ I write now from our quarter- deck, the reefs are all around us, the sun is declining on the water, which is , of the brightest green, like a prairie, the whole shore is yellow sand, backed by ranges of mountains of various altitudes, bathed in rose and purple tints. The sky is heavenly, and the ivory town lies on the golden sand. There are four or five small slave settlements of huts, built of mud, some in conical shape, like bell tents, and others like claret- cases ; and I see a troop of camels grazing in the distance. These Arish, or huts, of the Bedawin and camels are all scat- tered about the sandy shore. The former are dark clumps of dry wattle, brushwood, and matting.

On the 14th, Mr. Wylde, the Yice-Consul, son of our old friend Mr. Wylde of the Foreign Office, hearing we were on board, sent a boat and Kawwas to bring us off, and invited us to live at the Consulate so long as the ship remained, which we gladly accepted, as we were to anchor there eight days, to embark pil- grims. The only boat that carries one comfortably in a rough sea in and out of these dangerous shoals and reefs, is that used by the natives, a large flat-bottomed Sambuk, carrying a big lateen sail,. and then with a good wind and enough depth of water, it is managed in an hour.

The houses are made of white coralline, with brown wood shutters, jalousies, and balconies of fanciful shape, mostly all crooked, but as finely carved as delicate lace. The Consulate is the best of all, close to the sea, with a staircase so steep that it is like ascending the Pyramids. There is a room at the top, a sort of Belvedere, with windows opening to all sides, which I used to call " The Eagle's Nest; " from here there was delicious air and view. The party consists of Captain Beyts (Consul) and Son, merchants, and Mr. Wylde, Vice-Consul ; Mr. Oswald and

76 Trieste to Jeddah.

Mr. Kussell, also in the business. On the ground-floor is the Consulate on one side and the "Firm" on the other; in the middle of the house (upstairs) is the residence of the five bachelors, whom I call the " wreckers," because they are always looking out for ships with a telescope. They keep a pack of bull terriers, donkeys, ponies, gazelles, rabbits, pigeons, and all sorts of ani- mals; they combine, as far as possible. Eastern and European comfort, and have the usual establishment of Dragomans, Kaw- wases, and servants of all sizes, shapes, and colour.

Our first excursion was to Eve's tomb. This building is 479 feet long and 15 feet broad, the whole enclosed in low white walls. At her head is a little building with a palm over it, " El Surreh." The Navel is a square crenelled chapel, surmounted by a dome, whose entrance is flanked by false minarets, and inside which, by favour and bakshish, and removing our shoes, we were admitted. It contains the usual little whitewashed room, with lamps, inscriptions, and prints of Mecca and the Kaabah. A stone box is covered with a green cloth, which they lifted up and disclosed two long blocks of stone lying side by side, and a black slab carved with Arabesque patterns. It terminates very plainly at the end with a fanciful wall, and a low column with inscriptions over her feet. The whole inside of the enclosure is planted with a green bramble, called "Jiram." One or two famous and holy people are buried in the enclosure. This grave is the centre-piece of about five acres of land, also enclosed by low whitewashed walls, in which are many tombs, although it is not by any means full. There is a small broken well, whose rain water is to them as " Holy water ; " and two large mounds where the cholera patients were buried. The cemetery com- mands a view of the distant mountains, lovely in the setting sun behind which lies Mecca. The prison is hot, damp, and mos- quitoey enough to bring any refractory persons to their senses, and is hallowed by the tomb of Sheikh Abd el SalAm, the Bay- rakdar or standard-bearer of Omer the Caliph ; and the Grand Sherif's flag — green ground, bordered red — flies from here on Fridays. There are five mosques, six windmills, barracks to lodge one thousand men, and two large Bedawi villages. There

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Jeddah — Evi s Tomb. 77

are also the slaughter-place, the domed tomb of Shaykh Yiisuf, and the place where fish is taxed. The troops (Turkish) are five hundred regulars, kept generally eighteen months in arrears, and then receive paper, which they must sell at 60 per cent, to their officers.

Beyond Eve's tomb are cisterns, which supply the town with brackish water, and greatly increase the death-rate. An excellent supply of running water might be brought from " Baraymdn," a place at the foot of the Kara hills, distant some two hours' ride, and various depressions in the Jeddah plain would yield an abundant supply; but this is opposed, for pecuniary reasons, by several, and one in particular, of whom his fellow citizens sang:

"Ahwar el Tamln, aduww 'el Muslemlu Ahwar el Shimdl, aduww 'el Jemil."

" Blind of the right, hates the Moslem ; Blind of the left, hates men all."

There are some two hundred Nautch girls at Jeddah, but they are forbidden to dance before men, I have heard, however, that the law can be evaded on occasions. There are two different types of villages in the plain — the Bedawin and the settled men. The former are represented by the Banil Malik, who besides dealing in sheep, are professed sheep stealers. They are distinguished from the others by black cloth of camel skin, often taking the place of wattle; by the ferocity of their dogs, and by the insolence of their manners.

The latter sort, " settled men," put to death their own murderers, and they use their pistols like men. The huts, even those of the Shaykhs, are wattle, with compounds of the same material, and each settlement has its mosque and Wanton's tomb of stone and lime. Here and there in the village is a solitary acacia, Zaazafdn, or camomile, a tamarind, a nebk, a tamarisk, or a palm, which helps to cool the eye. They live well, eat meat, fish, dates, butter, grain, dukhn, millet, and rice, which is their staple food. They amuse themselves with rough swings and merry-go-rounds. The lower village shows few children, and sickly adults ; those built on higher ground, where the sand is clean, produce a fine, strong, healthy race. We used frequently to ride out into the desert, by

78 Trieste to Jeddah.

the Hajj way, and it was tantalizing to find oneself- so near Mecca, and to have to turn round and come back. There was a rumour that two American and two English had gone up "for a lark " to Mecca, and had been killed. This was not quite true, but not exactly the moment to show blue eyes and broken Arabic upon holy ground ; we therefore consoled ourselves by returning through the Mecca gate and through the bazars, half dark and half lit, to see the pilgrims and camels. They are larger and cleaner than Damascus bazars, but less rich and picturesque ; still, the scene is much a repetition of that described by me at the Hajj of Damascus in the sixth chapter of my " Inner Life of Syria : " every Eastern Moslem under the sun is here repre- sented; there' are only ten Christians in the whole place, and I am the only European lady.

To have taken these rides, and have walked through the Mecca gate in 1853, when my husband went to Mecca, would have cost us our lives by sabre slashes and clubbing. The bazars literally swarm with the picturesque and variegated mob, hailing from all lands between Morocco and Java, Moscow and the Cape of Good Hope ; every race imaginable, with their different costumes and languages. This is a grand time for the bric-d-brac hunter, es- pecially porcelain with Arabic inscriptions. We must remember that this year, 1875-76, is a great pilgrimage, — Haj) el Kabir, — on account of the " Day of Arafat " falling on a Friday. The total number of devotees collected at the Hill of Arafat and the Valley of Mund, for the Eed el Kabir (Courban Bair4m), between the 6th and 9th of July, 1876, was 137,980.

Here are camels, donkeys, Takhtarawdn (litters), and Bedawin in quantities, but scarcely a horse to be seen. I feel quite happy in the atmosphere, and the Arabic sounds so musical and so familiar. Here is the open-air mosque, the Hindi Eedgd,h, where the prayers of the Kamazan are recited ; here are the pits where lime is burnt, the fuel and charcoal which is brought in by the Bedawin, and a short street of wattled and matted booths, where meat and other provisions are sold, and where the pariah dogs are fiercer than in all other quarters.

We must look through the great bazar, however, to see all the

The Bazar of yeddah during the Hajj. 79

splendour and misery of the East side by side. All the pilgrims bring back something to sell, especially the tall-capped, long- bearded Persians, who seU fine carpets, cutlery, precious stones, especially turquoises, gulf pearls, and kdliuns (water-pipes) of great elegance.

Yemen sends her old hoards, — ^weapons studded with the gold coins of the Venetian republic ; her guns from the opposite coast, her perfumed coffee, and her delicate filigree work and chisfeUed silyer. The pale-faced and tarbushed Turk, dressed in furs even in the dog days, contemptuously offers his arms, jewellery, rugs, and perfumes to the greasy Greek, — :Asiatic above and half Euro- pean below. Short and thin dark men, whose white cottons pro- claim them to be Indians, deal with substantial Arab merchants in silks and dry goods, spices, ' drugs, tea, rice, and building timber. The Nizam officer, cigarette in hand, draws into a dark corner the sooty-faced Zanzibar man, or the Kuzayriyyah, the Mulatto, one of the most persistent of Jelldbs (slave-dealers), in order to settle the terms of some fair purchase, Abyssinian or Gralla. The vulturine Takruri, from western inner Africa, once so common, now so rare, since the Viceroy of Egypt has wisely closed the way to an army of starving mendicants, views with scant favour his rival, the Bengali beggar, carrying a coco de mer; and the regular dervishes, who generally go in pairs, are singing, — one to the tambourine, the other offering a brass pot for contributions.

Turkomans wearing huge mushroom-like caps of Astrakan wool, and Caucasians, Central Asians with wadded skull-caps, retailing to crabbed-faced and spectacled Scribes the goods which they collect in the way. Here and there a small, neat horse is urged through the crowd by an Egyptian Fellah, loudly crying the price, — say 1,200 piastres, or 12 Napoleons, — whilst the soldiers in uniform chaff him. That tall and sinewy Kurd, with the gold- threaded kuffiyyeh veiling his dark face and shaven chin, and his uptwisted moustachio, is a sheep dealer, for he wrangles with the lamb sellers from the neighbouring villages. The tall and lanky Sawd,kin Moslem, with the sphynx-like curls hanging to his shoulders and over his brow, whUst the upper hair forms a

8o Trieste to yeddah.

miglity tuft, sells to the clerks of Mohammed Bandji the mother- of-pearl fished on the coast.

The savage Somali, who has attempted to humanise himself by shaving off his mop, brings little parcels of gums, incense, and myrrh, the produce of the wild hills, which he offers to the priestly elders yonder. Every few minutes we meet strings of camels of every class, from the high-bred to the diminutive, charity-made beast, laden with grain, and led by Bedawin (if possible, leaner still) in kerchiefs bound to the head with ropes, and in long blouses stained yellow with saffron or acacia bark. All are armed with the jambiyeh-dagger, either long and straight or short and curved, and carry the crooked stick of the wilderness and the dwarf spear with tapering head, which they will barter but not sell. Here the skeleton of a donkey, holed with many a raw, and laden with water-skins, is cruelly driven along by a peasant lad in blue rags. Here an animal of better breed is ridden by a huge Haji, whose peculiar Aba, or cloak, proclaims him to be an Abii Sham, or "Father of Syria." There the rough and surly Slav Turk from Europe, clad in the old garb of the Serb, swaggers, with his belt full of weapons, past the natty, sneering Hejazi, who mutters Grhashim (Johnny Eaw). This son of the Holy City affects the tenderest colours. A white turban bound round an embroidered Surat cap, a Cashmere shawl, a caftan of fine pink cloth, a green worked waistcoat, silk mixed with cotton, a dagger with silver hilt, and the elaborate slippers of the country.

The pauper Javanese, with his pock-marked face, Chinese features, and crook-bladed crease (Malay dagger), glides past the Jeddwi, who is selling at auction the produce of his seas, the white soft coral bought by Indians in memoriam ; and the black coral, much like bog oak, found in thirteen fathoms of water some ten miles down the coast ; and — to bring the too long but most imperfect review to a close — four brawny Hayramis, the hammdls (porters) of these regions, — men even stouter and stronger than the far-famed Armenian porters of Constantinople, carry a lean corpse, whose two big toes are tied together, and trot through the seven negrolings whose oiled black skins and

The Bazar of Jeddah during the Hajj. 8i

snowy slieets — not to speak of the yearning looks with which they watch us — tell the world that they are for sale.

The bazar presents, at this season of the year, a panorama of Eastern life, where costume becomes more bizarre by contrast, where the most various types blend for a brief moment, and where difference of language, of manners, and of customs, combine to form a veritable kaleidoscope. All is complicated ; the very air ranges in temperature between the damp reek of the watered and shaded mainway, the dry heat of the tropical sun darting through the plank joints, and the pleasant coolth of the coffee-houses, where the tall, crooked water-pipes bubble. An endless variety of odours assail the nose ; it is an atmosphere composed of every sort of drug and perfume of the Orient, of the pipe, the kitchen, and others less pleasant. Equally confused are the sounds, — the grunt of the camel, the howl of the trampled dog, the chaff of the boys, the prayer-cry of the Muezzin, — peculiar, by-the-bye, to Jeddah ; the chaunt of the Fakir, the blare of the trumpets, and the roll of the drum ; the titter of muffled anonyma at meeting the Frank's eye, the blessing, the curse, the shrill cry, the hoarse expostulation ; briefly, a Babel of tongues and a bourdonnement of distant voices like the hum of insects on a drowsy summer noon. All come and go, rush and halt, pass and cross, eat and drink, smoke and chew, talk and doze, elbow and jostle, without disorder or difficulty, as though they were the born denizens of Caj)itals. Every one is armed to the teeth, but no one ever draws a weapon. Not a case of drunkenness to be seen, and about sunset the whole of this crowd will begin to melt away. The bazar, when they light up at dusk, is wonderfully picturesque. Then the wealthy pilgrims retire to their wakalahs (caravanserais), the middle class to their tents ; and the majority to their carpets and rugs and coffers spread in the open street ; the few hybrid and friendless Franks, the "mean whites " of the land, will find shelter in the Greek coffee-house, or in the two dens called by courtesy hotels. By eight p.m. the bazar will be as silent as the desert, save a few pariahs quarrelling over a bone.

I saw the Khan where my husband lived as one of these very pilgrims in 1853^ and the minaret he sketched in his book,— and

6

82 Trieste to Jeddah.

am pleased to see that all regard him with great favour ; and the Governor, and all those who knew the whole story, called upon him and were very civil.

One cannot state the population of Jeddah. Some eay 18,000, others 20,000, and some give 40,000, for the town and its depen- dencies, including the eleven villages in the plain. There are ten resident Christians, — Europeans, of&cials, or merchants ; no ladies. Great Britain protects ahout 5,000 natives. The Greeks are very unpopular, on account of their cowardice during the Jeddah massacre; whilst in the Damascus massacre the only brave native Christian was a Greek.

There are three Consuls ; the Frenchman is a sanitary officer, Dr. Buez, also a lover of bric-d-brac. He has now the French Consul of Bussorah on a visit, and these two gay Gauls combined to enliven our visit. The French Kawwas is very chic, with a bit of tricolour round his arm and a decoration. The Consul for the Netherlands and our own complete the Corps.

In 1858 there was a cruel, cowardly massacre of the few Euro- peans and Christians, including the English and French Consuls, which was revenged by the French with two bombardments and a fine of 2,241,016 francs. It arose from our suppression of the Slave Trade, and jealousy at finding that the Europeans, whose exports and imports are worth about £3,000,000, were absorbing the commerce ; moreover these two feelings stiU exist. Our pre- sent Yice-Consul, Mr. Wylde, is -a man well fitted to the post, which is anything but a pleasant one. His open-hearted, straight- forward, and fearless ways of dealing with the natives succeed perfectly ; he knows what the native disposition is, and how to treat it, whilst'he is of a joyous temperament, and quite insensible as to any danger. Still, (as he laughingly remarked to me one day,) it would doubtless be much more comfortable if the morning and evening shell (instead of gun) were fired into the town ; and, joking apart, every passing man-of-war ought to have orders to look in, en passant, just to call on the authorities, and to see what the delightful natives have been up to since the last ship ■passed. Some day the Wali Pasha of the Hejaz may be a fanatical hater of Europeans, the Kaimmakdmof. Jeddah may be a weak-

Massacre at jeddah in 1858 — Life at Jeddah. 83

minded, good-intentioned man who cannot keep things in order, or intestine troubles may draw away the troops ; and these visits are more necessary in places where perpetual orders from home necessitate an interference with the Slave Trade, which the Arabs are ever ready to resist. There ought to be Cruizers perpetually visiting and reporting upon the condition of all the outlying little ports, where at present British subjects are unfairly left to take care of themselves.

One day we had a deliglitfal sail in Captain Miller's Chinese boat, after that in one of the native craft (^Samhuk), and lastly went to see the interior of some native houses ; they are hand- some, but inferior to Damascus, like the picturesque streets and bazars. In the evening we used to sit outside the Consulate!, and have some sherry and a cigarette, and play with the dogs.

One evening my husband came in, and found me nursing what I supposed to be a dying negro. He was very angry, as I had sent for the French Doctor-Consul, who pronounced him to b only tipsy, — and those terrible boys teased him by putting snuff up his nose. They are awful boys, but such fun. When the food is bad, they call the cook in, and make him eat it.

"Babarchi, what's that, eh?"

" No ! no ! massa ; me lose caste I ! "

" Hold your tongue, you scoundrel ! eat it directly."

One day it was seven big smoked onions. In this way the table is usually excellent. I wish we could do it in England, still more at Trieste. They all worship Mr. Wylde nevertheless. I think the dogs are worse than the boys. There are about ten bull-dogs, that worry everything they see, and send every pariah flying out of the bazars. I have heard since that the natives have poisoned all the dogs.

In the afternoons we used to ride out Mecca- wards ; and I remember, on one or two occasions, the animal was thin and the girths too large, so the saddle came round with me, and I had a spill on the sand, which, greatly delighted the boys, and did not hurt me. Sometimes we had a very jolly dinner-party at the Consulate, to which the captains of the steamers and the two Frenchmen came.

84 Pilgrim Ship Founders — All Hands Lost.

After eight exceedingly pleasant days, which we shall always remember, we received notice to embark. The great hospitality shown us, the unbounded kindness from our own countrymen, the courteousness of the Turkish authorities, and the civUity oi the fanatical Jeddawis, will not be forgotten. We had furious southerly squalls ; our ship was anchored at least six miles away ; we started, therefore, in a Sambuk, the large flat boat with big sail, which can go close to the wind without upsetting. All our friends accompanied us, and thus we crossed the reef and reached our ship, and were truly sorry to give the last shake hands, and sail at 2-30. "We found 800 pUgrims on board ; we were packed like herrings. It was very rough, and I sat on a chair Jashed to the deck. My last recollections of Jeddah were sailing straight for a long reef, over which dashed gigantic breakers, until we came so near that my heart sank, for we had our pious pilot on the bridge, who ran us into the Standard at Jeddah, and I prayed that we might have no more of his " beautiful fine steering," We veered off, it appeared to me, just in time, I think my face amused him as we got nearer and nearer. We es- caped well, but others did not ; another ship had also taken pUgrims — some three hundred — and went out about the same time that we did ; she dashed on this reef, which is about twenty miles from Jeddah, that same afternoon ; the ship foundered, and all hands were lost, save one or two who clung to spars, and were picked up. I do not suppose the truth of that story will ever be known. It was said that the captain and officers were English, and were drunk ; that the fanaticism of the pilgrims was aroused ; that they com- bined and lashed the Captain and the officers to the masts, and took charge of the ship themselves, — and that means that she managed herself, — and ran on to this long bank of rock, upon which breakers foam higher than the ship. The only survivor I ever heard of was a Portuguese doctor, or shopkeeper, or some- thing like that, who of course tells the story his own way.

Although I am on board ship, I still want to talk about Jeddah ^ and that seriously ; and firstly I will relate the promised history about the Americans and English who were said to be taken at Mecca. Mr. Arthur Brown, who had been employed on the

Mr, BrowrCs Expedition to Mecca. 85

Bomhay Gazette, after landing at Aden, proceeded, in company with the Turkish Consul for Western India, to Jeddah, and thence found his way to Mecca. At Arafat he was found unable to speak Turkish and Arabic, and, being asked his nationality, he replied Indian, — which was absurd, as he had Hght eyes and hair. When led before the authorities, he declared himself a Moslem. He was examined by the brother of the Grand Sherif Abdullah, and he avoided all difficult questions by plead- ing that he was a new Moslem. He was then released, and on January 15th he came to Jeddah, where I saw him. Captain Beyts, the British Consul, wisely sent him on board one of the steamers, and as he said he had been robbed of all his money, kindly gave him a passage gratis. He told us he had not been able to do anything at Mecca ; watchful eyes followed him everywhere, and he was not even allowed to count the colmnns of the Beyt Allah, or Kaabah, and faithfully promised not to publish anything. However, he published copiously as soon as he -returned to Bombay. He could tell us little of the second pseudo pilgrim, except that he was an American supercargo, who, after Islamizing some seven years ago in Ceylon, had become a regular loafer. He also being blond, was arrested at Arafat and put into chains ; but, after a while, the authorities released him, and allowed him to go to El Medinah, at the expense and under the charge of his Indian friends. For such mean results as these men are not justified in risking their own lives, and in rousing popular murmurs against the European residents of Jeddah and other Red Sea ports.