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EOTHEN; OR, TRACES OF TRAVEL BROUGHT HOME FROM THE EAST.
failed to check his cry of horror: he plainly
thought that now, at last, the Lord had deliver-
ed me, interpreter and all, into the hands of the
lowest Philistines.
Mysseri. carried a tobacco-pouch slung at his
belt, and as soon as its contents were known,
the whole population of the tent began begging
like spaniels. for bits of the beloved weed. I
concluded, from the abject manner of these peo-
ple, that they could not possibly be -thorough-
bred Bedouins, and I saw, too, that they must
be in the very last stage of misery, for poor in-
deed is the man in these climes who cannot
command a pipeful of tobacco, I began to
think that I had fallen among thorough savages,
and it seemed likely enough that they would
gain their very first knowledge of civilization by
ravishing and studying the contents of my dear-
est portmanteaus; but still, my impression was
that they would hardly venture upon such an at-
tempt. I observed, indeed, that they did not
offer me the bread and salt which I had under-
stood to be the pledges of peace among wander-
ing tribes; but I fancied that they refrained
from this act of hospitality, not in consequence
of any hostile determination, but in order that
the notion of robbing me might remain for the
present an ‘‘open question.” I afterward found
that the poor fellows had no bread to offer—they
were literally ‘out at grass.” It is true that
they had a scanty supply of milk from goats, but
they were living almost entirely upon certain
grass-stems which were just in season at that
time of the year. These, if not highly nourish-
ing, are pleasant enough to the taste, and their
acid juices came gratefully to thirsty lips.
CHAPTER XV.
PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN,
. Anp now Dthemetri began to enter into a ne-
gotiation with my hosts for a passage over the
river. I never interfered with my worthy drag-
oman upon these occasions, because, from my en-
tire ignorance of the Arabic, I should have been
quite unable to exercise any real control over his
words, and it would have been silly to break the
stream of his eloquence to no purpose. I have
reason to fear, however, that he lied transcen-
dently, and especially in representing me as the
bosom-friend of Ibrahim Pasha, The mention
of that name produced immense agitation and
excitement, and the sheikh explained to Dtheme-
tri the grounds of the infinite respect which he
and his tribe entertained for the pasha. A few
weeks before Ibrahim had craftily sent a body of
troops across the Jordan. The force went warily
round to the foot of the mountains on the east,
So as to cut off the retreat of this tribe, and then
surrounded them as they lay encamped in the
vale. Their camels, and indeed all their posses-
sions worth taking, were carried off by the sol-
diery, and moreover the then sheikh, together
with every tenth man of the tribe, was brought
outand shot. You would think that this conduct
on the part of the pasha might not procure for
his “friend” a very gracious reception among
the people whom he had thus despoiled and dec-
imated; but the Asiatic seems to be animated
with a feeling of profound respect, almost bor-
dering upon affection, for all who have done him
any bold and violent wrong; and there is always,
too, so much of vague and undefined apprehen-
sion mixed up with his really well-founded alarms,
that I can see no limit to the yielding and bend-
ing of his mind when it is worked upon by the
idea of power.
After some discussion the Arabs agreed, as I
thought, to conduct me to a ford, and we moved
on toward the river, followed by seventeen of the
most able-bodied of the tribe, under the guidance
of several gray-bearded elders, and Sheikh Ali
Djoubran at the head of the whole detachment,
Upon leaving the encampment a sort of ceremony
was performed, for the purpose, it seemed, of in-
suring, if possible, a happy result for the under-
taking. ‘here was an uplifting of arms and a
repeating of words that sounded like formule,
but there were no prostrations, and I did not un-
derstand that the ceremony was of a religious
character. ‘The tented Arabs are looked upon
as very bad Mohammedans.
. We arrived upon the banks of the river—not
at a ford, but at a deep and rapid part of the
stream ; and I now understood that it was the plan
of these men, if they helped me at all, to trans-
port me across the river by some species of raft.
But a reaction had taken place in the opinions of
many, and a violent dispute arose, upon.a motion
which seemed to have been made by some honor-
able member with a view torobbery. The fellows
all gathered together in a circle, at alittle distance
from my party, and there disputed with great ve-
hemence and fury for nearly two hours. I can’t
give a correct report of the debate, for it was held
in a barbarous dialect of the Arabic unknown to
my dragoman. I recollect I sincerely felt at the
time that the arguments in favor of robbing me
must have been almost unanswerable, and I gave
great credit to the speakers on my side for the
ingenuity and sophistry which they must have
shown in maintaining the fight so well.
During the discussion I remained lying in front
of my baggage, which had all been taken from
the pack-saddles and placed upon the ground. I
was so languid from want of food, that I had
scarcely animation enough to feel as deeply in-
terested as you would suppose in the result of
the discussion. I thought, however, that the
pleasantest toys to play with during this interval
were my pistols; and now and then, when I list-
lessly visited my loaded barrels with the swivel
ramrods, or drew a sweet, musical click from my
English firelocks, it seemed to me that I exer-
cised a slight and gentle influence on the debate.
Thanks to Ibrahim Pasha’s terrible visitation,
the men of the tribe were wholly unarmed, and
my advantage in this respect might have coun-
terbalanced in some measure the superiority of
numbers. :
Mysseri (not interpreting in Arabic) had no
duty to perform, and he seemed to be faint and
listless as myself. Shereef looked perfectly re-
signed to any fate. But Dthemetri (faithful ter-
rier!) was bristling with zeal and watchfulness ;
he could not understand the debate, which indeed
was carried on at a distance too great to be easily
heard, even if the language had been familiar ;
but he was always on the alert, and now and then
conferring with men who had straggled out of
the assembly. At last he found an opportunity
of making a proposal, which at once produced
immense sensation: he offered, on my behalf,
that if the tribe should bear themselves loyally
toward me, and take my party and my baggage
in safety to the other bank of the river, I should
give them a ‘‘teskeri,” or written certificate of
their good conduct, which might avail them here-
after in the hour of their direst need. ‘This pro-
posal was received, and instantly accepted by all
the men of the tribe there present, with the ut-
most enthusiasm. I was to give the men, too, a
‘*bakshish "—that is, a present of money, which
is usually made upon the conclusion of any sort
of treaty; but although the people of the tribe
were so miserably poor, they seemed to look upon
the pecuniary part of the arrangement as a mat-
ter quite trivial in comparison with the ‘‘ teskeri.”
Indeed, the sum which Dthemetri promised them
was extremely small, and not the slightest at-
tempt was made to extort any further reward.
The council now broke up, and most of the
men rushed madly toward me, and overwhelmed
me with vehement gratulations; they caressed
my boots with much affection, and my hands were
severely kissed.
The Arabs now went to work in right earnest
to effect the passage of the river. They had
brought with them a great number of the skins
which they use for carrying water in the desert ;
these they filled with air, and fastened several of
them to small boughs which they cut from the
banks of the river." In this way they constructed
a raft not more than about four feet square, but
rendered buoyant by the inflated skins which sup-
ported it. On this a portion of my baggage was
placed, and was firmly tied to it by the cords
used on my pack-saddles, ‘The little raft, with
its weighty cargo, was then gently lifted into the
water, and I had the satisfaction to sce that it
floated well, :
21
Twelve of the Arabs now stripped, and tied in-
flated skins to their loins; six of the men went
down into the river, got in front of the little raft,
and pulled it off a few feet from the bank. ‘The
other six then dashed into the stream with loud
shouts, and swam along after the raft, pushing it
from behind. Off went the craft in capital style
at first, for the stream was easy on the eastern
side, but I saw that the tug was to come, for the
main torrent swept round in a bend near the
western banks of the river.
The old men, with their long gray, grisly beards,
stood shouting and cheering, praying and com-
manding. At length the raft entered upon the
difficult part of its course; the whirling stream
seized and twisted it about, and then bore it rap-
idly downward: the swimmers flagged, and
seemed to be beat in the struggle. But now the
old men on the bank, with their rigid arms up-
lifted straight, sent forth a cry and a shout that
tore the wide air into tatters; and then, to make
their urging yet more strong, they shricked out
the dreadful syllables, ‘*’Brahim Pasha!” The
swimmers, one moment before so blown and so
weary, found lungs to answer the cry, and shout-
ing back the name of their great destroyer, they
dashed on through the torrent and bore the raft
in safety to the western bank,
Afterward the swimmers returned with the raft,
and attached to it the rest of my baggage. I
took my seat upon the top of the cargo, and the
raft, thus laden, passed the river in the same way
and with the same struggle as before. ‘The skins,
however, not being perfectly air-tight, had lost a
great part of their buoyancy, so that I, as well as
the luggage that passed on this last voyage, got
wet in the waters of Jordan. ‘The raft could not
be trusted for another trip, and the rest of my
party passed the river ina different, and (for them)
much safer way. Inflated skins were fastened to
their loins, and, thus supported, they were tugged
across by Arabs swimming on either side of them.
The horses and mules were thrown ‘into the wa-
ter, and forced to swim over, The poor beasts
had a hard struggle for their lives in that swift
stream; and I thought that one of the’ horses
would have been drowned, for he was too weak
to gain a footing on the western bank, and the
stream bore him down. At last, however, he
swam back to the side from which he had come.
Before dark all had passed the river except this
one horse and old Shereef. He, poor fellow!
was shivering on the eastern bank, for his dread
of the passage was so great that he delayed it as
long as he could, and at Jast it became so dark
that he was obliged to wait till the morning.
I lay that night on the banks of the river, and
at a little distance from me the Arabs made a
fire, round which they satin acircle. ‘They were
made most savagely happy by the tobacco with
which I supplied them, and they had determined
to make the whole night one smoking festival.
The poor fellows had only one broken bow], with-
out any tube at all, but this morsel of a pipe they
passed round from one to the other, allowing to
each a fixed number of whiffs, In that way they
passed the whole night.
The next morning old Shereef was brought
across. It was astrange sight to see this solemn
old Mussulman, with his shaven head and his
sacred beard, sprawling and putting upon the sur-
face of the water. When at last he reached the
bank, the people told him that by his baptism in
Jordan he had surely become a mere Christian.’
Poor Shereef!—the holy man!—the descendant’
of the Prophet !—he was sadly hurt by the taunt,
and the more so as he seemed to feel there was
some foundation for it, and that he really may
have absorbed some Christian errors. :
When all was ready for departure, I wrote the
‘“teskeri” in French, and delivered it to Sheikh
Ali Djoubran, together with the promised ‘* bak-
shish.” Ie was exccedingly grateful, and I part-
ed upon very good terms from this ragged tribe,
In two or three hours I gained Rihah, a village
which is said to oceupy the site of ancient Jericho.
There was one building there which I observed
with some emotion ; for although it may not have
been actually standing in the days of Jericho, it
contained at this day a most interesting collection
of—modern loaves.