DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4996#0197
164
DISPUTE WITH THE TIYAIIA1I ARABS.
all this, with the few broken words of English and Italian which
Komeh could understand, is at the present moment a mystery 1
cannot myself understand ; but the pressure of necessity sharpens
one's wits, and developes unsuspected capabilities and resources.
Of the tumult that ensued I can give no idea : even if it be about a
piastre among Arabs, their gesticulation and clamour is laughably
furious ; and this was really a case of some importance. I had often
amused myself in Cairo in watching the progress of a street-row ; but
here it was quite different—I was a party concerned ; to stop, or even
mitigate the uproar was, however, quite impossible. K omen's blood
was up ; in vain I seized him by the skirt, and endeavoured to haul
him off; he was bent on having the best of the battle, and I was
glad to leave him and beat a retreat myself. Without him I was, of
course, reduced to dumb show, and now descended to the well, where
I found my new guides busy in unloading the Alawin camels—an
operation which, for obvious reasons, required a superintending eye,
and which was earned on, like all the rest, in the midst of a wordy
tempest. It was some time before our new camels arrived ; and then,
of course, arose a fresh altercation about their respective loads, which
promised to be endless, the new sheik giving no eye to the business,
but engaged apart in a hot dispute with Muhammed. Again I
dragged him off, and insisted on his urging forward the work ;
meanwhile, I loaded my own dromedary, which proved to be a very
inferior one; and, having seen the different burdens apportioned,
mounted, and rode off abruptly, in the midst of the uproar. The
sound grew fainter and fainter, but ever and anon burst out afresh,
"like the last drops of a thunder-shower," till I saw the camels
coming on one by one, and Komeh at length overtook me on a trot,
his fury, under the blessed influence of the pipe, subsiding fast into
his ordinary placidity and good-humour. After all we had not been
delayed quite two hours, but two such hours a day would kill any-
body. It was a sort of opera scene, to which must be played, for due
effect, a continuous accompaniment of kettledrums and trumpets : the
Desert seemed preternaturally quiet after it was over.
I found we were still surrounded by our own men, with one or
DISPUTE WITH THE TIYAIIA1I ARABS.
all this, with the few broken words of English and Italian which
Komeh could understand, is at the present moment a mystery 1
cannot myself understand ; but the pressure of necessity sharpens
one's wits, and developes unsuspected capabilities and resources.
Of the tumult that ensued I can give no idea : even if it be about a
piastre among Arabs, their gesticulation and clamour is laughably
furious ; and this was really a case of some importance. I had often
amused myself in Cairo in watching the progress of a street-row ; but
here it was quite different—I was a party concerned ; to stop, or even
mitigate the uproar was, however, quite impossible. K omen's blood
was up ; in vain I seized him by the skirt, and endeavoured to haul
him off; he was bent on having the best of the battle, and I was
glad to leave him and beat a retreat myself. Without him I was, of
course, reduced to dumb show, and now descended to the well, where
I found my new guides busy in unloading the Alawin camels—an
operation which, for obvious reasons, required a superintending eye,
and which was earned on, like all the rest, in the midst of a wordy
tempest. It was some time before our new camels arrived ; and then,
of course, arose a fresh altercation about their respective loads, which
promised to be endless, the new sheik giving no eye to the business,
but engaged apart in a hot dispute with Muhammed. Again I
dragged him off, and insisted on his urging forward the work ;
meanwhile, I loaded my own dromedary, which proved to be a very
inferior one; and, having seen the different burdens apportioned,
mounted, and rode off abruptly, in the midst of the uproar. The
sound grew fainter and fainter, but ever and anon burst out afresh,
"like the last drops of a thunder-shower," till I saw the camels
coming on one by one, and Komeh at length overtook me on a trot,
his fury, under the blessed influence of the pipe, subsiding fast into
his ordinary placidity and good-humour. After all we had not been
delayed quite two hours, but two such hours a day would kill any-
body. It was a sort of opera scene, to which must be played, for due
effect, a continuous accompaniment of kettledrums and trumpets : the
Desert seemed preternaturally quiet after it was over.
I found we were still surrounded by our own men, with one or