DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0058
40 A THOUSAND MILKS UP THE NILE.
There are, of course, good and bad Mohammedans as
there are good and bad churchmen of every denomination;
and we had both sorts on board. Some of the men were
very devout, never failing to perform their ablutions and
say their prayers at sunrise and sunset. Others never
dreamed of doing so. Some would not touch wine—had
never tasted it in their lives, and would have suffered any
extremity rather than break the law of their prophet.
Others had a nice taste in clarets and a delicate apprecia-
tion of the respective merits of rum or whisky punch. It
is, however, only fair to add that we never gave them
these tilings except on special occasions, as on Christmas
day, or when they had been wading in the river, or in
some other way undergoing extra fatigue in our service.
Nor do I believe there was a man on board who would
have spent a para of his scanty earnings on any drink
stronger than coffee. Coffee and tobacco are, indeed, the
only luxuries in which the Egyptian peasant indulges;
and our poor fellows were never more grateful than when
we distributed among them a few pounds of cheap native
tobacco. This abominable mixture sells in the bazaars at
sixpence the pound, the plant from which it is gathered
being raised from inferior seed in a soil chemically unsuit-
able, because wholly devoid of potash.
Also it is systematically spoiled in the growing. Instead
of being nipped off when green and dried in the shade,
the leaves are allowed to wither on the stalk before they
are gathered. The result is a kind of rank hay without
strength or flavor, which is smoked by only the very poor-
est class, and carefully avoided by all who can afford to buy
Turkish or Syrian tobacco.
Twice a day, after their midday and evening meals, our
sailors were wont to sit in a circle and solemnly smoke a
certain big pipe of the kind known as a hubble-bubble.
This hubble-bubble (which was of most primitive make
and consisted of a cocoanut and two sugar-canes) was
common property; and, being filled by the captain, went
round from hand to hand, from mouth to month, while it
lasted.
They smoked cigarettes at other times, and seldom went
on shore without a tobacco-pouch and a tiny book of
cigarette-papers. Fancy a bare legged Arab making cigar-
ettes ! No Frenchman, however, could twist them up
more deftly or smoke them with a better grace.
There are, of course, good and bad Mohammedans as
there are good and bad churchmen of every denomination;
and we had both sorts on board. Some of the men were
very devout, never failing to perform their ablutions and
say their prayers at sunrise and sunset. Others never
dreamed of doing so. Some would not touch wine—had
never tasted it in their lives, and would have suffered any
extremity rather than break the law of their prophet.
Others had a nice taste in clarets and a delicate apprecia-
tion of the respective merits of rum or whisky punch. It
is, however, only fair to add that we never gave them
these tilings except on special occasions, as on Christmas
day, or when they had been wading in the river, or in
some other way undergoing extra fatigue in our service.
Nor do I believe there was a man on board who would
have spent a para of his scanty earnings on any drink
stronger than coffee. Coffee and tobacco are, indeed, the
only luxuries in which the Egyptian peasant indulges;
and our poor fellows were never more grateful than when
we distributed among them a few pounds of cheap native
tobacco. This abominable mixture sells in the bazaars at
sixpence the pound, the plant from which it is gathered
being raised from inferior seed in a soil chemically unsuit-
able, because wholly devoid of potash.
Also it is systematically spoiled in the growing. Instead
of being nipped off when green and dried in the shade,
the leaves are allowed to wither on the stalk before they
are gathered. The result is a kind of rank hay without
strength or flavor, which is smoked by only the very poor-
est class, and carefully avoided by all who can afford to buy
Turkish or Syrian tobacco.
Twice a day, after their midday and evening meals, our
sailors were wont to sit in a circle and solemnly smoke a
certain big pipe of the kind known as a hubble-bubble.
This hubble-bubble (which was of most primitive make
and consisted of a cocoanut and two sugar-canes) was
common property; and, being filled by the captain, went
round from hand to hand, from mouth to month, while it
lasted.
They smoked cigarettes at other times, and seldom went
on shore without a tobacco-pouch and a tiny book of
cigarette-papers. Fancy a bare legged Arab making cigar-
ettes ! No Frenchman, however, could twist them up
more deftly or smoke them with a better grace.