DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1350#0007
INTRODUCTION.
the edge of the cultivated land, some half mile from
the village, beneath a small grove of palms on a
sandy rise, with several fairly good wells around it.
The only trouble was the need of having guards,
owing to the distance from the village. Happily I
got two very quiet men, whom by many injunctions
I restrained from talking at night; for when living
in a tent, one is one's own policeman, and the
slightest whisper outside is enough to break a sound
sleep. Those guards slept in an enviable manner;
one night the mounted police came round, and
angrily demanded why they were not awake; the
poor fellows could do nothing but stammer out
" yes, yes, yes," to every question; and could barely
find'sense enough to give their names. They were
in great dread of being fined, and begged me next
day to write a letter to say that I preferred them to
sleep. As their official beat, however, was about
two miles long, I feared the excuse would not be
thought worth much. Another night I was awoke
by a whine, and leaning forward to my man
Muhammed, who was also awake, he said that a
hyaena had been smelling the guards' feet, but
thought they were alive, and so hesitated to begin
on them. On Muhammed moving, he had slipped
into the shadow of a palm, and stood whining at
being disturbed from a prospect of supper. The
guards were snoring quite steadily, when I just sent
a shot over toward the beast to scare it off"; as the
crack of the revolver died away, I heard the same
snore continuing without the least break or change.
Happy sleepers who can ignore such a sound just
over their heads!
6. There was some need of guards in the place, as
Dahshur is the terminus of the thieves' road to the
Fayum. Whenever cattle are lifted, either about
Sakkara, or in the Fayum, they are driven along this
road and sold at the other end. The first day that
I was going about the pyramids I smelt a smell; and
following my nose I came on some uncanny legs, off
which the hyaenas had eaten the flesh, sticking out of
a hollow behind some stones. I thought they looked
suspicious ; so when I had Muhammed up there the
next day I told him about them. He came to me,
looking mysterious, and said it was a man; he was
certain of it, for he felt his hair stand on end, and
moreover there were the clothes about. Certainly,
the leg bones did not agree with anything I knew of
quadruped anatomy. So I sent word that evening to
the shekh of the village. His terror was that the
police should hear of it; he therefore sent up the
guards to rebury the remains; but—as I afterwards
heard—they elsewhere found a boy instead, reburied
him, and thought it was all done. Finding the police
were not told, I sent over to them, and had sundry
visits of investigation from policemen and inspector;
and finally a guard was appointed to watch the
remains until a doctor could arrive. These unlucky
guards were levied from the neighbouring villages,
twelve in all, with four policemen ; they passed their
time lying about at a corner of the pyramid, hearing
the "afrits" of the murdered men by night, and
baked by day in the barren desert; parties went
down to water nearly two miles off in the valley,
and returned to relieve the others in rotation, until
the grand day when the doctor came. Then a full
examination took place, and two bodies of men
were overhauled and officially reported on. The
boy, neither I nor they knew of at that time.
While the police (unfortunately then horseless), were
waiting about at the pyramid, a party of three
thieves, driving five buffaloes over from the Fayum,
ran right across them. A challenge followed, then
an exchange of fourteen bullets, and then the thieves
bolted. So that evening the policemen marched
in triumph back to the village with the cattle.
When I was first surveying about the pyramids,
I used to see, about twice a day, men passing
with horses or cattle; but after this stir with
the police such travellers entirely ceased. The
bottom of the affair was that these two men
and a boy' had been murdered in a blood feud;
they having murdered the brother of another family
of thieves, and their brother had shortly before
been hung for murdering some one else. The
matter was complicated by their having sundry
business relations with the people of Menshiyet
Dahshur; and when the mother of the murdered
party came over with the police, she at once identi-
fied pistol and pouch, which the shekh of the village
guard was wearing, as having been her son's. How
he came by them had to be explained, but as he
wore them openly on such an occasion, I believe
in his innocence. When I left the place, the shekh
of the village, the shekh of the guard, all villagers
who had known anything of the parties, and all
available relations of the parties, were still in lock-
up at Gizeh. In Egypt, it is quite necessary to
seize and lock up your witnesses as securely as the
prisoners, in order to reduce the probabilities of
their receiving bribes, and also to increase the
opportunities of getting bribes out of them during
detention. Every time a man is examined he makes
things pleasant to the clerks, otherwise troublesome
errors might appear in the record, and the police
the edge of the cultivated land, some half mile from
the village, beneath a small grove of palms on a
sandy rise, with several fairly good wells around it.
The only trouble was the need of having guards,
owing to the distance from the village. Happily I
got two very quiet men, whom by many injunctions
I restrained from talking at night; for when living
in a tent, one is one's own policeman, and the
slightest whisper outside is enough to break a sound
sleep. Those guards slept in an enviable manner;
one night the mounted police came round, and
angrily demanded why they were not awake; the
poor fellows could do nothing but stammer out
" yes, yes, yes," to every question; and could barely
find'sense enough to give their names. They were
in great dread of being fined, and begged me next
day to write a letter to say that I preferred them to
sleep. As their official beat, however, was about
two miles long, I feared the excuse would not be
thought worth much. Another night I was awoke
by a whine, and leaning forward to my man
Muhammed, who was also awake, he said that a
hyaena had been smelling the guards' feet, but
thought they were alive, and so hesitated to begin
on them. On Muhammed moving, he had slipped
into the shadow of a palm, and stood whining at
being disturbed from a prospect of supper. The
guards were snoring quite steadily, when I just sent
a shot over toward the beast to scare it off"; as the
crack of the revolver died away, I heard the same
snore continuing without the least break or change.
Happy sleepers who can ignore such a sound just
over their heads!
6. There was some need of guards in the place, as
Dahshur is the terminus of the thieves' road to the
Fayum. Whenever cattle are lifted, either about
Sakkara, or in the Fayum, they are driven along this
road and sold at the other end. The first day that
I was going about the pyramids I smelt a smell; and
following my nose I came on some uncanny legs, off
which the hyaenas had eaten the flesh, sticking out of
a hollow behind some stones. I thought they looked
suspicious ; so when I had Muhammed up there the
next day I told him about them. He came to me,
looking mysterious, and said it was a man; he was
certain of it, for he felt his hair stand on end, and
moreover there were the clothes about. Certainly,
the leg bones did not agree with anything I knew of
quadruped anatomy. So I sent word that evening to
the shekh of the village. His terror was that the
police should hear of it; he therefore sent up the
guards to rebury the remains; but—as I afterwards
heard—they elsewhere found a boy instead, reburied
him, and thought it was all done. Finding the police
were not told, I sent over to them, and had sundry
visits of investigation from policemen and inspector;
and finally a guard was appointed to watch the
remains until a doctor could arrive. These unlucky
guards were levied from the neighbouring villages,
twelve in all, with four policemen ; they passed their
time lying about at a corner of the pyramid, hearing
the "afrits" of the murdered men by night, and
baked by day in the barren desert; parties went
down to water nearly two miles off in the valley,
and returned to relieve the others in rotation, until
the grand day when the doctor came. Then a full
examination took place, and two bodies of men
were overhauled and officially reported on. The
boy, neither I nor they knew of at that time.
While the police (unfortunately then horseless), were
waiting about at the pyramid, a party of three
thieves, driving five buffaloes over from the Fayum,
ran right across them. A challenge followed, then
an exchange of fourteen bullets, and then the thieves
bolted. So that evening the policemen marched
in triumph back to the village with the cattle.
When I was first surveying about the pyramids,
I used to see, about twice a day, men passing
with horses or cattle; but after this stir with
the police such travellers entirely ceased. The
bottom of the affair was that these two men
and a boy' had been murdered in a blood feud;
they having murdered the brother of another family
of thieves, and their brother had shortly before
been hung for murdering some one else. The
matter was complicated by their having sundry
business relations with the people of Menshiyet
Dahshur; and when the mother of the murdered
party came over with the police, she at once identi-
fied pistol and pouch, which the shekh of the village
guard was wearing, as having been her son's. How
he came by them had to be explained, but as he
wore them openly on such an occasion, I believe
in his innocence. When I left the place, the shekh
of the village, the shekh of the guard, all villagers
who had known anything of the parties, and all
available relations of the parties, were still in lock-
up at Gizeh. In Egypt, it is quite necessary to
seize and lock up your witnesses as securely as the
prisoners, in order to reduce the probabilities of
their receiving bribes, and also to increase the
opportunities of getting bribes out of them during
detention. Every time a man is examined he makes
things pleasant to the clerks, otherwise troublesome
errors might appear in the record, and the police