DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0114
104 THE MOHAMMEDAN RACES
At night, while we were sitting at dinner, my friend
said : " Would you be surprised to learn that that
Turkmen whom you thought so like an Irishman
speaks English as well as you or I do?" It turned
out that, when we left, the man came out with us.
I was in front, and he walked alongside of my
friend's horse. After coming some little distance
out of the camp, when there was no one near, he
said, " You couldn't oblige me with a bit of to-
bacco, could you, sir ?" My friend gave him all
that he had ; but did not ask him who he was, or
how he came to be there. I was exceedingly
vexed that we had not stopped at the encamp-
ment : we might have had an interesting conversa-
tion with that Irish Turkmen. It was obvious that
he had come so far out of the camp in order to
talk, and had selected my friend as having a speci-
ally pleasant manner with natives : but the latter
was so taken aback as to let the opportunity slip.
I have often wished to go back to that camp.
A Turkmen Bey, who entertained us royally in
1882, gave us also an interesting account of his
pilgrimage to Mecca.1 He went twelve days' jour-
ney through the Cilician Gates to Messina, where he
found an English ship to take him to Port Said,
thence through the Canal and down the Red Sea
to Jeddah, the port for Mecca. There the Dellil
1 I depended then on an interpreter.
At night, while we were sitting at dinner, my friend
said : " Would you be surprised to learn that that
Turkmen whom you thought so like an Irishman
speaks English as well as you or I do?" It turned
out that, when we left, the man came out with us.
I was in front, and he walked alongside of my
friend's horse. After coming some little distance
out of the camp, when there was no one near, he
said, " You couldn't oblige me with a bit of to-
bacco, could you, sir ?" My friend gave him all
that he had ; but did not ask him who he was, or
how he came to be there. I was exceedingly
vexed that we had not stopped at the encamp-
ment : we might have had an interesting conversa-
tion with that Irish Turkmen. It was obvious that
he had come so far out of the camp in order to
talk, and had selected my friend as having a speci-
ally pleasant manner with natives : but the latter
was so taken aback as to let the opportunity slip.
I have often wished to go back to that camp.
A Turkmen Bey, who entertained us royally in
1882, gave us also an interesting account of his
pilgrimage to Mecca.1 He went twelve days' jour-
ney through the Cilician Gates to Messina, where he
found an English ship to take him to Port Said,
thence through the Canal and down the Red Sea
to Jeddah, the port for Mecca. There the Dellil
1 I depended then on an interpreter.