DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0074
CORPSE OF AN ARAB.
67
climate, and thought I had secured it in Egypt;
but wherever I went, I seemed to carry with me
an influence that chilled the atmosphere. In the
morning, before I rose, Paul brought in to me a
piece of ice as thick as a pane of glass, made du-
ring the night—a most extraordinary, and to me
unexpected circumstance. The poor Arabs, ac-
customed to their hot and burning sun, shrank in
the cold almost to nothing, and early in the morn-
ing and in the evening were utterly unfit for la-
bour. I suffered very much also myself, obliged
to sit with the door of my cabin closed, my coat
and greatcoat on, and with a prospect of a long
cold voyage. By the evening of the second day
I had lost some portion of the enthusiasm with
which, under a well-filled sail, I had started the
day before from Cairo.
January 3. The third day was again exceed-
ingly cold, the wind still ahead, and stronger than
yesterday. I was still in bed, looking through the
many openings of my cabin, and the men were on
shore towing, when I was roused by a loud voice
of lamentation, in which the weeping and wailing
of women predominated. I stepped out, and saw
on the bank of the river the dead body of an Arab,
surrounded by men, women, and children, weep-
ing and howling over it previous to burial. The
body was covered with a wrapper of coarse linen
cloth, drawn tight over the head and tied under
the neck, and fastened between two parallel bars,
intended as a barrow to carry it to its grave. It
67
climate, and thought I had secured it in Egypt;
but wherever I went, I seemed to carry with me
an influence that chilled the atmosphere. In the
morning, before I rose, Paul brought in to me a
piece of ice as thick as a pane of glass, made du-
ring the night—a most extraordinary, and to me
unexpected circumstance. The poor Arabs, ac-
customed to their hot and burning sun, shrank in
the cold almost to nothing, and early in the morn-
ing and in the evening were utterly unfit for la-
bour. I suffered very much also myself, obliged
to sit with the door of my cabin closed, my coat
and greatcoat on, and with a prospect of a long
cold voyage. By the evening of the second day
I had lost some portion of the enthusiasm with
which, under a well-filled sail, I had started the
day before from Cairo.
January 3. The third day was again exceed-
ingly cold, the wind still ahead, and stronger than
yesterday. I was still in bed, looking through the
many openings of my cabin, and the men were on
shore towing, when I was roused by a loud voice
of lamentation, in which the weeping and wailing
of women predominated. I stepped out, and saw
on the bank of the river the dead body of an Arab,
surrounded by men, women, and children, weep-
ing and howling over it previous to burial. The
body was covered with a wrapper of coarse linen
cloth, drawn tight over the head and tied under
the neck, and fastened between two parallel bars,
intended as a barrow to carry it to its grave. It