DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0081
74
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
say that no lives were lost, for an Arab, on the
bosom of his beloved river, is as safe as in his mud
cabin.
On the eighth the wind was as contrary as
ever; but between rowing and towing we had
managed to crawl up as far as Minyeh. Jt was
the season of the Ramadan, when for thirty days,
from the rising to the setting of the sun, the fol-
lowers of the Prophet are forbidden to eat, drink, or
even smoke, or take the bath. My first inquiry
was for a bath. It would not be heated or lighted
up till eight o'clock; at eight o'clock I went, and
was surprised to find it so large and comfortable.
I was not long surprised, however, for I found that
no sooner was the sacred prohibition removed,
than the Turks and Arabs began to pour in in
throngs ; they came without any respect of per-
sons, the haughty Turk with his pipe-bearing
slave and the poor Arab boatmen ; in short, every
one who could raise a few paras.
It was certainly not a very select company, nor
over clean, and probably very few Europeans
would have stood the thing as I did. My boatmen
were all there. They were my servants, said the
rais, and were bound to follow me everywhere.
As I was a Frank, and as such expected to pay ten
times as much as any one else, I had the best place
in the bath, at the head of the great reservoir of
hot water. My white skin made me a marked
object among the swarthy figures lying around me;
and half a dozen of the operatives, lank, bony
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
say that no lives were lost, for an Arab, on the
bosom of his beloved river, is as safe as in his mud
cabin.
On the eighth the wind was as contrary as
ever; but between rowing and towing we had
managed to crawl up as far as Minyeh. Jt was
the season of the Ramadan, when for thirty days,
from the rising to the setting of the sun, the fol-
lowers of the Prophet are forbidden to eat, drink, or
even smoke, or take the bath. My first inquiry
was for a bath. It would not be heated or lighted
up till eight o'clock; at eight o'clock I went, and
was surprised to find it so large and comfortable.
I was not long surprised, however, for I found that
no sooner was the sacred prohibition removed,
than the Turks and Arabs began to pour in in
throngs ; they came without any respect of per-
sons, the haughty Turk with his pipe-bearing
slave and the poor Arab boatmen ; in short, every
one who could raise a few paras.
It was certainly not a very select company, nor
over clean, and probably very few Europeans
would have stood the thing as I did. My boatmen
were all there. They were my servants, said the
rais, and were bound to follow me everywhere.
As I was a Frank, and as such expected to pay ten
times as much as any one else, I had the best place
in the bath, at the head of the great reservoir of
hot water. My white skin made me a marked
object among the swarthy figures lying around me;
and half a dozen of the operatives, lank, bony