DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0189
178
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
men calling themselves Christians, I walked round
the building, to see if by accident there was not
some back-door left open. The convent was en-
closed by a square wall of unburnt brick, twelve
or fourteen feet high, and not a door, window, or
loophole was to be seen. It was built for defence
against the roving Arabs, and if we had intended to
storm it, we could not have found an assailable
point. I returned, vexed and disappointed, and
calling away the men, and almost cursing the un-
christian spirit of its inmates, I pitched my tents
under its walls, and prepared to pass the night in
the desert. '
I had hardly stretched myself upon my mat, be-
fore I heard the smart trot of a dromedarv, and
ml *
presently my guide, whom I had almost forgotten,
dismounted at the door of the tent. He was a tall,
hard-faced, weather-beaten man of about fifty, the
white hairs just beginning to make their appear-
ance in his black beard. I wanted to have a good
view of him, and calling him inside, gave him a seat
on the mat, a pipe, and coffee. He told me that
for many years he had been in the habit of going
once a year to the Oasis, on a trading-voyage, and
that he knew the road perfectly. Almost the first
thing he said was, that he supposed I intended to
remain there the next day. The Arabs, like most
other Orientals, have no respect for the value of
time ; and among the petty vexations of travelling
among them, few annoyed me more than the eter-
nal " bokhara," "bokhara," — "to-morrow," "to-
morrow." When they first sent to this guide ta
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
men calling themselves Christians, I walked round
the building, to see if by accident there was not
some back-door left open. The convent was en-
closed by a square wall of unburnt brick, twelve
or fourteen feet high, and not a door, window, or
loophole was to be seen. It was built for defence
against the roving Arabs, and if we had intended to
storm it, we could not have found an assailable
point. I returned, vexed and disappointed, and
calling away the men, and almost cursing the un-
christian spirit of its inmates, I pitched my tents
under its walls, and prepared to pass the night in
the desert. '
I had hardly stretched myself upon my mat, be-
fore I heard the smart trot of a dromedarv, and
ml *
presently my guide, whom I had almost forgotten,
dismounted at the door of the tent. He was a tall,
hard-faced, weather-beaten man of about fifty, the
white hairs just beginning to make their appear-
ance in his black beard. I wanted to have a good
view of him, and calling him inside, gave him a seat
on the mat, a pipe, and coffee. He told me that
for many years he had been in the habit of going
once a year to the Oasis, on a trading-voyage, and
that he knew the road perfectly. Almost the first
thing he said was, that he supposed I intended to
remain there the next day. The Arabs, like most
other Orientals, have no respect for the value of
time ; and among the petty vexations of travelling
among them, few annoyed me more than the eter-
nal " bokhara," "bokhara," — "to-morrow," "to-
morrow." When they first sent to this guide ta