DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0267
254
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
along a broad valley, bounded by ranges of lofty
and crumbling mountains, forming an immense
rocky rampart on each side of us; and rocky and
barren as these mountains seemed, on their tops
were gardens which produced oranges, dates, and
figs in great abundance. Here, on heights almost in-
accessible to any but the children of the desert, the
Bedouin pitches his tent, pastures his sheep and
goats, and gains the slender subsistence necessary
for himself and family; 'and often, looking up the
bare side of the mountain, we could see on its sum-
mit's edge the wild figure of a half-naked Arab,
with his long matchlock gun in his hand, watching
the movement of our little caravan. Sometimes,
too, the eye rested upon the form of a woman
stealing across the valley, not a traveller or pass-
er-by, but a dweller in the land where no smoke
curled from the domestic hearth, and no sign of a
habitation was perceptible. There was something
very interesting to me in the greetings of my com-
panions with the other young men of their tribe.
They were just returning from a journey to Cairo,
an event in the life of a young Bedouin ; and they
were bringing a stranger from a land that none of
them had ever heard of; yet their greeting had the
coldness of frosty age and the reserve of strangers;
twice they would gently touch the palms of each
other's hands, mutter a few words, and in a moment
the welcomers were again climbing to their tents.
One, I remember, greeted us more warmly and
stayed longer among us. He was by profession a
beggar or robber, as occasion required, and wanted
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
along a broad valley, bounded by ranges of lofty
and crumbling mountains, forming an immense
rocky rampart on each side of us; and rocky and
barren as these mountains seemed, on their tops
were gardens which produced oranges, dates, and
figs in great abundance. Here, on heights almost in-
accessible to any but the children of the desert, the
Bedouin pitches his tent, pastures his sheep and
goats, and gains the slender subsistence necessary
for himself and family; 'and often, looking up the
bare side of the mountain, we could see on its sum-
mit's edge the wild figure of a half-naked Arab,
with his long matchlock gun in his hand, watching
the movement of our little caravan. Sometimes,
too, the eye rested upon the form of a woman
stealing across the valley, not a traveller or pass-
er-by, but a dweller in the land where no smoke
curled from the domestic hearth, and no sign of a
habitation was perceptible. There was something
very interesting to me in the greetings of my com-
panions with the other young men of their tribe.
They were just returning from a journey to Cairo,
an event in the life of a young Bedouin ; and they
were bringing a stranger from a land that none of
them had ever heard of; yet their greeting had the
coldness of frosty age and the reserve of strangers;
twice they would gently touch the palms of each
other's hands, mutter a few words, and in a moment
the welcomers were again climbing to their tents.
One, I remember, greeted us more warmly and
stayed longer among us. He was by profession a
beggar or robber, as occasion required, and wanted