DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0062
A RENCOUNTER,
53
their swords, by their overhand blows constantly
laying themselves open, so that any little French-
man with his toothpick of i* rapier would have run
them through before they could have cried quarter.
After the thing Was all over, Paul went out and
asked the cause ; but the sheik told him that it was
an affair of their own, and with this satisfactory an-
swer we were obliged to rest content.
Though all was now quiet, the elements of dis-
cord were still existing. The new-comer was a
ferocious fellow; his voice was constantly heard,
like the hoarse croaking of some bird of evil omen,
and sometimes it was raised to the pitch of high
and deadly passion. Paul heard him ask if I
was a European, to which the sheik answered no ;
I was a Turk. He then got upon the railroad to
Suez, and the poor benighted Bedouin, completely
behind the age in the march of improvements
having never read Say's Political Economy, or
Smith's Wealth of Nations, denounced it as an in-
vasion of the natural rights of the people, and a
wicked breaking up of the business of the camel-
drivers. He cursed every European that ever set
foot in their country ; and, speaking of Mr. Gallo-
way, the engineer of the proposed railroad, hoped
that he might some day meet him, and swore he
would strangle him with his own hands.
In the morning we were again under way. Our
quarrelsome friend of the night before was by our
side, perched on the bare back of a dromedary, and,
if possible, looking more grim and savage by day-
53
their swords, by their overhand blows constantly
laying themselves open, so that any little French-
man with his toothpick of i* rapier would have run
them through before they could have cried quarter.
After the thing Was all over, Paul went out and
asked the cause ; but the sheik told him that it was
an affair of their own, and with this satisfactory an-
swer we were obliged to rest content.
Though all was now quiet, the elements of dis-
cord were still existing. The new-comer was a
ferocious fellow; his voice was constantly heard,
like the hoarse croaking of some bird of evil omen,
and sometimes it was raised to the pitch of high
and deadly passion. Paul heard him ask if I
was a European, to which the sheik answered no ;
I was a Turk. He then got upon the railroad to
Suez, and the poor benighted Bedouin, completely
behind the age in the march of improvements
having never read Say's Political Economy, or
Smith's Wealth of Nations, denounced it as an in-
vasion of the natural rights of the people, and a
wicked breaking up of the business of the camel-
drivers. He cursed every European that ever set
foot in their country ; and, speaking of Mr. Gallo-
way, the engineer of the proposed railroad, hoped
that he might some day meet him, and swore he
would strangle him with his own hands.
In the morning we were again under way. Our
quarrelsome friend of the night before was by our
side, perched on the bare back of a dromedary, and,
if possible, looking more grim and savage by day-