DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0063
54
INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL.
light. His companion was mounted behind him?
and he kept near the sheik, occasionally crossing
my path, looking back at me, and croaking in
the sheik's ears as he had done the night before.
Two or three times he crossed my path, as if with
the intention of going into the mountains; and
then, as if he found it impossible to tear himself
away, returned to the sheik. At length he did go,
and with a most discontented and disconsolate air ;
and after he had gone, the sheik told us that, when
they came up to the fire, they demanded tribute or
bucksheesh from the stranger passing over the Be-
douins' highway ; that his brother had refused to
pay it, which had been the cause of the quarrel,
and that when he himself came up, he had told the
demanders of tribute that he, had undertaken to
protect me from injury through the desert; that he
had given his head to Mohammed Aly for my
safety, and would defend me with his Jife against
every danger; but that, finally, he hacl pacified
them by giving them a couple of dollars apiece. I
did not believe this. They looked too disconsolate
when they went away ; for the four dollars would
have made the hearts of two beggarly Bedouins
leap for joy ; and I could not help asking him, if
we were obliged to buy our peace when only two
came upon us, what we would do when a hundred
should come 1 to which he answered that they must
all be paid, and that it was impossible to pass,
through the desert without it.
We got through the day remarkably well, the
INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL.
light. His companion was mounted behind him?
and he kept near the sheik, occasionally crossing
my path, looking back at me, and croaking in
the sheik's ears as he had done the night before.
Two or three times he crossed my path, as if with
the intention of going into the mountains; and
then, as if he found it impossible to tear himself
away, returned to the sheik. At length he did go,
and with a most discontented and disconsolate air ;
and after he had gone, the sheik told us that, when
they came up to the fire, they demanded tribute or
bucksheesh from the stranger passing over the Be-
douins' highway ; that his brother had refused to
pay it, which had been the cause of the quarrel,
and that when he himself came up, he had told the
demanders of tribute that he, had undertaken to
protect me from injury through the desert; that he
had given his head to Mohammed Aly for my
safety, and would defend me with his Jife against
every danger; but that, finally, he hacl pacified
them by giving them a couple of dollars apiece. I
did not believe this. They looked too disconsolate
when they went away ; for the four dollars would
have made the hearts of two beggarly Bedouins
leap for joy ; and I could not help asking him, if
we were obliged to buy our peace when only two
came upon us, what we would do when a hundred
should come 1 to which he answered that they must
all be paid, and that it was impossible to pass,
through the desert without it.
We got through the day remarkably well, the