DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0107
DISADVANTAGE OF A DRESS.
91
to another effort. Several times I mounted on
Paul's shoulders, and with his helping reached the
top of a precipitous or overhanging rock, where,
lying down with my face over the brink, I took up
the pistols, swords, &c, and then helped him up in
turn ; sometimes, again, he was the climber, and
my shoulders were the stepping-stone ; and, in the
rough grasps that we gave each other, neither
thought of the relation of master and servant. On
the sides of that rugged mountain, so desolate, so
completely removed from the world, whose diffi-
cult ascent had been attempted by few human
footsteps since the days when " Moses and Aaron
went up in sight of all the congregation," the mas-
ter and the man lay on the same rock, encounter-
ing the same fatigues and dangers, and inspired by
the same hopes and fears. My dress was par-
ticularly bad for the occasion; for, besides the en-
cumbrance of pistols and a sword, my long silk
gown and large sleeves were a great annoyance,
as I wanted every moment a long reach of the
arm and full play of the legs; even our light Turk-
ish slippers were impediments in our desperate
scramble, and we were obliged to pull them off,
for the better hold that could be taken with the
naked feet.
It will be remembered that we were ascending
on the eastern side of the mountain; and in one of
our pauses to breathe, when about half way up,
we looked back upon the high rampart of rocks
that enclosed the city of Petra; and on the outside
91
to another effort. Several times I mounted on
Paul's shoulders, and with his helping reached the
top of a precipitous or overhanging rock, where,
lying down with my face over the brink, I took up
the pistols, swords, &c, and then helped him up in
turn ; sometimes, again, he was the climber, and
my shoulders were the stepping-stone ; and, in the
rough grasps that we gave each other, neither
thought of the relation of master and servant. On
the sides of that rugged mountain, so desolate, so
completely removed from the world, whose diffi-
cult ascent had been attempted by few human
footsteps since the days when " Moses and Aaron
went up in sight of all the congregation," the mas-
ter and the man lay on the same rock, encounter-
ing the same fatigues and dangers, and inspired by
the same hopes and fears. My dress was par-
ticularly bad for the occasion; for, besides the en-
cumbrance of pistols and a sword, my long silk
gown and large sleeves were a great annoyance,
as I wanted every moment a long reach of the
arm and full play of the legs; even our light Turk-
ish slippers were impediments in our desperate
scramble, and we were obliged to pull them off,
for the better hold that could be taken with the
naked feet.
It will be remembered that we were ascending
on the eastern side of the mountain; and in one of
our pauses to breathe, when about half way up,
we looked back upon the high rampart of rocks
that enclosed the city of Petra; and on the outside