DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0118
102
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
Not to be too heavy on Paul for the little wan-
derings of his tongue, I will barely mention such
as he remembered himself. Beginning with a sol-
emn assurance that we had not been in Wady
Moussa or Petra (for this was his cardinal point),
he affirmed that I was a Turk making a pilgrimage
to the tomb of Aaron under a vow ; and that when
Sheik El Alouin was at Cairo, the Habeeb EfFendi
had taken me to the sheik's tent, and had told him
to conduct me to Djebel Haroun, or Mount Hor, and
from thence to Hebron (Khalil), and that, if I ar-
rived in safety, he, the Habeeb Effendi, would pay
him well for it. We went on very well for a little
while ; but by-and-by the Bedouins began talking
earnestly among themselves, and a fine wicked-
looking boy leaning down from the hump of his
bare-backed dromedary, with sparkling eyes thrust
out his hand and whispered bucksheesh; an old
dried-up man echoed it in a hoarse voice directly in
my ears; and one after another joined in, till the
whole party, with their deep-toned gutturals, were
croaking the odious and ominous demand that gra-
ted harshly on my nerves. Their black eyes were
turned upon me with a keen and eager bright-
ness ; the harsh cry was growing louder every mo-
ment ; and I had already congratulated myself upon
having very little about my person, and Paul was
looking over his shoulders, and flourishing the Ha-
beeb Effendi and the Sheik El Alouin with as loud
a voice as ever, but evidently with a fainting heart;
bucksheesh, bucksheesh, bucksheesh was drown-
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
Not to be too heavy on Paul for the little wan-
derings of his tongue, I will barely mention such
as he remembered himself. Beginning with a sol-
emn assurance that we had not been in Wady
Moussa or Petra (for this was his cardinal point),
he affirmed that I was a Turk making a pilgrimage
to the tomb of Aaron under a vow ; and that when
Sheik El Alouin was at Cairo, the Habeeb EfFendi
had taken me to the sheik's tent, and had told him
to conduct me to Djebel Haroun, or Mount Hor, and
from thence to Hebron (Khalil), and that, if I ar-
rived in safety, he, the Habeeb Effendi, would pay
him well for it. We went on very well for a little
while ; but by-and-by the Bedouins began talking
earnestly among themselves, and a fine wicked-
looking boy leaning down from the hump of his
bare-backed dromedary, with sparkling eyes thrust
out his hand and whispered bucksheesh; an old
dried-up man echoed it in a hoarse voice directly in
my ears; and one after another joined in, till the
whole party, with their deep-toned gutturals, were
croaking the odious and ominous demand that gra-
ted harshly on my nerves. Their black eyes were
turned upon me with a keen and eager bright-
ness ; the harsh cry was growing louder every mo-
ment ; and I had already congratulated myself upon
having very little about my person, and Paul was
looking over his shoulders, and flourishing the Ha-
beeb Effendi and the Sheik El Alouin with as loud
a voice as ever, but evidently with a fainting heart;
bucksheesh, bucksheesh, bucksheesh was drown-