DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0122
106
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
hidden from the view of any passing Bedouins*
The camel belonged to a former female slave of
the sheik, whom he had manumitted and married
to " his black," and to whom he had given a tent and
this camel as a dowry. He had been very anx-
ious to get away as far as possible from Wady
Moussa that nighi; but, as soon as the accident
happened, with the expression always uppermost
in the mouth of the followers of the Prophet," God
wills it," he began to doctor the animal. It was
strange to be brought into such immediate con-
tact with the disciples of fatalism. If we did not
reach the point we we're aiming at, God willed it;
if it rained, God willed it; and I suppose that if
they had happened to lay their black hands upon
my throat, and strip me of every thing I possessed,
they would have piously raised their eyes to
heaven, and cried, " God willed it." I remember
Mr. Wolf, the converted Jew missionarv, told me
an anecdote illustrating most strikingly the opera-
tion of this fatalist creed. He was in Aleppo du-
ring an earthquake, and saw two Turks smoking
their pipes at the base of a house then tottering
and ready to fall. He cried out to them and
warned them of their peril; but they turned their
eyes to the impending danger, and crying, " Allah
el Allah, God is merciful," were buried under the
ruins.
It was not more than four o'clock when we
pitched our tent. The Arabs all came under
the shade to talk more at ease about our as-
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
hidden from the view of any passing Bedouins*
The camel belonged to a former female slave of
the sheik, whom he had manumitted and married
to " his black," and to whom he had given a tent and
this camel as a dowry. He had been very anx-
ious to get away as far as possible from Wady
Moussa that nighi; but, as soon as the accident
happened, with the expression always uppermost
in the mouth of the followers of the Prophet," God
wills it," he began to doctor the animal. It was
strange to be brought into such immediate con-
tact with the disciples of fatalism. If we did not
reach the point we we're aiming at, God willed it;
if it rained, God willed it; and I suppose that if
they had happened to lay their black hands upon
my throat, and strip me of every thing I possessed,
they would have piously raised their eyes to
heaven, and cried, " God willed it." I remember
Mr. Wolf, the converted Jew missionarv, told me
an anecdote illustrating most strikingly the opera-
tion of this fatalist creed. He was in Aleppo du-
ring an earthquake, and saw two Turks smoking
their pipes at the base of a house then tottering
and ready to fall. He cried out to them and
warned them of their peril; but they turned their
eyes to the impending danger, and crying, " Allah
el Allah, God is merciful," were buried under the
ruins.
It was not more than four o'clock when we
pitched our tent. The Arabs all came under
the shade to talk more at ease about our as-