DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0163
APPROACH! TO HEBRON.
14T
arms of the giants themselves for relief. And
though the mountains were as yet stony and bar-
ren, they were so green and beautiful by compari-
son with the desert I had left, that the conviction
even of much greater dangers than I had yet en-
countered could hardly have driven me back.
The Bedouins and the Fellahs about Hebron are
regarded as the worst, most turbulent, and despe-
rate Arabs under the government of the pacha j
but as I met little parties of them coming out to-
wards the frontier, they looked, if such a character
can be conceived of Arabs, like quiet, respectable,
orderly citizens, when compared with my wild
protectors; and they greeted us kindly and cor-
dially as we passed them, and seemed to welcome
us once more to the abodes of men.
As we approached Hebron the sheik became
more and more civil and obsequious j and before
we came in sight of the city, he seemed to have
some misgivings about entering it, and asked me
to secure protection from the governor for that
night for himself and men, which I did not hesitate
to promise. I was glad to be approaching again
a place under the established government of the
pacha, where, capricious and despotic as was the
exercise of power, I was sure of protection against
the exactions of my Bedouins ; and the reader
may judge of the different degrees of security ex-
isting in these regions, from being told that I looked
to the protection of a Turk as a guarantee against
the rapacity of an Arab. After clambering over
14T
arms of the giants themselves for relief. And
though the mountains were as yet stony and bar-
ren, they were so green and beautiful by compari-
son with the desert I had left, that the conviction
even of much greater dangers than I had yet en-
countered could hardly have driven me back.
The Bedouins and the Fellahs about Hebron are
regarded as the worst, most turbulent, and despe-
rate Arabs under the government of the pacha j
but as I met little parties of them coming out to-
wards the frontier, they looked, if such a character
can be conceived of Arabs, like quiet, respectable,
orderly citizens, when compared with my wild
protectors; and they greeted us kindly and cor-
dially as we passed them, and seemed to welcome
us once more to the abodes of men.
As we approached Hebron the sheik became
more and more civil and obsequious j and before
we came in sight of the city, he seemed to have
some misgivings about entering it, and asked me
to secure protection from the governor for that
night for himself and men, which I did not hesitate
to promise. I was glad to be approaching again
a place under the established government of the
pacha, where, capricious and despotic as was the
exercise of power, I was sure of protection against
the exactions of my Bedouins ; and the reader
may judge of the different degrees of security ex-
isting in these regions, from being told that I looked
to the protection of a Turk as a guarantee against
the rapacity of an Arab. After clambering over