DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0172
156
j ■' (
incidents of travel.
Cairo; that I had brought with me more money
than he had given me to understand would be
necessary, and it was all gone; that it was im-
possible to give them any more, for I had it not to
give. In fact, I had paid them extravagantly, but
far below their extravagant expectations. One
would not have come for two hundred dollars,
another for one hundred, &c.; and from the noise
and clamour which they made here, I am well sat-
isfied that if the denouement had taken place in
the desert, they would have searched for them-
selves whether there was not something left in the
bottom of my trunk; and,from what happened after-
ward, I am very sure that they would have stripped
me of my Turkish plumage; but now I was per-
fectly safe. I considered a Turkish governor good
protection against the rapacity of a Bedouin Arab.
I did not even fear their future vengeance, for I
knew that they did not dare set their feet outside
of any gate in Hebron, except that which opened
to their own tents in the desert; they seemed to
think that they had let me slip through their fingers ;
and when they pushed me to desperation, I told
them that I did not care whether they were sat-
isfied or not. As I rose the sheik fell; and when I
began working myself into a passion at his ex-
orbitant demand, he fell to begging a dollar or
two in such moving terms that I could not resist.
I continued yielding to his petty extortions, until,
having ascertained the expense, 1 found that I had
not a dollar more than enough to carry me to Je-
j ■' (
incidents of travel.
Cairo; that I had brought with me more money
than he had given me to understand would be
necessary, and it was all gone; that it was im-
possible to give them any more, for I had it not to
give. In fact, I had paid them extravagantly, but
far below their extravagant expectations. One
would not have come for two hundred dollars,
another for one hundred, &c.; and from the noise
and clamour which they made here, I am well sat-
isfied that if the denouement had taken place in
the desert, they would have searched for them-
selves whether there was not something left in the
bottom of my trunk; and,from what happened after-
ward, I am very sure that they would have stripped
me of my Turkish plumage; but now I was per-
fectly safe. I considered a Turkish governor good
protection against the rapacity of a Bedouin Arab.
I did not even fear their future vengeance, for I
knew that they did not dare set their feet outside
of any gate in Hebron, except that which opened
to their own tents in the desert; they seemed to
think that they had let me slip through their fingers ;
and when they pushed me to desperation, I told
them that I did not care whether they were sat-
isfied or not. As I rose the sheik fell; and when I
began working myself into a passion at his ex-
orbitant demand, he fell to begging a dollar or
two in such moving terms that I could not resist.
I continued yielding to his petty extortions, until,
having ascertained the expense, 1 found that I had
not a dollar more than enough to carry me to Je-