DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0173
a storm.
157
rusalem ; and at this moment he consummated his
impudence by begging my dress from offmy back.
The dress was of no great value; it had not cost
much when new, and was travel-worn and frayed
with hard usage; but it had a value in my eyes
from the mere circumstance of having been worn
upon this journey. I had given him nearly all my
tent equipage, arms, ammunition, &c, and I had
borne with all his twopenny extortions; but he
urged and insisted, and begged and entreated with
so much pertinacity, that my patience was ex-
hausted, and I told him that I had borne with him
long enough, and that he and his whole tribe might
go to the d—1. This was not very courteous or
dignified between treaty-making powers ; but, con-
sidering that the immediate subject of negotiation
was an old silk dress, and the parties were a single
individual and a horde of Bedouins, it may per-
haps be allowed to pass. All the nice web of
diplomacy was now broken ; and all springing at
the same moment to our feet, the whole group
stood fronting me, glaring upon me like so many
wild beasts. Now the long-smothered passion
broke out, and wild and clamorous as the Arabs
always were, I had never seen them so perfectly
furious. They raved like sc-many bedlamites ;. and
the sheik, with torrents of vociferation and re-
proach, drew from his bosom the money he had
accepted as his portion, dashed it on the floor, and
swearing that no Frank should ever pass through
his country again, poured out upon me a volley qC
o 2
i
157
rusalem ; and at this moment he consummated his
impudence by begging my dress from offmy back.
The dress was of no great value; it had not cost
much when new, and was travel-worn and frayed
with hard usage; but it had a value in my eyes
from the mere circumstance of having been worn
upon this journey. I had given him nearly all my
tent equipage, arms, ammunition, &c, and I had
borne with all his twopenny extortions; but he
urged and insisted, and begged and entreated with
so much pertinacity, that my patience was ex-
hausted, and I told him that I had borne with him
long enough, and that he and his whole tribe might
go to the d—1. This was not very courteous or
dignified between treaty-making powers ; but, con-
sidering that the immediate subject of negotiation
was an old silk dress, and the parties were a single
individual and a horde of Bedouins, it may per-
haps be allowed to pass. All the nice web of
diplomacy was now broken ; and all springing at
the same moment to our feet, the whole group
stood fronting me, glaring upon me like so many
wild beasts. Now the long-smothered passion
broke out, and wild and clamorous as the Arabs
always were, I had never seen them so perfectly
furious. They raved like sc-many bedlamites ;. and
the sheik, with torrents of vociferation and re-
proach, drew from his bosom the money he had
accepted as his portion, dashed it on the floor, and
swearing that no Frank should ever pass through
his country again, poured out upon me a volley qC
o 2
i