DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0188
172 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL^
CHAPTER IX.
An Arnaout.—The Pools of Solomon.—Bethlehem.—The Em-
peress Helena.—A Clerical Exquisite.—Miraculous Localities.
—A Boon Companion.—The Soldier's Sleep.—The Birth-place
of Christ.—Worship in the Grotto.—Moslem Fidelity.
I had given away all my superfluous baggage,
and commenced my journey in the Holy Land with
three mules, one for myself, another for Paul, and
the third for my baggage. The muleteer, who was
an uncommonly thriving-looking, well-dressed man,
rode upon a donkey, and had an assistant, who ac-
companied on foot; but by far the most important
person of our party was our kervash. He was a
wild Arnaout, of a race that had for centuries fur-
nished the bravest, fiercest, and most terrible sol-
diers in the army of the sultan -r and he himself was
one of the wildest of that wild tribe. He was
now about forty, and had been a warrior from his
youth upward, and battles and bloodshed were
familiar to him as his food; he had fought under'
Ibrahim Pacha in his bloody campaign in Greece,
and his rebellious war against the sultan ; and hav-
ing been wounded in the great battle in which the
Egyptian soldiers defeated tne grand vizier with
the flower of the sultan's army, he had been re-
moved from the regular service, and placed in an
honourable position near the governor of Hebron.
CHAPTER IX.
An Arnaout.—The Pools of Solomon.—Bethlehem.—The Em-
peress Helena.—A Clerical Exquisite.—Miraculous Localities.
—A Boon Companion.—The Soldier's Sleep.—The Birth-place
of Christ.—Worship in the Grotto.—Moslem Fidelity.
I had given away all my superfluous baggage,
and commenced my journey in the Holy Land with
three mules, one for myself, another for Paul, and
the third for my baggage. The muleteer, who was
an uncommonly thriving-looking, well-dressed man,
rode upon a donkey, and had an assistant, who ac-
companied on foot; but by far the most important
person of our party was our kervash. He was a
wild Arnaout, of a race that had for centuries fur-
nished the bravest, fiercest, and most terrible sol-
diers in the army of the sultan -r and he himself was
one of the wildest of that wild tribe. He was
now about forty, and had been a warrior from his
youth upward, and battles and bloodshed were
familiar to him as his food; he had fought under'
Ibrahim Pacha in his bloody campaign in Greece,
and his rebellious war against the sultan ; and hav-
ing been wounded in the great battle in which the
Egyptian soldiers defeated tne grand vizier with
the flower of the sultan's army, he had been re-
moved from the regular service, and placed in an
honourable position near the governor of Hebron.