Memoirs of an Arabian Princess | Page 3

Crown and Forms a Conspiracy to Dethrone Majid - Bargash's House Surrounded - His Abduction in Woman's Garb - Defeat of his Partisans - His Return - And Rejection of Majid's Peaceful Overtures - The Pretender's House Fired On by British Marines - Submission and Banishment of Bargash.

CHAPTER XVIII.
TERM OF RURAL RESIDENCE. Complicated Relations with an Invisible Steward - Life on the Plantation of Kisimbani - And of Bububu - Sale of Bububu - In Town Again - Reconciliation with Majid - Quarrel with Chole - Oriental Hatred of Dissemblance - Great Fidelity in Friendship.

CHAPTER XIX.
ELOPEMENT FROM ZANZIBAR. Acquaintance with Herr Ruete - The Escape - Marriage at Aden - Brief Happiness in Hamburg - Subsequent German Days.

CHAPTER XX.
ENGLISH DIPLOMACY. Journey to London - Interview with Sir Bartle Frere - The Choice Offered - Avoidance of Meeting Bargash - Return to Germany - Disappointment - Duplicity of the British Government - Its Motive.

CHAPTER XXI.
VISIT TO THE OLD HOME. Embarkation - Alexandria - Egyptian Dislike of the English - Travel in the Suez Canal - The Red Hot Sea - Arrival - Welcome by the Populace - Causing Displeasure to Seyyid Bargash - His Official Factotum an Ex-Lampcleaner - Dilapidation and Decay - Bargash's Frightful Cruelty - The Authoress's Claims Unsettled - British Influence Over the Sultan - Conclusion.
Memoirs of an Arabian Princess

CHAPTER I
FAMILY HISTORY
THE PALACE OF BET IL MTONI - THE BATHHOUSES - EQUESTRIAN AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS - PRINCESS SALAMAH'S FATHER - PURCHASE OF HER MOTHER - SEYYID SAìD'S PRINCIPAL AND SECONDARY WIVES - HIS CHILDREN - THE BENJILE - A QUESTION OF DISCIPLINE - BROTHER MAJID REACHES HIS MAJORITY - THE AUTHORESS'S FIRST CHANGE OF RESIDENCE
IT WAS at Bet il Mtoni, our oldest palace in the island of Zanzibar, that I first saw the light of day, and I remained there until I reached my seventh year. Bet il Mtoni is charmingly situated on the seashore, at a distance of about five miles from the town of Zanzibar, in a grove of magnificent cocoanut palms, mango trees, and other tropical giants. My birthplace takes its name from the little stream Mtoni, which, running down a short way from the interior, forks out into several branches as it flows through the palace grounds, in whose immediate rear it empties into the beautiful sparkling sheet of water dividing Zanzibar from the continent of Africa.
A single, spacious courtyard is allotted to the whole body of buildings that compose the palace, and in consequence of the variety of these structures, probably put up by degrees as necessity demanded, the general effect was repellent rather than attractive. Most perplexing to the uninitiated were the innumerable passages and corridors. Countless, too, were the apartments of the palace; their exact disposition has escaped my memory, though I have a very distinct recollection of the bathing arrangements at Bet il Mtoni. A dozen basins lay all in a row at the extreme end of the courtyard, so that when it rained you could visit this favourite place of recuperation only with the help of an umbrella. The so-called "Persian" bath stood apart from the rest; it was really a Turkish bath, and there was no other in Zanzibar. Each bath-house contained two basins of about four yards by three, the water reaching to the breast of a grownup person. This resort was highly popular with the residents of the palace, most of whom were in the habit of spending several hours a day there, saying their prayers, doing their work, reading, sleeping, or even eating and drinking. From four o'clock in the morning until twelve at night there was constant movement; the stream of people coming and leaving never ceased.
Entering one of the bath-houses - they were all built on the same plan - you beheld two raised platforms, one at the right and one at the left, laid with finely woven matting, for praying or simply resting on. Anything in the way of luxury, such as a carpet, was forbidden here. Whenever the Mahometan says his prayers he is supposed to put on a special garment, perfectly clean - white if possible - and used for no other purpose. Of course this rather exacting rule is obeyed only by the extremely pious. Narrow colonnades ran between the platforms and the basins, which were uncovered except for the blue vault of heaven. Arched stone bridges and steps led to other, entirely separate apartments. Each bath-house had its own public; for, be it known, a severe system of caste ruled at Bet il Mtoni, rigidly observed by high and low.
Orange trees, as tall as the biggest cherry trees here in Germany, bloomed in profusion all along the front of the bath-houses, and in their hospitable branches we frightened children found refuge many a time from our horribly strict