Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, vol 1 | Page 9

had any idea of the part I was playing. The domestics,
devout Moslems, pronounced me an 'Ajami,[FN#16] a kind of
Mohammedan, not a good one like themselves, but, still better than
nothing. I lost no time in securing the assistance of a Shaykh,[FN#17]
and plunged once more into the intricacies of the Faith; revived my
recollections of religious ablutions, read the Koran, and again became
an adept in the art of prostration. My leisure hours were employed in
visiting the baths and coffee-houses, in attending the bazars, and in
shopping,-an operation which hereabouts consists of sitting upon a
chapman's counter, smoking, sipping coffee, and telling your beads the
while, to show that you are not of the slaves for whom time is made; in
fact, in pitting your patience against that of your adversary, the vendor.
I found time for a short excursion to a country village on the banks of
the canal; nor was an opportunity of seeing "Al-nahl," the "Bee-dance;"
neglected, for it would be some months before my eyes might dwell on
such a pleasant spectacle again. "Delicias videam, Nile jocose, tuas!"
Careful of graver matters, I attended the mosque, and visited the
venerable localities in which modern Alexandria abounds. Pilgrimaging
Moslems are here
[p.12]shown the tomb of Al-nabi Daniyal (Daniel the Prophet),
discovered upon a spot where the late Sultan Mahmud dreamed that he
saw an ancient man at prayer.[FN#18] Sikandar al-Rumi, the Moslem
Alexander the Great, of course left his bones in the place bearing his
name, or, as he ought to have done so, bones have been found for him.
Alexandria also boasts of two celebrated Walis-holy men. One is
Mohammed al-Busiri, the author of a poem called Al-Burdah,
universally read by the world of Islam, and locally recited at funerals
and on other solemn occasions. The other is Abu Abbas al-Andalusi, a
sage and saint of the first water, at whose tomb prayer is never breathed
in vain.
It is not to be supposed that the people of Alexandria could look upon
my phials and pill-boxes without a yearning for their contents. An

Indian doctor, too, was a novelty to them; Franks they despised,-but a
man who had come so far from East and West! Then there was
something infinitely seducing in the character of a magician, doctor,
and fakir, each admirable of itself, thus combined to make "great
medicine." Men, women, and children besieged my door, by which
means I could see the people face to face, and especially the fair sex, of
which Europeans, generally speaking, know only the worst specimens.
Even respectable natives, after witnessing a performance of "Mandal"
and the Magic mirror[FN#19], opined that the stranger was a holy man,
gifted
[p.13]with supernatural powers, and knowing everything. One old
person sent to offer me his daughter in marriage; he said nothing about
dowry,-but I thought proper to decline the honour. And a middle-aged
lady proffered me the sum of one hundred piastres, nearly one pound
sterling, if I would stay at Alexandria, and superintend the restoration
of her blind left eye.
But the reader must not be led to suppose that I acted "Carabin" or
"Sangrado" without any knowledge of my trade. From youth I have
always been a dabbler in medical and mystical study. Moreover, the
practice of physic is comparatively easy amongst dwellers in warm
latitudes, uncivilised peoples, where there is not that complication of
maladies which troubles more polished nations. And further, what
simplifies extremely the treatment of the sick in these parts is the
undoubted periodicity of disease, reducing almost all to one
type-ague.[FN#20] Many of the complaints of tropical climates, as
medical men well know, display palpably intermittent symptoms little
known to colder countries; and speaking from individual experience, I
may safely assert that in all cases of suffering, from a wound to
ophthalmia, this phenomenon has forced itself upon my notice. So
much by way of excuse. I therefore considered myself as well qualified
for the work as if I had taken out a buono per l'estero diploma at Padua,
and not more likely to do active harm than most of the regularly
graduated young surgeons who start to "finish" themselves upon the
frame of the British soldier.

After a month's hard work at Alexandria, I prepared to assume the
character of a wandering Darwaysh; after
[p.14]reforming my title from "Mirza"[FN#21] to "Shaykh"
Abdullah.[FN#22] A reverend man, whose name I do not care to quote,
some time ago initiated me into his order, the Kadiriyah, under the
high-sounding name of Bismillah-Shah:[FN#23] and, after a due period
of probation, he graciously elevated me to the proud position of a
Murshid,[FN#24] or Master in the mystic craft. I was therefore
sufficiently well acquainted with the tenets and practices of these
Oriental Freemasons. No character in the Moslem