The Land of Midian, vol 1 | Page 9

Russo-Turkish campaign,
which had been unjustifiably allowed, by foreign Powers, to drain
Egypt of her gold and life-blood--some 25,000 men since the beginning
of the Servian prelude--not only caused "abundant sorrow" to the
capital, but also frightened off the stranger-host, which habitually
supplies the poorer population with sovereigns and napoleons. The
horse-pest, a bad typhus, after raging in 1876 and early 1877, had died
out: unfortunately, so had the horses; and the well-bred, fine-tempered,
and high-spirited little Egyptians were replaced by a mongrel lot,
hastily congregated from every breeding ground in Europe. The Fellahs,
who had expected great things from the mission of MM. Goschen and
Joubert, asked wonderingly if those financiers had died; while a scanty
Nile, ten to twelve feet lower, they say, than any known during the last
thousand years, added to the troubles of the poor, by throwing some
600,000 feddans (acres) out of gear, and by compelling an exodus from
the droughty right to the left bank. Finally, when the river of Egypt did
rise, it rose too late, and brought with it a feverish and unwholesome
autumn. Briefly, we hardly escaped the horrors of Europe--
"Herbstesahnung! Triste Spuren In den Wäldern, auf den Fluren!
Regentage, böses Wetter," etc.
Meanwhile, in the Land of the Pharaohs, whose scanty interest about
the war was disguised by affected rejoicings at Ottoman successes, the
Prophet gallantly took the field, as in the days of Yúsuf bin Ishák. This
time the vehicle of revelation was the learned Shayhk (má? ) Alaysh,
who was ordered in a dream by the Apostle of Allah (upon whom be
peace!) to announce the victory of the Moslem over the Infidel; and, as
the vision took place in Jemádi el-Akhir (June), the first prediction was
not more unsuccessful than usual. Shortly afterwards, the same
reverend man again dreamt that, seeing two individuals violently
quarreling, with voies de fait, he had hastened, like a true believer, to
separate and to reconcile them. But what was his surprise when the
brawlers proved to be the Sultan and the Czar, the former administering
condign personal punishment to his hereditary foe. This, the
enlightened Shaykh determined, was a sign that in September the
Osmanli would be gloriously triumphant. Nor was he far wrong. The

Russians, who had begun the campaign, like the English in India, with
a happy contempt both for the enemy and for the elementary rules of
war, were struck with a cold fit of caution: instead of marching straight
upon and intrenching themselves in Adrianople, they vainly broke their
gallant heads against the improvised earthworks of Plevna. And
ignorant Europe, marvelling at the prowess of the "noble Turk,"
ignored the fact that all the best "Turkish" soldiers were Slavs,
originally Christians, renegades of old, unable to speak a word of
Turkish; preserving their Bosniac family-names, and without one drop
of Turkish blood in their veins. Sulayman Pashás army was about as
"Turkish" as are the Poles or the Hungarians.
Not the less did Cairo develop the normal season-humours of the Frank.
Among the various ways of "doing the Pyramids," I registered a new
one: Mr. A---- , junior, unwilling wholly to neglect them, sent his valet
with especial orders to stand upon the topmost plateau. The "second
water" of irrigation made November dangerous; many of the
"Shepheards" suffered from the Ayán el-Mulúk, the "Evil of Kings"
(gout), in the gloomy form as well as the gay; and whisky-cum-soda
became popular as upon the banks of the Thames and the Tweed. As
happens on dark days, the money-digger was abroad, and one anecdote
deserves record. Many years ago, an old widow body had been dunned
into buying, for a few piastres, a ragged little manuscript from a pauper
Maghrabi. These West Africans are, par excellence, the magicians of
modern Egypt and Syria; and here they find treasure, like the Greeks
upon the shores of the Northern Adriatic. Perhaps there may be a basis
for the idea; oral traditions and written documents concerning buried
hoards would take refuge in remote regions, comparatively undisturbed
by the storms of war, and inhabited by races more or less literary. At
any rate, the Maghrabi Darwaysh went his ways, assuring his customer
that, when her son came of age, a fortune would be found in the little
book. And true enough, the boy, reaching man's estate, read in its torn
pages ample details concerning a Dafi'nah (hoard) of great value. He
was directed, by the manuscript, to a certain spot upon the Mukattam
range, immediately behind the Cairene citadel, where the removal of a
few stones would disclose a choked shaft: the latter would descend to a
tunnel, full of rubbish, and one of the many sidings would open upon

the golden chamber. The permission of Government was secured, the
workmen began, and