The Pacha of Many Tales | Page 8

fortune, which I
hoped would bring a blessing upon my house. She was equally
delighted, and my beautiful camel seemed also to be aware of the
honour to which he was destined, as he repaid our caresses, curving and
twisting his long neck, and laying his head upon our shoulders.
The caravan assembled: it was one of the largest which for many years
had quitted Cairo, amounting in all to eighteen thousand camels. You
may imagine my pride when, as the procession passed through the

streets, I pointed out to my wife the splendid animal, with his bridle
studded with jewels and gold, led by the holy sheiks in their green
robes, carrying on his back the chest which contained the law of our
prophet, looking proudly on each side of him as he walked along,
accompanied by bands of music, and the loud chorus of the singing
men and women.
As on the ensuing day the caravan was to form outside of the town, I
returned home to my family, that I might have the last of their company,
having left my other camels, who were hired by the pilgrims, in charge
of an assistant who accompanied me in my journeys. The next morning
I bade adieu to my wife and children; and was quitting the house, when
my youngest child, who was about two years old, called to me, and
begged me to return one moment, and give her a farewell caress. As I
lifted her in my arms, she, as usual, put her hand into the pocket of my
loose jacket to search, as I thought, for the fruit that I usually brought
home for her when I returned from the bazaar; but there was none there:
and having replaced her in the arms of her mother, I hastened away that
I might not be too late at my post. Your highness is aware that we do
not march one following another, as most caravans do, but in one
straight line abreast. The necessary arrangement occupies the whole
day previous to the commencement of our journey, which takes place
immediately after the sun goes down. We set off that evening, and after
a march of two nights, arrived at Adjeroid, where we remained three
days, to procure our supplies of water from Suez, and to refresh the
animals, previous to our forced march over the desert of El Tyh.
The last day of our repose, as I was smoking my pipe, with my camels
kneeling down around me, I perceived a herie[1] coming from the
direction of Cairo, at a very swift pace; it passed by me like a flash of
lightning, but still I had sufficient time to recognise in its rider the
Maribout who had prophesied evil if my camel was employed to carry
the Koran on the pilgrimage of the year before.
[1] A swift dromedary.
The Maribout stopped his dromedary at the tent of the Emir Hadjy,
who commanded the caravan. Anxious to know the reason of his

following us, which I had a foreboding was connected with my camel, I
hastened to the spot. I found him haranguing the Emir and the people
who had surrounded him, denouncing woe and death to the whole
caravan if my camel was not immediately destroyed, and another
selected in his stead. Having for some time declaimed in such an
energetic manner as to spread consternation throughout the camp, he
turned his dromedary again to the west, and in a few minutes was out
of sight.
The Emir was confused; murmurings and consultations were arising
among the crowd. I was afraid that they would listen to the suggestions
of the Maribout; and, alarmed for my camel, and the loss of the honour
conferred upon him, I was guilty of a lie.
"O! Emir," said I, "listen not to that man who is mine enemy: he came
to my house, he ate of my bread, and would have been guilty of the
basest ingratitude by seducing the mother of my children; I drove him
from my door, and thus would he revenge himself. So may it fare with
me, and with the caravan, as I speak the truth."
I was believed; the injunctions of the Maribout were disregarded, and
that night we proceeded on our march through the plains of El Tyh.
As your highness has never yet made a pilgrimage, you can have no
conception of the country which we had to pass through: it was one
vast region of sand, where the tracks of those who pass over it are
obliterated by the wind,--a vast sea without water,--an expanse of
desolation. We plunged into the desert; and as the enormous collection
of animals, extending as far as the eye could reach, held their noiseless
way, it seemed