Travels In Arabia | Page 7

to transmit to his family his last
year’s savings, amounting to three thousand piastres (about 100l.), and
he was so kind as to offer me the money for a bill upon Cairo, payable

at sight; an advantage which, he well knew, the merchants of Djidda
never insure to those who take their bills. Such an offer would not be
considered as conferring
[p.6] any obligation in the commercial towns of Europe; but in the East,
and under the circumstances in which I was placed, it was
extraordinary. Yahya Effendi added, that some of his friends had given
me a flattering character while at Cairo, and that he could not, therefore,
entertain the slightest doubt of my solvency and respectability, in
which opinion he had been confirmed on reading the letter of credit I
had brought with me. As the issue of my application to the Pasha at
Tayf was uncertain, I readily and gratefully accepted Yahya’s proposal;
the money was immediately paid to me, the bills drawn, and a few days
after, my obliging friend departed with Tousoun Pasha for Medina,
where I had the pleasure of seeing him again early in the following
year.
I was now in possession of a sum sufficient to banish all apprehension
of suffering from poverty before the arrival of fresh supplies from
Egypt, whatever might be the consequence of my application to the
Pasha; but Yahya Effendi was no sooner gone, than I received a
somewhat favourable answer to the letter I had written to Tayf. Bosari,
it appeared, had been rather unwilling to urge my request to the Pasha,
afraid, perhaps, that he might himself become a sufferer, should I
forfeit my word. The Pasha, however, had heard of my being at Djidda,
through another person in his suite, whom I had seen there, and who
had arrived at Tayf; and hearing that I was walking about in rags, he
immediately despatched a messenger, with two dromedaries, to the
collector of customs at Djidda, Seyd Aly Odjakly, in whose hands was
the management of all the affairs of the town, with an order to furnish
me a suit of clothes, and a purse of five hundred piastres as travelling
money; accompanied with a request that I should repair immediately to
Tayf, with the same messenger who had brought the letter. In a
postscript, Seyd Aly Odjakly was enjoined to order the messenger to
take me by the upper road to Tayf, which leaves Mekka to the south,
the lower and more usual road passing through the middle of that town.
[p.7] The invitation of a Turkish Pasha is a polite command; whatever,
therefore, might be my reluctance to go at this time to Tayf, I could not
avoid, under the present circumstances, complying with the Pasha’s

wishes; and, notwithstanding the secret aversion I had to receive a
present at his hands instead of a loan, I could not refuse to accept the
clothes and money, without hurting the pride and exciting the
resentment of a chief, whose good graces it was now my principal aim
to conciliate. [Some persons, perhaps, consider it an honour to receive
presents from Pashas; but I think differently. I know that the real
motive of a Turk in making presents, is either to get double the value in
return, (which could not be the case with me,) or to gratify his own
pride in showing to his courtiers that he deigns to be liberal towards a
person whom he holds infinitely below him in station or worth. I have
often witnessed the sneers of the donor and his people on making such
presents; and their sentiments are sometimes expressed by the saying,
“Look, he has thrown a morsel to this dog!” Few Europeans may,
perhaps, agree with me in this respect, but my knowledge authorises
me to form this opinion; and the only advice which I can give to
travellers who would not lower themselves in the estimation of Turkish
grandees, is to be always ready, on similar occasions, to return the
supposed favour two-fold. As for myself, I had but seldom occasion to
make presents during my travels; and this was the only one that I was
ever obliged to accept.] I likewise understood the meaning of the
postscript, although Seyd Aly was not aware of it; but, on this point, I
flattered myself I should be a match for the Pasha and his people.
As the invitation was very pressing, I left Djidda in the evening of the
same day on which the messenger arrived, after supping with Seyd Aly,
in company with a great number of Hadjis from all parts of the world;
for the fast of Ramadhan had already commenced, and during this
month everybody displays as much hospitality and splendour as he
possibly can,