Oriental Encounters / Palestine and Syria, 1894-6

INOCER

denly, turning upon me in the gateway

ot with me. I must have

ind of cloister. I was making my arrangements with the landlord, when Rash?d returned, the picture of despair. He flung up both his hands, announcing failure, and then sank down upon the ground and moaned. The host, a burly man, inquired what ailed him. I told him, when he uttered just reflections upon cabmen and the vanity of worldly wealth. Rash?d, as I could see, was 'zi'lan'-a prey to that strange mixture of mad rage and sorrow and despair, which is a real disease for children of the Arabs. An English servant would not thus have cared about the loss of a small item of his master's property, not by his fault but through that master's oversight. But my possessions were Rash?d's delight, his claim to honour. He boasted of them to all comers. In particular did he

? The driver was a chance encounter. I do no

fix desire on higher things. Whereat Rash?d sprang up, as one past patience, and departed, darting through the cat

n a springless carriage, always on the point of overturning. We should have done better to have come on horseback in the usual way; but Rash?d, havi

the eyes of wayfarers and prowling dogs. Many of the people in the streets, too, carried lanterns whose swing made objects in their circle see

tionary, with all its faces turned in one direction.

inquired, amon

th fifty Turkish pounds, his master's property. It was stolen from him by a

eating himself against that wall with a most fearful outcry. A group of high-fezzed soldiers, the policem

e tremendous Count of all the English-their chief prince, by Allah!-loves it as his so

aid cabman?' asked a

ather neatly as 'a one-eyed man, full-bearded, of a form as if inflate

rly. 'His dwelling is close by. Come, O thou poo

went off together. I followed with the crowd as far as to the cabman's door, a filthy entry in a

r, holding on high the famous whip. The sergeant came across the court with him. A score of sold

ah, I have found

in vain but for the sergeant's knowledge of the cabman's house. The sergeant, with a chuckle, owned that that same knowledge would have been of no effect had not Rash?d once more displayed his keen intelligence. They had poured into the house-a single room, illumined only by a saucer lamp upon the ground-and searched it thoroughly, the cabman all the while protesting his great innocence, and swearing he had never in this world beheld a whip like that de

concealing the now famous whip. I suppose they went off to some tavern to discuss the wonderful adventure more at length; for I

rong to give that sergeant any money. I had made thy name so great that

that I imagined he had gone to sleep.

e the disturbance, but has

s! Here, read

should bear our whip and our revolver. I have made