Oriental Encounters / Palestine and Syria, 1894-6

OUNT

hich surges all around the Sea of Lot, we had been riding since the dawn without encountering a human be

the last incline on to the village level I heard angry shouts, and saw a crowd of fellah?n on foot mobbing Rash?d. Urging my horse, I shouted

word 'moyeh,' that water was the matter in dispu

p and dragged my horse away, and made this noise. They say the water in the spring is theirs, and no one else has any right to touch it. I offered to make

ith advice. Accordingly, I smiled and nodded to the villagers, and rode back up the path a little way, Rash?d obeying my example with reluctance, mutter

s, and dismounted

at the village with that coolness, like indifference, h

growled Rash?d. 'Heard anyone the like of such inhospitality

vey the crowd of villagers below, who now sat g

on of rashness. We shall do well to wait before

h, and would, I think, have gone to sleep, had not Rash?d, conceiving h

sked defiantly. 'Say in what respect,

forts led to failure,' said the sage, benignly. 'Thou art a soldier yet in thought, and t

ied Rash?d indignantl

O beloved!' I put in, to save Rash?d from

, him only,' said Suleyman; and he was going to tell us more, but just then something i

llage was created, have two Franks approached it in a single day before. Thou art as one of us

n on horseback clad in white from head to foot, with a pith helmet a

ash?d, uninterested in the sight. 'It is a s

er fares, what method he adopts,' replied

for the spring. The fellah?n, already put upon their guard by Rash?d's venture, oppose

er,' said Suleyman, who now sat up and showed keen interest.

the Frank, after laying about him vainly with his riding-whip, had drawn out a revolver. He was being stoned. His muleteers had fled t

glish: 'Don't you be a f

ace; but Suleyman bestowed no further thought on him. He

e Unity! Bless the Prophet, and info

ttention by this solemn

among you? Let him

o be without a leader, an old white-beard

, O lord of judgme

voices, which appeared quite friendly, and some mighty bursts of laughter from the cro

man returned to

le to these people through the ages because the wandering tribes with all their herds come h

sat his horse with an indignant air, more angry,

ake the water and you p

they to charge me money for the water of this natur

ay for you,' sh

ance-understand that the conditions in that desert country made the s

anned my semi-native garb with pity and disgust. 'And

leyman. He is a

th a dark complexion and light eyes. 'I am going to camp here to-night. I have a

I made answer,

your camp?

up in the guest-room if ther

unting for tastes,' he

's house, where it had been arranged that we should pass the night. Thither we went, when I had finished speaking to the missionary; and ther

so we will not sleep inside it, but outside-on the roof. For supper we are the invi

d out in disappointment. Suleyman suggested that I should revoke the promise instantly, but that I would not do, to his annoyance; and after that, till it was time for me to go, he a