Sketches and Travels in London

by William Makepeace Thackeray

to stand still for such an humble portrait as my pencil could make

  of them; and the sketch done, it was passed from one person to

  another, each making his comments, and signifying a very polite

  approval. Here are a pair of them, {2} Fath Allah and Ameenut

  Daoodee his father, horse-dealers by trade, who came and sat with

  us at the inn, and smoked pipes (the sun being down), while the

  original of the above masterpiece was made. With the Arabs outside

  the walls, however, and the freshly arriving country people, this

  politeness was not so much exhibited. There was a certain tattooed

  girl, with black eyes and huge silver earrings, and a chin

  delicately picked out with blue, who formed one of a group of women

  outside the great convent, whose likeness I longed to carry off;--

  there was a woman with a little child, with wondering eyes, drawing

  water at the Pool of Siloam, in such an attitude and dress as

  Rebecca may have had when Isaac's lieutenant asked her for drink:-

  both of these parties standing still for half a minute, at the next

  cried out for backsheesh: and not content with the five piastres

  which I gave them individually, screamed out for more, and summoned

  their friends, who screamed out backsheesh too. I was pursued into

  the convent by a dozen howling women calling for pay, barring the

  door against them, to the astonishment of the worthy papa who kept

  it; and at Miriam's Well the women were joined by a man with a

  large stick, who backed their petition. But him we could afford to

  laugh at, for we were two and had sticks likewise.

  In the village of Siloam I would not recommend the artist to

  loiter. A colony of ruffians inhabit the dismal place, who have

  guns as well as sticks at need. Their dogs howl after the

  strangers as they pass through; and over the parapets of their

  walls you are saluted by the scowls of a villanous set of

  countenances, that it is not good to see with one pair of eyes.

  They shot a man at mid-day at a few hundred yards from the gates

  while we were at Jerusalem, and no notice was taken of the murder.

  Hordes of Arab robbers infest the neighbourhood of the city, with

  the Sheikhs of whom travellers make terms when minded to pursue

  their journey. I never could understand why the walls stopped

  these warriors if they had a mind to plunder the city, for there

  are but a hundred and fifty men in the garrison to man the long

  lonely lines of defence.

  I have seen only in Titian's pictures those magnificent purple

  shadows in which the hills round about lay, as the dawn rose

  faintly behind them; and we looked at Olivet for the last time from

  our terrace, where we were awaiting the arrival of the horses that

  were to carry us to Jaffa. A yellow moon was still blazing in the

  midst of countless brilliant stars overhead; the nakedness and

  misery of the surrounding city were hidden in that beautiful rosy

  atmosphere of mingling night and dawn. The city never looked so

  noble; the mosques, domes, and minarets rising up into the calm

  star-lit sky.

  By the gate of Bethlehem there stands one palm-tree, and a house

  with three domes. Put these and the huge old Gothic gate as a

  background dark against the yellowing eastern sky: the foreground

  is a deep grey: as you look into it dark forms of horsemen come

  out of the twilight: now there come lanterns, more horsemen, a

  litter with mules, a crowd of Arab horseboys and dealers

  accompanying their beasts to the gate; all the members of our party

  come up by twos and threes; and, at last, the great gate opens just

  before sunrise, and we get into the grey plains.

  Oh! the luxury of an English saddle! An English servant of one of

  the gentlemen of the mission procured it for me, on the back of a

  little mare, which (as I am a light weight) did not turn a hair in

  the course of the day's march--and after we got quit of the ugly,

  stony, clattering, mountainous Abou Gosh district, into the fair

  undulating plain, which stretches to Ramleh, carried me into the

  town at a pleasant hand-gallop. A negro, of preternatural

  ugliness, in a yellow gown, with a crimson handkerchief streaming

  over his head, digging his shovel spurs into the lean animal he

  rode, and driving three others before--swaying backwards and

  forwards on his horse, now embracing his ears, and now almost under

  his belly, screaming "yallah" with the most frightful shrieks, and

  singing country songs--galloped along ahead of me. I acquired one

  of his poems pretty well, and could imitate his shriek accurately;

  but I shall not have the pleasure of singing it to you in England.

  I had forgotten the delightful dissonance two days after, both the

  negro's and that of a real Arab minstrel, a donkey-driver

  accompanying our baggage, who sang and grinned with the most

  amusing good-humour.

  We halted, in the middle of the day, in a little wood of olive-

  trees, which forms almost the only shelter between Jaffa and

  Jerusalem, except that afforded by the orchards in the odious

  village of Abou Gosh, through which we went at a double quick pace.

  Under the olives, or up in the branches, some of our friends took a

  siesta. I have a sketch of four of them so employed. Two of them

  were dead within a month of the fatal Syrian fever. But we did not

  know how near fate was to us then. Fires were lighted, and fowls

  and eggs divided, and tea and coffee served round in tin panikins,

  and here we lighted pipes, and smoked and laughed at our ease. I

  believe everybody was happy to be out of Jerusalem. The impression

  I have of it now is of ten days passed in a fever.

  We all found quarters in the Greek convent at Ramleh, where the

  monks served us a supper on a terrace, in a pleasant sunset; a

  beautiful and cheerful landscape stretching around; the land in

  graceful undulations, the towers and mosques rosy in the sunset,

  with no lack of verdure, especially of graceful palms. Jaffa was

  nine miles off. As we rode all the morning we had been accompanied

  by the smoke of our steamer, twenty miles off at sea.

  The convent is a huge caravanserai; only three or four monks dwell

  in it, the ghostly hotel-keepers of the place. The horses were

  tied up and fed in the courtyard, into which we rode; above were

  the living-rooms, where there is accommodation, not only for an

  unlimited number of pilgrims, but for a vast and innumerable host

  of hopping and crawling things, who usually persist in partaking of

  the traveller's bed. Let all thin-skinned travellers in the East

  be warned on no account to travel without the admirable invention

  described in Mr. Fellowes's book; nay, possibly invented by that

  enterprising and learned traveller. You make a sack, of calico or

  linen, big enough for the body, appended to which is a closed

  chimney of muslin, stretched out by cane hoops, and fastened up to

  a beam, or against the wall. You keep a sharp eye to see that no

  flea or bug is on the look-out, and when assured of this, you pop

  into the bag, tightly c
losing the orifice after you. This

  admirable bug-disappointer I tried at Ramleh, and had the only

  undisturbed night's rest I enjoyed in the East. To be sure it was

  a short night, for our party were stirring at one o'clock, and

  those who got up insisted on talking and keeping awake those who

  inclined to sleep. But I shall never forget the terror inspired in

  my mind, being shut up in the bug-disappointer, when a facetious

  lay-brother of the convent fell upon me and began tickling me. I

  never had the courage again to try the anti-flea contrivance,

  preferring the friskiness of those animals to the sports of such a

  greasy grinning wag as my friend at Ramleh.

  In the morning, and long before sunrise, our little caravan was in

  marching order again. We went out with lanterns and shouts of

  "yallah" through the narrow streets, and issued into the plain,

  where, though there was no moon, there were blazing stars shining

  steadily overhead. They become friends to a man who travels,

  especially under the clear Eastern sky; whence they look down as if

  protecting you, solemn, yellow, and refulgent. They seem nearer to

  you than in Europe; larger and more awful. So we rode on till the

  dawn rose, and Jaffa came in view. The friendly ship was lying out

  in waiting for us; the horses were given up to their owners; and in

  the midst of a crowd of naked beggars, and a perfect storm of

  curses and yells for backsheesh, our party got into their boats,

  and to the ship, where we were welcomed by the very best captain

  that ever sailed upon this maritime globe, namely, Captain Samuel

  Lewis, of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's Service.

  CHAPTER XIV: FROM JAFFA TO ALEXANDRIA

  [From the Providor's Log-book.]

  Bill of Fare, October 12th.

  Mulligatawny Soup.

  Salt Fish and Egg Sauce.

  Roast Haunch of Mutton.

  Boiled Shoulder and Onion Sauce.

  Boiled Beef.

  Roast Fowls.

  Pillau ditto.

  Ham.

  Haricot Mutton.

  Curry and Rice.

  Cabbage.

  French Beans.

  Boiled Potatoes.

  Baked ditto.

  Damson Tart. Rice Puddings.

  Currant ditto. Currant Fritters.

  We were just at the port's mouth--and could see the towers and

  buildings of Alexandria rising purple against the sunset, when the

  report of a gun came booming over the calm golden water; and we

  heard, with much mortification, that we had no chance of getting

  pratique that night. Already the ungrateful passengers had begun

  to tire of the ship,--though in our absence in Syria it had been

  carefully cleansed and purified; though it was cleared of the

  swarming Jews who had infested the decks all the way from

  Constantinople; and though we had been feasting and carousing in

  the manner described above.

  But very early next morning we bore into the harbour, busy with a

  great quantity of craft. We passed huge black hulks of mouldering

  men-of-war, from the sterns of which trailed the dirty red flag,

  with the star and crescent; boats, manned with red-capped seamen,

  and captains and steersmen in beards and tarbooshes, passed

  continually among these old hulks, the rowers bending to their

  oars, so that at each stroke they disappeared bodily in the boat.

  Besides these, there was a large fleet of country ships, and stars

  and stripes, and tricolours, and Union Jacks; and many active

  steamers, of the French and English companies, shooting in and out

  of the harbour, or moored in the briny waters. The ship of our

  company, the "Oriental," lay there--a palace upon the brine, and

  some of the Pasha's steam-vessels likewise, looking very like

  Christian boats; but it was queer to look at some unintelligible

  Turkish flourish painted on the stern, and the long-tailed Arabian

  hieroglyphics gilt on the paddle-boxes. Our dear friend and

  comrade of Beyrout (if we may be permitted to call her so), H.M.S.

  "Trump," was in the harbour; and the captain of that gallant ship,

  coming to greet us, drove some of us on shore in his gig.

  I had been preparing myself overnight, by the help of a cigar and a

  moonlight contemplation on deck, for sensations on landing in

  Egypt. I was ready to yield myself up with solemnity to the mystic

  grandeur of the scene of initiation. Pompey's Pillar must stand

  like a mountain, in a yellow plain, surrounded by a grove of

  obelisks as tall as palm-trees. Placid sphinxes brooding o'er the

  Nile--mighty Memnonian countenances calm--had revealed Egypt to me

  in a sonnet of Tennyson's, and I was ready to gaze on it with

  pyramidal wonder and hieroglyphic awe.

  The landing quay at Alexandria is like the dockyard quay at

  Portsmouth: with a few score of brown faces scattered among the

  population. There are slop-sellers, dealers in marine-stores,

  bottled-porter shops, seamen lolling about; flys and cabs are

  plying for hire; and a yelling chorus of donkey-boys, shrieking,

  "Ride, sir!--Donkey, sir!--I say, sir!" in excellent English,

  dispel all romantic notions. The placid sphinxes brooding o'er the

  Nile disappeared with that shriek of the donkey-boys. You might be

  as well impressed with Wapping as with your first step on Egyptian

  soil.

  The riding of a donkey is, after all, not a dignified occupation.

  A man resists the offer at first, somehow, as an indignity. How is

  that poor little, red-saddled, long-eared creature to carry you?

  Is there to be one for you, and another for your legs? Natives and

  Europeans, of all sizes, pass by, it is true, mounted upon the same

  contrivance. I waited until I got into a very private spot, where

  nobody could see me, and then ascended--why not say descended, at

  once?--on the poor little animal. Instead of being crushed at

  once, as perhaps the rider expected, it darted forward, quite

  briskly and cheerfully, at six or seven miles an hour; requiring no

  spur or admonitive to haste, except the shrieking of the little

  Egyptian gamin, who ran along by asinus's side.

  The character of the houses by which you pass is scarcely Eastern

  at all. The streets are busy with a motley population of Jews and

  Armenians, slave-driving-looking Europeans, large-breeched Greeks,

  and well-shaven buxom merchants, looking as trim and fat as those

  on the Bourse or on 'Change; only, among the natives, the stranger

  can't fail to remark (as the Caliph did of the Calenders in the

  "Arabian Nights") that so many of them HAVE ONLY ONE EYE. It is

  the horrid ophthalmia which has played such frightful ravages with

  them. You see children sitting in the doorways, their eyes

  completely closed up with the green sickening sore, and the flies

  feeding on them. Five or six minutes of the donkey-ride brings you

  to the Frank quarter, and the handsome broad street (like a street

  of Marseilles) where the principal hotels and merchants' houses are

  to be found, and where the consuls have their houses, and hoist

  their flags. The palace of the Fren
ch Consul-General makes the

  grandest show in the street, and presents a great contrast to the

  humble abode of the English representative, who protects his

  fellow-countrymen from a second floor.

  But that Alexandrian two-pair-front of a Consulate was more welcome

  and cheering than a palace to most of us. For there lay certain

  letters, with post-marks of HOME upon them; and kindly tidings, the

  first heard for two months:- though we had seen so many men and

  cities since, that Cornhill seemed to be a year off, at least, with

  certain persons dwelling (more or less) in that vicinity. I saw a

  young Oxford man seize his despatches, and slink off with several

  letters, written in a tight neat hand, and sedulously crossed;

  which any man could see, without looking farther, were the

  handiwork of Mary Ann, to whom he is attached. The lawyer received

  a bundle from his chambers, in which his clerk eased his soul

  regarding the state of Snooks v. Rodgers, Smith ats Tomkins, &c.

  The statesman had a packet of thick envelopes, decorated with that

  profusion of sealing-wax in which official recklessness lavishes

  the resources of the country: and your humble servant got just one

  little modest letter, containing another, written in pencil

  characters, varying in size between one and two inches; but how

  much pleasanter to read than my Lord's despatch, or the clerk's

  account of Smith ats Tomkins,--yes, even than the Mary Ann

  correspondence! . . . Yes, my dear madam, you will understand me,

  when I say that it was from little Polly at home, with some

  confidential news about a cat, and the last report of her new doll.

  It is worth while to have made the journey for this pleasure: to

  have walked the deck on long nights, and have thought of home. You

  have no leisure to do so in the city. You don't see the heavens

  shine above you so purely there, or the stars so clearly. How,

  after the perusal of the above documents, we enjoyed a file of the

  admirable Galignani; and what O'Connell was doing; and the twelve

  last new victories of the French in Algeria; and, above all, six or

  seven numbers of Punch! There might have been an avenue of

  Pompey's Pillars within reach, and a live sphinx sporting on the

  banks of the Mahmoodieh Canal, and we would not have stirred to see

  them, until Punch had had his interview and Galignani was

  dismissed.

  The curiosities of Alexandria are few, and easily seen. We went

  into the bazaars, which have a much more Eastern look than the

  European quarter, with its Anglo-Gallic-Italian inhabitants, and

  Babel-like civilisation. Here and there a large hotel, clumsy and

  whitewashed, with Oriental trellised windows, and a couple of

  slouching sentinels at the doors, in the ugliest composite uniform

  that ever was seen, was pointed out as the residence of some great

  officer of the Pasha's Court, or of one of the numerous children of

  the Egyptian Solomon. His Highness was in his own palace, and was

  consequently not visible. He was in deep grief, and strict

  retirement. It was at this time that the European newspapers

  announced that he was about to resign his empire; but the quidnuncs

  of Alexandria hinted that a love-affair, in which the old potentate

  had engaged with senile extravagance, and the effects of a potion

  of hachisch, or some deleterious drug, with which he was in the

  habit of intoxicating himself, had brought on that languor and

  desperate weariness of life and governing, into which the venerable

  Prince was plunged. Before three days were over, however, the fit

  had left him, and he determined to live and reign a little longer.

  A very few days afterwards several of our party were presented to

  him at Cairo, and found the great Egyptian ruler perfectly

  convalescent.

  This, and the Opera, and the quarrels of the two prime donne, and

  the beauty of one of them, formed the chief subjects of

  conversation; and I had this important news in the shop of a

  certain barber in the town, who conveyed it in a language composed

  of French, Spanish, and Italian, and with a volubility quite worthy

  of a barber of "Gil Blas."