The Wild And Wandering
Tribes Of Arabs Who Thousands Of Years Ago Dug Out The Wells In
The Wilderness, Are Represented By Their Descendants Unchanged,
Who Now Draw Water From The Deep Wells Of Their Forefathers With
The Skins That Have Never Altered Their Fashion.
The Arabs,
gathering with their goats and sheep around the wells to-day,
recall the recollection of that distant
Time when "Jacob went on
his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east.
And he looked, and behold a well in the field; and, lo, there
were three flocks of sheep lying by it, for out of that well they
watered the flocks; and a great stone was upon the well's mouth.
And thither were all the flocks gathered; and they rolled the
stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the
stone again upon the well's mouth in his place." The picture of
that scene would be an illustration of Arab daily life in the
Nubian deserts, where the present is the mirror of the past.
CHAPTER VII
THE DEPARTURE.
ON the morning of the 25th July, 1861, Abou Sinn arrived at our
tent with a number of his followers, in their whitest apparel,
accompanied by one of his grandsons, Sheik Ali, who was to
command our escort and to accompany us to the frontier of the
Dabaina tribe, at which spot we were to be handed over to the
care of the sheik of those Arabs, Atalan Wat Said, who would
conduct us to Sofi. There were two superb hygeens duly equipped
for my wife and myself: they were snow-white, without speck or
blemish, and as clean and silk-like as good grooming could
accomplish. One of these beautiful creatures I subsequently
measured,--seven feet three and a half inches to the top of the
hump; this was much above the average. The baggage-camels were
left to the charge of the servants, and we were requested to
mount immediately, as the Sheik Abou Sinn was determined to
accompany us for some distance as a mark of courtesy, although he
was himself to march with his people on that day in the opposite
direction towards Gozerajup. Escorted by our grand old host, with
a great number of mounted attendants, we left the hospitable
camp, and followed the margin of the Atbara valley towards the
south, until, at the distance of about two miles, Abou Sinn took
leave, and returned with his people.
We now enjoyed the contrast between the light active step of
first-class hygeens, and the heavy swinging action of the camels
we had hitherto ridden. Travelling was for the first time a
pleasure; there was a delightful movement in the elasticity of
the hygeens, who ambled at about five miles and a half an hour,
as their natural pace; this they can continue for nine or ten
hours without fatigue. Having no care for the luggage, and the
coffee-pot being slung upon the saddle of an attendant, who also
carried our carpet, we were perfectly independent, as we were
prepared with the usual luxuries upon halting,--the carpet to
recline upon beneath a shady tree, and a cup of good Turkish
coffee.
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