On My Way Hither, I Was Highly Entertained By The Serjeant Of The
Guard.
This man had not long returned from Mecca and Upper Egypt.
He
spoke Italian tolerably well, was full of strange notions, and
considered himself quite a superior genius. He told me, that he
expected to be promoted in a very short time, and asked me, whether I
were present at his public entry into the garrison of Larache, on his
return from the sanctuary of Mecca. I smiled, and answered him in the
affirmative. He asked me, why I smiled? "At the novelty of the
exhibition," I replied, "in carrying you to all the mosques, and
afterwards in escorting you in state to your humble habitation." - "It
is but too often the practice," rejoined he, "of petulant infidels to
ridicule us, in the exercise of pious customs and religious duties."
Then spurring his horse, he muttered something abusive, which I
pretended not to hear. However, I found no great difficulty in
appeasing the pious and sanctified serjeant. In short, I dispelled all
his glooms and ill humours, and drowned his scruples, in a cup of port
wine. It is customary among the Moors, when any of them return from
the pilgrimage of Mecca, to go out in great procession to meet the
devout pilgrim, whom some of them carry on their shoulders with great
solemnity through the town and to his own house, where he sits in
state for three days, receiving visits and donations from all classes
of people, who flock with the greatest eagerness to obtain a sight of
him. The conversation was insensibly renewed, and he told me, that of
a company of fifteen pilgrims, who set out for the holy city of Mecca,
he was the sole survivor, the others having all perished in the
deserts. He was the only favoured and true believer that was permitted
to visit the holy sepulchre. He added: "As the dangers attending the
pilgrimage are great and various, does not the happy being, who
returns safe to his native place, deserve the honours and compliments
paid him, for his great perseverance and patience in such a dangerous
undertaking, the success of which is the result of his innate
rectitude?" I gave him to understand that he had made the case
clear. "The French," he continued, "had a design upon the treasures of
Mecca." I agreed that they certainly had; and asked him, by what power
he thought the French army was prevented from possessing itself of
Mecca. "Unquestionably," rejoined he, "by the invincible and invisible
power of our Prophet." In reply to my intimation that it was the
British arms which defeated the French before Acre and Alexandria, and
compelled them to give up the conquest they had made in Egypt, he went
on to say, that "all the great acts of mankind are guided and governed
by a supernatural power. The French were defeated by the English,
because the latter fought under the invincible standard of _Mahomet_;
and so fully convinced are the true believers of this, that we now
consider the English as brethren.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 17 of 76
Words from 8354 to 8873
of 39195
