The Pupil Calls His Tutor Morabby, And
Displays The Greatest Regard For Him During The Rest Of His Life.
The Sherifs derive considerable advantages from their Bedouin education;
acquiring not only strength and activity of body, but some
Part of that
energy, freedom of manners, and boldness, which characterize the
inhabitant of the Desert; together with a greater regard to the virtues
of good faith and hospitality, than if they had been brought up in
Mekka.
I did not see many Sherifs. Of the small number now remaining, some were
employed, during my residence at Mekka, either as guides with the army
of Mohammed Aly, or were incorporated by him in a small corps of
Bedouins, commanded by Sherif Radjeh, one of their most distinguished
members; or in the service of Sherif Yahya, who sent them on duty to the
advanced posts towards Yemen. Some of them had retired, after Ghaleb was
taken, to the Wahabys, or to Yemen, where a few of them still remained.
Those whom I had an opportunity of seeing, were distinguished by fine
manly countenances, strongly expressive of noble extraction; and they
had all the exterior manners of Bedouins; free, bold, frank, warm
friends; bitter enemies; seeking for popularity, and endowed with an
innate pride, which, in their own estimation, sets them far above the
Sultan of Constantinople. I never beheld a handsomer man than Sherif
Radjeh, whose heroism I have mentioned in my history of Mohammed Aly's
campaign, and the dignity of whose deportment would make him remarked
among thousands; nor can a more spirited and intelligent face be easily
imagined, than was that of Sherif Ghaleb. Yahya, the present Sherif, is
of a very dark complexion, like that of his father; his mother was a
dark brown Abyssinian slave.
The Mekkawys give the Sherifs little credit for honesty, and they have
constantly shown great versatility of character and conduct; but this
could hardly be otherwise, considering the sphere and the times in which
they moved: their Bedouin education has certainly
[p.232] made them preferable, in many respects, to the common class of
Mekkawys.
It is a rule among the Sherifs, that the daughters of the reigning chief
can never marry; and while their brothers are often playing in the
streets with their comrades, from whom they are in no way distinguished,
either in dress or dignity of appearance, the unfortunate girls remain
shut up in the father's house. I have seen a son of Sherif Ghaleb, whose
father was then in exile at Salonica, play before the door of his house.
But I have heard that, when the boys of the reigning Sherif return from
the Desert, and are not yet sufficiently grown up to appear with a manly
air in public, they are kept within their father's house or court-yard,
and seen only by the inmates of the family, appearing for the first time
in public, on horseback, by the side of their father; from which period
they are considered to be of age, soon after marry, and take a share in
public affairs.
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