The Boy Mohammed Had Miscalculated The Amount Of Lodging In His Mother’S
House.
She, being a widow
[P.171] and a lone woman, had made over for the season all the
apartments to her brother, a lean old Meccan, of true ancient type,
vulture-faced, kite-clawed, with a laugh like a hyena, and a mere shell
of body. He regarded me with no favouring eye when I insisted as a
guest upon having some place of retirement; but he promised that, after
our return from Arafat, a little store-room should be cleared out for
me. With that I was obliged to be content, and to pass that day in the
common male drawing-room of the house, a vestibule on the ground floor,
called in Egypt a Takhta-bush.[FN#13] Entering, to the left (A) was a
large Mastabah, or platform, and at the bottom (B) a second, of smaller
dimensions and foully dirty. Behind this was a dark and unclean
store-room (C) containing the Hajis’ baggage. Opposite the Mastabah was a
firepan for pipes and coffee (D), superintended by a family of lean
Indians; and by the side (E) a doorless passage led to a bathing-room
(F) and staircase (G).
I had scarcely composed myself upon the carpeted Mastabah, when the
remainder was suddenly invaded by the Turkish, or rather Slavo-Turk,
pilgrims inhabiting the house, and a host of their visitors. They were
large, hairy men, with gruff voices and square figures; they did not
take the least notice of me, although[,] feeling the intrusion, I
stretched out my legs with a provoking nonchalance.[FN#14] At last one
of them addressed me in Turkish, to which I
[p.172] replied by shaking my head. His question being interpreted to
me in Arabic, I drawled out, “My native place is the land of Khorasan.”
This provoked a stern and stony stare from the Turks, and an “ugh!” which
said plainly enough, “Then you are a pestilent heretic.” I surveyed them
with a self-satisfied simper, stretched my legs a trifle farther, and
conversed with my water-pipe. Presently, when they all departed for a
time, the boy Mohammed raised, by request, my green box of medicines,
and deposited it upon the Mastabah; thus defining, as it were, a line
of demarcation, and asserting my privilege to it before the Turks. Most
of these men were of one party, headed by a colonel of Nizam, whom they
called a Bey. My acquaintance with them began roughly enough, but
afterwards, with some exceptions, who were gruff as an English butcher
when accosted by a lean foreigner, they proved to be kind-hearted and
not unsociable men. It often happens to the traveller, as the charming
Mrs. Malaprop observes, to find intercourse all the better by beginning
with a little aversion.
In the evening, accompanied by the boy Mohammed, and followed by Shaykh
Nur, who carried a lantern and a praying-rug, I again repaired to the
“Navel of the World[FN#15]; this time aesthetically, to enjoy the
delights of the hour after the “gaudy, babbling, and remorseful day.” The
moon, now approaching the full, tipped the brow of Abu Kubays, and lit
up the spectacle with a more solemn light.
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