[P.400] After The Pilgrimage Haji Mahomet Repaired To Taif.

On the road he remarked a phenomenon observable in Al-Hijaz—the lightness of the nights there.

Finati attributes it to the southern position of the place. But, observing a perceptible twilight there, I was forced to seek further cause. May not the absence of vegetation, and the heat-absorbing nature of the soil,—granite, quartz, and basalt,—account for the phenomenon[FN#19]? The natives as usual, observing it, have invested its origin with the garb of fable.

It is not my intention to accompany Mahomet to the shameful defeat of Taraba, where Tussun Pasha lost three quarters of his army, or to the glorious victory of Bissel, where Mohammed Ali on the 10th January, 1815, broke 24,000 Wahhabis commanded by Faysal bin Sa’ud. His account of this interesting campaign is not full or accurate like Mengin’s; still, being the tale of an eye-witness, it attracts attention. Nothing can be more graphic than his picture of the old conqueror sitting with exulting countenance upon the carpet where he had vowed to await death or victory, and surrounded by heaps of enemies’ heads.[FN#20]

Still less would it be to the purpose to describe the latter details of Haji Mahomet’s career, his return to Cairo, his accompanying Mr. Bankes to upper Egypt and Syria, and his various trips to Aleppo, Kurdistan, the

[p.401] Sa’id, the great Oasis, Nabathaea, Senna’ar, and Dongola. We concede to him the praise claimed by his translator, that he was a traveller to no ordinary extent; but beyond this we cannot go. He was so ignorant that he had forgotten to write[FN#21]; his curiosity and his powers of observation keep pace with his knowledge[FN#22]; his moral character as it appears in print is of that description which knows no sense of shame: it is not candour but sheer insensibility which makes him relate circumstantially his repeated desertions, his betrayal of Fatimah, and his various plunderings.

[FN#1] He describes the Harim as containing “the females of different countries, all of them young, and all more or less attractive, and the merriest creatures I ever saw.” His narration proves that affection and fidelity were not wanting there. [FN#2] Mr. Bankes, Finati’s employer and translator, here comments upon Ali Bey’s assertion, “Even to travellers in Mahometan countries, I look upon the safety of their journey as almost impossible, unless they have previously submitted to the rite.” Ali Bey is correct; the danger is doubled by non-compliance with the custom. Mr. Bankes apprehends that “very few renegadoes do submit to it.” In bigoted Moslem countries, it is considered a sine qua non. [FN#3] See Chap. xiii. of this work. [FN#4] “Black cloth, according to Ali Bey; and I believe he is correct.” So Mr. Bankes. If Ali Bey meant broad-cloth, both are in error, as the specimen in my possession—a mixture of silk and cotton—proves. [FN#5] Ali Bey showed by his measurements that no two sides correspond exactly.

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