M’Garha had five hundred miles to ride, previous to executing his bloody commission ; and, hy his account to me, it was the sixteenth of the same kind that he had been intrusted with: he seldom failed either in the execution or in receiving the reward, which always follows: “ they were his master’s orders—with Bis milla ! (in God’s name) he struck, and struck home!” His victim, in this case, was of more consequence than any of his former ones, and his reward would have been greater in proportion: Hamet was withal the descendant of the old enemy of his clan; but there was still some magic in the name of the Seffenusser. They were a race of heroes—cowardice could not be a crime for any of the blood to be guilty o f; and the chance of being strangled on his return appeared to him preferable to assassinating Abdi Zeleel, and he determined on hesitating before he executed the bashaw’s orders. On arriving at the hut of the Arab chief, notwithstanding his fallen state, friends enough remained to warn him of his approaching fate: he met Hamet at the door, kissed the signet of the bashaw, and desired him to perform his office ; adding, “ You are a M’Garha, and an enemy to our house.” “ I am,” replied the other, “ and therefore not capable of assassinating a Seffenusser : if you are guilty, fly—mine be the risk.” Cowardice is ever visited in an Arab by the most disgraceful punishments; he is often bound, and led through the huts of the whole tribe, with the bowels and offal of a bullock, or some other animal, tied round his head ; and amongst a people who only desire to be rich in order to increase the number of their wives, probably the greatest punishment of all is, that could even any woman be found who would receive him as a husband, which would be an extraordinary circumstance, no Arab would allow him to enter into his family with such a stain on his character as cowardice. The amor patri<e discoverable in even the wildest inhabitant of the most barren rock is not felt by the wandering Arab, or the Moor. He wanders from pasture to pasture, from district to district, without any local attachment; and his sole delight is a roving, irregular, but martial life. I have met with several, mostly Moors of Mesurata and Sockna, who have made three times the pilgrimage to Mecca; visited severally all the ports in the Red Sea ; had been in Syria, from St. Jean d’Acre to Antioch ; had traded to Smyrna and Constantinople, visiting Cyprus, Rhodes, and most of the islands in the Archipelago; had penetrated to the west of Nyffe, in Soudan, and every other part of the black country; had been two or three times stripped and robbed of every thing in the Negro country, escaping only with life, after receiving several wounds. Some of them had not seen their families for fifteen or twenty years, yet were still planning new expeditions, with as much glee as if they were just beginning life, instead of tottering on the brink of death. Arabs have always been commended by the ancients for the fidelity of their attachments, and they are still scrupulously exact to their words, and respectful to their kindred ; they have been universally celebrated for their quickness of apprehension and penetration, and the vivacity of their wit. Their language is certainly one of the most ancient in the world; but it has many dialects. The Arabs, however, have their vices and their defects ; they are naturally addicted to war, bloodshed, and cruelty; and so malicious as scarcely ever to forget an injury. Their frequent robberies committed on traders and travellers, have rendered the name of an Arab almost infamous in Europe. Amongst themselves, however, they are most honest, and true to the rites of hospitality ; and towards those whom they receive as friends into their camp, every thing is open, and nothing ever known to be stolen : enter but once into the tent of an Arab, and by the pressure of his hand he ensures you protection, at the hazard of his life. An Arab is ever true to his bread and salt; once eat with him, and a knot of friendship is tied which cannot easily be loosened. Arabs have been_ truly described as a distinct class of mankind. In the bashaw’s dominions, they have never been entirely subdued : violent attempts at subjugation have often deprived them of tracts of their vast territories ; whole tribes have been annihilated ; but, as a people, they have ever remained independent and free. The few fertile spots of scanty verdure, called “ oases,” which now and then refresh the languid senses of the weary traveller, and which are desolate, beyond the wildest wastes of European land, are the tracts inhabited by the eastern Arabs. Masses of conglomerated sand obstruct the path which leads to these oases or wadeys; nothing relieves the eye, as it stretches over the wide expanse, except where the desert scene is broken by a chain of bleak and barren mountains : no cooling breezes freshen the a ir: the sun descends in overpowerf
27f 24
To see the actual publication please follow the link above