In the first place, we should have paid less for the
whole of a privileged vessel, than we did for our wretched
quarters on the deck of the pilgrim-ship; and, secondly,
we might have touched at any port we pleased, so as
to do a little business in the way of commerce. [FN#14]
Afterwards called by Sir R. F. Burton the “Golden
Wire."-Ed. [FN#15] For the “Sath,”
or poop, the sum paid by each was seven Riyals.
I was, therefore, notably cheated by Sa’ad the
Demon. The unhappy women in the “Kamrah,”
or cabin, bought suffocation at the rate of 6 dollars
each, as I was afterwards informed, and the third class,
in the “Taht,” or amidships and forward,
contributed from 3 to 5 Riyals. But, as usua1
on these occasions, there was no prix fixe; every man
was either overcharged or undercharged, according
to his means or his necessities. We had to purchase
our own water, but the ship was to supply us with
fuel for cooking. We paid nothing extra for luggage,
and we carried an old Maghrabi woman gratis for good
luck. [FN#16] We were still at Suez, where we could
do as we pleased. But respectable Arabs in their
own country, unlike Egyptians, are seldom to be seen
in the places of public resort. “Go to the
coffee-house and sing there!” is a reproach
sometimes addressed to those who have a habit of humming
in decent society. [FN#17] It was only my prestige
as physician that persuaded my friend to join me in
these bathings. As a general rule, the Western
Arabs avoid cold water, from a belief that it causes
fever. When Mr. C. Cole, H.B.M.’s Vice-Consul,
arrived at Jeddah, the people of the place, seeing
that he kept up his Indian habits, advised him strongly
to drop them. He refused; but unhappily he soon
caught a fever, which confirmed them all in their
belief. When Arabs wish to cool the skin after
a journey, they wash with a kind of fuller’s
earth called “Tafl,” or with a thin paste
of henna, and then anoint the body with oil or butter.
[FN#18] An incrementative form of the name “Fatimah,”
very common in Egypt. Fatimah would mean a “weaner"-Fattumah,
a “great weaner.” By the same barbarism
Khadijah becomes “Khaddugah”; Aminah, “Ammunah”;
and Nafisah, “Naffusah,” on the banks
of the Nile. [FN#19] The palmy days of the Egyptian
husband, when he might use the stick, the sword, or
the sack with impunity, are, in civilised places at
least, now gone by. The wife has only to complain
to the Kazi, or to the governor, and she is certain
of redress. This is right in the abstract, but
in practice it acts badly. The fair sex is so
unruly in this country, that strong measures are necessary
to coerce it, and in the arts of deceit men have here
little or no chance against women. [FN#20] The amount
of settlement being, among Moslems as among Christians,
the test of a bride’s value,-moral and physical,-it
will readily be understood that our demand was more
facetious than complimentary. [FN#21] The term Misriyah
(an Egyptian woman) means in Al-Hijaz and the countries


