[p.205] sun to a neighbouring coffee-house-a shed of palm leaves kept by a Tur man, and there, seated on mats, we demolished the contents of our basket.  Whilst we were eating, some Badawin came in and joined us, when invited so to do.  They were poorly dressed, and all armed with knives and cheap sabres, hanging to leathern bandoleers:  in language and demeanour they showed few remains of their old ferocity.  As late as Mohammed Ali’s time these people were noted wreckers, and formerly they were dreaded pirates:  now they are lions with their fangs and claws drawn.

In the even, when we returned to our tent, a Syrian, one of our party on the poop, came out to meet us with the information that several large vessels had arrived from Suez, comparatively speaking, empty, and that the captain of one of them would land us at Yambu’ for three dollars a head.  The proposal was tempting.  But presently it became apparent that my companions were unwilling to shift their precious boxes, and moreover, that I should have to pay for those who could not or would not pay for themselves,-that is to say, for the whole party.  As such a display of wealth would have been unadvisable, I dismissed the idea with a sigh.  Amongst the large vessels was one freighted with Persian pilgrims, a most disagreeable race of men on a journey or a voyage.  They would not land at first, because they feared the Badawin.  They would not take water from the town people, because some of these were Christians.  Moreover, they insisted upon making their own call to prayer, which heretical proceeding-it admits five extra words-our party, orthodox Moslems, would rather have died than have permitted.  When their crier, a small wizen-faced man, began the Azan with a voice

“in quel tenore Che fa il cappon quando talvolta canta,”

we received it with a shout of derision, and some, hastily

[p.206] snatching up their weapons, offered him an opportunity of martyrdom.  The Maghrabis, too, hearing that the Persians were Rafaz (heretics) crowded fiercely round to do a little Jihad, or Fighting for the Faith.  The long-bearded men took the alarm.  They were twice the number of our small party, and therefore they had been in the habit of strutting about with nonchalance, and looking at us fixedly, and otherwise demeaning themselves in an indecorous way.  But when it came to the point, they showed the white feather.  These Persians accompanied us to the end of our voyage.  As they approached the Holy Land, visions of the “Nabbut” caused a change for the better in their manners.  At Mahar they meekly endured a variety of insults, and at Yambu’ they cringed to us like dogs.