A Pilgrimage to Nejd Volume Ii Part 4

Muttlak's equipment for the journey is of the simplest kind, the clothes in which he stands. He and a single attendant are mounted together on an old black dromedary, the Sheykh perched on the saddle, and his man kneeling behind, their only weapon a stick, and they guide the delul with a rope pa.s.sed through a hole in his nostril, a primitive arrangement.

"There," we said to Mohammed, "that is how your ancestors left Nejd."

The old man is very pious; unlike the anazeh and other tribes of the north, these Bedouins of Nejd say their prayers regularly, and profess the Mussulman creed, and Muttlak's first act on dismounting this evening in camp, was to go apart with his attendant and pray. Mohammed and Abdallah still say their prayers occasionally, though with less and less fervour as the distance from Hal grows greater. Awwad's devotion is of a very varying quality, sometimes quite imperceptible, at others almost alarming. I have noticed that any special stress of work in loading the camels of a morning, or pitching the tents at night, is sure to call forth a burst of spiritual fervour. At such times his la-ilaha-illa-llah goes on for a prodigious length of time, and may be heard a quarter of a mile off.

Ambar, the negro emir-el-haj, has brought a polite message for us from Ibn Rashid. He came with the Haj as far as Khuddra, and then went back to Hal, so we have lost nothing by not going with him on his intended ghazu.

Having camped early we sent Abdallah and Hanna to the Haj to find out our Persian friends there, and invite them to dine with us, as we had killed a sheep, and just before sunset they arrived, Ali Koli Khan, Huseyn Koli Khan, and Abd er-Rahim of Kermanshah. We seated them all on a carpet outside our little tent, for it is a warm evening, and then the dinner was served. But much to our vexation, for we had carefully arranged the entertainment, they refused to eat anything, first saying that they had already dined, and afterwards admitting that the Mollahs in whose company they were travelling, had forbidden their eating with us during the Haj.

They were very polite, however, and made all sorts of apologies, and even took one mouthful each to avoid being positively rude. Ali said that but for his mother's Mollah, he would have asked us to dine with him, for he has a good cook, but under the circ.u.mstances it cannot be. Huseyn, who is the son of an ex-vizier, pretended to speak French, but the only complete phrase which he had at command, and which seemed borrowed from a copy-book, was, "L'Arabe est charlatan." This he repeated in and out of season, whenever there was a pause in the conversation. These Persians were as loud as ever in their complaints against the Arabs, and being now out of his dominions, did not spare the Emir, whom they accused of having plundered them terribly. They also had much to tell of the extortions of the hemeldaria, or contractors for the Haj.

It appears that each pilgrim, when he starts for Mecca, puts himself into the hands of an Arab contractor, generally a native of Meshhed Ali, who undertakes to provide him with transport, either in the shape of riding dromedaries, or litters, or even in some cases, mules or horses. He does this for a sum of money down, accepting all risks, and is bound to replace any animal that breaks down or dies on the road, with another at a moment's notice. It is a very speculative business, as if all goes well with the Haj, the hemeldaria makes a fortune, whereas if things go badly, he may lose one. In some years great numbers of camels die, and then the contractors are ruined; but generally they make a very good thing out of it, as their charges are enormous. At any rate they seem very rich, and ride about themselves on the finest dromedaries in the Haj, and wear the finest clothes. There are twenty of these contractors now with the Haj, who divide the two thousand Persian pilgrims amongst them. Besides the Persians there are about a hundred Shias from Bagdad and Bussorah, but these do not mix much with the Persians, and a body-guard of about a thousand Bedouins, Ibn Rashid's people. In all, over three thousand persons, with five thousand camels. It must be like the journey of the children of Israel to Mount Sinai.

Ali Koli Khan left Hal with the Emir, nearly a week after we did, so we did not need to be in any hurry, but I think we were right to get clear away while we could.

_February_ 19.-An early start before sunrise, though there were stragglers till seven o'clock. We were the last to go, but we had sent our camels on as there was good gra.s.s, and we wanted our mares to have a comfortable feed. Occasionally one of the pilgrims would come and sit down a moment by our fire to warm his hands. We have now quite left the Nefd, and are travelling over broken stony ground. The Haj marches fast, quite three miles an hour, and there is no stopping on the way. We are halted this evening at the last of the reservoirs of Zobeydeh, the Birkeh Jemaymeh (Jemima's pool). Here there are considerable ruins and a very large well.

The boy Izzar has left us, I am sorry to say, and he is sorry too. He was very serviceable and pleasant, and we lose with him his naga's milk, which we have been drinking fresh every morning. (N.B. We will never travel again without a she camel for milk.) But his deluls have been impressed for the Haj. We gave him three mejidies (about ten shillings) for his ten days' service, which brought down blessings on our heads. I do not think he expected anything.

_February_ 20.-Again the Haj has come to a stand-still, to the renewed wrath of the pilgrims. It is now twenty days since they left Hal and not more than half the journey has been accomplished. There are two hundred miles more of road, and their provisions, calculated for three weeks, are all but run out. What makes this new delay the more aggravating to them is that it has been ordered by the negro Ambar, so that he may send the hat round for a private contribution to his own benefit. He has made it known that two mejidies a head is what he expects, and that he will not move till the sum is forthcoming. This will be a nice little purse for him, something like eight hundred pounds, and we maintain a fleet in the Red Sea to suppress the slave trade, out of motives of humanity! The Persians are powerless to resist, for without the black man's order, not a camel would move. We, as Ibn Rashid's guests, are exempted from all toll or tax whatever, but we want to get on. Fortunately we laid in a whole month's provisions at Hal.

The day has been a very hot one, and we have had the tent propped up all round, so that it resembles a gigantic umbrella. It is pitched on a hill overlooking the Haj, and has attracted a good many visitors. The first of them was a certain Seyd Mustafa, a native of Shustar in Persia, but speaking Arabic well. He is travelling as interpreter with Ali Koli Khan, and has given us some information about the country between Bagdad and his own town. Ali Koli has several times proposed that we should go on with him from Bagdad, to pay a visit to his father in the Bactiari mountains, and Wilfrid is very much bent on doing this.

He himself is going round by the river to Bussorah, and then up the Karun to Shustar, a plan which would not suit us; but Seyd Mustafa says he will go with us by land, though it is a very difficult country to get through.

The frontier between Turkey and Persia is occupied by the Beni Laam who recognise neither the Sultan nor the Shah. The Beni Laam however, ought to receive us well from our connection with the Ibn Arks, and a visit to them would almost complete our acquaintance with the Arab tribes north of Nejd.

Next two poor women came, an old and a young one, dressed alike in white rags. They are from Bagdad, and have made the pilgrimage barefoot and begging their bread. One of them carries a tin mug, into which somebody had just thrown a handful of barley. I gave them a loaf of bread, with which they went away invoking blessings on me. They seem perfectly contented and happy.

Then we had a visit from some Bagdadis; one had been a soldier, the others shopkeepers. They were pilgrims, however, now, and not on business, as most of the Arabs here are.

Next a Dafir boy, with a lamb and a skin of fresh b.u.t.ter to sell, the b.u.t.ter mixed up with date-skins and hair, and coloured yellow with a plant called saffron. After much haggling (for stinginess in a purchaser inspires respect) we bought the lamb and the b.u.t.ter for a mejidie-four shillings.

Next a Jinfaneh Shammar, with a bay horse, also for sale, a Kehilan Ajuz fourteen hands, with good jowl, good shoulder, and tail well carried, but rather small eye, thick nose, and coa.r.s.e hind quarter-altogether strong with plenty of bone-aged, very much aged! We do not want him.

Then an Ibn Duala, with a Wadneh mare, also bay, thirteen hands three inches, or fourteen hands-pretty head, with projecting forehead, very good jowl, good shoulder, but thick nose and coa.r.s.e hindquarter, rather high on the legs, with a good deal of hair on the fetlocks. They all seem to have the same faults.

I asked the Jinfaneh Shammar about the well of Wakisa, marked on Chesney's map as eight hundred feet deep, but he laughed and said, "forty of these," holding out his arms, and Muttlak confirmed the statement; this would make it two hundred and forty, a much more probable depth.

Wilfrid in the meanwhile had been with Seyd Mustafa and Mohammed to the Haj, and had had tea with Huseyn Koli Khan. They also called on Ambar and Ali Koli Khan; but both were out. Most of the pilgrims were lying on their backs asleep in the sun. It was very hot.

Ambar's little white mare has been brought to graze near our tents, for as usual we have chosen the best pasture for our camp. The slave with her says she is a Krushieh. She is a flea-bitten grey, very old and very small, but for her size powerful, with a good head, though not a handsome one, a very fine shoulder with high wither, the usual Nejd hindquarter and manner of carrying the tail, legs like iron. To complete the picture, I must mention one knee swelled, all four feet much out of shape with long standing in the yard at Hal, and very hairy heels. There are with the Haj several yearling colts bought by the hemeldaria for sale at Bagdad, scraggy little things more like goats than horses.

The sun has brought out a huge tarantula from the sand close to our tent.

It is the first venomous reptile I have seen on the journey.

_February_ 21.-Ambar seems determined to make up for lost time, and he has hurried the Haj on all day so that we have done over thirty miles.

Our road has been through broken ground, the Wady el-b.u.t.tn (the valley of the stomach), where we saw a fox and some hares. One of these last the dogs caught after a long course, and another was run to ground. Abd er-Rahim, the Kermanshahi, rode with us a part of the day, mounted on the most lovely delul that was ever seen; she is of a bright chestnut colour, with a coat like satin, a light fine mane rather darker than the rest, eyes more beautiful than those of the gazelle, and a style of going which I have not seen equalled by any other camel. This delul can canter and gallop as well as trot, and kept up with us very fairly when we were chasing the hare, though of course she could not really command a horse's pace. Abd er-Rahim and Ali Koli Khan now both ride deluls, and have dressed themselves up in Arab fashion, all silk and gold, the mean-looking little Kurd being thus transformed into a fine gentleman.

Their saddles, bridles, and trappings are also very gay, got up regardless of expense. They hired their deluls of Ibn Rashid for the journey, I forget exactly for what sum, but it was a good deal of money.

The Persians will not eat hare; and Ali Koli Khan, who is travelling with a private chaplain, would not join us in our sport. Indeed he seems now to keep rather aloof from us, but Abd er-Rahim has no such scruples. We hear that a sermon was preached yesterday in camp, against the sin of holding intercourse with kaffirs.

This has been a long, tedious march, two of our camels being tired. We have come to the end of our provision of flour for them, and there is really very little they can eat on the road. Wilfrid makes it still a hundred and forty miles to Meshhed.

_February_ 22.-We travelled yesterday through a low-lying district, bounded by cliffs a little in the style of Jof (it is all called _el b.u.t.tn_, the stomach), and this morning, soon after starting, we reached the end of it, and had to ascend two or three hundred feet, the last _akabah_ or ascent being very steep.

Here there was a great confusion, as the road was narrowed to a single track, and the Haj had to go almost in single file, instead of in line, its usual way of travelling. The steepness of the cliff proved too much for more than one camel, tired as they were with yesterday's march and want of food. Among them poor Shenuan, the ugly camel of our string, gave in. He is not old, but has long been ailing, and for the last week has carried nothing but his pack-saddle, and been nothing but a trouble to us, still it cost us a pang to abandon him. He has had mange from the very beginning of our journey; in fact, he was the only camel of those originally purchased by Mohammed for us, to which we demurred at the outset. Our objections were overruled by Mohammed's arguments, that Shenuan's youth and strength would enable him to get over the effects of mange, but he never prospered, and did not recover from the fatigue of the Nefd. Poor fellow, he was very loath to be left behind, and struggled on till he came to this hill, which was too much for him. We left him, I am glad to say, in a bit of wady where there was some gra.s.s, but I fear his chance is a small one. Camels seldom recover when they get past a certain stage of exhaustion. They break their hearts, like deer, and die. Poor Shenuan! I shall not easily forget his face, looking wistfully after his companions as they disappeared over the crest of the hill. He is the first of our small party that has fallen out of the ranks, and we are depressed with the feeling that he may not be the last.

At the top of the cliff we came to a perfectly level plain, strewn with fine flints, and across this we have travelled all day. Its height above the sea is 1460 feet, and we find that ever since leaving Shaybeh, where the road turned north, we have been descending at an average rate of about ten feet per mile, but the descent is not regular, because of these cliffs which we have come to, which have all been, in a sense, contrary to the general declivity of the ground. About mid-day we came to a great pool of rain-water, at which the camels drank and the goat-skins were filled, a very welcome accident. Our march to-day was twenty-four miles.

_February_ 23.-The flinty plain is called Mahamiyeh, and with the b.u.t.tn forms a neutral ground between the Shammar and the anazeh, who are here represented by the Amarrat, their Sheykh Ibn Haddal. It was somewhere about here that the battle was fought the other day, in which the Dafir got the best of it, and some of the Ibn Haddal were killed. The consequence of its being thus neutral is, that the Mahamiyeh is covered with dry gra.s.s of last year, uneaten by any flocks, a great boon to us; for there is no fresh gra.s.s yet.

Beyond the Mahamiyeh we came again to hills, amongst which we found the wells of Sherab, and beyond this again the ground sloped downwards until we came to a regular valley, which we followed in its windings all the afternoon. This is the Wady Shebekkeh, which narrows in one place almost to a ravine. There water had evidently flowed not long ago, and we found some beautiful clear pools, beside which the Haj is camped. We ourselves are some two miles further on, where there is better pasture. The Haj camels are getting terribly thin. These forced marches (we came twenty-eight miles to-day) are telling on them, and their owners are complaining loudly. The pilgrims having only hired the camels, of course care nothing for their welfare, and will not let them graze as they go, because riding a camel which eats as it goes is rather tiresome. Then in the evening the tents have to be pitched in some spot where a large camp can stand altogether, irrespective of considerations of pasture, the poor camels often having to go two or three miles to their food. We manage better, and always choose our spot for their sakes more than our own.

Two of our camels nevertheless are tired, but our camels are loaded far more heavily than those of the pilgrimage.

To-night we have had a long and serious talk with Muttlak about the Ketherin tribe, in which we now consider we have an interest. He promises that he will really come north as soon as he can make arrangements with the Sebaa, and we have in return promised him that we will set up a "house of hair" with them, and keep a few nagas and a mare or two, and a small flock of sheep. This would be very agreeable, and serve as a _pied a terre_ in the desert, quite independent of all the world.

_February_ 24.-Another _akabah_ had to be climbed to-day-another long winding road followed across another open plain. The wonder is why the road should wind where there is no obstacle to avoid and no object to reach by a circuit. But such is always the case. Everybody seemed cross with the hard work, enlivened only by an occasional course, in which the hare sometimes ran right in among the pilgrims, when there was a scrimmage with the dervishes for possession of the quarry. The dervishes, who are mostly from Bagdad, are ready to eat hare or anything else they can get, indeed everybody is at starvation point. The only cheerful one of our party is the stalwart Ibrahim, who has come out again now as a wag. To-day, as we were marching along, we pa.s.sed a fat Persian on a very little donkey, whom Ibrahim began chaffing, but finding the Persian did not understand him, he ran up, and seizing hold, lifted donkey and man in his arms. I could not have believed it possible, had I not seen that the donkey's four legs were off the ground. The Persian did not seem to understand this joke better than the rest, but they are stolid people, and have had a long breaking in and experience in patience during the last four months.

We have found a peaceful spot for the night, with plenty of pasture and plenty of "jelleh" for fuel. The sun has set, but in the clear cold sky there is a nearly new moon, which gives a certain amount of light.

Wilfrid is making plans for spending the spring in Persia, and the summer in India, regardless of such news as may meet us at Bagdad from England or elsewhere. Such plans, however pleasant as they are in the planning, cannot be counted on. Much may have happened in the three months since we have been cut off from all communication with Europe, or indeed any part of the world out of Arabia, and even the traveller most detached from all affections or thoughts of his distant home is liable to be seized by a sudden longing for green fields with b.u.t.tercups and daisies.

The pa.s.sing note of a bird or the scent of a flower may be enough to upset a most admirably contrived plan.

_February_ 25.-Twenty-seven miles of march yesterday, and thirty to-day.

The camels cannot last at this pace, but the Haj is pushing on now because the men are starving. It is said that to-morrow we may reach Kasr Ruheym, the first outpost of the Euphrates district, and there they may find supplies, but it must still be a long distance off, if our reckoning is not altogether incorrect. Wilfrid has kept a dead reckoning now ever since we left Damascus, calculating the direction by the compa.s.s, and the distance of each day's march by the pace of the camels, and in the thousand miles we have travelled, it may well be a little out-but according to it we should now be forty-seven miles from Meshhed Ali, which should be to the north-west, not to the north of our present position.

The weather has become cold, and all day long a bitter wind blew in our faces. The vegetation has changed. In one place we saw some acacias, the first trees since we left Hal, and some of those broom bushes which bear a flower smelling sweet like the flower of the bean, and called here by the Arabs, "_gurrtheh_." The acacias have given their name to the wady, Wady Hasheb (the Valley of timber).

We had a good view of the berak unfurled to-day, and a respectable-looking pilgrim, who lives, he tells us, in the mosque of Abd-el-Kader at Bagdad, pointed out to us the motto and device in the centre of it; the sword, he says, is the sword of G.o.d, and under it is written "La ilaha ila'llahi, wa Mohammed rasuluhu" (There is no G.o.d but G.o.d and Mohammed is his prophet). On the other side of the flag is written "Nasron min Allahi wa fathon karibon" (Victory is from G.o.d and success is near).

_February_ 26.-This has been a long and hard day, over ten hours, and the whole time beating against a wind which cut through everything, the sky darkened with sand, driving right in our faces. We have however reached Kasr Ruheym, and all our camels are still alive. Many of the pilgrims'

camels, sixty or some say seventy, lay down and died on the road. The beautiful thoroughbred deluls cannot stand the cold, which is very unusual at this lat.i.tude so late in the season, and their owners are in despair. All the Haj is furious with Ambar, not the Persians only, but the Bedouin escort and the camel owners, for his dawdling marches at first, and his forced ones afterwards. In the last six days we have marched a hundred and seventy miles, the greater part of the Haj on foot, and almost fasting. What would an English army say to that? Yet not one of the men-nor even of the poor women-who have had to trudge along thus, has been left behind. For ourselves we have had no extra fatigue, for the change from camel-back to horse-back and back again is of itself a rest. Khrer, my delul, has very even paces, so that one is not soon tired riding him.

We are here in clover, not actually at the Kasr, but in sight of it, encamped at the edge of a running stream! The stream rises here and is said to be perennial. There is a quant.i.ty of coa.r.s.e sword gra.s.s growing beside it, and everything looks green and pretty to eyes wearied of desert scenes. A pair of francolins, disturbed by the sudden invasion of their resting-place, which they doubtless thought safely secluded from the world, are flying backwards and forwards, put up continually by the grazing camels, and are calling to each other from the bushes. This shows that we are approaching the Euphrates.

There is a village near the Kasr, about two miles from where we are; and a good many fellahin on donkeys and horses have arrived with provisions for sale, but they have not brought a twentieth part of what is wanted for the Haj. A cry of "stop thief" already announces that we have returned to the Turkish Empire. It has not been heard since we left Mezarib.

_February_ 27.-No abatement of the wind, but less sand. It appears that our acquaintances, Ali Koli Khan and Abd er-Rahim are missing, lost in yesterday's storm. They rode with us part of the afternoon, and then, hearing that Ruheym was not far off, they started away on their deluls in front of the Haj at a trot, and of course being Persians, lost their way, for the Persians are helpless people in the desert. The sand was very thick at the time, and they must have got out of the track. Ambar has sent people to look all over the country for them, but without result.

They never reached Ruheym, and it is feared that they may have perished of cold in the night.

This delayed the Haj from starting early, and at one time it was given out that no move at all would be made to-day, which would have suited us well, as there was plenty of camel pasture at Ruheym, and two of our animals were quite at the end of their strength. But at eight o'clock the drum beat, and we were obliged to load and be off, for now that we had entered Turkish territory, there was danger on the road, and all must keep together. Ibn Rashid's protection would no longer avail.

The march was tedious, on account of the weariness of the camels, though cheered by the sight of the gilt dome of Meshhed Ali, shining like a star across the blue sea of Nejef, itself a lovely apparition. The sea of Nejef (or as the Arabs call it, the Sheriet-Ibn Haddal), is the counterpart of the Birket el-Korn in the Egyptian Fayum, an artificial lake, formed by cutting a ca.n.a.l from the Euphrates; it is about twenty miles long, by six or seven broad. It is probably of Babylonian origin, though the Arabs say it was made by an Ibn Haddal ancestor of the present Amarrat Sheykhs, so that his camels might have a drinking pool. The Ibn Haddal were, till comparatively lately, lords of the whole of this district, and levied tribute on Meshhed Ali and Huseyn. The town stands upon the eastern sh.o.r.e above a fine line of limestone cliffs, and remained in sight all day long, as we wound slowly round the lake. It was a beautiful sight as far as nature was concerned, but made horrible by the sufferings of the poor dying camels, which now lay thick upon the road, with their unfortunate owners, poor Bedouins perhaps with nothing else in the world, standing beside them, luggage and bedding strewn about, which the pilgrims were trying to carry off on their heads, seeing the journey so nearly over.

Many of the camels had rushed into the lake, to drink, and lain down there, never to get up again. Others could just move one foot before the other, following at the rate of perhaps a mile an hour, with hopeless glazed eyes, and poor emaciated bodies bare of all burden, even of the shedad. We who started late because we were not ready, and had thought to remain quiet at Ruheym, pa.s.sed all these, amongst others our friend Izzar, the Shammar boy, who was weeping over his deluls-two out of the three were dead. All were loud in their execrations of Ambar, and one or two of Ibn Rashid himself, whom they held responsible for part of the delay. Ibn Rashid's government is less popular in the desert than in the towns, especially on account of his conduct of the Haj. He impresses the camels and men at a fixed rate, ten mejidies, and gives no compensation for losses. They say, however, that Ambar runs some risk of losing his head, when all his mismanagement becomes known at Hal, and I confess I think he deserves it.

At last we got to the _akabah_, or ascent, where the road leads up the cliff, and here the camels lay down by scores, among the rest our beautiful camel, Amud (the pillar), so called from his great height. He was younger than the rest, except poor Shenuan, and had been out of sorts for several days past. A camel that lies down under such circ.u.mstances, seldom rises again. It is not the labour, but the want of food that kills; and unless food can be brought to the exhausted animal, he never gets strength to rise. Between five and six hundred must have perished thus to-day.

At the top of the _akabah_ Meshhed Ali lay close before us, a long line of magnificent old walls with twelve round towers, all of burnt brick, the only building appearing over them being the mosque with its cupola of burnished gold, and its four minarets. The whole was reddened by the afternoon sun, and the dome looked like a sun itself.

Through a crowd of dirty children perched on the tombs of the vast burying-ground which, on this side, stretches for some distance from the walls of the city, we approached the gate of Meshhed Ali. These disorderly ragam.u.f.fins shouted jeers and rude remarks at the pilgrims, and threw stones at our dogs, and we were glad when, turning an angle of the wall, we reached the camping ground, a short distance from the north-eastern corner of the city, and found ourselves at peace, with leisure to reflect that our pilgrimage is over.