The saint had taken his half-crown, and had gone away singing, it being now near dark.—The cadi went away, and the mob dispersed, and we directed a Moor to cry, That all people should, in the night-time, keep away from the tent, or they would be fired at; a stone or two were afterwards thrown, but did not reach us.
I finished my observation, and ascertained the latitude of Dendera, then packed up my instruments, and sent them on board.
Mr Norden seems greatly to have mistaken the position of this town, which, conspicuous and celebrated as it is by ancient authors, and justly a principal point of attention to modern travellers, he does not so much as describe; and, in his map, he places Dendera twenty or thirty miles to the southward of Badjoura; whereas it is about nine miles to the northward. For Badjoura is in lat. 26° 3´, and Dendera is in 26° 10´.
It is a great pity, that he who had a taste for this very remarkable kind of architecture, should have passed it, both in going up and coming down; as it is, beyond comparison, a place that would have given more satisfaction than all Upper Egypt.
While we were striking our tent, a great mob came down, but without the cadi. As I ordered all my people to take their arms in their hands, they kept at a very considerable distance; but the fool, or saint, got into the boat with a yellow flag in his hand, and sat down at the foot of the main-mast, saying, with an idiot smile, That we should fire, for he was out of the reach of the shot; some stones were thrown, but did not reach us.
I ordered two of my servants with large brass ship-blunderbusses, very bright and glittering, to get upon the top of the cabbin. I then pointed a wide-mouthed Swedish blunderbuss from one of the windows, and cried out, Have a care;—the next stone that is thrown I fire my cannon amongst you, which will sweep away 300 of you instantly from the face of the earth; though I believe there were not above two hundred then present.
I ordered Hagi Hassan to cast off his cord immediately, and, as soon as the blunderbuss appeared, away ran every one of them, and, before they could collect themselves to return, our vessel was in the middle of the stream. The wind was fair, though not very fresh, on which we set both our sails, and made great way.
The saint, who had been singing all the time we were disputing, began now to shew some apprehensions for his own safety: He asked Hagi Hassan, if this was the way to Girgé? and had for answer, “Yes, it is the fool’s way to Girgé.”
We carried him about a mile, or more, up the river; then a convenient landing-place offering, I asked him whether he got my money, or not, last night? He said, he had for yesterday, but he had got none for to-day.—“Now, the next thing I have to ask you, said I, is, Will you go ashore of your own accord, or will you be thrown into the Nile? He answered with great confidence, Do you know, that, at my word, I can fix your boat to the bottom of the Nile, and make it grow a tree there for ever?” “Aye, says Hagi Hassan, and make oranges and lemons grow on it likewise, can’t you? You are a cheat.” “Come, Sirs, said I, lose no time, put him out.” I thought he had been blind and weak; and the boat was not within three feet of the shore, when placing one foot upon the gunnel, he leaped clean upon land.
We slacked our vessel down the stream a few yards, filling our sails, and stretching away. Upon seeing this, our saint fell into a desperate passion, cursing, blaspheming, and stamping with his feet, at every word crying “Shar Ullah!” i. e. may God send, and do justice. Our people began to taunt and gibe him, asking him if he would have a pipe of tobacco to warm him, as the morning was very cold; but I bade them be content. It was curious to see him, as far as we could discern, sometimes sitting down, sometimes jumping and skipping about, and waving his flag, then running about a hundred yards, as if it were after us; but always returning, though at a slower pace.