From these observations it will be concluded that the inhabitants of Tadmûr are subject to few or no diseases; and this would be the case, generally speaking, were it not that great filth and great poverty sometimes engender them. From the latter cause arises the habit of sleeping on the bare ground, and hence rheumatism is very common. From the former it happens that ophthalmia, once established, is almost sure to terminate in blindness; for a constant irritation is kept up (as has been mentioned elsewhere) from the dust of the streets, as also by the application of dirty cotton rags and handkerchiefs.
A trial was made by me of the effects of the sulphureous water on the human body from a constant use of no other beverage; but it produced no sensible change. That my appetite was unusually good, as it is in general with all travellers at Palmyra, arose without doubt from the air of an open country; and the same was the case under the tents of the Bedouins. Whether the vicinity of the salt marshes has any share in producing this effect, requires a longer experience than that of six days to determine. Certain it is that they do not seem to communicate any bad properties to the air, although so extensive an evaporation is going on from them.
The inhabitants of Tadmûr are to be considered as natives rather of the Desert than of the towns. They are the offspring of Bedouins; their dress is the same; but I thought the Palmyrenes were of a stouter make. With both, open violence or craft are considered as legitimate means for effecting their purposes. The men and women occasionally bathe in the warm spring. The women are celebrated for their comeliness; and it is not unusual for the chiefs of the Bedouin tribes to give a very rich dowry of camels and sheep for a Palmyrene maiden. It was remarkable that the women, in the month of January, wore only a shift, covered in a few instances with the woollen cloak, or abah: it is likely therefore that in summer they almost dispense with this slight covering. Their shifts are of coarse cotton, coquelicot-coloured, like Indian-silk handkerchiefs with white spots. They are fond of beads, and pride themselves on an enormous gold or silver ring (representing a coiled serpent) which is passed through the cartilage of the right nostril, and which, from its exposed situation, is often torn out. Some of these rings are three inches in diameter. They wear rings also on all the five fingers; likewise glass and silver bracelets and jamblets.[35] The lips, the cheeks, the fore-arms, the hands, and sometimes the feet, perhaps too the chest, and even the abdomen, are tatooed.
They feed very grossly, but less so than the Bedouins: husked wheat, raisins, dibs, eggs, and sometimes rice, are their common dishes. They set pounded wheat to stew in a small-mouthed pipkin, or in a covered jar, all night, and then eat of it: this they call bûrma. They make kubby by pounding together husked wheat and minced mutton, or goats’ flesh, in a mortar: this they mould into hollow spheres, and boil or fry.[36] Whilst I was at Palmyra, Mfáthy, one of Mahannah’s shaykhs, came after me, furnished with a letter from Mahannah, in which I was enjoined to cure Mfáthy of a chronic complaint as speedily as possible. The letter was a curiosity, since few persons, I believe, have seen the handwriting of a Bedouin chieftain: and his style was not very courtly.
Having made such examination as I thought necessary at Palmyra, Hassan and I, accompanied by four Bedouins of the tribe of the Beni Omar, who were going to the same point of the compass as ourselves, left Palmyra on the 21st of January. The sky was cloudy, and it was unusually cold. We watered our horses at the spring of Ephca, and, taking a north-west direction, crossed the vale where is seen the reservoir of Abu el Fawáres. About noon we reached the small chain of mountains which bounds the valley, and entered upon the Mezah, that extensive plain which has been already mentioned in the road to Palmyra. Crossing the north-east angle of it, we arrived in one hour at the foot of Gebel-el-Abiad.
Here it is necessary to carry the reader back a little, that we may see what Lady Hester had been doing during my absence from Hamah. I had promised her to write whenever an occasion presented itself; but the season of the year had prevented any one from going to Hamah, and I had had no opportunity. She therefore began to grow uneasy about me, and resolved to despatch Giorgio, in order to ascertain what had become of me. An Arab or two of Mahannah’s tribe, then at Hamah, were hired to conduct him, and it was given out that the object of his journey was to carry me some medicines, which I stood in need of for Mahannah’s cure. His guides accordingly brought him safely to the tents of that chieftain, who informed him whither I was gone. Giorgio’s instructions being to find me out, and to go on to Palmyra, he was furnished by Mahannah with another guide, a black, named Selûm, who rode before him on the same camel, with a horseman by his side.
I had scarcely begun to ascend the mountain with my party, when Hassan and his companions descried, at some distance, descending in the direction we were going, what appeared to be two or three horsemen. In a quarter of an hour we were come so near to each other that I could distinguish two men mounted on a camel, who presently stopped the camel and got off, whilst the beast remained kneeling. With them was a horseman, who kept his seat. We were more numerous than they, yet Hassan and the Beni Omar Arabs advanced very cautiously. When within hailing distance, the Bedouin with the camel called out to us, and at the same time posted himself behind the camel, with his matchlock lighted, and taking aim at us. Hassan knew his voice, and halloed to him by name:—it was Selûm, the black; and immediately both parties recognized each other. But what was my surprise to find Lady Hester’s servant, Giorgio, there, dressed in the Bedouin costume, and as much metamorphosed as myself.
He explained to me, in a very few words, the object of his journey, and showed me the box, containing medicines and other articles for me, which was fastened on the camel’s back. But, when I told him he must return with me, Selûm, his guide, and the horseman with him, said that they were bearers of a letter from Emir Mahannah to Tadmûr, and that they could not turn back until they had delivered it. What was to be done? there was no time left for deliberation; for our four companions, the Beni Omar Arabs, had kept on their way, and it was absolutely necessary not to let them get out of sight, as the track we were going was infested by robbers, and parties of a hostile tribe, it was reported, were abroad. I resolved, therefore, that the lad, Giorgio, should mount behind me, as Hassan’s horse was weaker than mine and could not carry double, and that Hassan should take the box; nor did it cost little pains, deprived as we were of cords or straps, to fasten the box on: indeed, it could not be done without transferring to my horse our barley and tethering pins. Selûm then informed us in what direction Mahannah was encamped; and, wishing him good by, we hastened after our companions.
Just at this time it began to snow. Our road wound through the mountain, in the dry bed of a torrent. A forest of scattered turpentine trees grew in and about it. As we ascended, the cold and snow increased; and, the atmosphere being obscured, our Bedouins, having no longer their landmarks to guide them, were considerably embarrassed. We still kept in the torrent bed, and at last reached the summit of the mountain, whence we proceeded to descend, by a rapid declivity, into the plain on the other side.
The sun had now set. The servants’ luggage chafed the horse of my conductor so much, that he refused to advance; whilst my own, burdened with two riders, three pecks of barley, tethering irons, a small medicine-chest, and the little linen I had, seemed to support himself with difficulty. At last Hassan’s horse made a dead stand, and neither words nor beating could urge him on; so he dismounted and carried the luggage on his shoulder, whilst Giorgio got off from behind me, and led the horse. As it grew dark, the glare from the snow, which now covered the ground, served but to confuse the appearance of surrounding objects. Hassan and Giorgio again mounted. For a time a faint path served to guide us, until, losing this, we gave ourselves up to the guidance of chance. Our troubles increased. Watercourses, steep acclivities, and burrows of the jerboa, which cover all the Desert, continually obstructed us. Cold and wretched, I feared that every trip my horse made would throw one of us off, and knew not how we should remount, benumbed as our joints had now become.