On the 30th of March, as there was to be a wedding on the morrow, and it is customary for a Mahometan bride to go to the bath the day before her marriage, the hot spring of Ephca was used for that purpose. Lady Hester went to see the washing: but, of course, gentlemen could not be present. More than a dozen women, together with the bride, stripped and entered the grotto, and then came swimming and floundering out in a string. It cost them but little trouble to strip; for they wore only one covering, which was a shift of coquelicot coloured silk, with white diamond spots like India handkerchiefs; for this, as being next the skin, may as well be called a shift as a robe. It is confined by a girdle, fastened by large silver clasps. It was said, in the former journey, that women generally wore rings through the cartilage of the nose: but we now discovered that it was an ornament affected by married women only.
How long we should have remained at Palmyra I cannot tell, had not an unforeseen event somewhat hurried our departure. Four Bedouins of the tribe of the Faydân had come, for some sinister purpose, into the environs of Palmyra, where they lay concealed. The want of water obliged them to leave their hiding-place to drink at the spring. It happened that four of our Bedouins had strayed that way upon the look-out, and, spying the men, pursued and took them. In what way four of one tribe were better than four of another I did not learn. It was discovered that they were Faydân,[50] and Nasar ordered them into confinement. In the night two of them eluded the vigilance of their guard, and escaped. When Nasar heard of it, he raved like a madman, and could with difficulty be prevented from taking the life of the shaykh of Palmyra who had suffered them to escape. Nasar then told Lady Hester what had happened. He said that these men, no doubt, would hasten back to their tribe, and give information of her presence in Palmyra, and of the rich booty that was to be made. He therefore begged of her to consent to return to Hamah immediately, signifying that if a party stronger than their own should, by forced marches, overtake us, we must inevitably fall into their hands. Lady Hester, in consequence of this representation, fixed on the following day: but I shrewdly suspected the whole to be a trick invented by Nasar for the purpose of getting her away. She saw deeper into it, perhaps, than I could do, but did not tell her thoughts: perhaps Nasar did not think the deposit in Muly Ismaël’s hands quite safe, and felt uneasy until he had it in his own possession.
Lady Hester was curious to see the Faydân whilst they were yet in custody. They said to her, “Be not alarmed lest our people should come against you. Your name has already reached the ears of the Emir of the Faydân; and, wherever his subjects meet you, you will be respected. It is our enemies, the Anizys, we seek; but you we set upon our heads”—(an expression much used among the Arabs to denote an absolute devotion to the service of another). We did not, however, think it proper to risk the safety of Nasar and his people, even though our own was not in danger, and therefore continued in the resolution of departing.
Lady Hester’s name was cut out in a conspicuous place as a memorial of her visit to future travellers. At night there was much merriment among the servants. They had selected an open space in the ruins of the Temple, where, seated round a blazing fire, they amused themselves with dancing to the kettle-drum, smoking, and telling stories—and, having as much coffee as they could drink, they remained until the night was far advanced. All the men in the village assembled with them; but the women stood aloof, never daring to mix promiscuously with the other sex.
In order to obtain antiquities in coins and intaglios, I gave out that every engraved stone or coin that was brought to me, of whatever description it might be, should be paid at the rate of 10 paras, about 2d.; and in this way I spent several piasters, but without any success.
CHAPTER VII.
Departure from Palmyra—Suspicions of Nasar—Encampment in a beautiful valley—Tribe of the Sebáh and their Shaykh Mnyf—Assembly of Bedouins at Lady Hester Stanhope’s tent—The women—Traits of Bedouin character—Tribe of the Beni Omar—Affray between the Bedouins—Their war-cry—Aqueducts—Salamýah—Clotted cream and sour milk—Meat of the Desert—Castle of Shumamýs—Medical assistance required by Bedouins—Entry of Lady Hester into Hamah—Sum paid to Nasar for escort—Salubrity of the air of the Desert—State of Lady Hester’s health—Professional aid of the Author in requisition—Yahyah Bey—Rigid abstinence of a Syrian Christian—The bastinado—Pilgrimage to the tomb of a shaykh—Treatment of horses in spring—Precautions against plague—Custom of supporting great personages under the arm—Schoolmasters—Doctors and their patients.
We left Palmyra on the 4th of April early in the morning, and the danger of an attack from the Faydân had an excellent effect on the servants, camel-drivers, and helpers of all sorts, who, on most occasions, could not be kept together, but who now were as orderly and obedient as soldiers: for fear made them so. Our course was in the same track by which we had come. As my horse walked a little faster than the common pace, I diverged somewhat from the road, to the right, in order to ascend a small conical mount, which, at two hours’ distance from Palmyra, terminates the chain of hills enclosing the plain in which is the aqueduct of Abu Fewárez. I was attracted by something like fragments of a building on its top, and was rewarded for my trouble by finding a fallen pillar of the Corinthian order, and a portion of a statue in alto relievo which had stood upon it. Some future traveller, having more time to examine this piece of sculpture, may be able to discover what it was: but I do not think it had hitherto been noticed by any one. It appeared to me to represent an Apollo. We traversed the Mezzah or sandy plain, and, in five hours from the fallen pillar, reached the White Mountain; where we encamped in a bottom, in order that our lights might not be seen. At each extremity of the tents a vidette of Bedouins was placed, about one hundred paces off; whilst among the tents we ourselves and the servants patrolled armed. Much alarm prevailed. It was whispered among the servants that a plan had been laid by Nasar and his men to make us all prisoners, and exact an immense ransom from us; and others said the Palmyrenes would come upon us in the night: nothing however happened.
April the 5th, we resumed our march; and, by the anxiety Nasar showed to be gone betimes in the morning, as well as his unwillingness that Lady Hester should stop anywhere in the day for an hour, which was her custom, it was evident that he was not without apprehension. We were three hours and ten minutes in crossing the White Mountain, which here consists only of sand-hills, when we arrived at Wady el Jar. From Wady el Jar we saw the Beláz before us, where a sink in the ridge of the chain formed a landmark. We arrived, in about six hours, at a valley, so beautiful that we all with one accord burst into exclamations of admiration of it; and, as there was a low part in it where our tents were not likely to be seen, it was resolved to encamp here for the night.
In the course of a few days, vegetation had made great progress, and we found the soil in some places covered with fine grass, in others, as where we were now, thickly sprinkled with flowers, so as to resemble a parterre; the more remarkable in our eyes, because the flowers we saw are in England reared only with pains and borrowed heat.