In the morning my first inquiry was to know who this man of colour could be. The superior of the monastery told me he was an Abyssinian, who, together with his sister, had, when on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, been shipwrecked at Suez, and with difficulty escaped with their lives. Having found their way to the tomb of Jesus, they were, by the charity of a few countrymen, enabled to reach Dayr Mkallas, in which they sought an asylum, until, as they said, they could receive aid from Abyssinia.
With this story I returned to Mar Elias; and Lady Hester, on hearing it, asked me to bring them over that she might see them. On the following day I again rode over to Dayr Mkallas, and went to the cell in which the woman lived. She was of a dark colour, approaching to black, with regular features, lively intelligent eyes, and white teeth. I told her. through her brother, what the object of my visit was; and she consented to accompany me the next day. I visited her again in the afternoon, and the interest I seemed to take in their welfare induced them to be open in their conversation with me. They gave me to understand that in their own country they were people of rank,[59] and that their shipwreck had deprived them of much property in money and slaves, of which latter they pretended to have had several.
When the morning came, Mariam (that was the name she chose to go by, although it afterwards proved not to be her real one)[60] was put upon an ass; and, with her brother Elias by her side, accompanied me to Mar Elias. Lady Hester received them with much kindness, and with her accustomed humanity told them they should no longer be dependent on the priests, for she would feed and clothe them, until they could find means to return to their native country. They were accordingly put into one of the rooms of the house.
Having with me at this time an abridgment of Bruce’s travels in Abyssinia, I questioned the Abyssinian on all those passages in it which, as descriptive of the manners and usages of the country, admitted of affirmation or negation: and it is just to say that every allusion, or name, or description, was perfectly intelligible to him. He spoke of Mr. Salt as a person whom he had seen very frequently in Abyssinia.
Ibrahim was now raised to the post of cook, which he filled with considerable credit, and his residence in England had made him less delicate in the use of lard and other parts of hog’s flesh, which circumstance is generally a great obstacle to the employment of Turks in European houses.
It was during this summer that Lady Hester was for the first time enabled to obtain a true, thoroughbred Arabian horse. On my journey to Damascus, I had, at her desire, looked through Ahmed Bey’s stables, to ascertain whether a tall black stallion, which had caught her attention when at Damascus, was still alive. When on my return she learned that he was, and that Ahmed Bey had, from ill health, grown less fond of his steed than formerly, she resolved to endeavour to get this horse for herself. Accordingly, M. Beaudin was sent to offer a reasonable price for it: and, not many days afterwards, he returned, bringing it with him, mounted by the Abyssinian, who had gone with M. Beaudin for the purpose. What price Lady Hester gave she would never tell me: but it was something considerable.
Madame Lascaris, of whom nothing had been heard for more than a year, came one day to Abra. It appeared that her husband had left her, and was gone to Constantinople; and she was now living on the liberality of her friends, more especially of the pasha of Acre; that viceroy being a fellow-countryman of hers, carried away, as she had been, in his childhood, to be sold as a slave. But fortune put him in the road to greatness; and, like many others in the East, he had no reason to regret the chance that removed him from his native soil into a strange country. Madame Lascaris obtained a small sum of money, and I afterwards heard that, on leaving Mar Elias, she embarked for Cyprus, where she put the society of Freemasons under contribution, as being of that order herself.
At the beginning of June, Lady Hester had found the weather extremely hot; for she could not live comfortably but in a temperature of from sixty to eighty degrees; and, now that it was higher, she resolved to repair to a more elevated situation, as she had done the preceding year. Meshmûshy was accordingly chosen, and three cottages were taken for the accommodation of servants, the Abyssinians, &c. On the road, a romantic spot was selected for the first day’s halt, at a hamlet overhanging the river Ewely, in the deep ravine through which it runs after quitting the vale of Bisra. The hamlet is named Musrat et Tahûn, or the mill-field. Here dwelt a miller named Abu-Tanûs, who became from this time a sort of purveyor to her ladyship; until, by making an improper use of her name at Acre, to gain preferment to the place of shaykh of the hamlet, he fell into disgrace.
On arriving at Meshmûshy, Lady Hester fixed herself quietly for the autumn, resolved to find amusement in wandering among the rocks and precipices and in beholding the beautiful and magnificent views which surrounded us. The Abyssinians also occupied much of her time; and, in the numerous anecdotes she heard of the chief men of that nation, and of the productions of the country, she found herself almost induced to undertake a journey to it, and revolved in her mind the practicability of the scheme. Her success would not have been doubtful, had she undertaken it; since her plans were generally laid, as a prudent builder raises an edifice, upon a sound foundation; but other events intervened.
Towards the end of July, to amuse myself, and relieve the sameness of our rides, I caused a sort of rural wigwam to be constructed of stakes and branches of trees, in the midst of the forest of firs which lay at the back of Meshmûshy. For, although on the side of Bisra plain the mountain seems like a sugar-loaf, it is in fact no other than a promontory belonging to a lofty ridge, which runs south, with a gradual ascent, until it reaches the province of Suffad, where it begins to decline. This ridge afforded pleasing excursions for a great distance. To this wigwam an occasional ride in the course of the morning diversified the monotony of the life we led, where, sitting for an hour or two, one might peruse a favourite author, or indulge in one’s own reflections, for which there was ample food. Meshmûshy is by nature so inaccessible, that no person, from mere idle curiosity, would think of ascending to it. There, her society was literally confined to myself; for the priests were too unmannered to gain access to her presence, and the shaykh of the village was a farmer, without any other knowledge than that required for his agricultural occupations.