Shaykh Ibrahim, it is generally believed, passed everywhere, unsuspected, as a Mahometan. That is possible. All Turkey is full of Italian and French renegadoes, who, of course, speak but indifferently a language which they generally attempt to acquire when the organs of speech have no longer the pliability of childhood; and, exclusive of these, Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, abound with Albanians and other natives of European Turkey, who have, of course, nearly the same difficulties to encounter in learning Arabic as a Swiss or an Englishman. It was, therefore, no cause of suspicion that he had an accent, or that he could not pronounce certain letters, and overcome those (we may call them) insurmountable difficulties for grown persons in speaking in Arabic. But, that he ever passed as a native is not true; and, although he spoke Arabic better than any European traveller upon record, still he was incapable of opening his mouth for ten sentences without being detected as a foreigner.
Mr. Burckhardt himself often related an anecdote, which went to prove the belief of the pasha of Cairo that his character of a Moslem was an assumed one; but this anecdote rather regards the purpose of his disguise. It was, that, on having obtained permission of the pasha to go to Mecca, the pasha sent a message to him by his hakým bashi or chief physician, (Hanah Bozaro) desiring him to keep his own counsel, and not to go and say he had made a fool of the pasha.
After quitting Alexandria, and before reaching Aboukir bay, we passed an eminence called Tel Agûl; and farther on is Nelson’s Island, as it has been named by the English, but which the native sailors called Gezýra Ghoro.
We arrived at that mouth of the Nile, marked, on d’Anville’s map, Ostium Taniticum, crossed the bar, and reached the custom-house, where a party of Albanian soldiers was put on board to be conveyed gratis to Damietta. The shaykh, as well as myself, had enough experience of this sort of gentry to know that, if they discovered us to be Franks, they would probably usurp our places, and send us to the forecastle. We therefore seated ourselves in a sort of authoritative manner, smoked our pipes, spoke little, and carried on the farce of Turkish gentlemen (to which, so long as our tongues betrayed us not, our costumes lent every assurance) so well, that when we arrived opposite to the quay of the town, and were inquired after by the dragoman of the English agent, who was apprized of our coming by letter, the Albanians were furious to think how they had been imposed upon.
CHAPTER IX.
M. Surûr, English agent at Damietta—Patients—Excursion to Lake Menzaleh—Mataryah—Melikýn—Pounds for cattle—Ruins of San—Broken pottery—Conjectures on its original use—Tennys—Dybeh—Botarga fishery—Fowling—Running deemed indecorous in a Turk—Menzaleh—Haunted house—Disdain of pedestrian travellers—False door—Departure for Syria—Vessel, cargo, and crew—Charms to raise the wind—Arrival at Acre, Tyre, and Abra.
We were taken to the house of Mâlem Michael Surûr, the English agent, a young gentleman of considerable abilities and property, who did everything that Oriental hospitality, so fertile in resources, dictated, for the entertainment of his guests. He had several fine horses, upon which we rode out daily. Mounted himself on a superbly caparisoned stallion, his grooms preceded him on foot, bearing perpendicularly each his zan, or white staff, in the right hand, with which, as he went along, they beat the walls, and, at every curvet which his horse gave, cried, Mashallah, how wonderful! This, being the style of the principal Mahometans, and absolutely prohibited to Christians, becomes one of the distinguished privileges of a Consul; and it is only to be regretted that the restraint under which the Christians live should have given a value to such empty distinctions.
I became acquainted here with the most fascinating lady that I had known during my long residence in the Levant. Her name was Syt Fersûn (or Euphrosyne) Karysáty. She and her infant daughter Benba came daily to Málem Surûr’s to consult me; and Shaykh Ibrahim used to express very pathetically his chagrin that, whilst I was admitted into the harým to converse with these ladies, he was excluded. I had several patients at Damietta, and a consideration of some of the cases which fell under my care leads me to say, that I am not disposed to accede to an assertion made by Mr. Brown in his travels—“that in no country are pulmonary diseases so rare as in Egypt.” Mr. Brown was not a medical man, and, therefore, of course makes similar remarks as the result of what he heard from the natives. It would seem that there is as large a proportion of them here[72] as in some or any European countries.
Mâlem Surûr had three black slaves and fifteen servants in all.
Shaykh Ibrahim had meditated, among the objects of his visit to Damietta, an excursion on the lake Menzaleh, and I agreed to join him in it; the more especially as there was no vessel ready to sail for Syria, to which country I was now anxious to return.