CHAPTER XX
HAVING disposed of the question of Qway, I went off to Rashida for the fête of Shem en Nessim (the smelling of the breeze). The officials of the oasis were also there, and we celebrated the day in the usual manner. In the morning we put on clean clothes and took our breakfast out of doors to “smell the breeze.” Then we went up among the palm plantations to a primitive swimming bath the ’omda had made by damming up a stream from one of his wells. The natives stripped and disported themselves in the water, swimming about, splashing each other and enjoying themselves immensely.
After the bath they dressed again and we lay about under the palms till lunch was brought out to us. We lounged about on the ground, sleeping and talking till late in the afternoon, when a woman from the village appeared, who had been engaged by the ’omda to dance. A carpet was spread for her to perform on, and we lay round and watched her. She looked quite a respectable woman, and it was certainly a quite respectable dance that would have been an addition to “Chu-Chin-Chow,” but the mamur took occasion to be shocked at it. He sat with his back half turned to the woman, watching her out of the corner of his eye, however, and apparently enjoying the performance. Though I was unable to detect anything in the slightest degree wrong in the dance, the delicate susceptibilities of the mamur were so outraged that—as he was not on good terms with the ’omda of Rashida—he felt it his duty to report him to the Inspector in Assiut for having an immoral performance in his private grounds. Government under the Egyptian mamurs is a wonderful institution!
The next day I returned to Mut to pack up. A number of callers came round to see me during the short remaining time I stayed in the town. For since I had come out on top, the whole oasis had become wonderfully friendly.
Among them was the Sheykh el Afrit from Smint. He was extremely oily in his manner and kept on addressing me as “Your Presence the Bey!” He gave me a lot of information about afrits. He spoke in the tone of a man who had had a lifelong experience in the matter. It was most important, he said, to use the right kind of incense when invoking them, as if the wrong sort were used the afrit always became very angry and killed the magician—it seemed to be a dangerous trade.
He told me a lot of information of the same nature and gave me a number of instances of encounters with afrits to illustrate his remarks. Among them he mentioned—quite casually—that it had been an afrit that had led Qway astray. The object of his visit had apparently been to put this opinion, as an experienced magician, before me, for he left almost immediately afterwards.
Among my other visitors was the ’omda of Rashida, who said he had come into Mut as he had a case to bring before the mamur against his cousin Haggi Smain. He, too, stood up for Qway. He was the only native of the oasis who had the backbone to openly champion his cause.
Some time after he had gone, I had to go round to the merkaz. I could hear a tremendous row going on inside as I approached. Someone kept thumping a table and two or three men were shouting and bawling at each other and, judging from the sounds that proceeded from the court, all Bedlam might have been let loose there.
But I found that it was only the mamur “making the peace” among the Rashida people. The ’omda of Rashida and two of his brothers were bringing an action against their cousin, Haggi Smain, who owned part of the same village. The row stopped for a while as I came in, and the proceedings were conducted for a few minutes in an orderly manner. Then they went at it again, hammer and tongs, bawling and shouting at each other, and at the mamur, who was endeavouring to effect a reconciliation, at the top of their voices. The mamur at first spoke in a quiet persuasive tone, but soon he lost his temper and was as bad as they were. He banged with his fist on the table and yelled to them to be silent and listen to what he had to say. The ’omda shouted back that it was not he, but Haggi Smain that was interrupting the proceedings, while Haggi Smain himself foaming at the mouth and at times almost inarticulate with rage, screamed back that it was the ’omda who was making all the noise.
The cause of all this hullabaloo was as follows: Haggi Smain had an orange tree growing on his property, one branch of which projected beyond his boundary and overhung some land belonging to the ’omda. Three oranges had fallen off this branch on to the ’omda’s territory and the case had been brought to decide to whom these three oranges belonged. Their total value was a farthing at the outside.