Part Three

With Mr. Bankes in his voyage upon the Nile into Nubia (3)

Some hope was entertained that the Hanoverians might have abandoned their project, since nothing had been heard of them during all the day, and they did not arrive till the cavalcade was actually in motion; they joined us, however, and no representation that could be made was sufficient to deter them from proceeding.

Mr. Bankes dismounted frequently for an hour or two together during the journey, that these pedestrians might be relieved by riding upon his dromedary, and Antonio and myself occasionally did the same; but the Arabs, who looked on them as an incumbrance, and with an evil eye on account of the dress which they wore, never showed them the smallest complaisance, but seemed to take a pleasure in witnessing the fatigue and shifts that they were reduced to.

So long as our track ran parallel to the Nile, it was necessary to cross frequent inlets of water, the remains of the retiring inundation; and in these cases, while the cabinet-maker paused to take off his stockings, the veterinary surgeon, who was of a slenderer make, would invariably stand upon the watch behind him, and leap on his comrade’s back at the moment when he began to wade, the other reproaching him in a surly tone, and muttering all the way, but still always going through with his burden, to the great amusement of our guides.

Our first halt was, after a shore march, at Anche, where we were all received into the house of the sheik of the village; the next was at Belbeis, which we reached very late at night, so that we did not go under any roof, nor even set up the tent which our Arabs had brought with them, but all laid ourselves down to sleep in the open street, the buffalo-hides (which it is the custom, in the process of tanning, to spread on the ground, where they will be most trampled on) making an excellent foundation for our bedding.

A vast mound of dust and rubbish marks Belbeis as the site of some ancient city, which prevented our moving onwards till it was daylight; but there being very little to see there, we set forwards soon after, and were lodged that night with the Sheik of Selahieh. Proceeding from thence again, before sunrise, in the very last splash of water that crossed our way, my dromedary slipped and fell, and I was plunged up to the shoulders, but without any further mischief.

Here we took our leave of cultivation, and entered upon the desert, not passing within sight of any village for three days after.

The nights were excessively damp and cold, so that we were glad, not only of the tent, but of as large a fire also as we could contrive and afford to make with our scanty materials.

In the course of the fourth or fifth day’s journey from Cairo, a long mound became visible at some distance upon our right hand, that seemed to denote something ancient, and near it what bore the appearance of a ruined fort jutting out into the sea. It is called Tineh¹, and is a place which Mr. Bankes had previously resolved to visit: therefore taking me and one of the escort with him, he ordered the rest to proceed in their course to the next halting-place; and we, on our part, making direct for the object, soon came to a small Arab but, built with reeds, that stood on the very margin of what from its appearance seems to form, at some seasons, a large shallow sheet of water, but presented at this time only a smooth expanse of dark shining mud, to an extent of, perhaps, a mile or two in breadth, firm enough to be passed over by a light weight, and yet yielding to every impression of the foot.

It became indispensable to quit the dromedary, and Mr. Bankes, taking a guide from the hut, found it best to imitate him in going barefoot across this uninviting flat, which, though moist, was so well warmed by the suns rays, that the sensation in treading it was not unlike that on the polished floor of a bath when heated, and there was nothing clammy or clinging in the nature of the mud.

I did not myself cross it, and it seems that there was very little to repay the trouble, since nothing else was to be seen besides some very indistinct remains, and a small European gun-carriage, which had, no doubt, been left in Buonaparte’s expedition.

Before we took our leave of the hut, a young sick man, who was lying there, and who supposed that all Franks must necessarily be physicians and surgeons, applied to have some remedy prescribed for a hurt which was stated to have been received in circumcision; we had nothing to recommend, and felt some suspicion that he did not state the true cause and nature of his malady².

Recovering the rest of our party in the evening, we found them with the tent pitched, and fire lighted. During part of next day we continued close along the seashore, and afterwards over a large tract, very strongly incrusted with salt, that has exactly the appearance of snow, sometimes hard enough to bear the camels’ weight on its surface, and sometimes yielding to it and receiving the print. Beyond this we passed a well, with some fragments of columns about it, which tempted Mr. Bankes to dismount and examine them; and here the presence of the two Hanoverians had very near cost him his life, for some Arabs of the tribe of Tarabin were drawing water, who are naturally a savage race, and retain an implacable hatred to Europeans, from having been the chief sufferers when the French army crossed that desert, and in the execution at Jaffa; two hats, therefore, were no sooner perceived in the party than all the rest became suspected, and his Turkish habit would not have protected my master, who had advanced on foot very considerably before us, had it not been for the prompt outcries and menaces of our young Sheik of El Arish; the Tarabins having already rushed forward, and being in the act of presenting their pieces. The affray terminated in some very ill language upon both sides.

I observed that the Arabs of this particular desert have a custom of striking their foreheads together in token of salutation, which I never saw elsewhere.

We reached El Arish before mid-day, and found it to be a small village, fortified with walls and towers all round; it is the last outpost of the Pasha of Egypt’s dominions, and, in reverence to his orders, we were most honourably received and entertained there. The accommodation of the Sheik’s house being thought insufficient, the plentiful meal that was prepared of boiled lamb, with rice and butter, was served in the mosque, a most unusual circumstance, and one that could not have taken place in the midst of a larger population; it was, however, hinted that those who wore the Frank dress would be less welcome, and accordingly two portions were set apart and sent out to them.

What ensued can have given the people of El Arish no high idea of European moderation and sobriety, for there was in the baggage, what Mr. Bankes never afterwards carried, a case of spirits, which some acquaintance at Cairo had presented to him, and which was freely open to the two young Germans, the rest of the party forbearing it altogether; fatigue arid, a full dinner made it so grateful to them, and left them so little scrupulous as to the quantity, that when we went out to join them, we found both in a state of complete intoxication, to the great scandal of the Mussulmen, but, for our own parts, we thought it more excusable, after so long a march.

Mr. Bankes discovered at El Arish a true piece of Egyptian antiquity³, which he coveted very much. It is used there as a drinking trough, being a piece of fine dark granite, wrought into form and hollowed, with lines of small hieroglyphics upon it, both within and without: he afterwards obtained it as a present from Mahomet Ali, with a full permission in writing for taking it away, which, however, was never carried into effect, as I shall have occasion to mention hereafter in my narrative.

We remained stationary till the next day, and then soon entered upon a more fertile district, which is the territory of Gaza; a town of considerable size, where we arrived in the evening, and established ourselves in the public khan.

The governor of Gaza is a person of great authority, and having been forewarned by Lady Hester Stanhope that an Englishman, for whom she was interested, would be likely to pass that way about this time, was no sooner informed of our arrival, than he sent an attendant to invite the chief of our party to supper, and to conduct him, with a staff of office and a light, to the Government house. As interpreter, I went also, and our way lying across the interior of the principal mosque, I could observe that Mr. Bankes was much gratified with looking at it, as he passed through, for it is pointed out by tradition to have been a church in the time of the Crusades, and appears to have been very little altered⁴.

The supper consisted of a profusion of different dishes, one after the other, in the eastern fashion; after which, on returning to the khan, we found the Hanoverians in the utmost distress and alarm; the whole court-yard was in an uproar; and though no one, not even the two young men themselves, could give any distinct account of what had occasioned it, it was very evident that they had been roughly treated, (though without bodily harm,) their baggage disturbed and tossed about, and they themselves on the point, so far as they conceived, at least, of being hurried off to prison. Fanaticism, and a grudge for past injuries, not inferior to that of the Tarabins, had probably been the incentive, heightened, perhaps, by a recital from our guides of the drunken spectacle at El Arish; the sight, however, of the governors attendant, accompanied with a liberal use of his large stick, soon silenced and dispersed the crowd, and enabled us to shut the gate.

With a soldier from this garrison added to our escort, we proceeded the next morning towards Jaffa, taking Ascalon by the way, which lies to the left hand, upon the sea-coast, and has not more than two or three inhabitants. The circuit of the old walls, however, is pretty entire, and shews that it must have been once a large place; and there are thought to be some traces of a theatre that was prior to them. In the centre is a heap of indistinct ruin, which is said to have been first a temple, then a church, and last a mosque, but is now reduced to little else besides foundations, and is the spot to which Lady Hester Stanhope came in the year preceding, a distance of so many days journey, and at so vast an expense, to dig for a hidden treasure, of which she had received some mysterious notification, but found nothing besides a headless statue, which was broken to pieces by her order, and was still lying in fragments on the spot.

There are portions of red granite columns at Ascalon, whose colours appeared to me far more rich and beautiful than any that I ever saw in Egypt⁵.

We slept in one of the few existing hovels there, ceiled with brushwood laid thickly across the rafters, a mode of construction that appeared new to me, coming from Egypt. Fresh milk was brought to us for our breakfast, and honey, of which we had seen hives in abundance in this last day’s journey.

At Jaffa, the consul Damiani received us into his house, – the first person whom I had ever seen wearing powdered hair, and a gold-laced cocked hat, with the flowing oriental habit, a grotesque combination that afterwards became more familiar to me in the consular houses at Aleppo.

The entertainment was hospitable, though the building was of so crazy a construction, and so full of large rat-holes, that no sufficient footing could be found on the upper floor for the legs of Mr. Bankes’s bedstead, which obliged us to lay the mattress without it; and he told me the next morning, that the delivery of the consul’s son’s wife, which happened that night in the room underneath, might just as well have taken place in his apartment.

The journey from Cairo had occupied ten days; and, after two of rest, application was made to the governor of Jaffa for mules, and a safe conduct to Jerusalem.

A Janissary was sent (January 2, 1816), accordingly, to conduct us, and mules for all, even including the two pedestrians; so we departed at daybreak, a few Greek pilgrims joining our company, some on foot and some mounted; one fat couple, especially, sat balanced in paniers on the two sides of their mule. All these paid a toll in a narrow defile upon the road; but our own party was exempted by an order from the governor.

The way is wild and barren, and so steep in parts, that we often chose to dismount; and when, at the distance of about half an hour, we first came in sight of the walls and battlements of Jerusalem, all alighted, as is the custom, and kneeled down, and then continued on foot to the gate.

We were kindly received in the Roman Catholic convent, and lodged there during our stay; but the monks soon got weary of the poor Hanoverians, and of the childish and inconsiderate scrapes to which they exposed themselves, particularly after the disappearance of one of them during a whole night, who, being locked out of the city gate, had shewn a piece of money under it to the soldiery within, as a bribe, which was snatched out of his hand during the treaty, and he was left there to his resections till morning. Within a few days they took their departure very unwillingly, Mr. Bankes hiring some return mules for them to Acre, and we heard no more of them.

Some days were occupied in visiting the holy sepulchre, the Mount of Olives and Sion, the vale of Jehoshaphat, and tomb of the kings (which last is a large excavation, yet far inferior to those in Egypt); but as the Christmas of the Greeks was fast approaching, Mr. Bankes determined to witness their ceremonies at Bethlehem, where more than a thousand pilgrims of that persuasion were collected.

We, therefore, removed thither early in the preceding day, and saw this multitude dining on the terrace-roof of the monastery, chiefly on olives and snails (snails are much eaten also by the lower orders in Sicily), for it was fast-time.

We were lodged ourselves in that division of the same building which belongs to the Latins, for different shares of it are assigned to the different persuasions, the great Church of the Nativity, a handsome and spacious building, with three aisles, remaining common to all.

The friars, whose guests we were, strongly discountenanced our attendance at a mass that was heretical, and gave us warning, that should we persist in going into the church, we must not expect to find any egress until morning.

It proved indeed a very great fatigue, for the birth-place of the Saviour is underground, and very small, and was crowded with lights, and an immense throng of people even from dusk, the women sitting squatted on the floor and the men climbing and straddling over them, so that there were sometimes screams, and generally loud disputes, and even blows going on in some part or other of this little sanctuary all night long; but the interest greatly increased as midnight approached, there being a superstitious belief that the lamps hanging at the altar are seen to tremble of themselves at that moment.

Though our position, however, was very close to them, we could observe no such thing, yet nevertheless heard eyewitnesses asserting it afterwards on that very night.

To conciliate the Latin fathers, it was agreed that we should stay for their Epiphany; and in the mean time we witnessed a great humiliation of their rivals, both Greek and Armenians; for both these communities had lately raised a small superstructure in their quarter of the convent, which they were peremptorily ordered by the Aga of Jerusalem to demolish immediately with their own hands, under pretext that his special permission had not been obtained for it, and soldiers were sent over to superintend this work of destruction, which was completed in the sight of all their collected flock, and of the Latins, who, far from bearing any share in their mortification, were even accused by them as the instigators.

The great tanks near Bethlehem, called the pools of Solomon, are well worth seeing, and I was shewn close to the village a field remarkably stony, which it is asserted cannot be cleared, it being the punishment of a churlish husbandman, who, upon the Virgin Mary inquiring of him what grain he was sowing, had answered “pebbles,” and was promised in return that “he should reap as he sowed.” Such is the legend that I was told upon the spot.

After the Epiphany, (which presented a fresh scene of religious contests,) the Greek baptism was to take place in the river Jordan, and was very naturally an object of curiosity.

The pilgrims, having women and children amongst them, moved at a slow rate; therefore Mr. Bankes, under the guidance and protection of four Christians of Bethlehem, armed with guns, did not set out till many hours after them, and travelling (as they also did) through the night, reached the spot on the river in good time for the ceremony in the morning (January 17, 1816).

Whilst it was going on, and great numbers in the water, seven mounted Bedoueens, armed with lances, appeared on the other bank. I was directed to make them a sign of peace, which they soon answered, and came to a parley, in which it was agreed that two of them should join us as an escort, which might make a longer delay, and further researches practicable in those dangerous parts.

At our suggestion they took us to Ribha (the ancient Jericho)[6] for the night, as unconscious as we ourselves were, that this little Arab village had revolted the very day before from the Aga of Jerusalem, and had burned a written order received, from him, so that it was quite in a lawless state.

The Christian guides had quitted us and returned; and had our Bedoueens left us to our fate, it had perhaps been all over with us, for the inhabitants, though they set coffee and refreshments before us, refused to share them, and would give no pledge for our safety, beyond the stay under their roof.

That night, therefore, and the early part of the morrow, were passed in great uneasiness, for appearances did not at all improve by daybreak; all the men of the place were armed, and on horseback, and, though some other pretext was held out, it was plain enough that their object was to intercept and to plunder us, but we had dissembled our suspicions, and spoke always of the road to Jerusalem.

Our mounting was delayed till all were gone out of sight, though we still judged that they were not far off, from the unusual number of women who remained standing upon the house-tops, and watching us, as if anxious to see the issue of the encounter. Fortunately, there is a thicket of thorny plants close about the village, which partially concealed us at first starting, and enabled our faithful and crafty guides, the Bedoueens, to lead-us in quite a different track from that of our, enemies; from whence, turning short up into the mountain, and scrambling over stones for the sake of leaving no print of our horse-hoofs, they carried us by a very circuitous and broken way, not far from a solitary mosque, that is called the Tomb of Moses⁷, alighting only, once, where there was water, to bake bread for us, out of flour that they had with them, and so kept us wandering till night, when we found ourselves at the gate of a fortified Greek convent, called St. Saba.

Here it was with great difficulty that we were able to attract any attention from within, and with still greater that we got any door opened to us, from the necessary fears and precautions of the poor monks; we did, however, succeed in this at last, and slept there, so that our return to Bethlehem was not till the next day, an arrangement that had certainly saved us from being way-laid and pillaged, for we found that the party in pursuit of us had, in the preceding afternoon, robbed all who came in that direction, as well as quite up to the walls of Jerusalem.

At the Convent of the Nativity our two Bedoueens were welcomed as well as ourselves, and one of them, whose name was Mahomet Daheidy, here disclosed to us that his son was in prison, as a hostage, at Jerusalem, for a robbery of the Aga’s camels, which was imputed to his tribe.

This seemed to offer a handsome opportunity for the repayment of good offices, and Mr. Bankes eagerly seized it, pledging himself to do his utmost in order to get the young man liberated: yet it was with difficulty that the father was prevailed on to trust himself with us the next day for this purpose within the walls of the city, his comrade taking his leave of us at the gates, and returning to his tents.

It now became necessary to apply for an audience of the Aga, in which neither rich presents nor entreaty were spared, to obtain grace for his prisoner, which was not at last conceded without much hesitation and reluctance.

The youth was restored to his parents in our presence, yet so strong is habitual dissimulation and mistrust in these countries, that so long as they remained in the governor’s sight, even the force of natural affection did not prevail, neither party testifying any strong emotion of either surprise or joy, whether from the feeling of respect, or the fear of a retractation, I cannot say; but they no sooner reached our convent, than the feelings found their full vent, both in tears and embraces; and the father, tying a scarf of white linen upon his lance, and dyeing the tail of his white mare with henneh, paraded through the street, proclaiming the favour that he had received from the Aga, and from the Christian strangers.

Gratitude now prompted him to undertake the difficult task of procuring a safe-conduct to the country beyond Jordan, and to the interesting ruins there of Djerash and Oomkais. His own tribe being unequal to this, he went to confer with another, and left us for some days with a promise of returning.

During his absence, visits passed between Mr. Bankes and some Abyssinians of rank, who had attended a sister of their king upon his pilgrimage hither by way of the Red Sea; the princess herself had died very recently, and we found the suite of both sexes apparently very poor and simple people, who had nothing with them worthy of note, except some religious books, with paintings in them.

The breed of saddle-horses about Jerusalem being held in esteem, two mares had been purchased for our journey, no more being necessary, since Antonio was to go straight to Nazareth with all the baggage, excepting such instruments and papers as would be required. So that when Mahomet Daheidy came back, bringing with him a Bedoueen of a more powerful tribe, we were ready to set out immediately (January 18, 1816); and, after a feast in Daheidy’s tent, where we were received with great welcome and rejoicings, slept as his guests the first night, not very far from the city.

Passing Jericho the next morning, a horseman was sent to reconnoitre our party, whom we engaged to join us, and so crossed the Jordan.

With our present guides we felt little alarm from wandering Arabs, but much more from peasants and cultivators, who seldom are at peace with them, and always carry fire-arms in that country, so that we shunned all villages, eating and lodging in tents that we found by the way, and passing through an upland district of wood, and thickets, and pasture, much pleasanter than any which we had seen westward of Jordan.

The fourth day brought us to Djerash⁸, whose ruins exceeded expectation; they are not massive like those of Egypt, but, for the most part, light, and slender, and beautiful, with almost innumerable columns standing in rows, and others curved into a great open circle.

Among the more solid buildings are two theatres, with their covered passages, and seats, like vast flights of steps, extremely perfect.

Though Palmyra is, perhaps, superior in the quantity and extent of remains, yet it never appeared to me to present any one general prospect so rich and magnificent as that which we commanded in looking back upon Djerash, when we went towards the village of Soof.

For there being no Bedoueen camp near, our guides, with reluctance, carried us thither to pass the night; and we had no reason to congratulate ourselves on our reception. The inhabitants were fanatic and ill-disposed to us, and saw Mr. Bankes’s mare die there with the utmost indifference, from having eaten of the oleander (Pliny mentions the poisonous property of the oleander), to which she had been tied in the course of the afternoon.

He not having however, completed his drawings and plans, was not to be deterred from returning for a second examination, yet only won the compliance of Mahomet Daheidy to this project by the sacrifice of a scarlet pair of boots, received as a present from his Abyssinian friends at Jerusalem.

When all was finished at Djerash, our three conductors lent each his horse in turn; and passing along a high ridge of forest, we proceeded to Oomkais, which is also a great ruined city, and stands on an eminence, with a noble view towards the lake of Tiberias.

We found the only inhabitants there living in the ancient tombs, which are cut in the live rock, and have doors of stone to them, still turning on their pivots, and securing them at night.

There are natural hot-springs in the valley below; from whence, recrossing the Jordan, and passing under Mount Tabor, we found ourselves at Nazareth by nightfall, after having consumed a little more than a week in this circuit: and here our guides were dismissed with ample payment and presents.

This is the journey in which Mr. Buckingham was in our company, bearing, however, no part in it either with his purse or with his pencil; yet this did not prevent all that inconvenience which resulted from it afterwards, both to myself and to my master, who had certainly every reason to have looked for a very different return.

The next excursion was into Samaria, and particularly to a strong castle there upon a hill, called Sanhoor, where Hadj Hamet, an hospitable and excellent man, had an hereditary jurisdiction, who treated and lodged us very kindly, and took us out with him the next morning to hawk the gazelle.

From thence to Bisan and to Tiberias, where, sleeping in the church, we were almost devoured by seas; and the next night we encountered the small-pox in the reed huts of some Arabs, within the ruins of Cæsarea.

Owing to this having been a season of uncommon drought in all Syria, the grass and crops had quite failed, and the poorer sort of people were almost famished; in consequence of which, at Atleek, a very small place upon the coast, we found in the chamber which is allotted to travellers and strangers, all the male inhabitants collected together to pass the night, pursuant to a vow, that none would enter his harem till heaven should remove from them this grievous calamity: I omitted to mention at Jerusalem, that during our stay there, some weeks before, almost all the population, with the Aga at their head, moved in procession to an open space without the city, where they prostrated themselves in prayer for the same object: a spectacle as solemn as any that I have ever seen⁹.

At Acre, Solyman Pasha gave a very gracious welcome, and every attention was shewn by Malem Haim, the rich Jew, who was his banker and prime-minister, as he had before been to Djezzar, who had, however. deprived him of his nose.

In the Pasha’s palace two remarkable refugees were living at that time, Amim Bey (Elfi’s brother), of whose wonderful escape during the massacre of the Mamelukes I have spoken before; and another Solyman Pasha, who had held that title for a very short time in Damascus, but was lately deprived, and accused, among other things, of having poisoned his predecessor in the return from Mecca. He probably paid highly for the precarious protection which he was now receiving; but when Mr. Bankes ventured to hint to him in conversation a retreat to Europe, he seemed to be either obstinate or resigned, and to prefer the hazard of his life to an asylum in a Christian country.

Permission was obtained for seeing the beautiful mosque built by Djezzar, and the fine public bath was engaged and lighted up at night expressly for our use.

This story continue here

from Narrative of the Life and Adventure of Giovanni Finati native of Ferrara
by Giovanni Finati, 1830

Notes

¹ Pelusium. – It seems probable that no change has taken place since remote times in the natural appearances here, that ancient Greek name, as well as the Arabic “Tineh” being derived from mud.

² It is possible, however, that the Arab’s statement might be correct, for in the American’s narrative of the expedition to Dongola and Sennaar, published by Murray, 1822, it is said, “We saw three men, of about twenty-five years of age, who had been circumcised but five days past, a thing that I had never before known to have occurred to the children of Mussulmen” p. 19; so that, however contrary to usage, it is clear that the rite is sometimes deferred.

³ It is one of those monolith cabinets of which an infinitely larger specimen (of the same form) is, or was, to be seen among the ruins of Antæopolis, the summit finishing pyramidally.

⁴ The number of churches that remain in Syria, built by the Frank kings, is truly astonishing, when it is recollected that all must have been constructed in less than a century. This at Gaza is a fine specimen, and exactly similar to the Gothic churches of Europe at the same period. I have detailed drawings of many of them.

⁵ This observation is very just; the rose-colour is deeper, and the grey tints less predominant. It has puzzled me, much to think from what quarries the innumerable columns of this material, in the cities along that coast, were brought; and even so far inland as Palmyra there are four of them.

⁶ It is quite astonishing how small vestiges remain even to mark the site of a city so considerable, that had a tower in it inferior only to the Egyptian Pharos; while others of so much less note, almost within the same district, exhibit such noble remains.

⁷ I know not on the ground of what passage of the Koran, or idle tradition, the tomb of Moses is thus placed by the Mahomedans at this place, on the hither side of Jordan, but believe that is held in no respect by the Jews.

⁸ The plans, elevations, and views, taken of this noble city during my several visits, were arranged some years since, so as to be almost ready for publication, but other matters calling me off’ from them, it has been delayed. I shall hope, however, to be able to produce some portion of that and of other cities of the Decapolis and beyond Judea in the course of the present year.

⁹ Mengin, vol. i., p. 324, speaks of a similar procession out of the city of Cairo in August, 1808, to implore an increase of the Nile, and adds, “c’était une cérémonie vraiment touchante.”