WADY DJEREIMELE.
519
me without my perceiving him. I do not know how long he had
remained there, but suddenly lifting up my cloak, he detected me
with the book in my hand.* What is this?” he exclaimed.
« What are you doing? I shall not make you answerable for it at
present, because I am your companion; but I shall talk further to
you about it when we are at the convent.” I made no answer, till
we returned to the halting-place, when I requested him to tell
me what further he had to say.“ You write down our country,” he
replied, in a passionate tone, “ our mountains, our pasturing
places, and the rain which falls from heaven; other people have
done this before you, but I at least will never become instrumental
to the ruin of my country.” I assured him that I had no bad in
tentions towards the Bedouins, and told him he must be convinced
that I liked them too well for that ; “ on the contrary,” I added,
« had I not occasionally written down some prayers ever since
we left Taba, we should most certainly have been all killed ;
and it is very wrong in you to accuse me of that, which if I had
omitted, would have cost us our lives.” He was startled at this re
ply, and seemed nearly satisfied. * Perhaps you say the truth,
he observed ; “ but we all know that some years since several men,
God knows who they were, came to this country, visited the moun
tains, wrote down every thing, stones, plants, animals, even ser
pents and spiders, and since then little rain has fallen, and the
game has greatly decreased.” The same opinions prevail in these
mountains, which I have already mentioned to be current among
the Bedouins of Nubia ; they believe that a sorcerer, by writing
down certain charms, can stop the rains and transfer them to his own
country. The travellers to whom Ayd alluded were M. Seetzen,
who visited Mount Sinai eight years since, and M. Agnelli, who
ten years ago travelled for the Emperor of Austria, collecting spe¬