615
WADY FEIRAN.
assembled, and became extremely clamorous as well against me, as
against Hamd for having accompanied me. I cared but little for
their insolent language, which I knew how to reply to, but I was
under some apprehensions for my servant and baggage, and therefore ¬
determined to rejoin them immediately. We ascended the
valley, by a gentle slope, and reached Hamd’s garden late at
night, greatly fatigued, for we had been almost the whole day
upon our legs. We here met the Bedouins and their girls occupied -
in singing and dancing, which they kept up till near midnight.
June 2d.—When I awoke I found about thirty Arabs round
me, ready to begin a new quarrel about my pursuits in their
mountains. When they saw that I paid little attention to their
remonstrances, and was packing up my effects, in order to proceed
on my journey, they then asked me for some victuals and coffee.
After having observed to them that I was more easily prevailed ¬
upon by civility than harshness, I distributed among the
poorest such provisions as 1 should not want on my way back to
Suez, together with some coffee-beans and soap. This immediately
put them into good humour, and in return, they brought me some
milk, cucumbers, and a quantity of Bsyse, or ground Nebek.
purchased from them a skinful of dates reduced to a paste, and
one of them joined us for the sake of travelling in our company
to Suez, where he intended to sell a load of charcoal; we then set
out, leaving every body behind us well satisfied.
We followed the same road by which we had ascended last
night, and halted again where the date trees terminate. Here the
same Arabs whom we had found yesterday evening, having been
informed that I had made some presents where I had slept, thought,
no doubt, that by being vociferous they would obtain something. In
this, however, they were mistaken, for I gave them nothing, telling
them they might seize my baggage if they chose, but this they
